Quickly leaving the others behind, Hank chased his target into the alley with his revolver drawn.
He ran up to the approaching brick building and flung his back to the cornerstone for cover.
Gripping his pistol, he carefully peered around the alley, ready for attack. Seeing no immediate threat he pressed on, staying close to the wall to make himself less of a target. It was a long alley for the town of Havenport, far longer than any alley he remembered being. As he approached an intersection between his alley and a second he expected to see one of two things, the naked man with his jack-o’-lantern smile, or an empty alley with discarded trash dancing in the wind.
He negotiated the corner—
What he did not expect to see, what he never could have imagined seeing in a million years, was the monstrous shadow that towered over him.
As Hank straightened, he found himself staring at a pair of large eyes, one scorching red, the other a dead and milky white, twelve feet off the ground. The gaping mouth split open wide, revealing a maw of sharp, glistening teeth, and the demon’s black, furry mass seemed to absorb any and all light.
Hank’s mind went numb.
Nearly paralyzed with fear Hank had enough presence of mind to realize this was not the naked man, but Barnabus, the big ole’ grumpy bear.
Barnabus studied him also. Jaws smacking, lips rippling back to reveal all his massive fangs; his growl sounding like a thundering lawnmower. Having left his radio back in his office, Hank had no way to radio for help. Not that help would have changed anything. He was trapped in the alley with a monster.
His breathing grew faster. The alley walls seemed to close in around him.
When Barnabus’s growl surged into a roar, Hank’s muscles loosened enough that he managed to duck back behind the corner.
The thing is huge! Far too mammoth for the modern day world. Hank wasn’t even sure his service pistol would even slow the beast down.
Back to the wall, struggling to control his breathing, he knew he couldn’t leave this monster roaming the back alleys. What if some kid wandered by? Any minute now one of the shopkeepers could come out the back door of their business. Summoning his courage he took some quick, calming breaths, or at least tried too, and flung himself back into the alley. He held the barrel of his gun up as steadily as he could muster; his finger taut on the trigger. He knew he was hopelessly outmatched, and prepared to go out firing every last bullet until he was dead.
But Barnabus was gone.
Hank stood his ground, his body shaking. Where the hell did he go?
He scanned the alley with his pistol. There wasn’t any place for the oversized bear to hide or retreat without Hank seeing him.
Am I hallucinating? Where could he have possibly gone to?
Movement caught his eye at the opposite end of the impossibly long alley, far longer than any alley in HavenPort had any right to be. Hank could just make out the naked man at the opposite opening. Comedic under other circumstances, he was jogging in place again, like a runner ready to start the big race, and he was obviously waiting for Hank to catch up.
Hallucinating Barnabus or not, Hank had a murderer to catch. Hank checked the intersecting alley one more time, then resumed the chase.
As Hank closed in on the naked man still jogging in place, the naked man sneered to him, “I guess you must be the hero in this here tale. How’s that saying go? There are young heroes and old soldiers but no old heroes?” He then added with glee, “Catch me if you can!” With that said, the naked man dashed across the street into Ophy’s hotel. A young mother on the sidewalk screamed as she ushered her two small children out of harm’s way, and a fisherman exiting the hotel’s main entrance cursed as he was knocked aside into the bushes.
Hank raced up the stairs after him. Entering the lobby to a bunch of screaming little old ladies that Hank recognized from church. Ophy shouted to him from behind the clerk’s desk, “Hank, he went that way, into the elevator!”
As the elevator doors closed, Hank barely glimpsed the naked man waving merrily back at him, still grinning and jogging in place like a madman.
Hank bolted for the stairs and called over his shoulder to Ophy as he ran, “Call Jeb, and let him know where we are.”