by Greg Taylor
Where were they?
As he took the final rungs to the roof, Toby suddenly caught sight of a foreboding figure waiting under a streetlamp at the far end of the alley. The Tall Man, staring right at him. The creepy figure once again caused Toby to shudder.
“Toby, what’s wrong?” Annabel asked, looking down from the roof above.
Other than being chased by two monsters, one with teeth the size of my mom’s biggest kitchen knives, everything’s just fine, Annabel!
At least, that’s what Toby thought he had seen back on Columbus, those teeth, when the rukh had become briefly visible. With a final glance at the Tall Man, Toby turned away from the spectral sight, forced the image of teeth the size of kitchen knives out of his head, and climbed the final steps to the roof.
6
Annabel was back on her cell, talking to Harvey. She watched as Strobe jumped down to the roof of the building next to the one they had just scaled. Calanthe went next, then Toby jumped, hit the roof, and fell forward from the momentum of the drop. After her quick discussion with her KP boss, Annabel joined the group on the roof below.
“Harvey wants us to continue across the roofs to the end of the block. Then down to street level. He should be there by then to meet us.”
“You tell him what we’re up against?” Strobe asked as the foursome continued their flight across the rooftops.
Annabel nodded.
“Did he ever hear of a rukh before?”
Another nod. This time in the negative.
Several minutes later, everyone was scaling a short ladder that led to another rooftop when a police siren suddenly erupted somewhere nearby, slicing through the muffled sounds of traffic coming from the streets below.
“Think those people in the alley called the cops?” Toby wondered.
“I hope not,” Strobe replied. “That invisible freak’d pop the heads of the boys in blue before they knew what hit them.”
“Lovely image. Thanks for that, Strobe.”
By the time the four reached the last rooftop, they were totally spent by a chase that had taken them across a lake, through the Central Park woods, along several blocks of city streets, up a ten-story building, and across more than half a dozen rooftops. Even Calanthe looked tired.
“Last one,” Annabel announced as she waited at the top of the final ladder. “It’s all downhill from here.”
Calanthe and Toby passed by Annabel as they made it to the top of the ladder. Strobe had been the first one to arrive at the roof and was heading for the doorway that would lead them to the interior stairway of the building. Annabel scanned the rooftops they had just crossed, looking for any sign of their pursuers. Nothing in sight.
“Locked!” Strobe announced, giving the door an extra yank just to be sure.
“The fire escape,” Annabel said.
But before anyone could even take a step in that direction, all hell broke loose on the last rooftop of the last building the group would need to cross to get down to the meeting place with their KP boss.
The locked door suddenly burst clean off its hinges, slammed into Strobe, and sent him flying. In a flash, Calanthe was grabbed and dragged back in the direction they had just come. It was an odd and terrifying sight, Calanthe struggling wildly with the invisible rukh as it pulled her roughly across the gravel-topped roof.
Strobe instantly got up and charged after the creature, leaping and catching it just as it reached the ladder the group had scaled only moments before. Pulling out their crossbows, Annabel and Toby swiftly assembled them and snapped in the arrow cartridges. Clinging to the invisible rukh with one hand, Strobe was trying to get at the knife in the sheath on his forearm plate with the other.
Annabel and Toby quickly advanced on the creature, but were hesitant to take a shot. With Calanthe in the beast’s grasp and Strobe riding the thing as if it were some kind of supernatural bronco, there were two people who might mistakenly take an arrow from their crossbows.
But then Strobe was no longer riding the creature. Just as he was about to plunge his knife into the thing’s body, he was swatted to the rooftop’s graveled surface by the rukh’s invisible hand.
That’s when Annabel took her shot. A hair-raising screech of surprise erupted from the rukh when Annabel’s arrow sliced into its body. At the same time, the beast’s cloak of invisibility lifted, giving Toby and Annabel a point-blank look at the hideous creature.
The thing had a monstrously squat, toad-like shape.
Smallish arms, resembling a human’s.
Large, muscular dinosaur-like legs.
But it was the creature’s face that drew Toby’s and Annabel’s attention just before they unleashed a barrage of arrows on the thing. Toby was right about the teeth. The rukh’s face seemed to be nothing but teeth. Two small, brightly beady eyes were where a forehead would normally be. A nose orifice gaped obscenely between the eyes. But the creature’s ugly, lipless mouth defined the rest of its face, the two rows of uneven, razor-sharp teeth dazzling in their size and destructive-looking power.
Taking advantage of the distraction caused by Annabel’s arrow, Calanthe had managed to wriggle free of the rukh’s grasp and was sprinting with Strobe toward the roof’s open doorway. That’s when Toby and Annabel opened fire on the creature.
Zapping in and out of view like a short-circuited neon sign, the rukh swatted at the rain of arrows, deflecting some as all the others found their mark. When their arrow cartridges were depleted, Annabel and Toby turned and ran to join Strobe and Calanthe.
SLAM!
The group couldn’t believe their eyes when the rukh—looking like some kind of huge, otherworldly figure, the arrows jutting out weirdly in all directions from its body—suddenly appeared in the open doorway, blocking their exit from the rooftop. The creature had launched itself up and over them with one thrust of its powerful legs! The astonished quartet skidded to a stop, turned, and charged for the fire escape.
Strobe had a crossbow in hand and was ready to fire. “Keep going,” he commanded, then he turned and planted himself between the rukh and his retreating companions. The creature had once again disappeared, but its position was betrayed by the arrows impaled in its body, not to mention the startling appearance of footsteps on the rooftop as one section of gravel after another was pulverized by the monster’s huge feet.
Strobe emptied the contents of his arrow cartridge into the rukh, threw his crossbow aside, grabbed his knife, and waited for impact. But before he knew what had hit him, he was lying on the gravel, his chest exploding with pain from a vicious beast slap from the charging creature.
The rukh apparently wasn’t interested in Strobe. It wanted Calanthe.
“Behind you!” Strobe yelled.
The creature’s advancing footsteps suddenly disappeared. A second later, the beast zapped into view at the edge of the roof, cutting off the trio’s escape route. Once again, the rukh had launched itself a good twenty-five yards up and over its prey without breaking stride.
Quickly sizing up their situation, Annabel called out, “The water tower. Go, Calanthe.” Having never seen a water tower before, Calanthe followed Annabel’s nod, then ran for the round structure perched atop four wooden legs, a common sight on New York City rooftops.
Preparing her crossbow for another attack, Annabel eyed the creature with a hatred Toby had never seen before. “We’ll shoot that thing out of the air if it tries to jump over us, Toby.”
But the rukh didn’t have to jump over Annabel and Toby. As it had done with Strobe, it merely charged past the two MCOs, smashing them aside like a couple of lightweight human bowling pins.
Calanthe was already halfway up the ladder to a platform that ran around the perimeter of the water tower. The rukh, now visible, suddenly slid to a stop. It appeared to be studying the situation—the primitive beast apparently had some gray matter in its brain—then charged one of the water tower’s supporting legs.
CRACK!
The thick wooden l
eg bent from the rukh’s attack, but held. As the creature backed up for another charge, Toby’s eyes locked onto the metal door the rukh had smashed from its hinges. Arrows obviously couldn’t stop the creature. Toby knew they had to come up with something else to save Calanthe, and fast.
On its second charge, the rukh pulverized what was left of the wooden leg. The water tower swayed, tilted precariously to one side, but didn’t fall. Zeroing in on another tower leg, the rukh blasted toward it.
CRACK!
The rukh backed up and hit the leg with another brutal charge. It was about to go for a third shoulder slam, which would very likely collapse the tower, when …
“GO!”
While the rukh had been focused on bringing down the water tower, Toby had quickly pulled Strobe and Annabel into his desperate plan to bring down the rukh. It couldn’t possibly work. The rukh was way too powerful. But with the element of surprise on their side …
The trio—holding the bent door in front of them like a flat metal battering ram—charged the rukh at Toby’s single-word command. They slammed the door into its gut and pushed with all their collective might, forcing the creature toward the nearby roof edge.
Caught off guard, the surprised rukh screeched in rage.…
The trio gritted and pushed.…
The beast dug in its claws.…
Bent forward at a forty-five-degree angle, Toby, Annabel, and Strobe dug in with their rubber-soled shoes.…
The rukh snapped its enormous teeth at the trio, but was unable to connect with MCO flesh across the door/battering ram. Suddenly, the beast had been pushed right up against the low wall at the edge of the roof.
All this happened within split seconds. Heaving from the massive effort of shoving hundreds of pounds of monster flesh across the roof, the trio looked like they might collapse. But they had to finish their job, and fast, before the creature was able to regain the advantage in the life-and-death struggle.
With a final coordinated effort, they lunged at the rukh with their makeshift battering ram. Teetering backward from the blow, the beast clouted the metal door from the trio’s grasp, appeared to regain its balance, then …
It went over the edge, uttering a high-pitched and weirdly human cry as it disappeared from sight.
Toby and Annabel fell to their knees, gasping for air. Strobe put his hands on his knees and stared at the ground as he breathed in deeply. A moment later, Calanthe appeared, ran to the edge of the roof, and looked over to the alley below.
“We kill that thing?” Strobe asked between intakes of air.
“I don’t know.”
One by one, the trio approached the edge of the roof. The rukh was lying in the middle of the alley, completely still. Then … one of its hands twitched. Then a foot. The monstrous creature rolled over and managed to slowly rise up on its two massive feet.
For a moment, it appeared the beast might topple over. But after steadying itself, the rukh looked up at the foursome with its small, mean, beady eyes.
It wouldn’t have surprised Toby if the thing had made an attempt to leap up to the rooftop to resume the battle. But the creature was obviously hurt. Staring at the group, the rukh … slowly … vanished.
In a flash, Strobe was heading down the fire escape. The rest of the group followed. When they got to the bottom landing, they dropped one by one from the hanging ladder to the pavement below. Strobe scanned the area, trying to determine which direction the rukh had gone.
“Where are you going?” Annabel asked when Strobe started off down the alley.
“To find that thing and kill it.”
“I believe the rukh is going off to find a place to die.” Saying this, Calanthe suddenly collapsed. Annabel was instantly by the girl’s side, kneeling next to her and feeling for a pulse. Strobe immediately abandoned his search for the rukh and returned to the group.
“Is she okay?” Toby asked.
“She has a pulse, anyway.”
“Maybe she just fainted.”
“Do dekayi faint?” Strobe posited.
“I don’t know,” Annabel said. “We don’t know anything about the dekayi. Without any kind of knowledge, how can we possibly help her?”
“Hey, check out her shoulder!” Toby knelt down next to Calanthe to get a closer look.
Calanthe’s shoulder had clearly begun to heal itself. The skin surrounding the gash had taken on a strange, alien texture and color and was slowly coming together over Calanthe’s wound.
“That’s incredible,” Toby said.
“Not to mention creepy,” Strobe added. “Speaking of which, you two keep an eye on her, okay?”
“Don’t go, Strobe,” Annabel said. “We might need you.”
“Harvey’ll be here any second. Besides, I need to deal with that dude.”
Toby and Annabel looked in the direction of Strobe’s gaze. Standing on the other side of a nearby street the back alley intersected with was the Tall Man.
“I’m totally sick of this guy,” Strobe said, then he was off after the dekayi. Toby and Annabel knew it was useless to call him back. Strobe had a mind of his own when it came to this sort of thing. Thing meaning just about everything.
Cradling Calanthe’s head in her lap, Annabel looked down at the unconscious girl. Even though she was out cold, a frown still creased Calanthe’s forehead. “This poor girl, Toby. Can you even begin to imagine what she’s been through these past few days?”
“What about her entire life?” Toby was still checking out the supernatural healing session that was slowly making progress on Calanthe’s shoulder. “The question is, if she doesn’t die on us, can she make it in our world?”
A Jeepster Commando suddenly came around the corner of the alley and bore down on Annabel and Toby. The two immediately recognized the vehicle. It was Harvey’s official “field” car, the same one he had used back in Hidden Hills when he was training his new MCOs.
Toby felt a flood of relief when he saw the Commando. Harvey would be able to take over now and deal with this very weird situation. The unconscious female dekayi lying in the alley. The trio of official-looking people heading toward them from the direction of the collapsed fire escape ladder. The crippled water tower on the top of the building just behind them.
When Harvey got out of his Jeep, Toby stepped away from Calanthe to allow his boss to examine the patient. Harvey took a few moments to prod Calanthe’s body gingerly with his fingertips. He put his ear to her chest, frowned, moved his ear down to her stomach, over to her left side, then right. After gently probing the area to the right of Calanthe’s stomach, Harvey looked at Annabel. “It appears her heart is right here. Very interesting.”
“Is she okay?” Annabel asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s get her in the back of the Commando.”
“What about those guys?” Toby asked as he helped carry Calanthe to the Jeepster. One of the men was calling out to them as the trio approached.
“What about them?”
“I’m pretty sure they want to know why there’s a smashed trash bin and a partially destroyed fire escape in the alley down there.”
“Is that all? Let them wonder.”
“What about the water tower on the top of this building?” Annabel asked when Harvey had closed the back door and the three were quickly getting into the car. “The rukh almost destroyed it. It might come down any second.”
“That I’ll deal with. Later. Where’s Strobe?”
7
Strobe was deep into it, that’s where.
He might have only been in Central Park, but it was as though he had entered a deep, dark jungle, nose to the ground and tracking a mysterious and dangerous species called the dekayi. The hunted had become the hunter. Strobe liked it better this way.
When Strobe had lived in Colorado, he had taken up the difficult and dangerous sport of rock climbing. What he discovered was that the start of each climb was the worst part. Fear and doubt threatened the entire enterprise. But
after getting past the initial jitters, a zen-like focus had always come over Strobe, ironically when he was much higher up the cliff and the climb was in its most treacherous phase.
That’s where Strobe was now, in his zen zone. After the explosive and completely crazed battle with the rukh, he was now able to concentrate solely on the Tall Man, who had led him back to where the whole adventure had begun. Strobe’s senses were fine-tuned at this point, the sights and sounds of the park registering in the high-decible range.
Swish!
Strobe whirled at the sound of a branch brushing through the heavy night air and instantly headed in that direction. Catching a glimpse of the Tall Man as he moved away from him, he bent low and followed, his crossbow held at shoulder height and ready to fire. The dekayi had survived an arrow to his neck, so Strobe wanted a clear shot at his heart. (Of course, if he had stayed with Annabel and Toby a moment longer, Strobe would have known where a dekayi’s heart was located.)
Narrowing the gap between him and his prey, Strobe’s heartbeat quickened. This was the closest he had gotten to the Tall Man since the chase began. Suddenly, the dekayi stopped. So did Strobe, curious why the man had interrupted his steady progress through the woods. Perhaps, he thought he had lost his pursuer. Which is exactly what Strobe wanted the Tall Man to think. With his guard down, the dekayi would be especially vulnerable.
Slowly bringing up his crossbow, Strobe sighted through the scope and focused on the Tall Man’s back. Right … there. That’s where Strobe figured the heart would be. He didn’t hesitate when he had locked in on his target. He pressed the trigger and waited for the response.
Which was not what Strobe was expecting. He blinked, not sure what had just happened. In an instant, it looked as though the Tall Man had disappeared! Strobe heard his arrow thunk with a dull thud into a tree somewhere in the distance. Then he was running toward where the Tall Man had been only moments before, quickly reaching the spot and looking around the woods in dismay.
