A Monster Named Gripsnarl

"I'm not going to lie for you anymore Gripsnarl! You wanta keep eating streetwalkers?—fine! But by golly, you find somewhere else to dump the skulls, or find another attic to live in!"

Gripsnarl sensed the Boy was angry with him and he clicked his claws apologetically. Gripsnarl stood nearly seven feet tall, with rows of razor teeth in a snout both wolfish and alien. He wasn't afraid of too many things, but having Boy angry with him happened to be one of them--for Boy's anger tended to broadside Gripsnarl with savage waves of dread and the agony of abandonment.

"Please don't be angry Boy." Gripsnarl rumbled in a voice so horrific that it would probably cause people like you and me to instantly shit all over each other.
"I-I didn't know you'd be home so soon." Gripsnarl stammered. "I was gonna clean up the skulls of all these streetwalkers. Honest I was."
Black tears began to well in the corners of his yellow eyes.

Boy shook his head. "Oh Gripsnarl," He lamented. "That's what you said yesterday." The Boy's eyes took on the shifty cast of one who knows a relationship probably won't last.
"What am I gonna do with you Gripsnarl?"

***

There used to be lots of Gripsnarl's kind, back in the days forgotten. They stalked the Earth, pouncing on things, proud as cocks in a barnyard. (That’s roosters by the way, you perv.) They had no natural foes except for maybe Unicorns, and even then only if in a sizeable herd.

But that was then, and now only Gripsnarl remains--the last real monster of his kind in this digital age of reason. And he has no friends except for maybe Boy. And now even that relationship is strained due to Gripsnarl's unbreakable habit of leaving the skulls of streetwalkers strewn everywhere he goes.

***

"Do you remember when we met Boy?" Gripsnarl rasped, willing Boy to remember the good times.

Boy sighed and smiled, reminiscing despite himself.
"Yeah Gripsnarl, yeah I guess I do. It was a summer night, impossibly hot, and my folks took me out for ice cream."

Gripsnarl purred deep in his furry chest as Boy continued talking. For most people that "purr" would have terrified, probably beyond all horrors they've ever known. But Boy didn't even notice, he'd lived with Gripsnarl much too long to be unsettled by a gripsnarly purr.

"Yeah, I think I remember that night." Gripsnarl curled up at the foot of Boy's bed and batted the lashes of his slitted eyes, imploring him to continue.

Boy leaned back on his bed, resting his head on both arms.
"Well, as I recall, heat lightning was flashing out on the plains but I only had eyes for that glowing sign--the one that spelled out 'Ice Cream' with flickering arcs of neon."

"Ice cream." Gripsnarl acknowledged, nodding his shaggy head. "It's so yummy. Not as good as a streetwalker's spine, but quite tasty all the same."

"Yeah, anyway," Boy continued, "I think I was next in line and already drooling over how good that creamy chocolate was gonna taste when suddenly you were there, lunging out of the night, ripping the limbs off streetwalkers and dipping their torsos in fire."

"That's like ice cream to a monster." Gripsnarl reminded.

"I know that." Boy replied dismissively. "Come on, how long have I known you now?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Gripsnarl lowered his head again and covered his stomach rumbles with coughs.
"Then what happened?" He prompted, just happy to be near Boy.

"Oh, you know, then we met and stuff." Boy yawned. It was getting late and he had school the next day. "And then I guess we became friends."

"That's right, I remember now. It's a good story." Gripsnarl's heart swelled and he longed to brush Boy's cheek with the back of his curvy-clawed paw. But he decided not to push it after so recently angering Boy.

"Goodnight Boy." Gripsnarl snarled as he stood and stalked towards the attic.

Boy plumped his pillow and arranged his sheets for bed.
"Goodnight Gripsnarl." Boy said through a yawn as he reached up and switched off the light.

And then Boy slept and Gripsnarl kept watch from the attic's slanted window. And he crouched there with love in his heart and he didn't let anything hurt his friend. And he vowed to be a better monster for Boy and he only ate three streetwalkers that night.

The End