A Short Story for Halloween

I originally wrote this for Horror Tree, and decided to resurrect it for Halloween. It's a short story that serves as a cautionary tale.

I call it The Cavern of Eternal Damnation.

Deep within the confines of the Cavern of Eternal Damnation, a monster lived in squalor, enslaved by a lonely giant.

This three-legged monstrosity, with four bloodshot eyes bulging out of a scaly face and sharp, green teeth roped together by thick strands of saliva, feared nothing and no one. Except for the giant.

While the monster never saw the giant, it could hear his every word.

“You pathetic creature, you think you’re so fearsome. Nobody will ever fear you.”

The monster trembled. Crimson tears poured out of its eyes. The back of a two-fingered hand wiped across its tattered face as it cowered in the dimly lit cavern and whispered, “Why do you say such things?”

The words echoed, dancing along the walls of the desolate cavern. But the giant ignored him and continued his rant. “Just because you can shape shift from this grisly existence to a freckled nine-year old girl with piggy tails and a flowery dress, you think you can terrorize the world?”

The monster remained silent, watching its scales fade into soft, porcelain skin.

I do, it thought.

“You can’t,” growled the giant.

The monster craned his head about the Cavern of Eternal Damnation. Two ovular lights appeared at the far end. They never seemed to power down, except for maybe a few hours at a time. The cavern shook, knocking the monster over. The lights flickered. How can he read my mind?

The monster braced the soft, pliable ground with a claw and sat up. Leaning against the wall, he replied, “Then let me escape and prove you wrong.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” replied the giant.

“But I can—if you let me.”

“No.”

The lights flickered as they shook again. The monster pleaded with the giant, running a scaly claw along its human-like arm. “Release me to the world, dearest giant. Release me and I’ll show you. I’ll show you that I can live in the minds of the world’s most fearful and terrorize even the most depraved minds. The fear we impose on the world will fuel our existence. A fuel that can burn inside your soul so you can create more monsters like me. Monsters that will haunt humans for centuries to come!”

The lights shone brighter than the monster had ever seen.

Could escape finally be within his reach?

A clicking emanated from the lights at the end of the Cavern of Eternal Damnation. The

monster attempted to lift its a