It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It was actually pretty clear and the stars were beautiful. You cruise down the Virginia highway, hoping to get to that hotel. You aren't exactly going through the boonies, but it's certainly rural. Streetlights up ahead mark an intersection in roads, where a small amount of commercial buildings have taken advantage of the crossroads. The light was green, so you zoom right through fairly quickly.
As you continue, you notice your headlights have subtly dimmed, and your A/C isn't what it was a few minutes ago. Oh no, battery failure now? You have a busy workday tomorrow! You see take a turn into a service road running parallel and hope for the best.
At this point, your sedan is having much trouble running. You switch off everything you can just so you can limp your way forward. But wait, a few hundred feet ahead, you see a turn right into what looks like a neighborhood. It wasn't one of the newer, cookie-cutter subdivisions you like to call "housing in a can", but it's certainly people. People who can help. It's not too late in the night.
Your car coughs and shudders to a stop just outside the turn. You coast your way into the grassy shoulder and pull the parking brake. Looks like walking is the only option now. You open the door, noting that the light didn't even turn on. You try to lock it with your remote out of muscle reflex, but realize that the electric lock wouldn't even work and nobody would steal a dead car anyway. The most valuable thing in there is the phone charger.
You walk down the road, looking at the houses. They're on the left side. The right is dominated by a horse farm. It's not an old neighborhood, but your only light is the moon. You're also dismayed that almost all of the houses are dark. All but one. That seems to be your only chance, or you'll have to sleep back in your car and call a towing service in the morning. Country folk are usually more generous than most. Surely they'll give you a couch or something. You'd repay them however you could.
The front yard is mostly covered by trees, making it even darker. You can make out the silhouette of a wagon. Great, kids. The front door is illuminated like this beacon of hope. You walk down the brick path and gently knock on the door. For what feels like a minute, there's nothing, and you think they might have just left their lights on. You start to turn away, when you hear the click of the latch. Time to put on your business face.
In the doorway, stands a relatively young man; younger than you. He has a neutral, yet curious look on his face. "Can I help you?"
You tell him he absolutely can, and explain your predicament.
"Damn, that sucks. Pretty brave of you to walk all this way. There's monsters about here, you know. Look, if you want to spend the night, you're welcome to the living room couch. I'll grab a blanket for you from upstairs. Head on into the living room and introduce yourself. We're about to watch Dunkirk." He climbs the stairs and out of view. You continue forward and find yourself in the living room. You immediately tense up.
In the room are three monsters. Two are on the corners of the couch, while the third is sitting on the floor. The one on the left resembles a human, at least half of one. The other half is covered in this obsidian-like armor, with her forearm completely replaced by a demonic-looking blade. She looks at you with a blank, yet analytical stare. You feel like you're being given a polygraph, yet don't know what the questions are, and if you passed or failed. Either way, she nods, and returns to looking at the television.
The one on the floor is entirely black. Her skin looks like someone took a bath in sharpie ink. Her hands and feet are replaced with lupine claws and her forearms and legs below the knees are covered in fur. A pair of fuzzy ears stick out of her head. Her eyes were amber, and gave off a small flame. She sniffs the air and gives off a grimace, just short of a straight-up growl. She clearly doesn't trust you, but just barely tolerates your presence.
The final one is on the other side of the couch. Her body structure is similar to the black one, except where there was fur, there was green, armored scale. Instead of ears, there were horns. A pair of folded-up wings protruded from her back and a scaly tail ran up it. She was the most courteous of all of them, and even said, "Good evening. Would you like something to drink?" You respectfully decline, saying you will finish off your tea instead. Despite the hospitality, you feel she is the most dangerous of all of them. The discipline to keep her true emotions beneath, yet also cold and calculating, with a scoop of creativity.
You greet them all, and wait for your fellow human to return. After a few tense minutes, he does, completely oblivious to your stress. He asks if you've watched war movies. You respond you've seen a few, but they really aren't your thing. He walks toward a recliner and gestures for you to sit in another chair. "Me neither, but that's great, because Dunkirk isn't actually a war movie. Generally in stuff like Saving Private Ryan, there's a constant din, but nope, not here. Every shot is terrifying, and you never actually see-" He continues, but you somewhat tune him out and sit in your designated chair. One problem is that it's close to the side of the TV, encouraging visitors to face each other and talk. You do not want to face those three. Looks like you'll have to watch the movie a little scrunched up.
Overall, it was a pretty good movie. You certainly enjoyed it, but mostly because it distracted you. The other three monsters were actually surprisingly into it. The dragon closed her eyes tightly during times when ships were sinking with people inside. They seemed to be more… human than you were led to believe. This goes out the window a little bit when the dragon noticed a mosquito in front of her, and incinerated it in a small puff of flame. She then looked at you, like she was blaming you for letting it in.
When it was over, the monsters announced they were tired and retired upstairs. You swore you noticed a small blue glow coming from the hand of the sword-wielder, but it must be your tired and stressed brain. You and the man continued some small talk. You helped him with the blanket and the subject of monsters came into the conversation. He says they're certainly wild and unpredictable. You say he's certainly got something right. He shrugs and says maybe he's just lucky. He then goes on to tell you he actually has a personal project of his: collecting information on them and making a personality file on new races.
"You know, for a while, I thought they might be a subspecies of humans, but turns out they're actually another one entirely. They're entirely dependent on humans for survival, and there's all sorts of different races among them, and then subraces among those. It's really pretty cool."
You say all of this is currently being researched by scientists and ask how he's different.
"Oh, what I just talked about is what they've found out. They're doing all of their stuff from a bioscience standpoint. I want to figure out each of their personalities and what makes 'em tick. Here. I'll show you."
He goes through a doorway into an office. You notice a rather nice desktop computer and a corkboard with odds and ends thumbtacked to it. As you look closer, you notice some of the pictures on it contain smaller versions of the monsters you saw in the living room. He opens a filing cabinet and pulls out a three-inch binder. The thing makes a thud as it hits the table and the man turns on a lamp. "This is just one of many."
He yawns and looks at an analog clock on the wall. "I'm tired. The couch is ready whenever you want. Go through that as much as you want. I'll be upstairs if you need anything. Bathroom is down the hall."
As he walks out, he turns slightly and says, "Don't mess it up. I'm thinking of publishing it one day."
The binder is full of reports and notes(most typed), with some images. Each section is dedicated to a particular monster, with a summary and his thoughts at the end. It's certainly been a trying evening, but you are absolutely fascinated. Should you flip to a random entry and see what comes up?