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Humans had been fascinated by everything around them. They revered what they could not control, but that did not stop them from trying to control it again and again.

And so I hid, until I could strike.

It was a beautiful irony that the beings who claimed they were the most intelligent creatures, did not learn enough from their past. Every century had it's own pandemic, my experiments to find the best pathogen. And none seemed to care for the pattern, other than the conspiracy theorists, of course.

I let my virus ravage through those petty, squabbling mortals, before I descended.

The virus was enough to cripple everything the humans believed to be true. 

It rendered the immune system hollow. No antibodies, no protection. The humans died in numbers even I had not managed to foresee. Just how weak were they?

I had to stop the virus a mere week after it's advent. I needed the numbers to have my own fun, did I not? 

The virus had wiped out every creature that the humans could sustain upon. Millions of species of plants and animals went extinct, as if they had never existed. Those who did not die from the attack of the virus, started dying because of the famine. The extreme climates that ensued due to the ecological imbalance, made it impossible to grow anything for centuries.

Every direction led them to the desert or the frigid tundra.

But they survived. They still survived.

Perhaps the humans were not so weak, after all.

But none could match me.

When I came, many thought me as a messiah sent by the gods. But I was no messiah.

I was not a dragon, as they believed me to be. Nor was I a phoenix rising from the ashes of this broken world. How they wished I were creatures so tame. 

My blood, my meat, my mere presence appealed to them. I was not the apex predator because I was unimaginably strong. I was the apex predator because my prey craved me senselessly. They felt a control in my presence that was not truly theirs; it was always mine.

I was not just a creature of chaos. I was chaos.

The more an individual found himself in control, the more he caused chaos. And I became stronger. I fed and fed until they annihilated themselves

And yet, some still managed to survive.

Well, the more the merrier, I suppose.

And so I turned. I enveloped the Earth with horrors they had never dreamt of facing. The sun dimmed and hid from the terror, that was I. The moon did not have a dark side anymore, it was only ever dark. The entire universe seemed to stop as they turned to face a once-in-all-time spectacle.

And I awoke my sleeping children.

The giants, the basilisks, the griffins, the wyverns. 

They came, and they conquered. Earth, once a planet of harmony and peace, wonder and marvel, trembled when these creatures resurfaced.

In the fun, I managed to get creative. My imagination sparked works of art, new nightmares for every living being that had managed to survive.

Giants with heads of lions, basilisks with wings, wyrms with eyesight.

I thrived. What a time it was to exist!

But the annoying sapiens still lived. Their species refused to die.

And in their time of need, they turned to the only thing they knew for certain. Themselves.

As they hid from my children, the monsters tore each other apart. And those puny, pathetic mortals meditated. 

They had found their eye in the storm, and the calm that engulfed their very souls weakened my grip over the planet.

NO! 

No place could find peace when I personally ensured otherwise!

How could they do it?

I needed to know!

So, I turned again. I approached a human in the most threatening form they dreamt of.

My physical aspect had eight hairy appendages below my waist. My claws were bigger than trees. My three eyes, vertically arranged on a human face, glared at a mortal I had cornered. I opened my mouth, just below the lowest of my eyes, to show the most horrific teeth inside. 

"What makes you survive?" I simply asked. 

The mortal, although scared out of his wits, managed to stutter out a response, "What-What other choice do we- do we have but to-to survive?"

His response thundered across the mortal realm. It brought about a silence that did not occur in my presence, which shrunk me, depleting my energies.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU MORTAL?"

His appearance started to change, increasingly glowing, "I am no mortal. I am hope. And hope brings a sense of calm that nothing else can break. Even in the worst of situations, hope helps you persevere for a better time ahead. For in a tunnel of darkness, all there is to do is to keep walking towards the light."

And I sensed it. My grasp on the planet loosened just enough for the sun to shine brighter over the clouds. Hope swelled at the reveal and I shrunk.

"I shall return!"

Hope smiled indulgingly, "You will never leave. You have always been present, and shall continue to do so. Chaos is the way of universe. But there is only order from chaos. It is time for some order."

The humans came out from where they hid as my children, the monsters, weakened alongside me.

"My children are dying!" I yelled before dissolving into a suspended state.

Hope turned away with a bittersweet expression, "As did mine."

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This was my entry for 'Of Monsters And Us' Contest. I hope you enjoyed the apocalypse and the revival of the human race. 

Do vote and comment.

#OfMonstersAndUs