Issue #83

The fair had closed for the season several weeks ago but it was to no one’s surprise that pretty much everyone around still used it as a shortcut. It also became the popular destination if you needed to go somewhere a little more private and maybe weren’t ready for the commitment of a hotel room.

Brian had just met the girl that night, made the connection over a blurry game of darts and several more whiskey sours than he should have had. He wanted to believe that their connection really was this quick and this intense but he guessed it was more likely that she was just drunk. Either way, this was going to work out in his favor for once. Her fingers interlaced with his as they walked through the darkened avenue of the fair, past the rides which were now metallic skeletons, food and game booths boarded over and an relentless smell of popcorn in the air. She leaned into him as a cool wind made its way over them and he put an arm around her shoulders.

He looked to his left and right, making sure there was no one else in the park or maybe a late night rent-a-cop doing a check. The carriages on the ferris wheel looked sad there in the moonlight, now neglected from the thousands of bodies that would pass through here every summer. All that was left was the townies and the occasional car stopping for gas on the way through town. He looked down at her as she pulled him to the right between two of the buildings. The smell of her and the sight of her saunter as she strolled in front of him decimated whatever self control he had left. He spun her around and pushed her up against the wall. She snaked her hands around to the back of his neck and drew him in to accept his kiss. The heat from her body made his desire crest as he groped clumsily at her, reaching down for his own clothes.

Before things could progress much farther, he felt a sharp pain in his side, not much dissimilar from the needle pokes he would get at the doctor from time to time. He tried to pull away but she now had him firmly in her grip, her hands coming up to each side of his face and squeezing together like a vice. The world was starting to swim around him from the pressure she was applying and he was already taking note of the elongated, razor-like edges that her teeth had taken on. Had they always been like that? She released him abruptly and stepped back. He fell back against the wall and toppled to the ground, unable to move beyond rolling from side to side, trying to get away from this woman or whatever she was. He tried to call out for help but all he could manage was a guttural cry.

The sky above them was starting to cloud over and his stomach turned at the sound he heard, like wet fabric tearing along a seam. He turned his head to look back at the girl. Somehow, her feet had burrowed into the ground, almost all the way up to her knees. She had planted her hands on her hips and was pushing up. A thin line of blood raced across her midsection as her torso actually began to tear and break free from the lower part of her body. As she did so, a great set of wings unfolded out from behind her. With a horrible shriek, she pulled free of her legs and the wings beat the air, lifting her torso up into the air, arms reaching out for him.

Before he could do anything to ward off the attack, the two of them were racing up into the sky, high up above the city. He looked down the ground and could just make out her legs, still jutting out from the ground like part of a mannequin that had been left behind. The wind picked up and her grip on him intensified. As he strained to get in a breath, his mind started to wander and his eyes started to droop.

*  *  * Richard crouched over what was left of the poor bastard’s body. The medical examiner on the scene wasn’t sure if there had been more damage done before or after being dropped from several hundred feet but whichever the cause, there wasn’t a whole lot left to identify now. A wallet found nearby had contained an ID for Brian Dichwall but there was no way to know for sure if that was who they had found.

“What are we looking at here?” he asked.

Kim shrugged. Her partner had shown up late and as usual was already acting like he was the lead in charge of the entire universe. This was the fifth body they had found in or around the fairgrounds over the past few months, always in this kind of condition. Each of the bodies had endured an extreme amount of violent desecration.

“Whoever is doing it is good at not leaving behind any trace evidence,” she said. “Look around this place. There’s an inch thick layer of dust on everything but there’s no sign of footprints, no drag marks, no forced entry. Other than the door there, which is locked, that’s the only way in here.” Kim pointed up at the window, thirty feet or so off the ground.

“Do we know for sure this is the guy’s ID?” Richard asked.

“No way to know until the coroner gets him down on the table and starts doing some tests. My guess is yes, though. That wallet hadn’t been here for very long. The hands are gone though we won’t be able to lift prints, there isn’t even a jaw left for him to do a dental impression so it’s gonna be a tough one.”

Richard snorted and shook his head. “So do you want to start holding your breath, or should I?” He stood up and started heading towards the door. “Pack him up to go, ladies and gentleman. Thank you.”

Kim shook her head and gazed around the slowly emptying room. The rusted smell of blood was still strong in the air. She had seen more than her share of violence over the years but this was on a level that was alien even to her, a level of rage and violence she hadn’t even known was possible. It troubled her to think that something like this could happen here, that someone capable of this was, at that moment, out there walking the streets and alleys, ready for more. There was no longer any hope that these had been isolated incidents and the only thing that was clear was that there were going to be a lot more bodies before this was over.

She shivered as a sound caught her attention from far above. For just a moment, she thought she had heard the sound of wings beating the air, somewhere out of sight up in the darkening night sky.
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