Humanity was a complex thing.

Kind, endearing, then cruel and spiteful. Loving, hating, and everything in between. All at once, failing to make logical sense in the ways they acted. Their emotions often fluctuated, leaving little room for interpretation. 

N had found that humanity's most consistent feeling was fear. 

Fear of change, loss, the unknown, or even the known. In the face of something they didn't understand (or perhaps simply did not want to), they allowed fear to overtake their judgment. Often leading to poor choices. 

And the Earth was full of the unknown. Creatures beyond imagination lingered just underneath the gaze of humanity, ever hidden within the corners and shadows. 

They were most commonly known as Anomalies, but N had taken to calling them Oddities. Either way, it was their duty to handle them.

Was it to protect the human race? Not really, it was just their job, what they needed to do to keep the world going.  There was no nobility to it, just a vague need to help because they lived on this planet too. Just another thing to do. 

The world was one of unexplainable phenomena. That was one constant N was certain would always be true. In their line of work, you'd come to expect the unexpected. In a sense, N was unexplainable too. An Oddity all of their own. 

They were many things. Some may call them a protector of humankind. Some called them a protector of monsterkind. Some called them a hellspawn. Some called them an angel. 

These days, they identified most with detective.

A simple, understandable title. Easy to accept, easy to ignore. Mundane, considering their work, but that was more than fine with them. They liked the mundanity, being able to blend into the background. 

Hiapul was in itself, also a bit of an oddity. A busy city, off the coast of Lake Ontario. You could find all manner of strange things hidden inside. N had seen more than their fair share in their admittedly short time living here, from a lady wrestling her python onto the train, a man downtown playing a drum with his feet as another man yodeled, a group of high schoolers recording some sort of anti-drug video behind their local convenience store followed by the four of them sharing a blunt, it felt like there was a new, stand-out moment to be seen every day. 

They had heard Hiapul be called “the city of main characters” once. It was not something they ever felt the need to question. 

It was beneficial, really. To be surrounded by such strange moments meant that the people around the city had adapted to ignoring the world around them. What was the point in paying attention to the person screaming opera at 5:30 in the morning down the street when you had undoubtedly seen something stranger? It made N’s life easier to hide. 

Plus, with so much unusual energy around, Hiapul was practically a massive beacon to Oddities big and small. Another benefit to living in the big city, there was less they had to go out of their way for. 

(The best part of Hiapul was still Pink October’s coffee in N’s opinion. That was basically enough to sell them on living here for an eternity as long as the cafe stood tall.)

It was only three days after their return from Innsmouth when they found themself suddenly saddled with another job. And this time, it was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. 

It was a chilly evening when they decided to take a casual walk just outside of their apartment. It wasn’t early enough to find the streets crowded, but not late enough for the sun to have completely set. With their earbuds in, and their Queen playlist on “Another One Bites the Dust” it was the perfect atmosphere. 

Their idealistic walk was quickly interrupted as they felt the aglet of their left shoe click against the ground. Sighing, they bent down to re-tie the traitorous footwear alongside a few choice mumbles to no one. 

Of course, they were bent next to a perfectly dark alleyway. Of course, they felt something tap their right foot. Why wouldn’t they?

There, resting against their shoe and staring up at them with a crystal blue iris, was what appeared to be a human eyeball. 

If Hiapul was the city of main characters, they felt like their story was meant to follow a horror plot, that somehow, someway gained a comedy protagonist with how ridiculous these situations felt. 

With another sigh, they picked up the eyeball. Giving it a squeeze they were disappointed to discover the wet, fleshy consistency of a real eyeball. 

“Why couldn’t you be a plastic one.” They frowned at the offending sphere. “It’s Halloween in like a month. You could have been someone’s cheap prank from the dollar store.”

A foul stench hit their nose soon afterward, and the pupil shifted back and forth unnaturally. 

“So much for a nice walk.” N resigned, pulling out their earbuds and entering the dark alleyway. 

The exit seemingly disappeared shortly after they did so, the environment warped to block out all light, and there was no way to see clearly in front or behind them. The dark structures of the buildings they walked between stared down at them. 

Literally, as large eyes littered the walls. 

"Very cool." N said as they pressed onwards, unimpressed. 

The eyeball peered forward, clearly guiding them to the cause. They felt the ground underneath them twist and gain a sudden squishy feel to it. The stench became unbearable as they scrunched up their nose in displeasure. 

"It smells rotten here." They chastised, tossing the eyeball into the darkness in front of them. 

A muffled, gurgling responded, followed by a disgustingly wet shlk shlk shlk sound. 

From the darkness, large, glowing blue eyes popped out, one by one like stars in the sky. 

Until finally, a maroon, fleshy mass of guts and eyeballs shuffled forward. An Oddity of 8ft, with each slow drag it took towards the detective, that wet shlk followed. Its eyes darted in all directions rapidly and N stared up at it, with a look that was so, so very tired. 

“Okay.” They said with a shake of their head. “I want to go home so let’s do this fast, please. Do you intend to cause harm?”

The creature lurched forward with an inhuman scream. 

“Alright.”

And so, the detective met the Oddity with a swift chop to the side. In a second, the mass exploded and splattered against the walls, concrete, and the poor, tired detective.

“Why. Why. You could have not done that. You could have just disappeared. I just rewashed this…” They lamented to the now normal alleyway, shaking off the leftover paste in disgust. 

As they attempted to whack off the red staining their coat, they noticed a large metal garbage can where the Oddity had just been standing. 

“I guess that’s where the smell came from.” They thought aloud as they tapped the side. “Maybe there was an animal in there or something.”

Suddenly, the lid shuttered and shook. N took a step back, expecting a cat or even a raccoon to emerge. Instead, when the lid popped off violently, a human popped out as well.

N gasped and fell backwards, as a boy no older than 14 leaned over the edge. 

“How’d ya do that???”

“What?”

“That! You killed the monster thingy!” 

N gaped up at the boy. They hadn’t sensed a human stuck within the Oddity, much less an alive one. They were at a loss for words, a little cranky over their clothes, and overall way too into their head to not get a little defensive. 

“I didn’t kill it. It was a hellspawn so I sent it back.”

“Holy moly!” The boy’s awestruck expression grew bigger as he hopped out of the bin. “Like with magic?”

“Sure.” 

“You killed it with magic!”

N groaned, dusting themself off. They could just play off saving this boy on purpose and be on their way. They needed a nice coffee, even instant would be enough right now. 

“Did ya learn that yourself? Or were you gifted with magic powers? Are you a superhero?”

“I’m just a detective.” They spoke dejectedly to the boy who was far too energetic. 

“A super Detective???”

“Mmhm, let’s go with that.”

Ignoring the boy, they watched the red fade from the area of impact and relaxed their shoulders. The Oddity wouldn’t be an issue any longer.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. I hid in the bin before it saw me I think. I guess it ate the bin!”

“That would explain its size.” 

Carefully, they began to walk out of the alleyway, making sure the boy followed. As they watched the boy animatedly speculate about how the monster had come to nearly digest him, they noticed no after-effects typically expected with these sorts of attacks. No injury, mental or physical, no confusion or even fatigue. It was a little eerie to the detective, but it was enough to chalk it up to a lucky scenario. 

The boy had spotted the Oddity before it had grown from devouring the trash bin (likely at a much smaller size) and hidden. As it was a weak being, it wasn’t able to break through said bin, thus the boy remained intact. 

At least that was the explanation they had settled on. Although they were unable to sense him beforehand, outside of the bin this boy was very human. Even a really excellent disguise wouldn’t be able to mask if he was anything else. 

As the pair reached the streetlights again, N sighed in relief. 

“Well,” They said, putting their hand up to stop him from rambling further.  “I hope you have a good night.”

With a careful flick to the forehead, his memories of the encounter would be erased. The familiar cloudy expression fell over the boy's eyes, and N nodded, satisfied with their work. Silently, they turned on their heel, thoughts already leaving the strange boy behind as they tried to decide if they were more in the mood for espresso or black coffee.

They didn’t get very far, however, as a voice broke through their thoughts.

“Hey! Wait up!” The boy shouted, rubbing his forehead. “What’d you do that for?”

“What…?”

“You flicked me! I was still talking to you and you flicked me! I don’t think Super Detectives should do that!”

“You- Remember what just happened?”

“Um, yeah? We were talking about that monster and you hit me!”

“I didn’t- h- hit you.” N’s words caught in their throat as they took a step back. 

‘How.’  Their mind raced. ‘How is this happening?’

“You did!” The boy insisted, undisturbed by their stress. “Why would you-”

He stopped for a moment, as his eyes went wide, and a large smile spread across his face.

“No,” N said in horror.

“You just tried to erase my memory, didn’t you!?”

N took another step back as the boy took one forward.

“I didn’t.” They lied.

In the city of Hiapul, N had gotten used to many things.

“You totally did! That’s why you walked away!”

As a Detective dealing with the paranormal, supernatural, strange, and overall oddities of the world, nothing particularly surprised them. 

“Absolutely not.”

They had come to expect the unexpected.

“Absolutely yes!”

And yet somehow, someway, in the city of Hiapul,

“This is so…so…”

A human boy no older than 14, with a bright grin and awestruck unusual eyes, had somehow resisted their memory wipe.

“So incredibly cool!!!”