They watched through the closing credits, until the projector spit the film out and the screen was a bright blob of white. Taking his hand, Darla led Martin to the lobby. There was really no need to ask if he liked it. The answer was obvious, painted in the stunned elation of his face.
“Right?” Darla said with a knowing nod.
“Uh-huh,” Martin said breathlessly. Remembering to be a gentleman, he stepped forward and put his hand on the door. He pushed it open, letting a ripe winter breeze in and letting Darla duck under his arm to get out.
Felix was supposed to be waiting. Kid Godzilla was supposed to be running, heat pumping. But they weren’t. Outside the movie theater, the town was empty except for the Christmas lights, strung like colorful musical scores above the streets.
“Is that him?” Martin asked, pointing up the hill to Nigel’s house. On the snow-crusted lawn was a shadowy mass that could only be Kid Godzilla.
Darla hustled closer to get a better look. “What the heck’s he doing up there? He wasn’t supposed to move! He knew when the movie ended!”
Martin dropped the marble into the interior pocket of his jacket and followed her along the waffle tracks of Kid Godzilla. As they were nearing Nigel’s yard, the door to the house opened, and Felix stepped outside carrying a lantern. He set it down and yelled something back toward the door.
From a distance, the only words Martin could make out were “Never again!”
Felix spun around and marched toward Kid Godzilla. His lantern lit the entrance to the house, and Martin expected to see Nigel step outside or at least close the door. Instead, a small serpentine head inched into the light.
Darla spotted it first. “Felix!” she yelled. “Run!”
Looking back over his shoulder, Felix saw what she saw. Nigel’s Komodo dragon, squat and long but fierce and fast, bolted at him. It was unlikely that Felix could make it to the door and open it before the lizard had his leg in its jaws, and Felix seemed to sense this. He made a beeline for the front of the truck, latched a hand on the toothy front grill, and hoisted himself onto the hood.
Undeterred, the dragon reared back on its hind legs and flopped its body against the grill. Felix moved fast, wiggling like a seal up the windshield until he was on the roof.
Martin started forward to help him, but Darla grabbed his shoulder. “Poison saliva. Razor teeth. That thing will kill you.”
The dragon wasn’t quite long enough to make it onto the hood, but it also wasn’t about to give up. Back on all fours, it scampered to the driver’s side of the truck, where it latched its front claws onto the door handle.
Felix looked down from above. He was at a safe distance for now, but to get inside, he would need to think fast. He reached into his headband, grabbed a handful of his firefly lightbulbs, and threw them into the dragon’s face. The little pops of light and glass put it onto its back. As the lizard struggled to regain its footing, Felix wielded a tiny screwdriver and frantically pecked the driver’s-side window until the glass cracked. Then he hammered it with his fist until it shattered.
“Oh, come on, Fee,” Darla cried. “I’m gonna need that window this winter!”
The dragon was back in action just as Felix was pulling himself through the broken window into the front cab of the truck. It leapt, jaws snapping, barely missing Felix’s calves.
As he got behind the wheel and started the engine, Felix screamed out, “Reverse?”
“First there’s a lever—”
Fire belched forth from the nostrils on Kid Godzilla’s hood. It licked the wooden posts at the entryway to the house and set them ablaze. The dragon waddled backward, clearly taken by surprise.
“No, the other—”
The wheels began to spin in place, spitting snow into the air. Then the truck itself began to spin, doing tight doughnuts. The flames were still pouring from the front, birthing rings of light and melting the snow.
It was hard to say exactly what Felix was doing. Because all of a sudden, the truck stopped its spin and lurched forward. As the hood dipped, the flames blasted the dragon full force. It shrieked in pain. Then, as if shot from a cannon, the truck flew backward over the snow.
It struck the giant ice cream cone, which toppled over and opened up. Into the snow, it coughed out its contents—a bounty of dead rabbits and raccoons, ears of corn and bags of sugar, even strange little offerings like glass statues and teddy bears.
The truck plowed through it all as it cut a swerving backward path. When it reached the hill, it skipped down, like a bird landing on water, hit a telephone pole, spun, rolled onto its roof, and slid across the snowy street. The spinning wheels filled the night air with a tinny whine.
Charred and hacking, the dragon walked a few paces and then collapsed. The fire had quickly moved from the front entrance and was now tearing into Nigel’s house. Howls and hisses dove from the windows. But Martin and Darla were much more concerned with Felix. They sprinted to the crash site.
Felix crawled through the shattered window. Blood found a path in the part of his hair and was soaked up by his headband. He plunged his face into the snow. When his face emerged, it possessed a look of cautious relief, but as he climbed to his feet, the relief shifted to dread.
“Hey,” Darla said as she and Martin stopped a few yards away. “You’re okay, right?”
He didn’t respond. He just ran away from them. Darla and Martin would have run too had they seen what Felix now saw.
Nigel’s tiger had escaped from the burning house and was galloping after Felix.
The tiger might have been small, but it was unquestionably dedicated. The tip of its tail was on fire and resembled a torn orange flag, flapping violently in the wind. It didn’t slow the tiger down at all, and had the situation not been so dire, it might have been beautiful. The beast. The flaming tail. The Christmas lights. The starry sky. The dunelike drifts of snow.
But beauty was the last thing on Felix’s mind as he struggled to make it back to his house. Every few yards, his foot would sink in the snow and he would fall forward onto his chest. The tiger continued to gain ground. When Felix finally made it to his front door, he bulldozed inside, but the tiger was too quick and too close. It followed him through before Felix had a chance to slam the door.
A few seconds later, the sound of gunshots pierced the heart of the night.