said.
“I’m done with this anyway,” Alex said and stormed out of the town hall.
Dennis felt a little sigh of relief as he watched Alex exit through the door. Alex was always egging people on. Margery was right, he was a redneck down to the core. He had a couple of rusted vehicles in the middle of his yard and a large refrigerator on his front porch. He always wore red flannel and cut off blue jean shorts. He had a tattoo of Texas on his left ankle and a confederate flag on his right arm.
Dennis stood outside the town hall as everybody left, making sure no fights broke out among the townsfolk. He hated the monthly meetings. Just small town politics. Merrybrook was a very secluded small town in Texas. The nearest town was one hundred miles away. He locked the doors to the town hall. He was ready to head home and crack open a bottle of whiskey. He heard the sound of a garbage can being knocked over in the distance. He shook his head. He knew a raccoon was on the prowl, looking in garbage cans for food.
From the corner of his left eye, he saw something move in the dark. He turned around to see what it was. There wasn’t anything there. He heard something else fall over from behind him. This time sounding real close. He could hear heavy breathing. He turned around quickly, and still he saw nothing. He heard the sounds of metal being crushed and glass being smashed. He turned around toward the parking lot, and saw that the windows in his squad car were busted out. The hood was caved in like something heavy had been sitting on it.
“Who’s there?”
He pulled his gun out of his holster and slowly walked over to his squad car. From behind the corner of the town hall, he could see a black, dark shape. It looked more like a large animal. He could see a large wing-like shape.
“Come out and show yourself!”
It emerged from the darkness and was huge. The creature stood at least ten feet tall and had two large wings. It was completely gray and possessed two large, glowing, red eyes. It looked very similar to the statues of gargoyles that were on top of the old museum downtown. It started to approach the sheriff, growling louder each step it took.
“I’m warning you to back off!” Dennis said, pointing his gun at the creatures head.
It continued to move closer. Dennis pulled the trigger and shot it straight between its two glowing, red eyes. The creature hunched forward and fell to the ground. The ground shook slightly from the impact. Dennis moved over to the creature and touched it. Its skin was quickly turning from a flesh to stone. It grabbed him with its claw and cut deeply into his skin.
Dennis dropped his gun. His arm was bleeding badly from the cut. The creature’s arm fell to the ground and shattered. Its whole body shattered into a thousand tiny pieces and turned to dust. There was no longer any evidence that a creature had been there. What dust that remained quickly blew away with the nightly breeze. The only evidence that remained was the large bleeding cut on his arm. He went to the trunk of his car and pulled out his extra uniform and ripped off one of the sleeves and tied it around the cut on his arm. He was going to have to go to the emergency room and have it checked out.
He walked over to the front of his squad car. Not only was the hood caved in, but the front left rim was bent inward. The creature had definitely been sitting on the front of his car. His only option was to walk to the emergency room.
Dr. Aisha Willows, a Plain Jane with long blond hair tied back in a bun, walked over to the bed that Dennis was sitting on. He was still holding his arm wrapped in the sleeve of his uniform.
“Sherriff, have a little accident?” Dr. Willows asked.
“Had an encounter with a very large animal,” Dennis said, not wanting to elaborate.
Dr. Willows unwrapped the sleeve and looked at his arm, puzzled.
“There’s not a scratch on you.”
“Huh?” He looked down at his arm and it looked normal. No scratches, no markings of any kind. Did he imagine the whole encounter with the gargoyle?
“Maybe you need to get some rest,” Dr. Willows said.
“Maybe. I’m sorry I wasted your valuable time,” the sheriff said and stood up.
“That’s ok. It’s been a slow night.”
Dennis arrived home and sat down in front of the television and watched the news. Several hours had passed by and he was dreaming he was walking in the park. Everything had a red glow to it. The trees, bushes, garbage cans all looked smaller than they usually did. He saw a dog staring at him. The dog was shaking in fear and then it ran away. The park was very silent. He looked up and saw that there was a full moon. A bat flew by his head and chased after some moths. He looked down at his hands and they were huge, similar to the gargoyle he had encountered.
Dennis snapped awake from his dream by the sound of his cellphone ringing. He looked around and it was daylight. He had fallen asleep in front of the television. He grabbed the cellphone from the coffee table and answered it.
“Sherriff Tavenier.”
“Dennis, you better get to the museum. You won’t believe this. Somebody stole one of the statues.”
“Which one?” Dennis asked, already knowing the answer.
“The huge gargoyle one.”
“I’m on my way.”
Deputy Martin Miller stood next to the elderly curator of the museum, Alfred Montehue. There was a large gaping hole where the gargoyle statue normally stood. The deputy immediately ran over to Dennis’ pickup truck.
“Where’s your squad car?”
“At the town hall. Had a little accident last night.”
Alfred came over and pointed toward the front of the museum. “Dennis, please explain to me how somebody can make off with a ten foot statue. I don’t think even a semi-truck could haul that statue away.”
“Maybe it walked away,” Dennis said seriously.
“Are you making a joke out of this?” Alfred asked.
“No, I’m not. I just can’t imagine anybody in this town could steal a large statue. There’s no way anybody could accomplish such a feat without being seen. We have a few armed community watchmen patrolling the streets on a nightly basis,” Dennis said.
“That statue is worth at least seventy-five thousand dollars,” Alfred said sadly.
“Whoever did this, we’ll catch him,” Deputy Miller assured him.
Dennis looked at both of them as they continued to talk between one another. He thought about telling them about his encounter with the gargoyle last night, but he knew Alfred would believe he was mocking him. His cellphone started to ring.
“Sherriff Tavenier.”
“Dennis, we have a situation at the bar,” Kelli, their dispatcher said. “Alex Horton is drunk and causing a scene.”
“Already, it’s not even lunchtime yet.”
“I think he’s still riled up from last night’s town hall meeting.”
“I’m on my way.”
Dennis shook his head in disbelief. This was going to be a very long day.
“Impeach the president,” Alex said, as he stumbled around the tables in the neighborhood bar. He had been drinking nonstop since the bar had opened a couple hours earlier. “We will all be on the unemployment lines if he’s not stopped.”
“Alex, you need to settle down,” Kimmy Grant, the bartender, said. She was tall and had long curly black hair. She had tattoos on both of her arms.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you? Damn, Democrats!”
“I thought the Republicans were the problem,” Dennis said as he entered the bar.
“Republicans are the ones that care about us down here in Texas. If the Democrats had their way, there would be a wall wrapped all the way around Texas,” Alex said, colliding into one of the pool tables.
“Ok, I think it’s time to take you home.”
“No, sheriff. It’s my God given right to be wherever I want.”
“Not if you’re drunk, it isn’t.”
“I’m not drunk,” Alex said, tripping
over a chair and stumbling to the floor. The sheriff went over to him and helped him up onto a chair.
“Kimmy, some coffee.”
“Right away, Sheriff.”
“Things aren’t right here in this town,” Alex said quietly. “There are creatures lurking about. Don’t tell anyone.”
“Creatures, did you see one?”
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. All I know is the Democrats are responsible. Sent some creature to kill us Republicans. Judging by the look on your face, you’ve seen it too.” Dennis handed the coffee to Alex. “Watch your back, Sheriff.”
Dennis stood next to the tow truck at the town hall. Norman looked at the smashed squad car. He looked over at the sheriff and shook his head.
“An animal did this?” Norman asked.
“I witnessed it myself.”
“Did a bull ram it?”
“I think it was a buck.”
“A buck? Now that would be a prize winning one, if it survived the impact,” Norm said hooking the chains up to the squad car.
“I think a hunter would run away scared if he saw the size of this buck.”
“No doubt,” Norm said and started to pull the squad car onto the back of the tow truck. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the insurance totals this squad car.”
“That will give me an excuse to get me one of those new squad cars. The ones with the sirens that sound like they are from a science fiction movie.”
“I like those,” Norm said.
Later on that day, Alex Horton went outside to sit on his porch. He pulled a six pack out of his porch refrigerator and sat down on the lawn chair to watch the sunset. He could