Stephen let Kayley out of the front door of the Utopia Diner, set the alarm, and locked the door behind him.
‘What a great night,’ he said, buttoning up his brown tweed overcoat. ‘And did Lenny tell you who was sitting at table twelve? Don Williams from Playboy magazine, who writes all of their Best Bar reviews. Not only that, he smiled a lot. And he told Lenny that the lobster mash was to die for.’
Kayley stood on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘I can’t believe it’s all working out so well. It’s better than we ever dreamed of, isn’t it?’
They walked south along Second Street together, arm-in-arm. At this time of the morning, it was almost deserted. This was a part of Old Town Philly that until five years ago had been tatty and neglected. Stephen Mars had been one of the first bar owners and restaurateurs to start bringing it back to life, and now the Utopia Diner was rapidly making its name as one of the city’s classiest nightspots, where moneyed thirty-somethings came to eat sophisticated tapas and crab cakes and drink Martinis and admire themselves in its mirrored walls. In the past year, more than fifteen new bars and restaurants had opened up all around them.
Stephen had risked everything he owned. He had mortgaged his house and invested all of his savings, but now his self-belief was beginning to pay dividends.
Kayley said, ‘How about we take a couple of days of down time? We don’t have to do anything special. Stay in bed all day and watch TV.’
‘Maybe. I don’t know. I have the year-end accounts to go through, and all the new winter menus.’
‘You never take any time off. It’s bad for you. Look what it did for your marriage.’
‘Yeah, I know. But I’m always worried that if I take any time off, something disastrous is going to happen when I’m not there. Like everybody in the diner is going to go down with E. coli poisoning, or the building’s going to burn to the ground.’
‘Stephen, you have the most brilliant staff ever. You have to trust them now and again. Lenny is absolutely the best manager I’ve ever worked for.’
‘I’ll think about it, OK?’
‘I wish you would. You know, we could even have sex.’
‘Sex, huh?’ Stephen nodded in exaggerated approval. ‘That would be a novelty.’
Stephen and Kayley hadn’t been attracted to each other at first sight. For starters, Stephen had been married to Margie when they met, whom he had dated since high school, and he and Margie had a boy aged seven and a girl aged three. And he was a workaholic. He had joined a realty company in Glenside when he left college, but he had quickly struck out and started his own business selling multimillion-dollar properties in and around Jenkintown.
He was tall, dark and serious, and he always looked as if he had something on his mind. This was because he always did, and it was always business.
Kayley on the other hand was businesslike without being driven. She was small, with a raven-haired bob and a pale, heart-shaped face. She had always wanted to be a dancer but she was much too full-breasted and apart from that she had absolutely no sense of musical timing. Instead, she had found work behind the bars of several downtown hotels, and then at a trendy cocktail bar on Market Street called Lucca’s. That was where Stephen had first seen her, and from where he had eventually bribed her away to run his bar at Utopia. To begin with, he had been impressed by her efficiency and her people skills, more than her breasts.
When Utopia had first opened, Stephen and Kayley had worked together from morning till night with hardly a word spoken between them. Then one night last September, they had worked until it was too late for Stephen to go home. He had booked a hotel room at the Sheraton on Society Hill, and when he locked up the diner, he had simply said, ‘Why don’t you stay with me tonight?’
He had never been quite sure why he had asked her, and Kayley had never been quite sure why she had said yes, but she had. They had been lovers ever since.
They had reached the concrete parking structure on Second Street where Stephen always left his Toyota, and they were just about to walk into the low main entrance when they became aware of a howling noise, somewhere in the distance. They both stopped, and looked at each other.
‘What is that?’ asked Kayley. ‘Is that a train whistle?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Stephen, looking around. ‘Where’s it coming from? It’s more like – I don’t know – singing.’
But the noise quickly grew louder and louder, and more and more discordant. Soon it sounded like hundreds of mourners at a funeral, all keening at once – a dismal, penetrating, high-pitched chorus that set their teeth on edge and made windows rattle all the way down the street. Dogs began to bark and car alarms were set off, even as far as Lombard Street. The noise became so overwhelming that Stephen and Kayley had to clamp their hands over their ears.
‘What is it?’ Kayley shouted. But Stephen didn’t have time to answer her before she could see for herself what was causing it. In the sky above them, which was already dark, scores of darker shapes appeared, howling as they flew. They were slowly circling over Old City Philly in a swirling black cloud, their wings flapping and their long tails twisting like snakes. They flew in unison, like a flock of migrating birds, dipping and turning as the crosswind caught them.
The stocky black night attendant came out of the parking garage with his baseball cap on backward and stood beside them, staring up at the sky.
‘Now that’s what I call scarifying,’ he shouted, over the howling. ‘What the hell are those things? They sure enough ain’t bats, and they sure enough ain’t birds. No birds that I ever saw before, anyhow.’
‘I don’t have any idea what they are,’ Stephen shouted back at him. ‘They look like some kind of flying reptile to me. I expect they’re harmless.’
As soon as he said that, though, they heard a woman screaming, somewhere in the next street. Chillingly, it reminded Stephen of a middle-aged woman he had seen two weeks ago on 52nd Street, whose pelvis had been crushed by a bus. It was the same cry of agony and utter hopelessness. Then they heard more screams, both women and men, from the direction of Market Street, which is where they had just come from. A few seconds later, they heard shots, six or seven of them, and a man shouting.
‘Maybe we’d better get out of here,’ Stephen suggested. ‘I don’t know what’s happening but I don’t like the sound of it. Otis? You got my keys?’
‘Sure thing, Mr Mars. Coming right up.’
They heard more screams, and more shouting, and then an ambulance siren whooping, and then another. The flying creatures kept up their keening, which rose and fell as the wind caught it, and made it sound even more unearthly, but now they were screeching, too – sharp, harsh, exultant screeches. Stephen grabbed Kayley’s arm and said, ‘Come on. Maybe those things aren’t so goddamned harmless after all.’
They had just entered the fluorescent-lit interior of the parking structure when they heard a man shouting, ‘Help me! Help me!’ and the sound of running feet.
Stephen said, ‘Stay here, OK?’ and stepped back out on to the sidewalk.
He looked northward up Second Street, and saw a young man in a light gray suit running toward him, grimacing with effort, his orange necktie flapping over his shoulder like a flame. He wasn’t just running, he was sprinting, as fast as he humanly could.
‘Help!’ he choked. ‘For God’s sake, help me!’
At first glance, it appeared to Stephen as if the young man was being followed by his own giant shadow, which jerked and jumped as he ran past storefronts and alleys and parked cars and street lights. But then he realized that it wasn’t a shadow at all. It was one of the dark creatures that they had seen swarming in the sky. Its wings were flapping steadily and evenly, its wing tips scuffing the road surface with every downbeat. It didn’t look as if it was in any kind of hurry, but it was gaining on the young man with every second.
As they came closer, the creature let out a screech, and then a howl that made Stephen feel as if his scalp were shrinking.
The young man turned his head to see how close the creature was. He stumbled and almost fell over, but he managed to keep running. He didn’t shout for help any more. Instead he clenched his teeth and lowered his head and ran even faster.
‘In here!’ Stephen shouted, as the young man approached him, and jabbed his finger toward the entrance to the parking structure. Then he turned back to Kayley and said, ‘Get back! Keep out of the way! It’s one of those creatures!’
‘What?’ said Kayley, but then she took two steps back, and then two more, and then clambered over the steel barrier that lined the side of the entrance, and crouched down behind it.
The young man had almost reached the parking structure. Stephen could see his face quite clearly, as if he were running in slow motion. He had fair hair and fair eyebrows and his cheeks were flushed crimson. He reminded Stephen of a friend of his from school, but of course it couldn’t have been – ten years too young.
‘Come on!’ Stephen shouted at him. ‘You can make it!’
But the young man couldn’t have been more than thirty feet away from him when the creature slammed into him from behind, sending him sprawling across the road. He rolled over and over, all arms and legs, still trying desperately to get away. He reached the opposite curb, and almost managed to climb on to his feet. But the creature jumped on him with one hideous hop, and caught his shoulders in its claws. Stephen heard them crunching into his muscles.
‘Daaaaaaaaaaah!’ the young man screamed, and the creature mocked him by throwing back its head and echoing his scream with a screech.
Stephen crossed the street toward them and shouted out, ‘Let go of him, you bastard!’
Even as he did it, he realized how futile it was. Whatever it was, this creature, it wasn’t going to understand him, and what was more, it wasn’t going to be afraid of him. It swiveled its head toward him, still clutching the young man by his shoulders, and let out another screech, as if to warn him to stay away.
Stephen stopped where he was, in the middle of the street. He had never seen anything so fierce and so terrifying and so ugly in his life. The creature looked like a hunchbacked man, only it was probably seven feet tall, or even taller. It had two curved horns, and a curved beak, and staring green eyes. Its body was emaciated, so thin that its ribcage was visible, but it had a pot belly with a navel that protruded like the tied-up neck of a party balloon. Its wings were folded now, and their pale gray skin was wrinkled, but Stephen had seen for himself how wide they could stretch when they were open.
Kayley called out, ‘Stephen! Stephen, come back here!’
Otis said, in a panicky voice, ‘I tried to call nine-one-one, Mr Mars, but all of their lines is jammed!’
Stephen stayed where he was, breathing deeply. The young man had his face in the gutter and he was sobbing with pain. The creature was making a rough sandpapery noise in its throat, punctuated by clicks of phlegm. Its eyes blinked once, and then twice, as if it were waiting for him to come nearer.
‘Let him go,’ Stephen told it. ‘Do you understand what I’m telling you? Let him go! What did he ever do to you?’
With a sound like a huge umbrella opening, the creature spread its wings. For a moment it stayed where it was, crouched in the street, but then it climbed to its feet, holding up the young man so that his feet swung clear of the ground. The young man gasped out, ‘Tell my wife! Tell her I love her! My name’s Gerry – Gerry McManus!’
He didn’t have the chance to say any more, because the creature gave three or four thunderous flaps of its wings and rose up into the air, carrying him away. He started screaming again as it lifted him high over rooftop level, and Stephen could see him kicking his legs.
Kayley came out from the parking structure, followed by Otis. She clung on to Stephen’s arm and said, ‘My God, that poor man! What was that thing?’
‘Looked like one of them ugly statchers you see on the tops of churches,’ said Otis.
‘That’s right,’ said Stephen. ‘It looked like a gargoyle.’
‘That’s the word I was looking for,’ Otis told him. ‘But them there grah-groyles, they’re only statchers, ain’t they? They don’t go flying around and grabbing people.’
Stephen looked up into the night sky and shaded his eyes. ‘Whatever it was, I doubt if we’ll ever see that poor guy again.’
They were still standing there when they heard more howling, and then the unmistakable flap-flap-flap of leathery wings.
‘Stephen?’ said Kayley.
Stephen looked back up Second Street. Under the street lights, no more than five blocks away, he saw another creature flying toward them, its green eyes gleaming. Then he realized that there was another one close behind it, and slightly above it, and another, and another. It was almost as if they were flying in close formation.
‘I think it’s time we got the hell out of here,’ he said. He took hold of Kayley’s hand and turned back toward the entrance to the parking structure. As they did so, however, they heard more howling, from the opposite direction. At least five more creatures were flying toward them from Lombard Street.
‘Holy shee-it!’ said Otis. ‘They’re coming from every-damn-place.’
‘Come on – quick!’ urged Stephen, and the three of them ran into the parking structure and up the first ramp. They stopped at the top of the ramp, where they could still see the entrance.
‘Maybe they won’t follow us,’ said Stephen. ‘They won’t be able to spread their wings in here, will they? The ceiling’s too low.’
‘I hope you’re right,’ said Kayley. ‘The way that poor guy was screaming …’
They heard the howling and the flapping of wings grow louder, and then the clattering of claws on the sidewalk outside, and a chaotic chorus of infuriated screeches. Stephen crossed his fingers and said, ‘Please, God,’ under his breath.
But God wasn’t listening, not that night. Howling and screeching, the creatures came crowding into the parking structure, their wings folded, more than a dozen of them as far as Stephen could see, although he didn’t stop to count them. He seized Kayley’s hand and they ran across the next level of the parking structure and up the second ramp. Otis followed close behind, panting for breath and saying ‘shee-it, shee-it, shee-it,’ with every step.
They heard the creatures rushing up the first ramp, their folded wings rustling and their claws clicking on the shiny concrete floor like castanets.
‘What are we going to do?’ gasped Kayley.
‘Keep on going up to the roof,’ said Otis. ‘There’s a fire escape in the space between this building and the next one and it’s real narrow. I don’t think these suckers will be able to follow us down it, not with those wings and all.’
‘OK, then,’ said Stephen. ‘Let’s go.’ The creatures could obviously sense that they were gaining on them, because their howling had risen higher and higher, and it was echoing all around the entire parking structure, all five stories of it, like some opera composed with the malicious intention of driving its audience mad.
They ran up the next ramp, and the next. The howling and the screeching had become one endless cacophony, and Kayley was sobbing with fright and exhaustion. As they came to the last ramp, which led up to the roof, Stephen looked back and saw the leading creatures pushing and jostling each other as they reached the crest of the previous ramp. Their claws were raised as if they were ready to tear their quarry to pieces and their green eyes glowed like lamps.
‘Come on, Kayley!’ Stephen urged her. ‘You can do it!’
They ran to the top of the last ramp and now they were out in the cold night air, with the lights of Old Philly glittering all around them. They could hear yelling and screaming from every direction, and smoke was rising from Washington Square, thick with orange sparks. The howling of the creatures was louder than ever, mingled with the howling of police and ambulance sirens and the blaring of fire trucks.
The sky was beginning to grow pale, and they could see creatures swooping and diving in every direction. Only two blocks away, a creature lifted a young woman high up over the rooftops and ripped her open in mid-air. She tumbled into the street below, her arms and legs wildly waving like a rag doll.
‘Fire escape’s this way!’ Otis shouted, and started to run over to the opposite corner of the roof.
They were less than halfway there, however, when a creature came flapping down from the sky and perched on the retaining wall next to the fire escape. It looked different from the creature that Stephen had encountered in the street, with longer horns and a face that was more human. He could have sworn that it was grinning at them, as if it were daring them to push past it and try to make their way down the fire escape.
Another creature landed close beside it, and then another, and another. Soon they were surrounded by creatures, some with bird-like beaks and others with faces like scowling men. Their claws shuffled and scratched on top of the retaining wall, and occasionally one of them let out a screech, or an echoing howl.
Then, behind them, they heard more scratching and more screeching. The creatures that had been pursuing them up inside the parking structure had reached the roof, and were making their way toward them.
‘What in the name of God are we going to do now?’ asked Otis.
Stephen squeezed Kayley’s hand. ‘I don’t think we have a whole lot of choice, do you?’
‘There ain’t no way I’m letting those things tear me to pieces. No, sir.’
Stephen turned to Kayley. She looked strangely calm.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I wanted us to spend so much more time together.’
‘I know,’ she told him. ‘But at least we’ll be together for the rest of our lives.’
Stephen reached out and took hold of Otis’ hand, too. Otis looked up at him and nodded.
‘Are we ready?’ shouted Stephen, over the screeching and the howling. Two or three of the creatures had already hopped down from their perch on the retaining wall and were coming toward them. One of them had a face like a wild boar, with tusks that protruded from its lower jaw, while another had a face like a medieval picture of Satan, with slanted eyes and a demonic smile.
Holding hands tightly, Stephen and Kayley and Otis dodged between the creatures toward the space that they had vacated on the retaining wall. The creatures screeched and snatched at their clothes with their claws, but they couldn’t stop them. Without a word, the three of them leaped together over the wall and into eternity.