by Tom Hansen
“You’re assuming they don’t control the damned thing.”
Nancy had thought about that but chose to hope that the tiger would help them out of this situation. Worst case, the dealers had guns and they would be more apt to chase her and Edna down in their car. A tiger would be easier to deal with as long as she and Edna never got out of their car.
The truck door opened but movement to the side caught Nancy’s attention. She looked back to where the tiger had been but saw nothing besides shaking foliage.
Edna let out a minuscule gasp.
“How many do you see?” Nancy asked, scanning the area for signs of the tiger. Something inside of her told her that it had left when the men showed up. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
“Two, I think, big guys by the look.”
Nancy looked at Edna’s face. “I thought last time we went to the eye doctor your eyes were worse than mine.”
Edna turned slightly and winked before tapping the horn rim of her glasses with the tip of her “did” fingernails. The fake, spiraling gemstones embedded in the paint glinted briefly off the streetlights. “I asked them to up my prescription a tiny bit, so now I see at 20/15 instead of 20/20.”
Nancy smiled. “Oh Edna, when will you learn? You’re supposed to grow old gracefully.”
“Oh hell no! You go into it kicking and screaming and fighting it every step of the way. You punch it in the face and tell it to go cry to its mama.”
“Wow.” Nancy’s reply toed the line between genuine and sarcastic. She sat back in her seat, her fingertips resting on the end of her nose while she pursed her lips beneath the triangle of her fingers.
“Wow?” Edna looked between Nancy’s eyes and her hand. “Did I miss something?”
“No,” Nancy replied after a brief pause, keeping the same tone. “I just never knew how much of a philosopher you were. I should write that down. Embroider it on a pillow.”
Edna smacked Nancy on the arm. “Oh, bite me.”
“Sometimes I wish I could.”
Edna’s cackle made Nancy cringe. She watched as two big men climbed out of the pickup across the street; the vehicle visibly rising as their weight left it.
Nancy pointed. “You’re right, two of them, and they are big guys.”
Huge was more like it. Nancy wondered how both men had managed to fit beside each other in the full-size truck’s cab.
Nancy frowned at her failing vision.
One of the big guys pointed somewhere to the side of their truck and the other guy headed off that direction.
Suddenly Edna’s phone rang. Both women jumped.
“Turn it off!” Nancy whispered loudly.
Edna clamped down on the power button, silencing the ringer, then proceeded to lower the volume on her phone down to silent.
“Who the hell is calling you at one in the morning?”
“Eduardo.”
“The zoo guy?” Nancy couldn’t believe it. Edna’s booty-call was going to get them killed.
Edna gave a cheesy grin. “Tiger research?”
Nancy raised an eyebrow. “I think he knows enough about large hairy cats, Edna.”
The two burly men came back to the truck, gyrating their hands in such a way that make them look like they were talking to each other. One of them peered in the direction of Edna’s car, but Nancy and Edna had found a good spot deep in the shadow of the old Oscar Mayer plant, and with the custom midnight-blue paint job of Edna’s BMW, it would be nearly impossible to see them from that distance.
I hope.
“I wish I’d brought binoculars,” Nancy said, squinting at the men in the distance.
“I agree.” Edna paused. “Oh wait!”
She pulled her phone up to her eyes and turned on the camera app, then using two fingers, zoomed in on the image of the two men in the distance.
It was a bit fuzzy in the low light, but Nancy could see the men a lot better now.
Their pale skin shone in the moonlight as they approached. The burly fellows, true to meathead fashion had cropped blonde hair. Each was white with no discernible neck, only broad shoulders that turned into a beefy head with deep-seated eyes and distorted facial features, presumably from multiple broken bones. They looked like boxers back in the day before safety regulations required better padding for the sport.
“I wish I could hear what they were saying. You don’t happen to have an app for that, do you?”
Edna shook her head. “No, but at least we have their faces. I might be able to—”
Edna moved a finger and pressed one of the buttons on her phone. That is when all hell broke loose.
A large flash went off in the car.
Edna shrieked and dropped her phone, which landed on the floor of the car with a clunk. The flash of the camera was still on, filling the cabin with light and blinding Nancy. Both Nancy and Edna reached for the phone, bumping heads in the process. Nancy managed to grab it first, covering the light with her hand. She shoved the phone into her purse and zipped it as fast as she could.
“What did you do?” Nancy whispered loudly.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t think it would flash!”
Nancy could feel her temper rising, but it wouldn’t do any good to scream at Edna, who clearly felt bad. Everyone makes mistakes. They just needed to recover from this one and hopefully not die in the process.
“I think they’re coming over here,” Edna stated, her voice even and dry.
"Drive!"
"I dropped the keys and I can't see them without the light!" Edna's voice became shrill and frenzied.
Panic circled Nancy's head like a pair of starving sharks. The two big men had already closed half of the gap between their truck and Edna’s car.
What were they going to do?
“Give me the phone.” Edna’s tone was insistent.
“What? So you can turn back on the flash and get us killed?” Nancy gripped her bag closer.
“No, silly. They already know we’re here. We might as well own it. I have a plan.”
Nancy dreaded those words every time they came out of Edna’s mouth. They were words of caution to her at this point, words that could change her fate in the briefest of moments. Nancy hesitated, her thoughts running wild, but she grabbed the phone and shoved it back into Edna’s hand.
The two locked eyes for just a moment before Edna flashed her pearly whites. Nancy regretted her decision already.
“Follow my lead,” Edna said with her patented Naughty Grin plastered on.
The two men were fifty feet from the car, and Edna was flashing the camera in odd intervals. She leaned in to Nancy and put her arm around her, taking the odd selfie every handful of seconds. The flashes were blindingly painful in the stark absence of light or any plan.
Nancy groaned inwardly. Edna was right. The men already knew they were there. It would be better to diffuse the situation than run away from it. She hoped.
The men split up, one going to the front of the car, while the other stopped outside the driver window before knocking with his beefy knuckle. Edna ignored the knock and kept flashing selfies.
The second knock came harder, more insistent. The man at the front of the car folded his arms across his meaty chest.
Nancy got a much better look at him now. He wasn’t just big boned, he was heavy as well as muscled, like a professional wrestler or one of those guys who pull cars with their teeth for a living.
Sitting with Edna in the car at half past one in the morning with two twenty-something thugs standing on either side of their car, Nancy forced herself to not be terrified and lose it.
A third, more insistent rap came from Edna’s window. The meaty guy in front put his knuckles on the hood of the car and pushed down. Nancy felt the car pitch forward, her stomach lurching in anticipation. It wasn’t so much the speed or distance, but the threat was real. This man was powerful and was able to bend the shocks of a brand-new luxury sedan.
Edna casually lower
ed the window all the way.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Edna yelled before the guy next to her could say anything.
“What you say?” The man at her window, also about the same age, had a Northern European accent. It was thick and gravelly, like it had a lot of hair to go through to leave his mouth. It was the voice of someone who had lived a hard life. A stony life. The two men shared a lot of similar features.
“I said, it’s about time you showed up. Payment up front,” Edna looked between the two men, who now looked like brothers to Nancy. “And where are your dresses?”
“Dresses? Vidar, you hear anything about dresses?”
Vidar pulled his fists off the hood of the car, which relieved Nancy more than she thought it would. There was something about that threat of physical violence that unnerved her terribly.
Edna interjected. “Yeah, I thought if we were going to do this thing, we’d all be in dresses. You said you like to dress up.”
The two men glanced at each other again, a silent conversation between them. The one at the window stooped down and peered in at the two ladies.
“I think you should get out of your car.”
“I’m not getting out until you pay for our services.”
“Services?”
Edna cackled. “You called us asking for two older ladies to dance with. You said you’d be cross dressers. Now I’m not one to judge. If us old broads are what get you two off and you want to meet at one in the morning to avoid the gaze of whoever you’re afraid might see, then I’m all for it, but I gotta get paid first. It’s just business.”
The man looked confused then stood up straight to talk to his partner in crime, who was slowly walking around to Edna’s side of the car. “Vidar, they’re whores.”
“Hey!” Edna snapped at him. "Don’t you dare call me a whore! I’m a business professional and I’m damn good at my job. I’m not judging you for your lifestyle, so don’t you dare do it to me, you hear? What’s your name, son?”
He looked bewildered. “Martin,” he said after an awkward pause.
“Look, Martin, we have other clients meeting us at three, so are we going to do this or not? We could knock out a couple quickies between now and then if you’re not gonna pay.”
Martin stood up and scratched his belly. Vidar got to the window and peered in. Nancy tried her best to look as casual and as bored as possible, while Edna groaned.
“Check out the package on this one, Candy. I wouldn’t want that thing near me. Course, being so old, it’d be a hot dog down a hallway, am I right?” Edna elbowed Nancy rather hard and began cackling before devolving into a fit of coughing brought on by too many years of smoking.
Both brothers looked at each other and spoke in a Scandinavian tongue.
Nancy finally spoke up, wishing she were missing a few teeth at this point, which might have helped sell the old French whore schtick. She worked on scratching up her voice and raised it an octave and a half for dramatic effect. “Well, what’ll it be? We don’t have all night. We doing this or not?” She cringed inwardly at the hellish harpy voice that came pouring out of her mouth and hoped she’d keep her composure while they processed the question.
The two boys looked at each other, then Vidar spoke. His voice was lower than the other’s. Gruffer.
“You two better get out of here. I think you might be on the wrong street.”
Edna put her hands up in defeat. “Okay, okay. We’ll mosey on out of here. No harm done.”
The two men said something else to one another and turned to walk away. As soon as the windows sealed shut Edna burst into a peal of laughter.
Nancy went white with worry but couldn’t help smiling herself. “We better get out of here while we still can. Don’t want them coming back.”
Edna settled down and, agreeing with her friend, started the car and drove off.
Being invisible was tiring, but Dragon rarely got to use his powers in front of others. He’d been cooped up for far too long. He had gone stealthy the second he sensed it as they drove up.
Office work was so mundane, and being out for the first time in weeks was satisfyingly liberating. He preferred to be outside. Office world kept him on too tight a leash.
Imagine his surprise at smelling the beast out here, so late at night. The thing was making a ruckus around town and if Dragon didn’t get it under control, others would start noticing.
The thought unnerved him. He needed to get this locked down fast. It had gone on too long already. He only hoped his contribution to this mess would be easily swept under the rug.
“Hookers, eh?” Dragon had more important things to worry about than a couple hookers out too late and in the wrong area, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to make Vidar nervous.
“They weren’t who we were looking for.” Vidar’s voice wavered as he looked around for his boss.
Dragon silently circled the two brothers, thinking through ways he could pester the large brute more than he already was. A rustle to the side caught his attention and he turned to look.
“Yeah Vidar, but the one, she—” Martin’s sentence was cut off abruptly by Vidar punching him in the shoulder.
“Shut up, Martin,” Vidar hissed.
The faint rustle around the corner of the abandoned gas station immediately stopped at the thump of Vidar’s fist on his brother.
Damned trolls.
Dragon crept over to the bushes, toward the spot he’d felt.
It was empty, of course. He’d been too careless so far. Let the two morons talk for too long. He’d lost his chance.
The smell of the beast still lingered. He scrunched up his nose at the stink.
“Fuckin’ therans. Stink like a bastard.” Dragon unzipped his pants and pissed on the slightly trampled spot of grass. “I’ll find ya and I’ll gut ya and I’ll hang ya on my wall.”
Padding along in the dead of the night, the tiger was king of the urban jungle. After the car drove away, it slunk up to where they had conversed with the bad men. One of the women wore such strong perfume that the tiger sneezed.
The tiger kept its mouth open as it breathed in the scent over and over, memorizing the fine portions, so as best to differentiate her from the other woman.
The women’s scent filled the cool morning air, and it could follow it back to where they lived. Where she lived.
Twenty minutes later, it found the large house. Lights on the ground floor were out.
The tiger hunched by a blue truck, watching as the smelly woman tried to get into her car then turned around and went back to the house. She paused by the front door then disappeared around the side. A minute later she came back around, got in her car, and drove away.
The tiger crouched down, its stomach barely touching the cold pavement. It would need to move fast when it could. It waited for the final light to go out.
Its movements were swift and calculated. Smooth and refined. This was its natural element; this was what it lived for.
The hunt.
It prowled forward, the edge of its whiskers just brushing the blue pickup’s bumper. A quick look side to side to make sure the coast was clear and it was off, bounding across the pavement, clearing the road in less than a second. The touch of cool grass felt good under its paws, so used to bloodying themselves on hard concrete and pavement.
It slammed into an invisible wall just before it got to the front door.
Pain shot through its body and it crumpled to a heap on the ground. It let out a mournful cry for a moment before righting itself. Soon it was pacing back and forth, testing the unseen barrier. It found no entry, no way around. Leaping into the backyard over the fence didn’t help, and it found a fierce group of bewildering lights that chased it away. Nasty things, pointy and spiteful. They chased it from the yard, poking its hind leg repeatedly.
Dejected, the tiger limped away, alone, afraid of its master not understanding. It had to report back.
Chapter Eight
&nbs
p; Most birds were pleasant. Their cheery tones and chatter among peers brought Nancy joy as she watched them dance among the trees or skitter across the ground after seeds.
What she didn’t appreciate were the loud, obnoxious ones that wouldn’t stop making persistent and grating squawks, like they were choking on a frog.
This latter was the sound that bored into Nancy’s slumber and jerked her awake into the most unpleasant mood.
She threw off the covers and stumbled out of bed. Looking in the mirror didn’t do much to help. The demon that stared back at her needed to be cast back to the hell that she had flown in from. “That is the last time I go out past midnight with that woman.”
Attempts to detangle her unruly peppery hair failed miserably. Sighing, she dropped the brush back on the counter and moved toward the door to her bedroom.
It was open, which was surprising for her, given she normally was very careful to keep her door closed, but she got in late last night … no … it was this morning that she got back, wasn’t it?
She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. She was making a habit of sleeping in.
Sighing, she walked out of her bedroom. The carpet runners down the hallway of her second-story balcony felt cool to her bare feet, another odd thing in a string of oddities for this morning.
The damned bird was even louder out here. She winced at the piercing notes. It was way too early and far too loud. She would investigate, but she needed coffee first.
Cursing Edna’s name under her breath, Nancy descended the steps. She ran out of swear words halfway down and had to recycle them again. She chose to go backwards through the list.
Nancy.
The voice was decidedly female, distant, and pained. It lingered in her ears like an echo. It was hauntingly familiar, like a bad dream.
She listened over the deep thump of her heart in her chest and the whooshing sound of blood through her ears, trying to keep her breathing calm and even. She couldn’t hear anything other than traffic noise.
