Issue #85

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is the third installment in an ongoing story which will conclude on All Hallows Eve.

To go back, click on the appropriate link:
part one   part two
Kim gripped the sheet of paper in her hand so tightly that she could hear it just starting to tear. She looked up at the sketch artist. “What the fuck is this?”

He shrugged and shifted uncomfortably. “That’s what he described to me. I had the interpretor in there with me for the entire time and he confirmed that this was accurate.”

“So all we’ve found out is that he’s drunk. Or on something. Or both.”

The artist handed her a folder. “He seems lucid to me. Scared, but lucid. This was dropped off after you left the room, the tox screens came back negative.”

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered as she took the folder without bothering to read the report. It was the one explanation she had been clinging too and already even that was gone.

The picture in her grasp looked like one of those idiotic comics that her nephew would always bring with him on weekend visits. It was some kind of sick mixture of a person and a bat, arms outstretched with long claws, teeth like a vampire and a wing span that looked to be close to ten feet. She shook her head and strode back into the interview room.

“Why weren’t there any legs in the picture?” She asked the man. He stared at her blankly, clearly not understanding. He pointed at her own legs and then back at the picture, which was just the upper torso of whatever the creature was. “Where are they? Donde?”

The man just shook his head, firing off another verbal barrage which she could not understand. She turned to the interpretor, who was just entering the room with a fresh cup of coffee.

“He says that it didn’t have any legs,” he said, nodding at the picture, “He says that’s what it looked like.”

She crumpled the paper and headed for the door. “Cut this guy loose.” She turned her back on the interpretor, aware that she was snapping at him for no good reason but knowing that fact didn’t change her mood. She spoke over her shoulder as she left. “Tell him to stay off the booze and to stay away from crime scenes. I see him again and I might start to take it personally.”

Richard was on his way down the hall as she exited, fashionably late as always. She waved him off as he approached. “Don’t bother. That guy’s got nothing.” She tossed the wadded up sheet of paper to him as they passed each other, Richard staying silent for once. Kim started towards her car.

The wind raged outside as she moved between the parked cars. It seemed like every day she continued doing this job, the security consulting position that had been offered to her became even more attractive. The way she felt about things, there were only two paths that this case was likely going to end up on. Either there was some maniac out there, ripping people to pieces, a person that would have about a ninety percent chance of not being caught, or there really was some monster that had just dropped in from their worst nightmares.

She needed to get away from all of this, not just this case, but everything. Get back to the condo, close the blinds, shut off the computer and the phones and shut out all of the shit that was oozing in from the realities of this city.

As she was reaching around in her pocket for her keys, she heard a noise off to her right. There was a small grove of trees behind the building and she was hearing a distinct sound of movement. She didn’t want to just wander over there and potentially into danger but in the end that voice of responsibility in her head that she could never quite shut up won out. Her legs were twitching from the anticipation as she approached, her training telling her that even though this was likely just a bum trying to find a place to sleep, she needed to take care in her approach. She lifted the revolver from her holster and chambered a round, as quietly as she could manage.

There was a dumpster set out by the rear of the building and she crouched down behind it, peeking around to get a better view.

Her first thought was that someone had left behind part of a mannequin, the legs to be exact. This theory quickly became improbable, however, as she could see blood oozing from the top, where the waistline would be. She was frozen in place, not even sure what she was looking at. The legs started to move, as if trying to walk and she noticed that the feet were actually burrowed into the ground, almost all the way up to the shins. As the legs continued to shift, she tightened her hold on her weapon, feeling like the contents of her stomach were going to come rushing up all at once.

She heard the sound of wings beating the air.

It sounded like great gusts of wind generated with each pulse, flapping up and down. She looked up into the night sky and saw that maniac’s drawing, come to life right in front of her. She saw the upper torso of a woman, a giant wingspan reaching out in both directions, slowly descending towards the ground. The thing settled down for a landing, squarely on the lower portion of its body and Kim’s stomach turned again at the wet, squishing sound that emanated as the thing actually wriggled around to try and get into place.

When the two halves of the thing’s body had been reattached, the woman stepped up and out of the holes in the ground. Kim had to suppress a whimper as the woman turned and seemed to smirk, as if aware of her presence, before turning and sauntering off towards downtown.



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