Chapter 17: No Such Thing as Monsters

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The next morning, it was super obvious Link had a thing for Future Bat...and it irritated me. I mean...I guess it showed that if I was older he would be interested in me. Problem was...I wasn't. This was me from the future, and the me right now was only seventeen. Two Bats, one Link. I tried to not let it get to me, but it was difficult when I went into the cafeteria that morning. Future me sat down, and Link sat down right next to her and started talking to her. She gave him a look and scooted away from him. Link found it like a game and scooted with her. Closer to her.

Susan and Doc exchanged glances before looking at me, to see how I'd react to this weird thing Link was doing, but I pretended I never noticed and looked down at my book I was reading. Future Bat ate her cereal in silence, but occasionally, Link would flick her good bat ear, causing her to stop and look over at Link, who would look away and pretend nothing happened.

"Link, leave Future Bat alone. She's trying to eat." Susan said. Link looked over to Susan. "I'm not doing anything." B.O.B. begged to differ. "You keep flicking Future Bat's ear, like you want her to look at you," the blob pointed out. Link's face burned. "N-no...A fly keeps flying around her and I'm just...keeping it away...I'm sure it irritates hearing a fly buzz near your sensitive ears," Link said. Future Bat looked over to me, then to Link.

"Both are irritating," she said, making Susan and Doc laugh out loud. I couldn't help but to laugh as well. It was funny to see my older self with so much sass. Link narrowed his eyes, but then tried pretending that we weren't laughing at him and took Future Bat's spoon from her. She gave him a glare. Link grinned.

Before any of us could react, Future Bat grabbed his arm and in a few quick movements, had Link's head against the table and his hand holding the spoon, pinned behind his back. Our jaws dropped. Future Bat took the spoon back and went back to eating. Link pulled his arm back and lifted his head back up, staring at Future Bat in shock. "Where did you learn that?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't remember, I went to all different timelines when I was going through time. I picked up some things here and there." Link stared at Future Bat for a long time.

After a while, I couldn't take it anymore. Trying to not make a scene, I got up with the book, pretending to read, and I left the cafeteria to to my room.

I laid in my bed, reading a book that somewhat related with me. There are these kids with huge bird wings and special powers, and they are always on the run from the evil place that made them.

Its an interesting story and all, except I don't know how they can fold their wings so close to their backs and look normal. Was it because they had bird wings? I doubt even birds could hide their wings that well. It made it sound like their wings folded multiple times and tucked deep into their backs. Just...how? Also how were they able to not rip their shirts? That was never explained and it drove me nuts.

I wish I could hide my wings that easily.

I have a 12 foot wingspan and I have a hard time hiding my wings. I'm only 5'4" and my wings are a foot taller than me. There's no way I could fold them so tightly to where you couldn't see them. I dunno. Maybe I'm just looking into this book way too seriously.

I had finished the first one and was now reading the second one, which was about them going to a normal high school. That one I sort of related with, except that they immediately became popular in the school and were super jocks. I was the freak at my school. Most likely gonna be called the Vampire Queen or something dumb when I go back tomorrow.

I continued reading and found out that the main character had a crush on one of the boys in their little flock as they called it. I couldn't help but to put myself as the main character and Link as the love interest. I sighed when the girl gently kissed the boy on the cheek.

My heart fluttered imagining myself kissing the hybrid on the cheek. Or even the lips. My face burned to where I had to kick the covers off me.

I started to feel super embarrassed and stopped reading.

I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. Staring at myself in the mirror took me back to when I first came here and was a monster. I was terrifying. I was still terrifying. Chubby face and belly. Skinny arms, weird legs. Short brown hair that was starting to grow out a little, but I looked ugly. Future Bat had a more narrow face, and was taller and toned muscle.

Wasn't fair.

I wished I was already older.

Future Bat appeared in the mirror behind me. I quickly turned around. She stared back at me. "You allright?" she asked me. I looked away. I didn't want to admit that there was anything wrong, but of course, she could tell. "Tell me what's been bothering you. I have a feeling you don't like me," Future Bat said. I nodded my head. "How could we really be sure you are who you say you are," I decided to cut to the chase.

"You were reading that one book weren't you," Future Bat said, looking over to my bed where I left it last.

I shrugged. "I dunno...you tell me."

Future Bat rolled her eyes, but I saw a small smirk. "Allright, ask me three questions that only you could know," she said. I tried hiding my surprise, because that was what I was gonna say. I flapped my wings once and nodded.

"Allright. What's my favorite song right now?" I asked her. She winced and thought for a minute. "It's been so long...Ok so its 2009 right now...um...Usher's More? Lady Gaga's Born this Way?" she guessed. I gave her a blank look. After a moment she cursed under her breath. "Crap, I think those came out in 2010 or 2011...ok...uh..." She started snapping her fingers. She named off other songs I hadn't heard yet, then she would see my confused look and curse and say they didn't come out till another year. I was very surprised she was using the eff word a lot.

"Marilyn Manson's This is Halloween," I finally said, though I did want to hear more song names from the future. She stopped guessing and nodded her head. "Oh yeah. You also watching Invader Zim right now right?" she asked. I gave her a suspicious look but continued on.

"What's my favorite movie?" I asked. "Creature from the Black Lagoon," she answered. I nodded. Last question. I wanted to ask the one question no one knew about, but I was a little nervous asking it. Surprisingly, Future Bat answered it for me. "You have a crush on Link," she said, causing my face to burn and look away from her.

"I'm not one of John's clones, Bat. I am you from the future, trying to make things right for everyone...and for us," she added. I looked up at her. "What do you mean by that?" I asked her. She hesitated. "I don't want to tell you about the future. Nothing can prepare you for it...it's going to hurt immensely..." she looked down at her robot arm. "Physically...and mentally...and I want my past self to not go through what I did. I'm trying to save us..." she said. I still didn't understand what she meant but I nodded. "Allright" She seemed to sigh with relief.

"Why do you push Link away?" I asked her. Future Bat hesitated. "You are me. We both have a crush on Link...why do you push him away?" I asked her. Future Bat looked at me. "Because he's your Link. I don't want to interfere with the past." My Link. I liked that. Future Bat pointed at me. "But I seemed to have made things complicated being here," she said. I shrugged. Future Bat nodded. "Yeah, I can tell. I don't plan staying here long, Bat. I mean...It does feel nice having Link notice us finally." I smiled and nodded.

"I hope when I get back to my time...my Link will notice me too," she said.

"Doesn't he?" I asked.

Future Bat was silent for a long time. I hated when she did that. What happened in the future with me and Link? Did we get together and break up? What was Future Bat trying to fix here? What happened in the future with me?

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After dinner, Future Bat invited me to fly outside with her. I was happy she invited me and not sticking around with Link. Me and my older self went out to the top of the warehouse. Above us, the millions of stars winked and sparkled. We both unfurled our wings, and at the exact same time, we jumped off the warehouse and took to the skies. Around us, the little bats flew with us.

The moonlight illuminated the world in silver below us, but we didn't need the light in order to see. We flew in unison together. It felt so good flying. The wind in my hair and wings. The air was cool and had a nice crisp smell, not that sticky sweet smell that reminded you of summer. This crisp smell reminded you of Halloween. It was such a good feeling. I felt so free and filled with energy. It made me forget everything that was going on with me at the moment. It was just me and me. Flying together.

Future Bat showed off by flying upside down above me. I tried doing that to her back when she righted up, but I nearly ran into a tree doing so. She showed me other flying tricks and told me how to do them. I tried copying, but it wasn't as easy as I thought. I was gonna have to practice.

"Watch this," Future Bat said as she screamed at a boulder. The boulder went up into the air. Then she screamed again and the rock exploded into a million pieces. I tried doing that myself, but the rock just split in half. She showed me the trick again. A bigger boulder this time. The rock flew up into the air like a character from Mortal Kombat, then she gave it the final blow and it exploded like a firework.

I tried a few times myself but my scream wasn't strong enough to hit the boulder that far away, and soon enough, my throat was getting super sore and I couldn't scream anymore. We took a break flying and sat on top of the warehouse again, staring off at the mountains and the twinkling lights of the town miles away from us.

"There's a way you need to scream..." Future Bat was telling me. I listened to her as I rubbed my neck. I stared at her as she moved her hands and her satellite dish ear swiveled on its own. Her cyborg eye glowed red in the night. I was still in awe that really was me. I was jealous I wasn't already like this. My older self was so amazing. So much more confident and had so much knowledge. She was like having an older sister. An older sister I always needed to help me during these rough times.

Once she as done talking, we just sat in since and watched the bats fly around us. It was such a nice night. I wanted the night to last forever. "Does it feel weird? Talking to your younger self?" I asked in almost a whisper. Future Bat stared off into the desert. She shrugged.

"I guess. Its like having a younger sister...but its me...heh. It's funny...people always ask you: If you were able to go back in time and tell your past self, what would you tell them? I never thought it would ever happen for real..."

"What would you tell your past self?" I asked.

She turned to me. Her yellow alien eye, and red cyborg eye glowing in he night. "Its gonna be rough, but you are stronger then you think. You might not believe it right now, but you have what it takes. It will all work out in the end."

I stared at her. It will all work out in the end. Sounded a little weird after the other things she said, but it stayed with me. Her words stayed with me, even when we decided to go back in because the mosquitoes were starting to bite us. We were thankful the bats were out to eat them. It felt nice hearing those words from my future self. Made me feel better about myself and believe that I could do anything I put my mind to.

I said goodnight to Future Bat and went into my room and got ready for bed. When I fell asleep, I dreamed of me and future me flying through the clouds and to the moon...

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The next morning I was dropped off by Patrick and had to walk the rest of the way to the school because the drop off area was super crowded. I sighed as I walked the fifty yards to the school.

I was used to flying to my destination. Even if it was twenty feet away I'd flap my wings to get over there. I sometimes wished I could just unfurl my wings and just fly to my next class that was literally on the complete opposite side of the school. Walking was for non winged people. Flying was so much faster and easier.

A fly buzzed by my ear under my beanie, causing me to stop in my tracks. Ugh! The buzzing sound was super loud and caused a horrible feeling to shoot right up my spine. I shuddered and shook my head a little. My ears twitched in pain as the sound echoed through my ears. Stupid fly. Showing off that it could fly anywhere...

I finally got to the school and went over to my locker. My locker as I had suspected, was decorated with crosses and strung with cloves of garlic. Fake blood dripped from the top and had the words: Vampire written on them. I took the stuff off and calmly took my books out of my locker before heading over to my first class.

My locker wasn't the only vampire related thing. My desk had the words Vampire freak written in fake blood on the surface. Thankfully the teacher didn't see it and I was able to clean it off before she noticed. Some of the bathroom stalls even had the words vampire freak written on the stall doors. In some of them, they had the words: (My name) is a vampire. Below that it said: She's also a bitch lesbian. I rolled my eyes. And people thought boys were horrible. Girls were just as bad.

I shuffled my feet to my next class, dreading it since it was my math class, and that Mirror was in that same class as me. I slowed to a stop when she suddenly appeared in the doorway of the classroom, blocking my way.

"Don't you need to be invited into a place?" Mirror asked with a bitch tone to her voice. I gave her an irritated look. "Don't I? I'm not a vampire, Mirror. Stop spreading stupid rumors about me." My throat was still sore from last night so I was super raspy.

Mirror noticed and asked if I choked on blood while I was drinking a girl while she was on her cycle. I made a disgusted face at her. What was up with this girl? "I'm not into girls, Mirror. If I was, you aren't attractive," I told her. She huffed angrily at me. "Ew! gross! Why would I ever want to be with a freak like you?" she snapped. I blinked. Was Mirror a lesbian? Maybe secretly bi?

"Well I mean it would explain why you keep picking on me. Because you like me," I said. Her mouth dropped in shock. My ears shifted under my beanie. They perked up at her heart rate. It was beating really fast. Did Mirror have a thing for me? I felt my face burn a little. No, that couldn't be right. She hated me. She glared at me with her black outlined eyes.

"You are a vampire! I saw your real white skin! You are hiding it! It's why you wear sunglasses," she threw at me.

"I go out into the sunlight. How do you explain that?" I asked.

"Sunscreen. Duh," she threw back.

"I didn't flinch away from your crosses and garlic you decorated all over my locker,"

"I didn't do that. Another kid must have," she lied.

I sighed. I wasn't going to mention fangs. She would most likely piss me off even more, causing my fang to automatically come out.

"You are wearing contacts to hide your vampire eyes," Mirror said instead. I rolled my eyes. "The yellow eye was a contact. I was trying them out." It was my turn to lie.

"You only had one!"

"I lost the other one," not really a lie, just not talking about the same thing.

Mirror went quiet.

I glared at her, pressing my tongue against my fang to keep from sliding out. "I'm not a vampire. There is no such thing as monsters...Now will you please let me pass?" I asked. She smirked. "Aha, invitation. I knew it." I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses. I felt her stare as I sat down at my desk. She sat down behind me.

Suddenly our teacher came rushing into the classroom. "Someone turn on the TV now!" She ordered, throwing her purse down, causing all the contents to spill out onto her teachers desk. The kid near her desk grabbed the remote to the classroom TV and turned it on. The teacher fumbled with her purse as she told the kid to go to "any news channel."

"-talking about real life monsters here in Nevada, here is a live feed..."

My heart dropped to my feet as my eyes widened in horror. Right there, on TV. My friends. My monster friends had recently took down another alien creature while I was in school; and were immediately swarmed by news casters and news vehicles and police. Butterflyasaurous screeched from where she stood with the remains of the alien spacecraft they all just took down. Link told her that everything was ok and to not move from where she was.

I saw Future Bat start to take off, but Link grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to the ground. I could see her struggling, but stopped when a camera was shoved into her face. Link wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her away from the camera. The screen froze on the up close of the monsters for a second before going back to the news anchor.

While she was talking, I could feel the back of my head burning up. Like someone's eyes were glaring through my head. I ignored Mirror and continued watching the news.

"After the newspapers came out with the front page of what looks to be a vampire girl taken by high school Junior, Hunter Thorson, cryptozoologists, witnesses, believers, bloggers, and all sorts of monster investigators came forward and began talking about their own experiences with these group of creatures. Everyone who has seen this certain group of monsters claim they were seen in certain places whenever an unidentified flying object or "U.F.O." Is sighted, and then claimed to be a "government project gone haywire," afterwards by the government itself. Are all the myths and legends about monsters true?"

The news switched from the news reporter to Monger being seen commanding all the authorities to lower their weapons. The news woman continued talking about the monsters and about how Monger was in charge of us monsters.

"-General W.R. Monger, had this to say:"

Monger appeared on the screen and straightened his posture. "Yes, we have been hiding these monsters from the world for a long time. We never felt that the public was ready for them. Its getting harder for us to hide the truth-" Monger was suddenly interrupted by being shoved out of the way by B.O.B. as he waved to the cameras.

"Am I on T.V.?! Hi mom! Wow!" The blue blob said as he began making faces. In some of the shots, you could see the other cameramen with shocked looks on their faces as the ginormous blue mass stuck his blue tongue out.

"Watch this!" then he started showing off by moving his huge one eye through his mass, spitting out and catching it and laughing afterwards. Doc thankfully stopped B.O.B.'s random antics and found himself the center of attention in front of the cameras.

"Stop that, B.O.B.! Oh...heh...G-good Afternoon ladies and gentlemen...viewers...I'm Doctor Cockroach..." He said before the cameras zoomed in on his huge head and all the reporters started questioning him. I heard one of the reporters ask if the Mothman was real. Indeed he was, Miss news reporter. Indeed he was.

Then the scene went over to Link and Future Bat. Link flashed a smile and started showing off by flexing. Future Bat turned to the camera and stared at it. I stared back. It was like we were looking right at each other. The pic of Future bat staring at the camera froze, and then it went back to the news anchor woman.

"Monsters are real...more news about the monsters at six," she said.

I felt Mirror's black outlined eyes on me but I didn't turn around.

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A/N: When I first wrote the story of Future Bat, I loved listening to Angel in the Night, by Basshunter. It fit Link having a huge crush on Future Bat and how he would try everything he could to get her to notice him, but she would always glare at him or ignore his silly flirts.

Invader Zim/Marilyn Manson's This is Halloween- watch?v=67X-fO3cvU8