CLAWS

Presented for your perusal, dear reader, another early Countdown To Horror Zero tale.
This second offering of this story is basically for the many who missed my early original posting.
I have about three more older postings to release.

RLJ


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(Season 1, Episode 62)



My name is Cameron Avery Brooks.
I do not talk about my personal Horrorwalker experience.
I will never repeat the things it told me.
But,
I know that the Horrorwalker creature demands,
As usual,
For me to tell the tale it made me read from its monster tome...
A horror gift to all of you.
And so... meet Margaret Anthony of New York City.
This is really her horror tale!
I wish I knew where she is now,
And if she actually has survived her horror encounter.
But I will now tell you what I know of her life.

Here is my Horrorwalker Travel Guide Tale of her horror experience, titled:

Claws!

CAB

CLAWS

(Harlem, New York City)



-one-

The moment is now… on a Friday in the city!

Margaret Anthony composed herself by first pulling her clothing tighter to her upper body. Then she took in a large breath of the musty Summer New York City air that was lightly swirling around her before slowly blowing it out through her pursed lips. She could taste the floating microbial impurities in the funky city air sticking onto the surface of her tongue.

“Yuck!” she whispered as she realized her regret with what she had just done to herself. 

She, again, flashed the thought inside her mind of… “Oh my god, how I wish I could scrub down this entire city with a bucket of Dawn dish detergent and a wire scrub brush!”

She took off work an hour early today. She needed to be at the place that changed her life forever at exactly a particular time. She stepped off the bus with four minutes to spare and there was the place… right over there.

Then she focused her attention to the task at hand as she peered into the misty darkness in the alley in front of her and begged in a whisper for an answer to these three questions, which she directed into the alley -- “What exactly are you? How can you possibly exist? And, why in the hell am I trying to force you to confront me? Holy Shit, what am I doing?”

She then took a hesitant step into the strange, narrow, dead end alley way -- positioned totally out of context between the drug store and the day care center -- stepping over the entrance threshold toward the darkness at the end of the enclosure. And just like before, when they grabbed her by her hair and clothing to openly and loudly and blatantly drag her into the alley, absolutely not one person on the busy street appeared to notice her situation as she stepped into the unknown surreal.

The alley was 52 steps from entrance to back brick wall. Up in the blackness above her head, somewhere up there, has to be a ceiling or a roof… because, there was not a sliver of sunlight beaming down into the alley on this warm, bright cloudless day. But, despite the blackness in front of her, she could see well enough into the strangeness to see what she hoped to find. 

-two-

She could sense that it was there… this creature residing at the far end by the brick wall, 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 twenty 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, again as before, taken aback by the frightening mass of this… this monster. And 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, she realized things were about to become… “real.”

She could not help but drawn in another short foul breath of mist and air. She then stood there, unmoving, before the thing in the darkness!

-three-

She stared directly into the starkly visible eyes of the creature. She carefully took a few more steps toward the creature before she 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 from the darkness, did what horrible things you did to those dangerous thugs who dragged me into this very same alley… and then you vanished, taking their bodies with you, 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 and stagnant darkness, 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, damn you!”

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 whatever fear might have been inside her. 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 demand 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 gravelly, choking nightmare, “You will never again speak ill using the name of your deity!”

Her lower jaw literally dropped into the cleavage of her ample bosom.

-four-

They stood there for a full three minutes staring at each other. One of them could not believe what had just happened!

-five-

What else could she say in response to that intimidating declaration, other than, “I will never use God’s name in vain again.” She said those words loud enough to make sure the creature heard her response.

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.

“Alright now…” Margaret began to ask, looking up into the creature‘s face. “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 to its rear. “Another time…” it whispered to her in a softer growl as it began to quickly fade away in the boiling mist that was suddenly thickening the alley in blinding misty 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 now nighttime 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 after-hours foot traffic and the 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 encountered 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?

And then it suddenly hit her… the realization that when she entered the alley the time was 4:40 PM.! A glance at the huge bank clock across street displayed a time of 11:03 PM.

“What the heck?” She whispered, remember the creature’s warning about cursing. “Where did all that time go? I thought I was only in the alley for a few minutes?” 

A quick glance at her wrist watch revealed another mystery to her. The watch had stopped working and the time was stuck at 4:40! 

-six-

It was a real struggle to get her head out of the bizarreness of the past few hours, but Margaret Anthony finally fell asleep at 4:42 AM. But before that…

She could not eat her late night snack because she was too full of energy and thoughts. At around 12:30 AM, she showered away the city grime that stuck to her body and hair, read a couple of chapters in the good graphic novel she is reading, eventually turned off the bedside lamp and slowly drifted off to sleep… to dream about a huge furry monster thing that talks to her, and goes bump in her night, and appears before her in what might be a mystical dark alley.

And what else would Margaret Anthony dream about if she would open her eyes right now to peer into the darkness of her bedroom… to stare into the reflective green eyes of the huge ebon fur covered, dark and mysterious, creature staring down at her sleeping form… standing at the foot of her bed… towering over her with the top of its head actually brushing the ceiling… both arms crossed over its chest… claws extended… watching her sleep… mulling over the type of thoughts a creature from the darkest darkness thinks about… in the darkness before the dawn arrives?

CMB