Tom Waller weaved right and left around various passerby as he raced down the sidewalk to catch up with Jackie. He had a lot of experience with running while growing up, so much that he could have considered a career in Olympic Track and Field. So, it didn't take long for him to spot the skeleton tail of the huge monster prowling behind the kid. Only Waller could see the monster. As far as anyone else was concerned, the monster was just an empty space over pavement. That included the kid who actually seemed to believe in them.
The accountant with special eyes quickly slowed himself to a walking pace, keeping just a couple of feet away from the monster in an unusual parade of three. Two down the chain remained ignorant of the one behind them.
After taking furtive glances of his surroundings, Waller reached into his pocket and pulled out a baster. It was just a normal baster with a grayish-white plastic tube and a red suction bulb, about the size of a writing pen. But packed inside the common kitchen tool was something Waller knew to be very effective on invisible monsters: water densely packed with salt. The salt itself was what's effective, but it wasn't like he could throw around fistful of the stuff in the air in public. What was essentially the liquid version fired from a baster was more precise and (more importantly) discreet.
Sure that he would not be seen, Waller gave the bulb a squeeze. His aim was true, and water splashed the bones that made up the monster's tail. The effect was instantaneous.
The monster reared up like a frightened horse and howled. Its cry was like the shrill yowl of an angry cat. But despite how loud the shriek inhumanly was, the people around it and Waller acted like they heard nothing. And that was because they did hear nothing. Pedestrians continued to walk by, ignorant of the agony Waller had inflicted on the frightening, gecko-like creature.
As he watched out of the corner of his eye while pretending to view a passing helicopter in the sky, Waller wondered how with all that writhing about the monster was doing, it had not touched a single passerby. It was honestly a miracle that those knife blades swinging up and down hadn't sliced that one bald guy with the carrot-colored beard who was sitting against a shop's outer wall while hazily rattling spare change in a tin can he grasped in a blackened hand.
Soon, the monster's thrashing stopped, and it swung its tail to its woodblocks head to take a gander at its injury. The salt water had quickly dried, but steam still rose up from the bones it touched.
Waller purposely waited for the monster to see him before he squeezed the bulb of his baster one more time. And then, as the monster once more writhed and shrieking in pain, he ran.
Two streets down, he looked over his shoulder. He could see the monster rapidly approach, slithering sideways on walls like a normal gecko would. Although it appeared to have no eyes, the accountant could tell that the monster was looking at him and that . . . It. Was. Angry.
"Ugh!" Waller groaned. "The things I do . . ."
It was too late for regrets, and now he had to get away. Fast.
So, he picked up the pace, once more weaving around passerby going whichever way. He nearly crashed into a woman in a pink business suit but stopped just a centimeter from the large paper cup of pumpkin spice latte topped with cream and caramel fudge syrup she held in front of her. Startled by one another, they both flinched back. And then the woman threw Waller and angry glare.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Waller cried out an apology as he skipped around her. "Sorry! Sorry!"
The woman watched him hurriedly leave, shaking her head in disgust before resuming her phone call. "Yeah, no. I'm fine. It's nothing. Just some really RUDE jerk who can't seem to watch where he's going."
She had thrown that "RUDE" for Waller to hear. But by then, he was too far. Nor would he have cared while preoccupied with something more important, like the shadow of death pursuing him.
On the glass window right next to her, the gecko monster zipped by, creating a gust of wind that blew her long, platinum blonde hair up. To the woman, it was just a sudden, natural breeze.
Waller took to the alleys a labyrinth with many twists and turns, but more importantly a lack of people to get in his way.
Despite the present danger he had put himself in, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. It reminded him of his childhood. Often, he was chased just like this by whatever horrific eldritch beast he happened to catch the attention of. He'd call them the good ol' days, but he'd be lying because there was nothing good about those days.
After what seemed like forever, the pain in Waller's sides became too much for him and he stopped. His knees buckles and he bent down, gasping for air. Both his face and his back were soaked in sweat. He still had a stretch of alley ahead of him and understood that if he waited to catch his breath, the monster would be over him. But he just could not run anymore, so he decided the best way out of this mess would be to rest and recover as much energy as he could before making a stand, something he had always been prepared to do.
As he took deep breaths in and out, he reached into his left pocket and pulled out a plate of silver metal with a set of rings which he slipped the fingers of his right hand through before reaching into his right pocket for a ziploc bag full of salt.
Clickity-clickity! Squeak-squeak!
Waller didn't need to look to know what was making those strange sounds. What else could the clicking be but the knife blades attached to the monster's toes tapping against the concrete, or the squeaking from the bicycle wheel that served as one of the creature's hindlegs?
He pulled the ziploc bag open and dipped his left hand inside before slowly turning around to come face to face with the assembly of wood blocks that was the gecko monster's head. The bottom block dropped down, and the monster unleashed a shrill cat's yowl. Waller jumped back and then threw a fist full of salt into its face.
Electricity popped and crackled all over the monster's face and it yowled even louder. It reared up and tried desperately to wipe the burning hot salt off with its bladeless foot. That was when Waller punched it in the gut with a right hook. When the silver plate connected with the monster's belly, there was a flash of light, and the monster went flying backwards to the end of the alley it had come from.
Waller looked down on the silver wrapped around his fingers and muttered to himself, "So worth that ginormous loan."
The "ginormous loan" he was talking about was money he borrowed from the bank to buy up a whole bunch of antiques made of pure silver. Needless to say, those antiques were EXPENSIVE! And he used those antiques by melting them down into metal plates, five in all with rings so he could wear the plate over his fist like so. Pure silver, he had learned, was the most effective weapon against those monsters.
A guttural groan escaped from the monster's woodblock mouth as it laid on its back with its exposed belly steaming and crackling from an electric charge. Looking like that, so pathetically weakened, Waller almost felt sorry for the creature. And it made him wonder why he was ever scared of creatures like it.
But not long after it was downed, the monster stirred and rolled onto his feet. Waller quickly took a few steps back and raised the silver plate again, ready to deliver another right hook. But he needn't be so cautious.
Once on its feet, the monster collapsed back down. It struggled to lift its head up, only for its chin to remained glued to the damp pavement. The monster only managed to do a slight sliding turn so that half its face was visible to the man who injured it. No longer sounding like a cat, it growled low from the throat, a sound more appropriate for its intimidating size.
Although it didn't look like it had eyes, Waller could tell, it was looking at him. But he dared to take a step towards it again. It flinched.
Waller contemplated finishing the monster off. But when he took another step and heard the creature moan, he changed his mind.
He jerked his chin sharply and ordered the monster, "Go! And don't ever come back."
There was a short pause with monster and man staring at one another, each feeling both hate and fear of the other. And then, slowly, the monster slithered away back into the labyrinth of alleys where it would rest and recover from its wounds. After that, it will leave the city, never to return.
Waller watched the monster until it was gone. And then he too walked away.
Out of his earshot, those flying rags danced in the air, laughing and laughing as if they had just heard the funniest joke in the universe.
"Ooh! He's done it now! He's done it now!"
"Ignorant Tom Waller. Thinks he's sooooo smart."
"Doesn't know he's been tricked!"
"Thinks he's a hero who's made things better."
"But he's actually the villain who’s made things worse!"
"I wonder, I wonder, how he'll feel when he finds out."
"That because of him, the boy's fate is sealed!"
**********
A young man in a Gathering t-shirt marched down a long, white hallway that was made even whiter by the ceiling panel lights. His basketball shoes caused occasional squeaks from friction with the glossy floor tiles. Straight ahead was a door painted dark, dull blue with a rectangle-shaped window, too small and narrow to afford a clue to what’s inside. The door and the room beyond was the young man’s destination.
Although rushed, the young man did not forget common courtesy and raised his curled fingers to give the door a good, hard knocking. But before his knuckles could strike beneath the window, an older man's voice called out.
“Come in.”
The young man jumped, startled. He's been a member for a while now and knew it was coming, but still couldn't get used to it. But he quickly recovered and grasped the brass handle, which was icy cold from prolonged exposure to the hallway's air conditioning.
"What is it?" asked the room's occupant. He remained seated in a big, black office chair with its back turned to his visitor.
"It's that kid, sir," said the young man.
"Kid?"
"The one I told you about before."
"Ah, the one you said was bothering Taylor. What about him?"
"He was poking his nose into our business too much, so I sent one of the pets you lent me after him, just to keep an eye on him. I've tried calling that pet back several times, but it still didn't show up. I'm sure I did the summoning right."
"Hmmm." The room's occupant hummed thoughtfully. "I can no longer detect my pet's presence. Either the enchantment on him has been broken, or he's been destroyed."
The young man was dumbfounded and dismayed. "Is something like that even possible?"
"I'd like to say no, but we have to face facts. That pet is not coming back."
"What should we do?" asked the young man.
The room's occupant paused for thought.
"This kid, Jackie, I think his name was, might be a bigger threat than we thought. He could ruin everything we worked hard for. Before that can happen, we have to get rid of him."
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