Monolith Ch. 01

I've worked with Stark's Traveling Freak Show for over thirty years now. The bulk of those years I've spent with Dr. Faustus and Monolith. Monolith is the reason there is a Stark's Traveling Freak Show, so I've always felt I have a lot of responsibility and receive a lot of respect. My job is not always pleasant and in fact is often quite gruesome, but I am good at it and I take pride in the work that I do. My work is making sure that Monolith is happy because an unhappy Monolith is very dangerous to the spectators and to the entire Show.

First off, I should point out that I don't know where Monolith came from. Only Dr. Faustus would know that and he has never told me. In fact, Dr. Faustus tells me very little. Monolith could come from Hell as far as I know and it wouldn't surprise me if he does. All anybody knows is that Dr. Faustus brought Monolith to Mr. Stark in 1928, two years before I joined the Show. Since then Stark's Traveling Freak Show has been the biggest and most successful freak show in the world.

I saw Monolith's show when I was sixteen. I had always been intrigued by the various traveling shows that would come through our town, and I figured I'd run away and join one when I could. After seeing Monolith's show when Stark's Traveling Freak Show came through our town I knew I had found my future. I followed Stark's Show out of town and just walked around the grounds like I belonged there. I started off doing the odd, dirty jobs that newcomers have to do like cleaning up after the Geek Show or mopping up the animal cages, but I always found time to hang around Monolith's tent.

I would even sneak up to Monolith's cage when no one was around. I was deathly afraid of the beast then, in fact I still am today, but the difference now is that I think I understand the beast and know that he can be controlled. I was afraid of Monolith, but knew that I had to work with his show somehow. As I stood outside of his cage watching him sleep, eat, shit, or stare back at me, I knew that my life was meant to be joined with this beast.

Monolith is the greatest mystery man has ever seen. No one, except for maybe Dr. Faustus, knows how a beast like him came into being. When I watch him, no matter what he is doing, and even after spending thirty years with him, I am amazed. I see the raw power of the beast, the power not only to destroy any man he would want to, but the power to mystify any human being and bring out our own dark desires. Deep down each person that looks at Monolith sees the beast that's in each of us. Some people, like me, are amazed at him and worship him, others are afraid, most feel that they've touched that part of their soul that they've lost and will never regain, even if they don't understand it and forget it soon after they leave his tent.

I could spend hours describing Monolith and never come close to expressing the emotions a person has when they look at him, but one must have some picture of the beast in their head. Monolith is over eight feet tall when he stands up straight, but he rarely does, since he keeps his knees bent to support himself on his hoofed feet. His head looks much like a bull's head except that the snout is longer and the lower jaw juts out with two sharp canine teeth that point up over his lip. He has two horns on the top of his head, one has been broken to a nub, the other is still a rounded, curved spike about six inches long. His head is covered with brown fur except for his face, which shows his tough, gray, leathery skin. His eyes are very human and are perhaps the reason that I have always been so astounded by him. His eyes are white with a light black iris and dark black pupil. They stare at the world as if not just watching, but thinking and understanding. When Monolith stares at a person, that person is almost hypnotized by the beast. No one expects to see anything but a beast in his eyes, but those who dare to look deeper see the horrible beastly humanity of their own soul.

Monolith's neck is almost as wide as his head and extends from his powerful shoulders. His upper body is very similar to that of a very muscular man. His back, shoulders, and arms are covered with fine, brown hair. His chest and stomach are bare, showing his gray, leathery skin. His arms are those of a heavyweight lifter with massive hands that could crush a man's head. A long tail swings from his rear. It has short hair along it with longer hair forming a ball at the tip. His thighs are huge and muscular tapering down to his thinner calves and to his hoofed feet. His legs are covered with the same brown hair. His feet are large black hooves that make a loud clanking as he stomps around his cage and tent. He keeps his knees bent to support himself on his hooves, and so often appears shorter than he actually is, but this also makes him look more powerful, coiled on his legs, ready to spring at the paying spectators.

The feature of his body that I think earned him the name Monolith swings several inches long between his legs. Spectators always try not to stare at his long member, but they can't help looking at it. As he stamps about his cage, snorting at the people, his dick hangs in front of him, brazen, boldly showing the world that Monolith truly is a great beast. When erect, his penis is easily over a foot long, though I don't know the actual measurement since I've never placed a ruler beside it to find out.

Monolith's shows are extraordinary in their banality. He is shown to be the beast that the spectators expect yet they are shocked by his brutality. His shows take place in the largest tent in the Show. The stands, at one side of the tent, seat about 1,000 people and are almost always full for each show. A large curtain separates the stands from the main floor of the rest of the tent. When the curtain is drawn aside the people see Monolith, out of his cage, roaming about the ground in front of them. At each show people shriek, some run from the tent. But, then the people realize he is not free, he has a chain tied to a collar around his neck that is then wrapped around a post stuck into the middle of the floor. The chain is not long enough for him to reach the crowd.

What the people don't realize is that Monolith could easily break free of the post if he wanted. The post is only sunk about one foot into the ground. He could easily rip it out of the ground and escape, but he doesn't. I think that Dr. Faustus has some control of Monolith, some power over him that I don't understand. But even his control is not complete. Monolith still must be kept happy. That is how I have earned my living.

Once the people have calmed down, the show begins. Dr. Faustus addresses the crowd, presenting the horrible beast that is Monolith.

"The beast is hungry!" he yells, "Perhaps one of you should be his dinner!" Then he laughs, enjoying his joke on the crowd. "Don't worry. We have a special meal lined up for the beast!"

Then, I throw different live animals to Monolith. If any animal is able to slip away past the length of the chain it's my job to capture it and throw it back towards him, though once Monolith gets his hands on an animal it never escapes. The show is very gruesome and bloody. Many people leave the show sick and some throw up in the stands. Those that stay, get to see Monolith up close after the show.

After the show, Dr. Faustus leads Monolith back to a cage behind the tent and I file the spectators past the cage to see the beast up close. It's then that I pick the people who will get to see Monolith's late show. Monolith does one late show a week at each town we visit. His late show makes more money than all of his shows during the week put together. My skill at reading people, at picking the right people for his late show, has kept me with the Show for the past years. It's this skill that I've used to keep Monolith's late show running with hardly an incident to speak of.

Before I started working for Dr. Faustus, he had the twins, Benny and Kenny, rounding up the late show viewers for him. They were horrible at it. They would pick anyone they could, just spread through the crowd inviting everyone they saw. The late show had numerous problems and almost destroyed Stark's Traveling Freak Show. The key is to choose those people who can handle seeing Monolith's late show and are willing to spend a lot of money to see it. Though I bring in less people than the twins did, I bring in higher paying customers and we make a killing off of the late show.

I first saw Monolith's late show after I had been working for the Show for a couple of months. I had been to see Monolith's shows, but had never paid attention to the twins circulating in the crowd afterwards. When I finally did overhear Kenny inviting some viewers to a late night special show the next night I asked him what it was.

Kenny laughed at me, "Boy, if you want to see one helluva show, come by Monolith's tent Saturday night after the Show closes. That is the real show." He slapped me on the shoulder and went back to the crowd.

Saturday night just after two in the morning I showed up at Monolith's tent eager to see what the late night show would be. I wanted to know everything about Monolith and this seemed like a large piece of the mystery of the beast. I saw several people approaching the tent, each person looked uncomfortable, embarrassed to be going to the late show, unable to look at the face of those around them. I hung back from the tent waiting while each person gave some money to Benny outside the tent and then went inside. Once the line had filed into Monolith's tent I walked in and sat down on the floor close to the entrance.

The tent looked the same as it did during the day. The curtain was drawn across the middle of the tent. The tent was lit by several lights, kept low enough to illuminate the tent without chasing away all of the shadows. The crowd, spread through the stands, numbering a few hundred people, was quiet and anxious.

Dr. Faustus slipped through the curtains. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen," he addressed the audience. "Welcome to Monolith's Late Night Show."

He was dressed the only way I've ever seen the Doctor dress. He wore all black; a black shirt, black vest, black pants, black boots, and a long black cape that scraped along the ground. He wore a black fedora and dark black glasses that reflected a person's face back at them whenever they talked to him. His hands were covered in black gloves and he was always carrying some object with him. That night he was carrying a long, black cane, with a silver tip, that he swept before him as he marched before the crowd. He is a tall man at 6'6" and is very thin. His skin is pale white. I've never been able to judge his age, and like Monolith, appears to not have aged at all in the thirty years I've known him.

"You have seen the hunger of the beast. You have seen the brutality of the beast. But, you do not yet know the beast." He stopped and turned to face the crowd. "What you will see tonight may disgust you." He slapped the cane into his gloved hand. "What you will see tonight may infuriate you." He slapped the cane into his hand again. "What you will see tonight may arouse you," he said dropping his voice to a seductive growl. He began pacing again. "But what you will see tonight you will never forget. Tonight," he raised his voice, "you will see the beast as few have seen him before." He stopped and turned to face the crowd once again. "Tonight," he said in a hushed voice, "the beast will be subdued." He bowed slightly, and backed through the curtains.

The lights in the tent were dimmed and then the curtain was opened. The area behind the curtain was dark. Once the curtain had opened completely, lights were turned on shining on the open floor in front of the stands, keeping the stands in darkness. Monolith was standing in the middle of the floor chained to his post. He was stamping the floor around the post, walking in a circle. His nose was flaring. He would shake his head, the mane of hair on the back of his head shimmering in the light. One hand was clenched at his side, and the other was grasping the chain, pulling it tight with several feet of slack chain hanging in front of him. His hooves pounded the ground making his thigh muscles tremble. His penis and balls swung in front of him, beating back and forth against each leg.

Monolith was highly agitated. During his shows he was always menacing and restless, but he was never this energetic. During his late night shows I would find he was always this agitated, he seemed expectant, tense with suspense waiting for the show to start.

Then, music started playing, drums began beating a slow rhythm accompanied by a flute blowing a sluggish tune. A woman appeared from the back of the tent. She looked like a belly dancer, wearing a long, iridescent skirt and a short, ruffled shirt, exposing her flat, dark-skinned belly and the top of her dark, well-rounded cleavage. A scarf was drawn across her head with only her eyes showing. She moved lightly to the center of the tent, her hips shaking with the beat. Monolith stopped pacing the floor, and stopped to watch her.

She watched the beast as she approached him, her hands above her head, her body vibrating. They watched each other. Monolith seemed to be hypnotized by her. She held his gaze as she moved about him. She danced in a circle in front him, staying out of his range, her legs shooting out from the skirt, her stomach gyrating. As she danced closer to him, Monolith moved towards her, dropping the chain to the ground. She stopped, dancing in place, her body trembling with each beat of the drum. He stopped a few feet short of her as the chain pulled tight.

She grabbed he scarf from her head, twirled in a circle and unwrapped it. Her long black hair fell to her back as she shook her head loose of the scarf. She held the scarf in front of her and flicked it towards Monolith. It landed on his shoulder and slowly slid to the ground. She began moving again in a circle about the post, staying further away than the length of the chain. Monolith followed her, his body tense as he pulled against the chain, but at the same time, he was strangely calm, watching the dancer weave about him.

As she came closer to me I could see her face was pretty with dark skin, dark eyes, and dark red lips. She was exotic. Later I learned she was from Saudi Arabia. Dr. Faustus had found her only a few months before I joined the Show. I had never seen her before because she was kept out of sight, usually hidden in the Doctor's trailer. She rarely came out except to perform the late night shows. Her name was Adara. At the time she was a ripe nineteen years old, but always acted like a much more mature woman. She would travel with the Show for five years, performing this same show. After her death, my job then included finding women to perform the late night show, a difficult task, but one I have been able to execute adequately.

Adara stopped moving in the circle to dance in place, shaking her hips to the increasing rhythm of the drums. Her dancing had become obscene as she jabbed her hips forward towards the beast, throwing her head back, her glistening, dark black hair thrashing about her head. Monolith approached her bucking body and extended a hand. With the chain pulled tight against his neck, his arm stretched out and the hand lightly brushed against her, his fingers sliding down her jerking bosom and stomach. He moved slowly, mesmerized by her. She twisted away from him, and grabbed the shirt entwined about her chest. As she moved, turning in tight circles, the shirt fell from her body, and she threw it towards Monolith where it fell across his outstretched arm.

Her upper body was bare. Her round, firm, dark breasts now exposed to the awestruck crowd. I watched the muscles in her lean back flex as she moved about the post again. Her breasts bounced against her as she leapt from one foot to another, her stomach stretching as she leaned back, her arms flung over her head.

Monolith dropped his arm, the shirt drifting to the ground and followed her. I noticed his cock was growing, lengthening out from his body. Adara stopped in front of the stands and turned to face the crowd. She shook her hips to the music, twisting her pelvis in obscene movements, her breasts shaking. She pivoted her body, winding into a tight circle on her toes and her skirt lifted up, showing her long, dark legs, and then lifted higher revealing her bare thighs underneath. She stopped spinning as Monolith approached her and moved to the side, continuing her circle about the post.

She stopped as she reached the far side of the tent from me. She pounded her hips to the increasing tempo, her hands behind her head, her eyes closed. Then, she grabbed the skirt and with a slight twist ripped it from her waist. She dropped it to the ground, standing on the floor, completely naked. I watched her dark skinned body gyrating, writhing with the music. Monolith approached her, now moving faster than before, becoming agitated again.

Adara slipped away from him, moving in the circle, and then as she reached the back of the tent the music stopped. She stopped dancing and stood there, her body glistening with sweat, her chest heaving, her legs spread apart with her feet firmly planted on the ground. Then, she softly moved into the circle she had made, placing her feet gently on the ground and walked towards the post. Monolith walked towards her, his penis standing out long and hard from his body. I heard a few gasps from the crowd, but most were too enthralled to even make a noise.

She came to the post and laid a hand against it, then walked around it until she had turned around to stare at Monolith. Her gaze locked onto his eyes as he approached her. As he got close to her she stepped towards him and to the side. She reached out her hand and laid against it his muscled, rough chest. She walked around him trailing her hand along his body. Her fingers dragged through the hair on his back, then scraped along his chest as she moved in front of him again. Her hand dropped down and his penis twitched as her fingers lightly touched it. She continued walking around him, her hand sliding along his waist, along his back, lightly grasping his tail and letting it fall back to the ground.

Monolith didn't move. His body was rigid as she walked around him, teasing him. His head turned to follow her move, his eyes locked on her. His snorting was the only sign of his agitation, rough breaths pushed through his snout. His tongue slid between his two fanged teeth.

She stopped in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. She stood on her toes and extended her body towards him. Her hands slid up to his shoulders and she pulled him down to her. As his head bent down to her she stretched up to him and her lips met his mouth. She kissed his snout, her hands resting on his shoulder for support. Her eyes were locked onto his eyes as she kissed his snout, placing kisses around it, on the side, on the top, and on his fangs.

She dropped back down to her feet and pressed her lips to his chest. One of her hands slid down his body and gripped his cock. Her other hand slid along his rough chest, then along his hairy back and arms. She kissed his chest, her tongue licking his nipples. Monolith made a loud grunt and flicked his tail. Her hand slid along his cock, moving up and down the whole long length of it. Monolith reached out and grabbed her shoulders. She stopped kissing him and looked up at him. She whispered something that I couldn't hear. The beast dropped his head to look at her. Her hand was wrapped around the head of his cock, her fingers stroking the head. His grip on her shoulders relaxed, he snorted, and flicked his tail again so that it came around his body and lightly flicked her thigh.