only a few moments before. He hit the chain link fence opposite the mouth of the alley, managing to land (more gracefully than her) in a defensive crouch.
Unfortunately, the impact had forced him to drop the lighter. The moment the silver object left his hand the light seemed to dim, the darkness once again filling the alley. The lighter hit the ground, where the tiny flame sputtered for a bit and then snuffed out all together.
After the short respite of illumination, the stygian darkness was even more oppressive. For a brief moment it was as if Anne had been struck completely blind. When her eyes once again began to acclimate to the dark she could just make out the man’s crouched shape, still near the fence. Of the shadow creature there was no sign. Had he driven it off? She quickly scanned the length of the alley and the only shadows she saw were immaterial, completely fixed by natural law. She allowed hope to rise within her.
“I-is it g-g-gone?” Anne asked, her voice still quivering with terror.
“Shh!” the man hushed her quickly; never taking his eyes off the darkness, he groped around until his fingers found the lighter. Scooping it up, he lit it quickly, the flame flaring impossibly intense—
Just as the creature flew out of the wall beside her—like the shadow there had been the mouth of a cave! Its snarl reverberated throughout the alleyway as it flew at the man, but he was ready this time. Again he threw up the hand that held the lighter, and before the creature could make contact, fire flared outward like a fiery shield, impacting with the beast.
By now Anne was past the point of disbelief and was simply glad to see the shadow creature fly back from the pyrotechnics, letting out a very satisfying screech of pain. Once more it bounded into the deep shadow on the wall, again disappearing as if into a hole.
“Quick,” the man said, suddenly beside her, “get behind me.” He gently, but firmly grabbed her and pushed her toward the fence, placing himself between her and the shadows of the alley.
“What is that thing?!” she pleaded, not caring if he shushed her again, but desperately wanting to somehow make sense of all this. He spared a quick look back at her; concern and sympathy clear in his dark eyes.
“It’s called a Shadow Hunter; it’s a creature that feeds on fear,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. As he spoke he continued to watch the alley, the now torch-bright lighter held aloft. “Well, actually it feeds on psychic energy, but only when that energy is ‘flavored’ with fear. It sucks a mind clean, when it’s finished the victim is left with the mental capacity of a parsnip. Hunters usually cross over in areas of deep shadow and neglect, places where it’s easy to put its prey in the right frame of mind, that is, scared out of their minds: literally.”
“Crosses over?” she whispered, too horrorstruck to doubt his words. “From where?”
He glanced back at her. “You really don’t want to know.”
As if waiting for this lapse in vigilance, the Hunter again came bounding out of the shadows, although this time from the opposite wall. It flew at the man with a triumphant roar.
But apparently the man’s inattention was feigned, or he simply found the creature predictable, because he rounded on the soaring form with intent, the flame of the lighter once more coursing outward to meet the shadow. Unlike before, however, the flames did not form a shield, but instead elongated outward, like a lance of fire.
The Hunter let out another screech of pain and once again backpedalled towards the shadowed wall.
“Not this time,” the man shouted at the creature and stepping forward he sent the lance of flame roaring right at the thing’s destination. The wall exploded in fire and the creature was thrown to the side, landing in the middle of the alley. Pressing his advantage, the man stepped quickly forward and blasted the opposite wall, again cutting off the creature’s escape with a writhing curtain of flame. The Hunter crouched low, not daring to come near the fire, which Anne could see, had now spread to the boxes where she had fallen earlier. Flickering firelight now filled a quarter of the alleyway. The creature let out another snarl of contempt, but instead of charging the man, suddenly reversed and bounded down the alley.
“Coward!” the man shouted as from the silver lighter he let loose a fireball that roared past the beast, exploding into the crates that had been stacked up in the corner. The force of the sudden blast momentarily blinded her. Anne rubbed her eyes, desperate to see where the thing had gone. Her vision cleared, but all she saw was the man, standing in the center of the alley, the lighter held high, scanning the area.
“Did you see where it went?” he cried back to her, obviously he too had been temporarily blinded by the blast. The boxes in the corner and to his right burned with an uneven glow and the flames licking the walls behind him were dying down, flickering across the brick in erratic patterns. Only the flame of his lighter let off a steady source of light, but after a couple of feet shadows still danced across the walls. Silently he scanned the alley, but nothing moved. As the flames around him dimmed, the shadows grew deeper.
Sudden movement caught Anne’s eye and she watched in horror as the Hunter bounded out of the shadowed wall—ten feet above him! There was no time to cry out a warning, the man barely glanced upward as the shadow beast came crashing down on top of him. With a slash of its paw the Hunter sent the lighter flying from his hands, the silver Zippo flashing as it flew down the length of the alley, into the heap of smoldering cardboard.
“With fire dare you strike me?!” the beast roared, its voice again emanating all around, this time full of uncontrolled rage. “Devour you I shall, little man-thing!” The Hunter had the man pinned underneath its stygian mass, and although he fought against it, the creature was clearly stronger than him.
“Should have left, yes you should,” it cackled into his face. “Now you die, and then so the little prey.” It threw back its head and demonic laughter filled the alley—
Until a fiery two-by-four slammed into its head.
The beast rolled off the man and turned to face Anne. Without stopping to think, she had run to the pile of burning crates and seized the improvised weapon. Even though her pepper spray had been ineffectual, she had hoped that the fire would make the wood an adequate weapon: she hadn’t been disappointed. The creature couldn’t seem to stand the touch of the fire. It slinked against the wall of the alley, the still burning wall blocking its way on its one side and Anne with her brandished torch on the other. She didn’t wait for it to make up its mind what to do, but once again lunged at the shadow, swinging the burning board with all her might. There was another impact and a satisfying yelp of pain from the creature.
“Who’s prey now, bitch?!” she hollered as she swung and hit the creature again and again. The Hunter was down now, struggling to get to its feet, but was unable to rise as blow after blow impacted with blazing vengeance. Anne wasn’t sure how long she could keep up the assault, plus she noticed that the fire was beginning to go out, but she knew that if she stopped the creature would get away. She couldn’t allow that, couldn’t allow this thing to terrorize and hunt anyone else. She raised the board again, but as she brought it down a hand caught it mid-swing.
The stranger was standing beside her, a look of admiration on his face. “Nice work but let me take it from here.” His voice was sincere, devoid of any patronizing tone. Anne was still breathing heavily as she released the board into his grip. He raised it up, the flames bursting into renewed vigor. The Hunter whimpered as light poured over its prone form. The man swung the board hard, but instead of hitting the creature, slammed the board against the wall of the alley. The wood splintered with a deafening crack and he turned back toward the beast with what was now a burning stake.
“Such is the fate of those who hunt the innocent,” he said, speaking to the creature as it were a disobedient child. “Thy Darkness has no place here, may the Light banish thee.” And with that he plunged the burning stake deep into the creature, where the heart would have been on a flesh and blood animal. The Hunter let out a mind-splitt
ing scream and Anne clapped her hands over her ears, only to find that it made no difference, since the ‘voice’ was apparently inside her head.
The thing screamed for what seemed like hours, although she knew it was only moments, and then fell silent. Its velvety form melted, dissolving into the ground, until all that was left was a puff of black smoke and then, nothing. Only shadows remained; real shadows, normal shadows, cast from the now dying fires behind her. Anne sensed the man turn and walk toward the corner of the alley, then heard rummaging as he searched for his lighter. Herself, she couldn’t seem to look away from that spot, a part of her convinced that if she did it would reappear once again.
Click.
She jumped slightly, she hadn’t heard him walk back towards her and the sudden sound, so close, was a little unnerving. Still she didn’t look away.
Clack.
“It’s gone,” he said quietly, coming up beside her to stare down at the spot. “It’s not coming back this time.”
She forced herself to look away, turning slowly toward him. “You promise?” she asked, attempting to sound coy, but managing only desperately hopeful.
“I promise,” he said as he turned to look at her. “Thank you, by the way. It was a very brave thing you did,