Nick took a
step back, feeling his determination slipping away. The man-sized shapes stood
motionless, waiting. He wondered, 'Had Faro’s men found him and entered the
alley from
Two of the
shapes moved forward suddenly. Nick watched in horrified awe as the taller of
the two leaped into the air, unfurling two membranous wings as large as sails
on a boat. It let out a high-pitched trill as it flew directly over Nick’s
head. Nick let out his own terrified scream and turned to run back to
Ninth
Street, but six more silhouettes waited there. He
was trapped. To escape, Nick would have to enter one of the boarded up
buildings on either his left or right. It was then that he noticed a metal,
corrugated garage door with the barely legible numbers, '249' painted at the
top. The door, like everything else in Arkham Alley, was awash with the
supernaturally white glow of the moonlight, but dark smudges and images could
be seen smeared across its surface.
As Nick
approached the door, the dark watchers at both ends of the alley took
flight, singing their warbling death songs as they flew overhead. Dipping and
diving at Nick, their barbed tails barely missed his head. The largest of the
flying watchers made several attempts to grab Nick’s shoulder with its shiny
black, pointed talons. Nick dodged three of the flying attacker’s assaults,
but on the fourth attempt it succeeded in ripping into his left
shoulder and sent him falling backwards onto the cold pavement. Nick
howled with pain. Tears stung at his eyes as he clutched the bleeding wound.
The attacker flew in a wide arc over the alley, returning to where Nick lay
helpless and bleeding. It lowered itself, then perched above Nick’s prone
body.
To be
continued...
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