Avalon 1.2 Beasts in the Night part 3 of 3

August 20, 2025July 26, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The bogy beast was a small one. It only stood about sixteen feet when it stood on its hind legs, which it did as soon as it reached the first hut. It had to be on all fours to walk. The hair of the beast turned out to be more like shredded steel than hair. It looked sharper than a porcupine and able to reject every bullet short of a direct hit. The snout looked more like a wolf than a bear, and it had some extra teeth. It seemed impossible to tell if it was a reptile or a mammal, but it was easy to see what it had in mind. The hut got torn to shreds and then the beast nosed around in the wreckage for any tasty morsels it might find. When it found nothing, flames came with a roar and crisped the remains of the hut.

“Fire!” Lockhart yelled, and gunfire burst out from every corner. The beast was surrounded, except for the avenue by which it arrived. Several bullets penetrated and the beast roared and turned. It reared up in the midst of the withering fire and swiped at the air with its great claws, as if trying to tear the bullets from the air.

It roared again and spread fire in a circle around its body. The gunfire paused while people ducked behind cover. Then the gunfire started again, but overall, it had minimal effect until Lieutenant Harper had the idea of going for the eyes. She paused, but only long enough to clip her scope to the rifle. When she fired, she certainly struck something. The beast reared its head back, roared and shot a stream of flame straight into the sky.

With a final roar of protest, the beast returned to all fours, turned, and galloped out of the village. It ran very close to Boston who wisely crouched down in the shadows and tried to become as invisible as possible. Then it was gone.

The people came pouring from their hiding places around the village and began to celebrate, but Lockhart knew better. “It is wounded now and that will make it more dangerous.”

“We must track it while we can,” Roland said.

“Unfortunately,” Mingus agreed, “And I will be here when you get back.”

“Won’t that be dangerous?” Alexis asked.

“Yes,” Lincoln said. “That is why you need to stay here with Boston, your father and Doctor Procter.” She kissed him, but Boston heard.

“Heck no,” she said. “I’m going. I’m good on a hunt. Probably better than you.”

“Lieutenant, you stay in case the beast doubles back,” Captain Decker commanded.

“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Harper came quicker with the sir this time, but it was clear she was unhappy once again with the order.

“Okay redneck,” Lockhart smiled at Boston when that got settled. “You lead the way.”

Boston grabbed Roland and together they started out front. It turned out to be an easy trail. The purple puss that served for blood in the beast glowed a little, like neon. It was probably fire inspired. When they reached the edge of the woods, the broken branches and crushed saplings made the trail even easier.

“I don’t like this,” Boston whispered. She looked back. Lockhart and Lincoln were alert and trying to listen for what they could not see in the dark. Captain Decker had his night goggles on, but it remained hard to see behind a tree. “This trail is too easy.”

Roland paused and looked at her. He knelt and she knelt beside him as the company came to a halt. “A bogy beast is clever, but like a fox, not a person,” he assured her, before he turned to the group and spoke a bit louder. “It stopped here and I would guess it licked its wounds. The thing is, if it makes it until morning, it will rest underground and be all healed in a day.”

“We have to find it before it rests,” Lockhart said, even as the beast reared up in front of them. One roar of fire and a backwards swipe of a claw caught all three who were standing there. Captain Decker got knocked to the ground while Lincoln and Lockhart crashed into the trees. All were knocked senseless. The beast looked down on the two still kneeling on the ground and roared fire again. Roland quickly hovered over Boston.

“I set a shield,” Roland shouted next to Boston’s ear. They still felt the heat and Roland’s back turned red, but the fire got deflected. All the same, Boston screamed. She got answered by a white light in the distance that raced toward them.

The bogy beast reared up, determined to let its claws do what the flame failed to do, but it also saw the streaking light and sensed something. It began to turn away and let out a very different sound as the unicorn leapt over Roland and Boston and drove its horn deep into the beast’s chest. The beast let out a chilling noise as it clawed the unicorn and knocked it away. Then it stumbled as its putrid, flaming purple insides came pouring out of the gaping hole.

Decker got up by then and he began to blast away at the hole. The beast collapsed. It kept up that unnerving sound of pain and surprise until its body quit wiggling. Captain Decker shot out the eye Harper had missed as his way of making sure the beast stayed dead.

“My guess is the bogy could not see the unicorn out of the eye Lieutenant Harper shot, until it was too late,” Roland surmised.

Lockhart came up limping and leaning on Lincoln, but he waved them off. He would be fine, shortly. Boston ran to the unicorn. It had been injured, terribly.

Keng chose that moment to come running up. “I missed it? I missed everything!” He did not sound happy, but the others smiled at the young man.

“Glen. Please help me.” Boston called.

“I – I can’t,” Keng said.

Then someone else showed up. She glowed in the night and Roland immediately fell to his knees. It took the others a bit longer to feel the awesome fear of this person. Then they joined the elf on their knees. It felt not quite like the angel, but something in that direction.

“I go away for a few days and the whole place falls apart,” the woman complained.

Keng, of course, kept to his feet, and the woman gave him a curious look before she did something to tone down her glow. “Who are these people?” she asked Keng.

“These are friends of mine,” Keng said proudly, and to the woman’s stare he added, “What? I can have friends.” The woman said nothing, so Keng introduced the five who were there. “They have fallen back in time, but they are trying to get home. You could maybe help them?” He was not exactly asking.

The woman stepped up to Lockhart and looked down into the man’s eyes. Lockhart had to look away before she spoke again. “Three days is the most even the gods are permitted to bend time. It will not help these.”

“Yes, of course. I knew that.” Keng said. “Oh, yes, this is Nagi. She is the goddess of my village.” He remembered himself then and went to his knees, but Nagi just made a face before she smiled.

“A bit late for that,” she said, and stepped in close for a look at the bogy beast. Then she stepped up to stand behind Boston who had become wracked with tears, crying all over the unicorn. “A gift for defending my village,” she said, and waved her hand. The unicorn was made whole, and as it stood Boston’s tears turned from sorrow to joy. “The bogy does not belong here and neither does this creature. There are no unicorns in this part of the world at present, so you must take your pet with you when you leave.” Boston simply nodded as the goddess turned her back and returned to the others. The unicorn bowed to the goddess in the way of horses. It touched its horn to the earth before it turned and bounded off into the woods.

The goddess did not seem concerned with that as she stepped up to Keng and made him stand once again. She walked once around him like a person might examine a prize animal. She began to glow again, but in a different sort of way. Every male eye became fastened to her, like they were glued to her as she spoke her conclusion. “I think I could have use for this one.” She smiled at her own thoughts. “Yes, I will,” she said and vanished.

When they returned to the village and reported their success—without mentioning the goddess on Keng’s insistence, Mingus put a damper on their celebration.

“But that means the bogy man is still out there, somewhere, and he is not going to be happy.”

“We will burn that bridge when we come to it,” Captain Decker suggested.

“Meanwhile, get some sleep,” Lockhart ordered.

“I vote we stay here a couple of days to heal and help these people rebuild,” Alexis said as she laid hands on her brother to heal his scorched back.

“I think the goddess would rather see us move on in the morning,” Lincoln responded, and he told her, Mingus, and Doctor Procter of their encounter.

Doctor Procter appeared thoughtful. “Perhaps we should move on tonight.”

Lockhart did not answer the man directly. All he said was “Get some rest.”

************************

Monday

Avalon 1.3 The Way of Dreams is the third episode with only 3 parts. The travelers run into an early example of human conflict, and the Bogyman is unhappy at losing his pet. Until Monday, Happy Reading

Avalon 1.2 Beasts in the Night part 2 of 3

August 19, 2025July 26, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Are you all right?” Lockhart voiced his first concern when he arrived, Captain Decker beside him. The women nodded. “We wait until the light is better before we investigate,” he decided, and Mingus, Roland and Captain Decker saw the wisdom in that.

Back in camp, they made what breakfast they could out of the leftover deer and greens, and Lincoln distracted them all by suggesting they pack the camp and be prepared to move out quickly, just in case. The way he phrased it the others could hardly argue.

The sun had come well up by the time Lockhart, Mingus, Roland, Captain Decker, and Boston made for the faint wisps of smoke that still trailed into the sky. Lieutenant Harper wanted to go with them, but Captain Decker ordered her to stay and defend the camp.

“Yes, sir,” Katie responded, but she did not sound too happy about it.

Boston started out front. She thought for a second that only she could pinpoint the location, but then she saw the smoke, remembered the roar, and slipped back to a safer place between Lockhart and Roland. They had to separate a little when they got to the trees at the bottom of the hill. Boston immediately came across a great, old tree that got torn up by the roots. Lockhart pointed out several smaller, young trees that looked broken and crushed to the ground, like they had been stepped on.

“This is not good,” Mingus said. He examined the trees and bushes that were burnt and singed. Some of the trees still smoked, though none were outright burning.

“Over here,” Roland called.

They found the ghoul sitting with his back to a tree, dying. He bled, Boston guessed, though it looked more like slimy green and purple sauce than blood. The ghoul looked up at them and made a sound that could only have been laughter. Boston felt the hair rise on the back of her neck at that sound.

“This is definitely not good,” Mingus said.

“Your unicorn?” Captain Decker asked, but Boston shook her head. That was no unicorn sound she heard in the night.

The ghoul looked up at the captain and laughed at the word unicorn. The captain responded by shooting the ghoul. It deflated and compressed and left a green smudge on the dirt while the captain spoke.

“Mercy killing.”

“We might have gotten some information.” Lockhart scolded the man. Mingus mitigated.

“No, we wouldn’t.”

They started back up the hill to the camp when another roar could be heard in the distance. Fortunately, it seemed some distance away.

“I hope that’s a dragon,” Roland spoke softly, and Boston looked at the man, believing he must be crazy.

“A dragon spirit would be better,” Mingus heard his son with his good elf ears and responded.

“And if it is not?” Lockhart asked.

“Definitely not good.” Mingus said it again.

~~~*~~~

The travelers arrived at what looked to them like the first real village they had seen. Instead of tents, they found makeshift dwellings built of bamboo and grasses. They looked crude, to be sure, and easily taken down, but solid enough. They were also easily burned from the look of some of them.

“Strangers. Strangers!” One man saw them, yelled in panic, and ran off. A few women screamed and ran into their huts. Lockhart halted their progress somewhere near the middle of the village, a village deserted by the time they stopped.

“Nothing like a first-class welcome,” he said.

“Why are they afraid of us?” Boston wondered out loud.

“They are certainly afraid of something,” Roland added.

“Some people are just afraid of anything they don’t understand,” Lincoln suggested, and Lieutenant Harper stepped up to agree, but Mingus spoke first.

“No, they are just rabbits. Scared rabbits. So, son-in-law, welcome home.”

“Father!” Alexis objected, but Lincoln just ignored the elf.

Six elderly men appeared at the end of the row of houses. They did not look too brave. They came forward in a group where they might not have come by themselves. The eldest spoke when they were near. “Are you of the goddess or of the beast?”

“Neither.” Lockhart spoke plainly enough. “We are travelers and seek only shelter for the night. We will move on tomorrow.”

The men turned to each other and began a whispered argument.

“Tell me about the goddess,” Lieutenant Harper butted in, and the men paused so the eldest could speak again.

“Nagi-di is the goddess of our village. Some say she has sent the beast because she is angry with us. Others say a jealous, rival god sent the beast. We have prayed every day and made offerings to the goddess for her help, but we do not know if she has abandoned us. Please, are you the help, or have you come to kill all that the beast has not destroyed?”

“We are here to help,” Alexis spoke up, and Lockhart turned on her.

“What is it with you and Boston? You are not permitted to offer bread or help or anything else that commits this group in any way without asking permission. Is that clear?” He was not happy.

Alexis dropped her eyes but said nothing as Mingus stepped forward with a question. “What kind of beast?”

The men took one look at Mingus and took a big step back, but to their credit, they did not turn and run. They simply appeared afraid to answer. A boy came around the corner and pushed right passed the men. He looked like a young man of about fifteen and one of the men yelled at him.

“Keng!”

But Keng ignored the man, ran right up to Boston, and gave her a big hug. “You guys got here just in time,” Keng said. He let go of Boston and turned toward Mingus. “It’s a bogy beast,” he said. “I was beginning to think it would be the end for us all, but here you are.”

“But if the beast is the end of the story, we might mess things up if we help.” Lincoln felt concerned about changing time.

“Maybe,” Keng admitted. “But I don’t think it is supposed to be here. I haven’t seen its master, but you know they are never far away.”

“Master?” Lockhart asked.

Keng looked at the man and paused before he smiled. “Not the masters, like that. I mean the bogy man.”

“What is a bogy beast?” Captain Decker wanted to know.

“A bogy man’s dog,” Mingus answered.

“A lesser spirit, up to twenty feet tall or long with razor sharp claws and teeth and it breathes fire. Nearly impossible to kill, the database says. It does look sort of like a bear.” Boston added the last for Lieutenant Harper.

“Definitely not good,” Mingus added under his breath.

“So, you will stay and help?” Keng asked. He looked up at Lockhart again and Lockhart reluctantly nodded.

“But my first duty is to get this crew home,” he said. “If it becomes impossible, we are out of here.”

“Understood.” Keng turned to the men. “They will stay and help, but we need to treat them well while they are here.”

The man who yelled at Keng stepped free of the group and slapped Keng in the ear, hard. “You have no business telling your elders what to do.” He immediately turned to the travelers. “You are welcome here, and Nagi’s blessing be upon you.”

“Come out, come out.” Other men yelled. “They are sent by the goddess and are here to help.”

Alexis stepped up to Keng to make sure that he was all right. Boston moved up, too, but her lips were moving. “Come out, come out wherever you are and meet the young lady who fell from a star.”

Keng had a hand on his ear, but he smiled on hearing that.

The travelers set up camp in the middle of the village. The people brought some of their food but did not stand around to stare. They especially avoided the elves and some, no doubt, felt the elves were as dangerous as the beast. One of the elder men commented on this.

“How is it that the spirits of the earth do your bidding? Are they safe?”

“We have a common goal,” Lockhart said, with a sideways look at Mingus. “And no, they are not safe, but they will help.”

“But you have them so well trained,” another man commented. Roland had to step in front of his father to prevent an incident.

“So, tell me, do we have to hunt the beast?”

The two elders looked at each other, surprised at being asked such a question. “Why, no,” one finally said. “It has come to the village twice in the night.

“Though it did not come last night,” the other said, thoughtfully.

“Yes, something must have distracted it,” the first concluded.

“Us,” Lockhart said. “Only a ghoul got in the way.”

Not long after that, they heard the not too distant roar.

Elect II—1 Summer Fun, part 3 of 3

October 5, 2016September 30, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

At five-thirty, Jessica began to pace back and forth between the refrigerator and the dishwasher. She reminded Emily of the way Detective Lisa paced, and she imagined Jessica was pacing for the same reason. The girl was anxious, and wanted to do something, but first they had to feed Melissa. Melissa gave it everything she had and was utterly drained. She was not tired. She had slept well, especially after Maria gave her the sedative, but she was starving. Apparently magic took a lot of energy. Only Tyler kept up with her eating.

Emily leaned over to Melissa at one point and the girl stopped eating to look up. She had missed all of the action Freshman year and felt like a bit of an outsider. The others all accepted her, and Amina and Maria did everything they could to reassure her, but without Emily’s approval the rest did not matter. Emily had run into a big, bad and real wicked witch last year and one of her friends was burned to ashes. Melissa understood that Emily’s feelings toward witches were not good, even little witches such as herself. She felt the churning begin in her stomach before Emily surprised her.

“Welcome to the club,” Emily said, and there was not the least hint of reservation in Emily’s words. In fact, Emily leaned forward to give Melissa a little hug.

Melissa wanted to cry for joy as Amina and Mindy both interrupted with the same word, “Tribe,” and Amina added, “Not club.”

“Whatever,” Jessica said. “Can we go?”

“So where do we go from here?” Tyler asked between bites.

“Hidden beneath the spell of protection, Melissa set a simple tracer spell,” Maria explained. “With any luck, it will lead us back to the bogyman’s lair.”

“We will have to be prepared to take on the bogy beast,” Mindy said between nibbling on her danish and twirling her red hair. To the curious looks of the others, she explained. “Like a bogyman’s dog, but the size of a grizzly bear, metal plated, big jaws, deadly claws and breathes fire.”

Jessica stopped pacing and stared. She shook her head. “Let’s find it first,” and she resumed her pacing.

“Awesome,” Tyler said.

“You’re not going,” Emily told her brother.

“What?” Tyler protested with as many words as he could think of, but he ended with, “I’ll tell mom.” At the moment, and for once Emily was not fazed by that.

“Tell her,” Emily said, as she got up to get her sword off the kitchen counter where she set it down when she got out the danish. “She has no business pretending she doesn’t know what is going on.”

The girls followed Emily out to the car, and Emily looked at her sword and added a thought. “I can’t drive with this strapped to my belt.”

“I’ll drive,” Jessica volunteered.

“No!” Maria, Amina and Emily all shouted. Jessica driving was a frightening thought.

“I’ll drive,” Maria insisted. “Emily and Melissa sit up front with me.”

“Sorry, no room.” Emily shrugged for her brother. “Maybe next time.”

Tyler was still protesting. “What if there isn’t a next time?”

The girls all laughed as they climbed into the car. Maria started it up and they pulled down the street to be out of sight before Melissa activated her tracer. She sat still for a moment before she raised her arms. Then she moaned and doubled over, and Maria and Emily reached for her.

“I’m fine,” Melissa said. “I just way overextended myself yesterday and I don’t need just rest and food, I think I need some healing time.”

“Like a pulled muscle on the sports field?’ Emily wondered.

“Something like that,” Maria said before she looked up at the street. “I don’t see anything. I thought you said it would be like a blue trail.”

“Yes,” Melissa nodded as she sat up. She explained for the others. “My magic tends to be blue in color. I don’t know if the colors mean anything, but something like this should be blue.”

“Wait a minute.” Maria turned the car around and went back by the house. Melissa saw the trail there, like a dotted line of bluish lights going down the street in the opposite direction.

“I see it, but it is so faint.” Maria admitted.

“Same for me,” Mindy said, though she squinted with all her might.

“I see it bright and clear,” Emily and Amina both said, and Jessica added her voice.

“Looks like it crosses that lawn up ahead.”

“How do you see it?” Mindy wondered. Jessica shrugged.

“Bright, like Christmas lights only all blue,” she said, and Amina let out a slight smile, but said nothing.

After that, the seats got shuffled. Melissa had to drive because of the ones who could see the trail best, Amina did not have a driver’s license and Emily and Jessica were going to have to get out when necessary to follow the line across yards to the next street over. The car followed them around when that happened, but thankfully the bogyman appeared to stick mostly to the streets, especially when he got into town

As the sun came up, the bluish lights began to grow dim and Maria and Mindy could no longer see the line at all. “I’m sorry,” Melissa apologized. “I guess this is a magic better suited for nighttime. I didn’t know. I’m just learning.”

“We all are,” Emily assured her.

“I bet it is more of a temporal thing,” Mindy suggested. “The spell was not going to last forever. We probably spent too much time cleaning up and having breakfast.”

“But I feel we are close,” Amina said.

“Pull over here and park.” Emily pointed. The dim line was headed off down an alleyway between buildings.

Melissa pulled over, scraped the tires and paused to catch her breath. She really needed healing time, that was certain. Emily got out and checked her tires before she stood up straight. They started down the alleyway, all six together. They went by several dumpsters, a couple of loading docks and back doors, but the line stayed straight down the middle of the alley until at once it blinked and went out.

“Sorry,” Melissa said and Emily pointed at her.

“You need to stop saying that.”

“Now where do we go?” Maria asked.

“Keep straight and see if we can see some other sign of activity?” Emily suggested, but Jessica interrupted.

“In here,” she said. She was squatting and looking at something in the dust. Emily leaned over, but could not see it. “Bogy blood,” Jessica pointed at a little purple spot in front of a door. Emily thought it looked like a drip of purple paint, hardly noticeable, but they had nothing else to go on.

“She is right,” Amina said and looked at the door. “It must be in there.”

“J & Jr. Plastics,” Maria read the sign out front.

“The door is locked.” Mindy tried it. Jessica stood and the two of them together put their shoulders to it. Mindy backed away with the word, “Ouch.” Jessica backed off and invited Emily to the front. Emily easily kicked the door wide open and did not give it another thought. “Ogre strength,” Mindy mumbled.

They stepped into a relatively empty warehouse room where pallets of plastic cups and plastic plates sat along the far wall, and rolls of plastic sheeting for wrapping up shipping pallets looked abandoned. A forklift was parked by the pallets, but otherwise the floor was empty, that is, apart from the figure that stayed back in the shadows. The windows along the same wall as the door looked very dirty, and though they let in little of the sunlight, clearly the bogyman was not interested in light.

“I was given instructions,” the bogyman talked, much to the surprise of the women. “If I could not get you to drop out of school, I was to kill you.” The bogyman put a hand to his back where he was evidently cut. He shouted something unintelligible and unrepeatable and they heard the roar from the back of the building. The bogy beast came to its master, and the master simply said, “Kill.”

***

The bogy beast turned, roared again, and let out a stream of fire that made the women scramble. Emily patted the knife strapped to her calf and pulled her sword. Jessica pulled her fancy army knife. Maria grabbed Mindy and Amina and took them to the wall where a fire hose sat curled up on its big red wheel.

“Melissa!” Maria shouted. Melissa was in a fog, but she could be trusted to turn on the water.

The beast swiveled its head to the left and right as Jessica and Emily separated. It felt like the beast was trying to decide which morsel to gobble up first. The beast was about twelve feet long on all fours. It had more of a dog’s big mouth than a bear’s short snout. It appeared to be covered in hairy scales which Mindy said were just about impenetrable. Emily thought Jessica and her knife did not stand a chance, so she jumped first. She used the reach of her sword to go for the eye, but the beast was quick. She managed a deep cut on the beast’s nose, but that was all before she felt the back of the beast’s paw. It knocked her through the air to where she crashed into a metal support beam just a couple of feet from the bogyman. Emily heard her ribs crack against the pole, and the bogyman laughed. She had not expected that level of enormous strength.

Jessica shouted and waved to distract the beast. The beast responded. It turned and sent a stream of fire in Jessica’s direction, but Jessica was ready and leapt behind a nearby support beam of her own. Then the others got the water on. It became a real battle, not the least to keep the hose pointed in the right direction. The beast roared flame and the water attacked. Steam filled the room, but at last the beast turned away. It had swallowed enough water to put out a small house fire, and the beast could only smoke. It decided it did not need the flame. It charged the hose. The girl’s dropped it, screamed and scattered, and the beast paused, once again not knowing which girl to swallow first.

Officer Marion burst into the room, gun drawn.

Jessica shouted. “Go for the eyes!”

Marion fell to one knee and emptied her entire clip.

Emily got up slowly with a hand on her ribs. She looked straight at the beast, but her peripheral vision stayed on the bogyman. When she faked a limp, the bogyman turned toward her and laughed, which was just what she hoped. She spun and with both hand on her sword, she sliced through the air and cut the bogy neck cleanly so the bogyman’s head rolled under the forklift. But instead of collapsing, the bogy body went in search of the head. After a moment of shock, Emily began to slice off limbs. She separated both arms and one leg before she felt the back of the bogy beast’s hand once again. It roared, caught her from behind and threw her into the warehouse wall. She crashed ten feet up, dropped her sword, and slid to the ground. Now Emily was certain her ribs were broken. Lucky for her, the bogy beast could not see her since that eye was the one Marion put out of commission

The bogy beast turned again to the others and that annoying woman with the gun, and while Marion reloaded, Jessica made a run and leap to try and stick her knife into the beast’s other eye. The beast backhanded her, but Jessica fell to the floor and slid on her jeans and some plastic sheeting to the front windows.

Marion fired again, convinced that her bullets were not penetrating that scaly hide, but then the beast did something that surprised them all. It stood on its hind legs like a bear, and it was at least twelve feet tall. Marion shot the belly and tried for the neck, but the beast was as heavily armored there as everywhere else. When she needed to reload again, Jessica came up beside her to stay her hand. Somehow, Emily had jumped on the beast’s back from behind.

Emily held on with her knees and grabbed the beast’s soft, pointed ear with her left hand. Her right hand held her trusty knife. It was the same knife she used to kill Pierce. That thought, the thought the bogyman kept haunting her with night after night, made her enraged. She jammed the knife into the bogy beast’s ear over and over. She sliced the bogy beast’s good eye and rammed the knife deep into the back of the head where she could get between the scales. The bogy beast tried to back up to crush her against the wall, but it could not move well on two feet. At last it staggered and finally fell, and Emily had no strength left to jump free. She heard her left leg bone crack as the full weight of the beast came down on her, but she did not care. She was in tears.

Jessica and Marion rushed up to make sure the beast was dead. Amina rushed to Emily and told her to hold on, and she hugged her. Mindy kept screaming, ‘Don’t touch it!” The bogy body had almost rebuilt itself apart from the head which was wedged under the forklift. Melissa did not know what to do, but Maria got into the forklift and started it up. She started forward with a shake and jump and the bogy head popped out from beneath, only slightly flattened. Mindy’s scream changed to, “The sunlight will kill it!”

Maria caught the bogy body in the fork so it could not escape without being run over. It tried to turn and scratch at the driver, but it could not reach and in a second, Maria crashed it through one of the front windows. The body steamed, smoked, caught on fire in the light and quickly crumbled away to dust. At the same time, the body of the bogy beast began to deflate like a balloon with a slow leak.

“The head!” Mindy shouted and Marion got up to fetch it. “Don’t touch it!” Mindy screamed, and Jessica caught Marion’s hand and shook her head. Marion stepped over to the wall where there were various lengths of plastic water pipe cut and waiting for a plumber. She picked up a suitable piece about three feet long and used it to shove the head toward the broken window as Maria backed the forklift out of the way.

“No! No!” The head pleaded with them, but it did no good. Marion stopped short of the sunlight, gripped the pipe like a club and with a shout of “Four!” she hit the head through the window. It hit the light, screamed, fried, and went to dust, even as Lieutenant Anthony came racing into the building followed by a half-dozen police officers.

“What the hell is going on here?’ He yelled.

“Nothing. All finished,” Mindy said as she looked around at everyone and got nods of agreement.

“What the hell was that scream?”

“Bogyman,” Mindy said.

“What the hell is that?” The Lieutenant pointed to the deflated creature.

“Bogy beast,” Mindy said.

Lieutenant Anthony stopped to look at the little redhead who was doing all the talking. “And who the hell are you?”

Before Mindy could answer, Amina spoke up from where she was kneeling beside Emily. “I am definitely going to go on a date this year.”

It was so out of context, everyone had to stare. Of course, Jessica had to say something.

“Got anyone in mind?”

Emily laughed as Marion came to kneel beside her, and she laughed again at the thought of a supposed Amazon tribe having an affiliate member. She did not laugh long since it made her ribs hurt.

************************

Coming Monday, Elect II – 2 Amazons

Happy Reading…