Rupt World Stories Volume 4: Monsters We Create

By L. Rigdon

This fourth and final collection of urban fantasy short stories lets you round out your journey into the Rupt World – a place full of magic, mystery, and monsters.

These three stories showcase what happens when our beliefs become reality. Creatures of Belief (COBs) exist among us in the Rupt World, and COB Control Unit (CCU) agents keep them from wreaking havoc. According to the CCU, COBs follow three rules: 1) COBs don't know they're COBs; 2) COBs can't change; and 3) COBs can't escape their stories. In these three short tales, you'll discover the truth about these rules that no one is supposed to know.

Are you brave enough to explore the depths of the Rupt World? Download your copy today!

Interested in more urban fantasy books by L. Rigdon? Click her name above to visit her author page and view all her available titles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. Rigdon
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224988051

L. Rigdon

Working out of my home office in Beaverton, OR, I have been an academic and professional writer since 2007. I earned my bachelor's degree from California State University, Stanislaus and graduated magna cum laude in 2008. At CSUS, I majored in English and minored in journalism. In 2013 I finished my master’s degree in literature and graduated with distinction. My graduate areas of focus included medieval literature, Renaissance Literature, gender theory, discourse theory, spatiality, psychoanalytical criticism, and semiotics.Currently, I split my time between contract work and my own works of fiction.Besides writing, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, baking, reading, playing games, crafting, streaming shows, and singing.

Book preview

Rupt World Stories

Volume 4:

Monsters We Create

By L. Rigdon

Cover Art

By L. Rigdon

Edited

By Jonathan Paul Bard Glasscock

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

License Notes

This licensed e-book is for your enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or receive it as a gift for your use only, please return it to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your copy. Thank you for respecting this author's hard work.

Text copyright © 2024 L. Rigdon

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Current Works Written by L. Rigdon

Dedication

Dear Reader

Rupt World Stories Series

Prologue

Vamp in the Machine

Relics of Judgement

The Djinn, the Foreigner, and the Woman Who Would Die

Thank you for reading!!!

About the Author

Current Works Written by L. Rigdon

Rupt World Stories Volume 1: Monsters Are Real

Rupt World Stories Volume 2: Monsters Can Help

Rupt World Stories Volume 3: Real Monsters Hide

Words on a Feather

Grift & Shadow

Beyond the Rupt Door: Stories of Wonder and Fright, Volume I

Beyond the Rupt Door: Stories of Wonder and Fright, Volume II

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to those who have stuck with me for all these years. Book 1 in the series came out back in 2014, which seems like an eternity ago in a post-pandemic world! Between Book 1 and now, I’ve developed so many other stories, characters, and magical creatures. This will be the eighth adventure into the Rupt World, and I hope to write many more. Thank you for your trust and continued support. You are all amazing!

Dear Reader,

You won’t remember any of this, so don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense.

You see us every day. We are all around you. We are you, but we see what you forget. We are the Rupts. You are the Slums.

We are not enemies. How can we be enemies if you forget us so quickly?

We exist alongside each other. You lead your day-to-day life unaware of what is really going on, and you like it that way. If you didn’t like it, you would become one of us. You would start to see the world as we see it because, for many of us, that’s how we became Rupts. We either stopped or were forced to stop seeing the façade of reality, and at that point, we had to look behind the curtain.

Please understand me. Being Rupt isn’t always cloak and dagger or life and death. Many of us lead regular lives. We just have a different definition for the word regular.

For us, it’s normal to have a psychic as a best friend, for your neighbors to speak to the spirits of the dead, or for magic users to sell potions and spells from vending machines. Non-human creatures are everyday occurrences, and we enjoy our relationships with these individuals. For Rupts, it’s not unusual to travel at practically the speed of thought from one place to another. We just as easily travel in and out of parallel dimensions or pocket universes. Rupts do all this without batting an eye because we see it as the regular way to live our lives.

Living with such wonders, however, comes at a price. Rupt politics are convoluted. Different factions always try to get the upper hand, making safety and security a nightmare. Real-life Gods and Demigods have schemes and agendas to add to the mix. And, of course, there is the constant issue of dealing with Slums. You may not remember us in the long run because it’s easier to live your lives in denial, but since we both exist on the same plane, your people, your laws, and your politics can cause us endless headaches.

Nevertheless, we persevere.

My perseverance is why I write these stories for you. I hope these stories provide guidance based on actual events from the world of the Rupts. If you are lucky, you will remember every tale and use the information to save your life. Otherwise, well . . . you won’t remember anyhow.

Yours always,

-Annutae

Rupt World Stories Series

Volume 1: Monsters Are Real

Although we, as Rupts, dislike the word monster, since it is a word Slums have used to persecute our kind throughout previous centuries, the term still has meaning in ways we cannot ignore. Indeed, some beings in the Rupt World are dangerous beyond our imaginations. Entities so bent on domination and power that they would gleefully destroy men, women, children, and even all of reality just to achieve their goals. These monsters are not the ridiculous creatures of fairytales or horror movies. These monsters are real, and they will kill you indiscriminately. I give you these stories as a warning about some of the dangers that lie ahead.

Volume 2: Monsters Can Help

The first volume spoke of beings who were monstrous inside and out. However, just because someone looks monstrous doesn’t mean that they are indeed vicious. Some of the most terrifying-looking creatures in the Rupt World are also among the kindest. Likewise, some of the most feared beings can look completely normal. I give you these stories so that you will remember not to judge us by our appearance or the reputation of our peers and predecessors. Instead, judge each Rupt by their actions. Always remain cautious, but do not let your prejudice stop you from accepting the help you may need someday.

Volume 3: Real Monsters Hide

In the first two volumes, you witnessed both kind and cruel beings. Most of them were non-human Rupts, or at least not wholly human. With so many fantastical and powerful creatures, many people may think that human Rupts are harmless by comparison. I will tell you, first and foremost, never to fear the monster you can see, for the real monster hides far from your sight. Whether they use magic, politics, telepathy, or good old-fashioned manipulation, the real monsters are the ones you never see coming. I give you these stories to remind you that people, human or otherwise, will almost always try to take advantage of one another. Whether they know it or not, practically everyone has their agenda in play, and you are only one of many obstacles in the way.

Volume 4: The Monsters We Create

Some beings are neither Slum nor Rupt, yet they exist and affect us all. These are the Creatures of Belief, COBs. They are entirely created from our minds and made flesh from the focused energy of our collective consciousness. Some of these beings appear as deities, others as heroes, and many as monsters. Eccentric Slums believe in these beings, yet somehow, their Beliefs keep them from going Rupt. We don’t know why. We, as Rupts, often have to deal with the fallout of COBs because as Beliefs change, so do these creatures, and such erratic changes often lead to deadly consequences. I give you these final stories so you will know that the world is not all black and white, not all Slum and Rupt. Reality is an endless spectrum of possibilities that no one can ever fully explore or explain.

Prologue

Knowing that the beast currently biting my leg wasn't technically real did not lessen the pain of its razor-sharp fangs ripping through my flesh and bone.

AHHHHHH! I wailed as I fell back, my left leg chewed off at mid-thigh, blood spurting out like a fountain.

The creature gnashed its teeth as it ate my limb, taunting me with its assured victory.

I somehow found the strength to sit up, making more blood flow and creating a warm pool underneath me. I would be dead in minutes—no way around it.

I heard the creature's claws click on the floor as it turned toward me. It was crouching and ready to pounce. I only had one shot to kill it.

Sliding my hand down my remaining leg to my boot, I gripped the hidden blade. The magic in the weapon heated my hand. Within seconds, the beast pounced, and I sliced through the thick skin of its underbelly.

The creature shrieked, almost comically, thrashing its head from side to side. A natural beast would have bitten into me or simply died. Not this thing. No, it wasn't real. It was a Creature of Belief, a COB, and it died as the common Belief dictated, shrieking and pouring black bile from its wound, covering me in its foul filth.

Were I not about to die, I might have been disgusted by the mess. As I was passing into oblivion, I hardly noticed the smell.

A short, Greek woman in a well-tailored black business suit stared up at the students in the auditorium-style rows around her. All right, class. Tell me from this short narrative from my past, what did I do wrong?

Hands shot up like lightning, each student eager to impress their new teacher.

The teacher pointed to a student at random, a young man. Yes, Professor Zika, you faced an unknown COB alone.

That's right, Professor Zika replied. What else did I do wrong?

More students raised their hands, and Professor Zika selected a young woman this time.

Yes, Professor, you went in without a real plan.

I had a magical dagger hidden in my boot. Why is that not a real plan? Professor Zika questioned.

Because it was a failsafe in case you lost your other weapons, which you did. Fortunately, you had the dagger, ma'am, but having a weapon is not a full plan.

Excellent point, Professor Zika agreed. She then turned to the whiteboard behind her, picked up a dry-erase marker, and wrote in big, bold letters:

'WEAPONS ARE TOOLS, NOT PLANS.'

With the pen still in her hand, she turned to face her students.

Additionally, saying you will capture the beast or kill it is not a plan. That's an outcome. A plan involves step-by-step measures of how you will do something, who will be in charge of what, contingency plans, and ways to measure success or failure.

The students were writing and typing out her words verbatim. It was the first day of class, but even if it weren't, Professor Zika's classes were always packed with morbidly curious students craving the chance to talk to and learn from an actual immortal being.

As the students were part of the COB Containment Unit (CCU) training academy, they would no doubt meet or investigate other immortal or long-lived beings, but those weren't the same. These students would study COBS when they became full agents. Professor Anna Zika, her latest name for this century, was one of two human Rupt immortals. The famous moniker that the Rupt World knew Professor Zika as was Annutae.

As we go through the semester, Professor Zika continued, I plan to prepare you to work in the field or provide support to those agents. Being part of the CCU is not about being a rogue agent who throws the rules out the door and gets everything done by gadgets, good looks, and luck. If you want that life, I recommend becoming a movie star. Working for the CCU involves high-risk situations. Never forget that you are mortal and will die, some of you sooner than others. Is that clear?

All the students nodded, many looking paler than they had moments before.

My purpose as your teacher is not to frighten you but to prepare you. I will not prepare you with lies. Instead, I will show you every mistake I have made and the mistakes of your predecessors. If you learn from these mistakes, you will live. If you refuse to learn from them, you will be another mistake that I will use in my books for future classes.

Now, the students shared nervous expressions.

Professor Zika smiled. Take a breath, everyone. We're going to do our best to keep you all alive.

She walked around the room a bit, pausing to give the class of junior agents a moment. Stopping in front of her desk in the center of the classroom, she continued.

I'm asking you to respect what we're dealing with as CCU agents. Too often, I see students who dismiss Creatures of Belief, COBs, as less than Rupts. Not real beings. Do not make this mistake. Yes, the Beliefs of others created COBs, and that is Belief with a capital B. Nevertheless, their origins do not diminish their existence. They can hurt you, hunt you, and kill you if they wish to do so. Their origin stories and how they operate might differ from other beings, but that does not make them less dangerous. COBs are real. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you will be an exceptional agent here at the CCU.

The students nodded, many of them scribbling or typing out more notes.

Professor Zika, came a weak voice from almost the back of the room.

All heads turned in that direction. Professor Zika looked up toward the student, her warm brown eyes evaluating the timid, young agent. Yes? She replied.

The student, a gangly young man, cleared his voice before he spoke. In our other courses, we learned that Belief creates COBs. You're telling us that they're real, just different. By that logic, how do we know that you yourself, ma'am, aren't a COB?

Other students glared at the young man as if he had just said the most vulgar insult imaginable.

What a brilliant question, Professor Zika blurted out, shocking everyone in the room.

The students grew wide-eyed, looking back and forth at their comrades. Professor Zika glanced around, a smile on her face as she enjoyed their mixed emotions.

You all glared at this young man for doing the one thing we train you to do, which is always to question your surroundings, Professor Zika pointed out. He brings up a perfect point. I have just told you that COBs are real. Putting aside their creation method, they are as real as you and I. So how do all of you know I'm not a COB?

The students sat like statues, afraid to answer or insult their professor.

Seeing their reluctance, she continued. Let’s look at my origin. I'm only one of two human immortals worldwide. A strange fact, wouldn't you say? Adding to the weirdness, I'm the only human who can communicate with the Thērion, one of the few non-human civilizations of magic users. It's a bit convenient. I was made immortal during antiquity through an insane and lascivious ritual. How is my origin story any less ridiculous than some of the stories we've heard of other COBs?

The students relaxed a touch, exchanging glances with each other and considering what the professor had just said.

To answer this young man’s valid question, we must compare me with what we know of COBs. Let’s start with the basics. How do we distinguish COBs from everything else?

COBs don't know they’re COBs, offered one student. The Belief takes over their mind completely, and that Belief World becomes completely real for them, regardless of how it is for everyone else.

That is one distinction, Professor Zika agreed. What else?

COBs can't change, suggested another student. Only the Belief changes, which can change them, but they don't evolve independently of the Belief story structure.

Another good point, Professor Zika said. Let's go for three. Does anyone have a third distinction?

COBs can't escape their stories, another student replied. If they tried to escape their own story, they'd be blinked out of existence by the Belief that created them, wouldn't they?

There have been some eyewitness accounts to attest to this concept, Professor Zika answered. She then looked up at the young man who originally asked whether she was a COB.

You've now heard from your fellow students about three ways to tell if someone is a COB. Professor Zika redirected her attention to the entire class. Granted, these three distinctions are focused on sentient COBs. They do not necessarily apply to COB artifacts or systems, which we will discuss in future classes. But for now, I will leave our curious young man and the rest of you to ponder whether or not I am real or a COB. Class dismissed.

Annutae's office has been in the same room at the CCU Learning Annex since the organization built the building in 1942. Back then, the building wasn't a learning annex but a research and storage facility. Much has happened in nearly 80 years to create the need for the learning center. The CCU had restructured, renamed itself, and created an alphabet soup of divisions; Annutae played a crucial role in making those changes happen. She felt proud of the past eight decades, even if they were only a short part of her over 3,000 years of existence.

With her arms full of files, Annutae shuffled her load to get her keys from her pocket. She unlocked the door and strolled into her office, using her foot to kick the door shut behind her. Dropping the load of files on the table next to other piles, she stood back and stared at the small mountains of paperwork. She felt guilty for wasting so much paper. However, no matter how innovative technology had become, she still preferred the tactile sensation of spreading reports around her, reorganizing them, and finding solutions.

Satisfied with the stacks but not ready to sort them, Annutae meandered over to her couch and plopped down. She pulled the clip out of her hair, letting her black curls fall past her shoulders, then shook her mane. She played with the clip absently in her hand, her mind spinning on thoughts from her class.

Am I a COB? At least some of them are asking the right questions, she exclaimed. She then considered their answers to whether someone is real or a COB. They have to believe it, she declared to herself. They need to believe in the system. You have to fight Belief with Belief.

Annutae laid the hair clip on the nearby coffee table and stood up to stretch. She then went over to the piles of files and plucked a few from the top of the various paperwork mountains to take over to her desk.

Sitting down, she still thought about what her students had said. It was more than what they had said that bothered Annutae. She and others in the CCU had made these three distinctions the Belief of the agency. They were the only guideposts agents had amidst the chaos of their Rupt World colliding with so many COB Worlds.

If only they knew, she mused before opening the files on her desk and redirecting her attention.

Vamp in the Machine

I will paint the town with your blood, you murderous abomination!

Paint the town? Really? I scoffed as I turned to face my attacker. No points for originality and negative points for far-fetched bullshit!

Your filthy mouth betrays your wretchedness! The thin, wannabe-Goth-boy, wearing tight black leather clothing, snarls at me. He bares his fangs like all these vampires do as they prepare to pounce.

Could they be any more predictable?

I'm not asking for Shakespeare here, I continue complaining, knowing full well this sad excuse for a vampire doesn't care about my rant. I'm just saying, if you have a threat, make it realistic. I only have, like what, 5 gallons of blood in my body. That's barely enough to paint the outside of a small house, let alone the whole town!

I shall not allow your madness to infect me, abomination! He growls. Right on cue, wannabe-Goth-boy vampire lunges at me, his mouth agape, fangs glinting in the moonlight, fingernails elongated and pointing in my direction, ready for the kill.

It's weird what you think about when someone tries to kill you. Like how six months ago, I would never have imagined myself facing off with a cliché vampire, especially since vampires aren’t even real.

OK, it's not that they're not real-real. Rupts like me know the difference between naturally existing and created creatures in the magical world. Vamps like this guy, like me, were created by the Belief of the masses. I mean, this bloodsucking monster in tight leather pants could totally kill me in the next few seconds, but he’s only doing it because that's what he’s programmed to do by the Belief. Hell, since I got turned and dragged into this nonsense, it's kind of what I'm programmed to do, too. The only difference is I know it's a program, and this loser doesn't.

But in the few seconds I have, before shit hits the fan, I find it's best to give into the programming and go full-on vampire-movie-ninja-mode.

He lunges at me, so I jump over him and begin punching him from behind. Powerful punches that crack bone with each impact. My long, wavy red hair swishes in the air beautifully with every move I make, which is weird since I used to have short blonde hair before being turned into this undead fighting machine.

He dodges my punches and rolls away, hissing at me – yes, actually hissing – as he gets in a low stance and starts punching at my midsection. We brawl like this, each blocking,