AN OLD HOMELESS GUY was heading toward us, looking over the edge of the bridge as he shambled along. He had about a dozen grocery bags all bulging and ripped. His shoes were patched with duct tape. He was hunched over. And he smelled bad. Even from a distance, I caught a whiff.
"Maybe we should get going," I said.
"Crot Almighty," Relly hissed. "It's happening already."
"What?"
Then I saw who the old guy was: Scratch.
He turned his big saggy left eye toward me. And he grinned.
"I didn't think," Relly said, "it would be so soon." He was afraid. That was obvious. He turned and looked behind, as if expecting Knacke and Frankengoon to be coming at us.
But it was just Scratch that day.
He came up close but didn't seem to notice Relly at first. He talked to me, just me. His voice was familiar, gritty and hoarse. "I thought you'd be here." He looked over the edge of the bridge, into the churning gray flood. "You found your element. You know who you are now, right? Where water crosses water."
"Let's go," I hissed, clutching at Relly's coat sleeve.
"What's your hurry?" Scratch said. "You found the place. Your place."
Now it was Relly who clutched at me. "Don't listen to him. Don't pay any—"
"I'm just here to make an offer," Scratch said. "If you got something better, sonny boy, I'm sure she'll take you up on it." He smiled with his filthy, rotting teeth.
"You're water, Zee. And we need water. Mr. Franken is air. Mr. Knacke is fire. As you can see, I'm earth. We've lost our water. She's gone. Gone for good. Gone, gone, gone. We need you, Zee. And we have a thousand times more to offer than your little teenage pip-squeak friends."
He dropped his bags and stood up straight. He opened up his ratty old bum's coat and thumped his fist on his heart. Puffs of black dust rose up, making a filthy halo around his head. "Our power is ancient. Deep. And forever. Your little kiddy friends will dry up and blow away like leaves. We'll still be here. We are eternal. You can be part of that. Zee."
On the other side of the bridge, people were walking. Cars passed. A short distance away, a businessman was feeding quarters into his parking meter. And there they were, a fire god and an earth god fighting over the water.
A ripple of blue flame ran down Relly's left arm and burst off his fingers. Scratch caught it and snuffed it out as you might catch a bit of fluff floating in the air. He sneered at Relly. "That's all you've got, kid? Little tricks like that?"
Relly spat a wad of blue flame. It hit Scratch in the chest and died. Scratch laughed and I swear I could smell graveyard dirt on his breath.
I thought they were going to go at it just as they had when Scratch was inside Smoking Man. Two guys fighting. Young versus old. Fiery fists and living human dirt.
"Stop it!" I snarled at them both. "No more. Understand?"
"Fine, fine," Scratch said. "I'm just here to pass along the offer. Join us, Zee. Dump these pimple-faced losers and join up with us. You'll never regret it. Four and no more, as it was before." He smiled his rotted smile. "And shall be forever."
With that, he gave me a wink, like we'd already made some secret deal. He turned and shuffled back the way he'd come. We watched him for a long while. Across the bridge, down the street, and then lost in the crowd.