CLAWS
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
Margaret Anthony composed herself by first pulling her clothing tight to her upper body. Then she took in a large breath of the musty Summer New York City air swirling around her before slowly blowing it out through her pursed lips. She could taste the floating microbial impurities of the funky city on the surface of her tongue. “Yuck!” she whispered as she realized her regret with what she had just done to herself. Then she peered into the misty darkness in the alley in front of her and begged for an answer to these three questions -- “What exactly are you? How can you possibly exist? And, why in the hell am I trying to force you to confront me?”
She took a hesitant step into the narrow, dead end alley way -- stepping toward the dark creature residing at the far end as she reached out toward it with her right hand, swiping back and forth at the heavy swirling mist that seemed to grow thicker the closer she got to the creature.
“What in the hell am I doing?” she whispered to herself as her eyes began to focus on the enormous shadowy form standing in silence about thirty yards in front of her.
She took another step, a slow careful step, to bring herself one yard closer to the creature. She could see it better now. And, it was looking directly at her with its green feline-like eyes that seemed to glow even in this low light. She was taken aback when the creature placed its huge right arm across its chest and silently extended five eight inch claws from all five of its digits on its dinner plate sized paw.
Margaret could not help but drawn in another short foul breath of mist and air. She stared directly into the visible eyes of the creature. She then lightly placed her fists on her hips, showed some attitude, and said, “Why are you threatening me? You saved my life two weeks ago, remember? You appeared, did what you did to those dangerous thugs… and then you vanished as suddenly and silently as you appeared. Surely, you must have known that I might try to find you?”
The creature stood there amongst the swirling gray mist, gripped in silence… unmoving and frightening.
“Hey, goddamn it! I know you’re intelligent. I know you understand what I am saying to you. Speak to me!”
The creature did not move. Its black furred clawed feet seemed to grip the asphalt as it stood there stiff as a statue. Its claws were still out.
“You’ve now revealed yourself to me,” She continued, forcing herself to be bolder. “You didn’t have to answer my call into the darkness, but you did. Now you’re threatening me? What are you going to do? Are you going to hurt me? Kill me? Eat me?”
The creature slowly and silently withdrew its claws and dropped its arm to its side. Margaret then took several more steps toward the creature, until she was close enough to touch it. Her fear was now gone. She had unconsciously dropped her fear because she felt genuinely betrayed by this threatening behavior. She was now more determined than ever to get the answers she wanted from this huge otherworldly creature.
She started to form a word with her mouth. She began to ask another question of the creature. But the creature cut her off by raising a hand toward her face and giving a quick side to side motion that unmistakably meant for her to stop it… now!
The creature then spoke. She stepped back a yard in disbelief as the creature told her in a death rattle voice that sounded like a nightmare, “You will never again speak ill using the name of your deity!”
What else could she say in response to that intimidating declaration, other than, “You’ve got my word… I will never use God’s name in vain again.”
And then the creature actually stood up. Margaret is very tall at 6’1” standing on her bare feet. As it turns out, the creature was actually crouched at rest, like a feline. What was once a 6”4” creature standing over her is now an 8’3” behemoth towering over her.
Now having to look up to see the creature‘s eyes, Margaret presented these questions as statements: “Alright now… can I ask my question of you again, in a more respectable fashion… exactly what are you? And how can you possibly talk. I mean, I don‘t want to insult your intelligence, but… how can you possibly speak to me… and in English… and have morality that you can express to me in the form of a threat?”
“We have interacted enough tonight,” growled the creature as it took a step back to press itself against the brick wall behind itself. “Another time…” it whispered to her in a softer growl as it began to quickly fade away in the boiling mist that was thickening the alley in blinding grayness. Within seconds the creature was gone and the mist began to evaporate as though it was never there. The only witness to this bizarre encounter was the original city musty air and its microbial core.
She did an about face to exit the dark alley. Suddenly, as she stepped back into the neon brightness of the city street, everything around her no longer had any relevance. She looked left down the always busy street and then looked right toward the four blocks down the street to her apartment. The flashing signs and foot traffic and countless conversations and other human interactions no longer meant anything to Margaret. How do you go back to your normal life when you have just encounter what could be your guardian demon or your new intimidating tormentor or some unknown species of intelligent mammal or maybe even some type of other worldly beast. How do you go back to your normal life?
Margaret Anthony finally fell asleep at 4:42 AM. She could not eat her late night snack because she was to full of energy and thoughts. She showered away the city grime at midnight, read a couple of chapters in the good novel she is reading, eventually turned off the bedside lamp and slowly drifted off to sleep… to dream about a thing that goes bump in her night and appears before her in dark alleys.
And what would Margaret Anthony dream about if she would open her eyes right now to stare into the reflective green eyes of the huge, dark and mysterious, creature staring at her sleeping form… standing at the foot of her bed… towering over her with the top of its head actually brushing the ceiling… watching her sleep… mulling over the type of thoughts a creature from the darkest darkness thinks about…
-end-
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