Shadow Play

18

Ashley called out my name and came running to my side as we both stared in horror at the hideous creature with my arm in its grasp. In a hissing voice, the hunched creature about as tall as my waist glared up at me with saliva dripping from its jagged, sharp teeth and spoke. “Give it to me girrrrrrl.” It drew out the last word on a long breath almost like a growl. “It’s not yourssss, it belongs to usss. Give it to usss.” The filthy creature covered in grime reached its obscenely long fingers toward my chest, grabbing hold of my necklace and yanking so hard that I knew the chain would break, or at least slice into my neck. My head was pulled viciously down into the creature's face but the chain didn't break. Eyes narrowed and a snarl on his face, he prepared to take a second even harder yank just as Ash jumped between us and did her best to slap its hand away from my neck. Startled, he released the necklace and Ashley stepped us backwards farther into the alley, keeping herself between me and the creature. “Get away from her!” she screamed hysterically. I held onto Ash as we both looked desperately toward the main road, which was out of our reach, blocked by the creature standing in front of us. Behind us, at the other end of the alley, was a tall chain-link fence preventing us from an alternate escape. Our panting breaths puffed out in clouds of steam in the cold night air. The creature made a rumbling sound in its chest that was so horrifying I could feel myself start to hyperventilate. It lunged forward and grabbed Ashley by the arm and threw her several feet in the air and into the brick wall of one of the buildings. Her head slammed into the brick with a sickening thud and she fell to the ground in a limp heap. “Ash!” I darted toward her but the creature lurched into my path. “Give it or I takesss it.” Snarling, it stepped closer to me, raising its hand to attack but then froze briefly before grabbing my arm and flinging its back against the wall with me held tightly in front of it like a shield. From the shadows, Mr. Gorgeous stepped slowly in our direction. “Please, help us!” I begged hoarsely but stopped on a cry when my arm was squeezed so hard I was afraid it would break at any moment. The creature made a frustrated whining sound followed by a growled, “Hunterrrr.” “Unless you want me involved, I suggest you disappear,” Mr. Gorgeous warned in a menacing voice just loud enough to hear. My heartbeat pounded in my ears and a phantom coolness ghosted behind me just before I fell back into the wall. I scanned the dark alley to see where the creature had gone and watched as a cloud of smoky shadow melted into the surrounding darkness. For a second I was too stunned to move—I wasn’t sure if I was more concerned about the creature’s disappearance or the fact that it had run in fear of the man. Who was this guy? I shook myself out of my dazed state and jumped up. “Ash! Oh God, Ash please wake up!” I hurried to my friend lying on her side on the damp alley floor. She was breathing but unconscious and her arm beneath her laid at an odd angle. “We need to get out of here, now.” He bent down and scooped up Ashley like she weighed nothing. “Wait, where are you taking her? She needs to go to a hospital.” I grabbed our purses and ran after him. “We can’t go to a hospital, we can take her back to the club.” “Absolutely not, I will raise holy hell if you don’t either get her to a hospital or put her down this instant so I can call an ambulance,” I demanded with enough conviction that he stopped and turned. After our eyes had been locked long enough for me to notice that tick in his jaw, he dropped his chin and acquiesced. “My car is on the street.” He headed to the front of the building and got in the same sports car from the first night we spoke. I crawled into the backseat and he placed Ashley next to me. Cradling my best friend’s bleeding head in my lap, I softly stroked her hair as tears ran down my cheeks. “What’s your name?” I asked softly in the quiet car. “Lochlan.” “You see them too then?” “We can discuss that after we get your friend some medical attention.” “Thank you, for saving us.” His impenetrable eyes met mine in the rearview mirror but he didn’t say another word. OceanofPDF.com 8 We pulled up to the emergency room and a team of doctors took Ashley away on a gurney, while a nurse questioned me. I told her we were mugged on the way home from a club, hoping Ashley would tell the same story. Finally, she sent me to the empty waiting room. My thoughts drifted back to the horrifying creature—I wasn’t sure how to describe it. Like a small human man had been dehydrated to a hunched bony thing, but he still had a large round skull with giant black eyes. If he smelled, I hadn't been able to tell over the stench that already permeated the alley. His skin had been tough, almost leathery, and he wore some kind of drape that appeared to be made of animal hide. He was so bony that it made him appear fragile but his strength astounded me—how could something that thin and seemingly frail fling Ashley up in the air as if she had been a doll rather than a full-grown woman? More importantly, why on earth did he want my necklace? Was he some kind of troll who liked to collect gem stones and shiny things? Did he and all the others have me confused for someone else out there in Belfast who just happened to look like me? I felt Lochlan enter the room before I saw him, as if my body was tuned to his frequency. He folded his large frame into a chair across from where I sat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He had been gone longer than it would have taken to park his car but I had no idea what else he had been up to. I hadn’t been one hundred percent certain he was going to come back, but now that he was there, I realized that I was relieved to see him. “How’s your friend?” he asked, breaking the silence. “Don’t know, they haven’t come out to tell me yet.” For the moment we were alone in the small waiting area with just a television playing some late-night talk show softly in the background. “What did the draug want with you?” I sat up taller at his unexpected offering of information. “What's a draug?”