There was something going on, Rai knew. There was the sound of Michael shouting angrily, while Kat was sobbing hysterically; somewhere, a window shattered...or was it a display case? Overtop of it all was a horrible howling. But it all seemed hazy and distant; Rai could only focus on the voices in his head, and the memories that were playing themselves out in his consciousness.
A young boy, four years old, sat in the living room with his fifteen-year-old sister. They were staring at a pile of old junk in the middle of the floor.
" I bet we can make something out of this!!" Rai told Ani excitedly. " Don't you?"
" Maybe..." Ani told him. To be honest, she felt that he was a little too young to be able to make anything out of all the rusty bits and pieces spread out before them.
" I know we can!!!" Rai exclaimed, and then proceeded to sort through the pile. He would pick up one piece, examine it, then throw it away; another, seemingly identical to the first, went in the slowly growing "keeps" pile.
Ani thought this was odd. " Why do you pick that one and throw away the other one? They both look the same."
Rai held up another piece and scrutinized it. " Some of 'em aren't any good. They won't work anymore." He threw away the piece he was holding and picked up another one.
" How do you know?" Ani asked him.
Rai held up a piece of cable for her to see. " This one's broke, see? " He told her, pointing at a spot in the middle of the cable where bits of wire were poking through the covering. " That's how I know."
Ani stared at him. " Who told you that that meant it was broken?"
He continued speaking to her, but didn't take his eyes off the pile as he sorted through it. " The green monkey told me. But the blue monkey says it's stupid....with a lot of big words."
Ani was dumbfounded. " The...who?"
" The monkeys, Ani. There's a blue one, a green one, a yellow one, and a red one. They tell me stuff. Like the red one talks about flying, and being a pilot, and the yellow one talks about how stupid the red one is. And the green one's good at fixing stuff, and the blue one...I can't understand him most of the time."
" When do these...friends of yours visit?" asked Ani, worried.
Rai shrugged. " All the time." He looked over at the corner of the room. "See?" he pointed.
Ani followed his gaze, and, to her amazement, there was indeed some sort of monkey-like creature standing in the corner, watching them. But there was something strange about it. She didn't know exactly how she knew this, but upon closer examination, she realized that it was surrounded by a glowing nimbus of light.
The monkey-creature scratched its head embarrasedly. " Ah...hello..."
Another scene from his childhood flashed by.
Rai's home was on fire. As the firefighters struggled to control the blaze, paramedics sealed up three body bags nearby. Rai himself was caught fast in the grip of a police officer, who had dragged him away from the body of his sister only moments before.
" ANI!!!" screamed Rai, struggling against the tight grip of the police officer.
His cries went unheeded. The officer handed him to a paramedic, then rushed off to keep bystanders away from the scene.
Rai began to scream again, but suddenly there was a ringing sound in his ears. He watched as, out of the blazing wreckage of his home, a huge, hairy shape rose up snarling, silhoutted against the light of the fire. The ringing became louder as, slowly, the figure turned to glare at him with a menacing, red-eyed gaze.
" Hey....is something the matter? " asked the paramedic, concerned.
Wordlessly, Rai raised his hand and pointed. The paramedic turned around, but saw nothing.
" Listen, you need to rest..." the paramedic told Rai, turning back around.
Rai stared at the black shape. He was confused that the paramedic couldn't see what he was seeing.
The last thing he saw of the menacing creature, as the paramedic shoved him into the back of an ambulance and shut the door, it was snarling triumphantly. And, even as the ambulance drove away from the scene, he could hear its piercing, terrifying howl of victory.