Just for fun, this is the initial opening of LINGER 4: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS. For reasons of pacing, style, and continuity, it was deleted from the final manuscript, but I thought some readers might like to see it.



 
Everyone on this tiny spinning ball of the cosmos, this insignificant spinning rock humanity has claimed for its own, has a dark side. A temper, a thirst for revenge, a desire to get even for being treated badly - whether real or imagined - is within us all.

Society teaches us not to act on these thoughts. To do so would be ‘uncivilized’ and we are better than that, morally superior to such actions. To lash out at someone who has hurt you, someone who has wronged you, someone who has stolen from you, someone who has broken your heart, is unacceptable.

To most.

On the darker side of our world, there is a plane where individuals either do not have these internal controls or choose to ignore them. Whether it is a question of ‘Nature or Nurture’ has long been the subject of debate and study. As of this current date, there are no solid answers.
 
Hollywood has glamorized these monsters, making movies and television series about them and those who hunt them strictly for the entertainment value. Some consider them as idols, totems, creatures to emulate. Web sites post photographs of their handiwork as if they were objets d’art, to be seen and admired.
 
Some of the dark creatures never surface. They bury themselves in alcohol or drugs or sexuality or all three and never allow their darker side out for the world to see.
 
There are Others… Others do not care. They will act on savage impulse or they will act methodically, planning, scheming, stalking, observing, then striking. They will take what they wish when they wish and how they wish with no thought to the remotest possibility of consequences. Sometimes their actions are more vicious and savage than can be imagined by the average person.
 
One such animal that prowls among us is known as The Beast.
 
He calls himself that. Others call him that. He has roamed for years, perhaps decades, committing acts of the most horrendous and foul nature that veteran police officers have cried like children over his victims. Other officers have left their planned career in law enforcement after seeing his handiwork.
 
One Federal Agent, a distinguished and case-hardened agent, a man who was one of the initial founders of what is now known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the F.B.I., spent days cataloging and recording and analyzing the crime scenes after The Beast left the small town he had prowled and done his perverted work. 

After three days, his supervisor commended him for his excellent effort and issued a direct order that he return home to get some rest.
 
After spending all those hours looking and studying what The Beast left behind, he went home, kissed his wife and their four year old granddaughter who was visiting, went into his home office, and used his service weapon to take his own life.
 
Most of the time, these creatures, these non-humans, roam and work alone. Their personalities make them solitary by nature, they do not seek or desire the company of others. They enjoy their solitude and prefer the freedom it gives them to act upon their sadistic impulses.

But… sometimes, They do form together. They work together to indulge in their savage delights, to take Their perverse pleasures in destruction. They take joy in the most vile acts, enjoying the pain and torture and screams of Their victims as a connoisseur would enjoy a vintage wine or a gourmet a splendid meal.
 
They are all around us. They cannot be picked out of a crowd, they cannot be easily identified. There is no warning, no immediate indication. They do not have matching tattoos, they do not have identifying birthmarks, they do not have a particular signal they give off, at least not initially.
 
They walk among the rest of humanity.
 
And sometimes, Their path crosses ours…..