Kong jerked awake suddenly as his dream abruptly ended. It was a strange dream; not really a nightmare, but certainly not a good dream. He kept hearing that word in his head. "Ramarak". He had no idea what it meant, but he had a bad feeling about it.
"I'm not going to get back to sleep anytime soon." Kong muttered, wiping the sweat from his face. "May as well take a walk or something." He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stepped out of his hut. His village was lit dimly by the flickering torches that adorned the long poles around the walkways and passages. Nobody else was awake at this hour, so he had the entire village to himself. Or that's what he thought.
"Kong? What are you doing up so late?" A voice asked. Kong turned to the source of the voice, and found a familiar figure staring at him. It was the head elder of Skull Island. The elders were seemingly immortal beings who acted as advisors to the king. They knew everything. This particular elder had been alive much longer than the others, making him the leader of the others. He was nearly 1000 years old, or so he said.
"I couldn't sleep." Kong shrugged. "I'm just going for a walk to clear my head is all."
"Ah, you're missing your wife." The elder nodded. Kong chuckled.
"Not exactly... well I do miss Hana, but that's not what I'm worried about." He explained.
"Something worries you, my king?" The elder asked.
"...Sort of." Kong said. He realized that as a millennium-old being, the elder knew a lot about the island and its history. If anyone knew about whatever Ramarak was, it would be him.
"Can I ask you something?" He asked.
"Of course." The elder nodded.
"Does the word... Ramarak mean anything to you?" Kong asked. The elder's eyes widened and he gasped as he heard this word. He backed up in shock and quickly looked behind him, making sure nobody was listening. He walked closer to Kong and looked up at him sternly.
"W-where did you learn this name?" The elder asked.
"It was on a coffin in the Skull Crawler pit." Kong explained. "What does it mean?"
"Ah, so you finally ventured down there." The elder nodded, placing his bony hand on his chin. "I suppose I always knew you would."
"What is Ramarak?" Kong asked again. The elder sighed and shook his head slowly.
"Do you know exactly what the Skull Crawlers are?" The elder asked. Kong shook his head. "I didn't think so." The elder continued. "Ramarak was the one who created them."
"What!?" Kong asked. "T-that can't be the whole story. Who was he?"
"It's too dangerous to tell you now." The elder said. "I will tell you everything tomorrow. Come to my temple and I will explain everything."
Kong nodded as the elder walked away. Kong stayed behind, eying the flame of a torch lighting the forest around him. If he wasn't going to get any sleep before, he certainly wouldn't now.

It was the end of the day back in New York. Hana began to pack up her things before she left the museum for the night. She half expected Jack to bother her again, as he usually did, but tonight was apparently different.
"Guess my threat went over well." She chuckled. She left her office and began to walk down the hall, when she ran into another coworker of hers named Akane. She and Hana got along pretty well, seeing as Akane was a huge Kaiju fan and Hana was married to one, but they became good friends soon after they met.
"Hey, Hana. You heading home?" Akane asked.
"Yep. Hey, have you seen Jack anywhere?" Hana asked.
"No, thankfully." Akane chuckled. "Why do you care?"
"Usually he bugs me to go for drinks with him after work, but this time he wasn't there." Hana explained. "I mean I'm glad he wasn't, but I was just wondering why."
"Oh right, I remember now." Akane said. "The boss told him to put up some posters and stuff around the Skull Island exhibit."
Hana nodded, content with the answer. Not wanting to dwell on it anymore, she and Akane left the hallway past the room where the exhibit would be. Meanwhile, inside the room, Jack was still setting up posters and other props for the exhibit. The stone coffin sat in the centre, and many Skull Island artifacts were in glass cases around the room. Jack grumbled to himself as he finished putting up yet another poster. He had about 10 more left to go.
"Man, this sucks." He muttered. "I just gotta get this over with so I can go home."
Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him. It sounded like rock crumbling. He quickly turned around, only to see nobody there.
"Hello?" He asked. "Uh... I'm the only one who's supposed to be in here..."
No answer. He decided he was just hearing things, and turned back around. However, as soon as he did, he heard the sound again, but louder. He swivelled around once again.
"Okay, who is that-" As soon as he said this, he saw what was causing the noise. The coffin was moving. No, not moving. It was opening.
"What the fu..." He muttered as the lid slid off the coffin. It crashed on the floor in a cloud of dust.
"Oh lord, please let whatever's in there stay dead." He whispered. As he feared, a rotting black hand came out of the coffin and gripped the side. It was followed by a corpse, or what appeared to be a corpse. But it was certainly alive.
"Okay, I did not sign up for dealing with zombies!" Jack stated as he ran towards the door. As soon as he reached the door, it slammed shut. He stopped dead in his tracks and tried to push it open, but they appeared to be locked. He started pounding on the doors, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. Everyone was gone except for him. He turned back to the coffin, only to see whatever creature that was inside of it was now standing in front of him.
"Please don't eat me." He gulped. The creature opened its mouth, and to Jack's horror, began to speak.
"Where am I?" The creature hissed in it's raspy, hoarse, whispery voice.
"Y-you're in N-New York." Jack stammered. "Specifically, the N-Natural History Museum in Central Park, Manhattan."
"I see..." The creature continued. "Wherever that is, I am clearly no longer on Skull Island. Finally I am free from that damn curse."
"T-that's great." Jack said. "Uh... I'm just gonna leave now..."
The creature suddenly grabbed him by the throat, lifting him into the air. Despite appearing to be nothing more than a decayed corpse, he was surprisingly strong.
"You are not going anywhere, human." It said. He eyed his other hand, observing its skeletal appearance. "I am... not what I once was. I need you to help me regain my strength."
"W-who... are you?..." Jack choked. The creature pulled him closer to his skull-like face.
"I am Ramarak." It hissed. "And you will be my first victim."