Chương 6: Chapter 5: A Dangerous Hypothesis

I woke up, breathing hard.

"... Again." I stayed there, lying in bed, until the pounding in my chest finally settled. There was a fluffy black ball near my pillow, he cracked one golden eye open just long enough to determine I wasn't carrying food before deciding I wasn't worth the effort. Yato barely acknowledged my existence.

"Yeah, yeah... you never have nightmares, do you?" He flicked an ear. Lucky cat. I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Hot water helped. It always did. By the time I stepped out, the dream had already become little more than a feeling, slipping away before I could ever make sense of it. I dried off, shaved, got dressed, and headed downstairs. My feet carried me toward the office before I even realized where I was going. Old habits. The computer came to life with the familiar sound of its fans.

My hand settled on the mouse. I stared at the empty notifications for a few seconds. Right. There wasn't going to be any work today. Or tomorrow. Probably not ever again. I pushed the chair back and stood. My body felt heavy. The kind of exhaustion that lingered after a night of broken sleep, no matter how many hours you'd spent in bed.

"... Coffee." It wouldn't fix anything. But it'd make pretending a little easier. I filled the kettle and reached for my favorite mug. Hot coffee in hand, I wandered over to the kitchen window. I stopped halfway through my first sip. It came back. Curled up just beyond the invisible barrier, the beast looked almost... peaceful. Its chest rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm. One ear twitched every now and then, chasing away an insect I couldn't see.

If I ignored the claws the size of kitchen knives and the teeth I'd gotten a much closer look at than I'd ever wanted yesterday, it could almost pass for a giant dog sleeping in the morning sun. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Almost. My grip tightened around the mug. Yesterday, it'd tried to kill me. There was no point pretending otherwise. The barrier was the only reason I was still standing here. Maybe it'd never find a way through.

Maybe the barrier would remain forever. Maybe I'd wake up tomorrow and discover this had all been one particularly vivid mental breakdown. I wasn't willing to bet my life on maybes. Only one of us was going to survive. The thought should've felt cruel. Instead, it was strangely... matter-of-fact. I didn't hate the creature and I doubted it hated me. If our positions had been reversed, I'd probably have tried to eat it too. That didn't change the outcome. It had to die. The question was how.

I glanced around the kitchen as though the answer might be hiding somewhere between the toaster and the spice rack. Fighting it wasn't an option. It outweighed me several times over, had claws longer than my fingers, and was built to kill. Even if I somehow won, I'd be lucky to survive the injuries. No. If I was going to kill it, it had to be from a safe distance. Quietly. Without giving it the chance to fight back. Poison. I frowned into my coffee. Bleach immediately came to mind.

There was enough under the kitchen sink to kill... well, probably me. The problem wasn't whether it'd work. The problem was what it'd leave behind. I still had maybe a week's worth of fresh food in the house. After that, it'd be canned goods, pasta and whatever I managed to find out here. Yato padded into the kitchen and brushed against my leg before sitting beside me. He looked up expectantly.

"Not for you." He blinked.

"I know." My eyes drifted back to the beast. If I poisoned it with bleach... Could I still eat it? I had no idea. And I wasn't particularly interested in finding out the hard way. No. I needed something that would kill the beast...... without ruining the meat. I finished my coffee in silence. Then turned around.

"I still have the internet." Sort of. The office chair creaked as I sat back down. The search bar stared back at me. I rested my fingers on the keyboard for a moment before typing. Common household poisons for dogs. I hit Enter. A spinning circle appeared. I leaned back with a sigh. Yesterday, loading a webpage had felt like something out of the nineties and It looked like today wasn't going to be any better. Eventually, lines of text began appearing one after another. Slowly. Painfully.

"It isn't a dog," I muttered.

"But no one's written a poisoning guide for giant mystery beasts." Close enough. I started reading. Chocolate. I didn't have enough. Grapes. Nope. Xylitol. I'd never even kept chewing gum in the house. Onions. I'd need far more than I had. My eyes continued scanning the list until one word caught my attention. Ibuprofen. I stopped scrolling.

"... Seriously?" Of course. Years of staring at three monitors for work, combined with an impressive talent for forgetting to drink enough water, had left me with more migraines than I cared to count. I always kept a few boxes in the medicine cabinet. The article continued beneath it, explaining that even relatively small doses could cause severe kidney damage and internal bleeding in dogs. I rubbed my chin.

"It isn't a dog." I repeated the sentence more for myself than anything else.

"It might not even be close." There was no guarantee it'd work. For all I knew, the beast could digest ibuprofen as easily as candy. But I wasn't looking for certainty anymore. I was looking for the best idea I had. And so far... This was it.