As many of you have experienced when going through old boxes at your childhood home while moving, you tend to find things from your childhood that stick with you. For me, I was always obsessed with writing stories. Unfortunately, most of them have been lost in the ether of life as many childhood effectsdo. However, this one made it through the madness of growing up. This story is the second installment of a series I wrote called Monsters if Not Human, surrounding the adventures of Nilbog and Alucard, two supernatural beings living in our regular world. Even when transcribing this from my ten-year-old chicken scratch, it took me a while to notice that these names were just ‘Goblin’ and ‘Dracula’ spelled backwards. I thought that this spooky holiday edition of Arthur would be a good way to get the story of Nilbog and Alucard out into the world. I hope you enjoy diving into my ten-year-old mind.

In our last adventure, Nilbog and Alucard became friends and heard about some Monster if Not Human doppelgangers hanging around town. In this story, now that they are both supernatural beings, they think that they can handle it. This is where our story begins.

Night fell upon the city of London, Ontario. Alucard and Nilbog had already started searching the town for the Monster if Not Human doppelgangers. It wasn’t until around midnight when they saw two small dark figures in a closed up mall lurking around. So the boys went up and peered through the window only to discover themselves—well, the monsters that looked like themselves, yeah, that’s it. Anyways, the storekeeper had left the door unlocked so they went in and hid underneath the stairwell. They watched the possessed monsters, or whatever they were, and only noticed now that there was another figure, a taller man holding what looked like a remote control. At first he just stood there, and so did they. It looked like he was waiting for something. Then, just as Nilbog and Alucard were about to make their move… BANG! The tall man turned a knob on his remote control and the doppelgangers started destroying the shelves, the displays, everything in sight! The boys hung back and watched. Then, just as quickly as it started, the tall man turned the knob all the way back and the monsters fell to the floor, stripped of all their power. The tall man then went up to the monster Nilbog, hit a switch and popped open his chest exposing wires and flashing lights. The boys looked at each other and realized that they weren’t monsters at all—they were androids! Robotic androids, so that would explain what that remote control was. It was a controller to activate and deactivate the androids. Meanwhile, the real Nilbog and Alucard used their super-sight to examine the androids from their hiding spot. They discovered that on the back panel of the androids, in small print, said “Property of Professor Fuzhou—Made in China”. They looked at each other and said, almost at the same time, “That must be Professor Fuzhou with the remote!”

The professor then turned the androids on and they began to leave the mall. Nilbog and Alucard waited until they were out of sight and then headed to Nilbogs’ house. They went right to the computer and looked up “Professor Fuzhou” and “China”. Up popped a whole page about the professor’s reputation, his work, and much much more. In one hour’s time, the boys figured out that for the last ten years, the professor has been reported as missing, but after he disappeared, the police knew that the last time he had been seen was in London, Ontario but had no proof.

The next night, the boys went snooping around town and found an old abandoned house that you could hardly see through the trees. The boys went in to check it out and thought they could spy on anyone walking by—hopefully professor Fuzhou and his androids. Unfortunately, the boys said that out loud and Alucard felt a soft tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find the professor was standing right behind them this whole time, and there at his side were both doppelganger androids, glaring at them with glowing red evil eyes. Alucard gulped and shook Nilbog’s arm to turn around. Nilbog, now annoyed, said,

“Not now, I’m trying to spy on people!”

Alucard shook harder and said, “I don’t think that will be necessary, man!”

Nilbog turned around, still annoyed, and then saw all three of them standing behind him very still and very silent. His eyes grew wide and he said, with a shaky voice,

“Ha—have you been fff...following us?”

To this, the professor smiled and spoke his first words,

“I believe it is you two that have been following us.”

The boys looked at each other, confused.

“This is my home. I have lived here for the past ten years, I have been watching the two of you since you were born” The professor continued, “Although I did expect you to come find me sooner or later. You see, I didn’t choose you two by accident, I chose you because you are the last supernatural beings in the world besides your parents who are far too old now to conduct my experiments on.” He stopped and went to reach for the remote control. Just then, Nilorg and Alucard looked at each other and shouted “NOW!” and rushed their own doppelgangers. The professor was startled and dropped the remote control, smashing it on the ground—the boys tackled the androids down, opened up the chest panels and started ripping out the wires and metal flew everywhere.

Once the androids were sparking and useless, the boys closed in on the professor and noticed something on his neck when he started to run away, in small print, “Made in China”. The boys used their super speed and caught him easily, ripped open his jacket and saw that he too was an android! So the boys ripped out his wiring and left the scrap metal in the abandoned house. The boys dusted themselves off and headed home.

The next morning at breakfast, their mother asked them, “So what did you boys get up to last night?”

Nilbog and Alucard looked at each other while eating their cereal and said, “Oh, nothing too much!”

But the question still remains… who created the professor?