as the monster stood before his colleagues he sang angelically and wiped the blood off his fangs the papers on the boardroom table were stained from corpses piled on top of them slain one monster yelled at me you ve got the brains and traced his claw along the table s woodgrain it smelled like leather old spice and pain his assistant when yanked by choke chain explained we ve got a lot to teach you cassius green we ve got a lot to teach you cassius green the assistant crouched at the monster s feet proudly in a puddle of urine and meat the monsters all howled at the morning spreadsheet above cacophonous screams from below in the street the gargoyles that guard the building weeped i quietly calculated routes for retreat one beast stuck his talons out as if to greet and said welcome to the good life son take a seat the beast who was frothing between his tusks said they work it we run it they shouldn t fuss the order of things is basically just i heard cheers from the creatures trapped in the air ducts i told them to smother in their mountains of stuff and headed to the elevator door in disgust they said you ve forgotten you re one of us i looked down at my tail rattled it and i cussed 