It was the best day ever for Archivist Andrews, mostly because it was his first day as Archivist Andrews. Though he had been with the ARC for some time it was only today he had been granted the rank of Archivist. His first assignment was to check in on the Vantablack Bat.

 

Of course nothing goes right. As he walked into the habitat where they kept the animal, he noticed a lump of void on the floor. “Bats arent normally on the ground are they?” He thought to himself. He walked over to the cat sized creature and nudged it with his foot. Yup, sure enough it was dead. Now normally this wouldnt be a big deal. Sure, it was a bat that absorbed 99.9% of light that hit it but it was still mortal. But Andrews went into a panic, fearing he would be blamed for the death of the animal. There was no hiding it, it was after all a void that someone would surely notice sitting in the garbage can. So he resigned to just go down the hall and alert one of the other Archivists.

 

Almost as soon as he opened the door, he heard a blood curdling scream, only for it to be cut off with a soft, wet, crunch. Then, something began creaking down the hall. Andrews of course booked it. In his mind he went over what cryptid it could be. They had many dangerous cryptids in the building but most were subtle, they would just bite and scratch. It didnt matter, whatever it was had just slaughtered the entire west wing.

 

After several minutes of running he couldnt hear noises from the direction he ran from, and figured it was safe to hide as he slipped into a door on his right. Andrews whirled around to slam the door behind him and rest his back against it. He turned around to see Craig. Quite surprising he was still alive, but lucky for Andrews. Even if he was a bird, he was far more experienced and should know what to do. But then andrews noticed. He was stomping several small dinosaurs and mumbling about everything going to shit. Andrews yelled the name of the Archivist, only to be met with a thousand mile stare. The new Archivist began backing away, as his senior inched closer. Andrews was of course briefed on Craigs real form and could easily punt him across the room if needed, but it would be a lie to say he wasnt intimidated.

 

Maybe Craig would have actually had an opportunity to do something, if a car sized bird hadnt just dropped onto him. Andrews could only watch on as the Mothman began tearing into Craig. The illusion of a man faltered just as The Mothman swallowed the mangled mess of what used to be a chicken. It then turned and swiveled its head to get as close to Andrews face as possible and simply said: “Run”.

 

Ten minutes of running later gave Andrews time to think. Cryptids were breaking out and attacking eachother and Archivist left and right. Craig may have had a reason for trying to kill the little plastic dinos, but Mothman, no matter how hungry, would have no reason to attack a small bird over a human. Andrews pondered these things right before hearing a loud thump behind him. He rapidly spun around to face whoever it was. Whatever it was it seemed. Andrews didn’t know what to call it except a chupacabra, which was slightly ridiculous. The chupacabra was one of the few well known monsters that didnt actually have an ARC equivalent and was written off as not real. But there was nothing else to call the creature before him. It had a skull almost a mix of a monkey and a dog. It had wrinkly scabbed and scarred skin, quills down the length of its back down to its stubby tail. And it wasnt only the creatures natural appearance. It was covered in blood, so much it was almost gushing from the creatures mouth. As it slowly approached Andrews, he backed away, only to be met with a wall. As the animal stalked down the hall it began making a hollow howling noise, like an insane man imitating a wolf. Andrews couldn’t do a thing but sink against the wall as the animal got closer. He could feel its disgusting blood scented breath right in his face along with the rumble of a growl deep in his chest. Then, the creature lunged.

 

Andrews cringed, but instead of his throat being ripped out, he felt something moving in his pocket. He opened his eyes to see a large crow going through his pocket. It pulled out his master key to the facility and flew off down the hall. He looked around, but all traces of the creature were gone. The surroundings were calm, no blood. He returned to his post to see the Vantablack Bat eating an orange, no worse for wear in its enclosure. It looks like no one was gonna believe him. Not a good start for his first day as an Archivist.