Narrow Alleys Ch. 12

Chapter 12

The Wealthy Son, the Secretary and the Mummies

It happened just a few minutes before the Girl and the Chimera met.

The Wealthy Son and the Secretary were wandering about the alleys of the Ghost Quarter looking for the pearl.

"They can't have gone far," the Wealthy Son said, looking up, left and right to the houses peeking over the tall stone walls before giving his smartphone a look. "According to this, the pearl should be somewhere close by."

The Secretary said nothing as she followed closely behind.

"Who even was that?" the Wealthy Son wondered aloud. He was speaking of the woman who showed up out of nowhere and snatched the pearl away from them at the last minute.

The Secretary finally broke silence to give her insight. "Based on the words she spoke before that flash of light, I believe she's a Western Sorceress, or at least someone who learned Western sorcery."

The Wealthy Son groaned. "Ugh! So now we got foreigners butting into our business? That Thief's already giving us enough trouble! What more are we going to have to deal with?"

Suddenly, the Secretary grabbed the Wealthy Son by his shoulder and spun him around.

"What are you - ?" The Wealthy Son tried to ask a question, but was stopped by the Secretary cupping her hand over his mouth.

Putting a finger over her own lips, the Secretary went, "Shh!" And then she glanced sideways to the back of the road.

Is someone hiding behind that corner? The Wealthy Son wondered. He soon found out.

"Come on out," the Secretary called out. "I know you're there."

Suddenly, a voice came out and said, "Whoa! How'd you know? You psychic or something?"

A second voice snapped, "Idiot!"

Two people stepped out. They were the ugliest pair of monsters that the Wealthy Son had ever seen in his entire life. To him, they looked like shriveled up mummies, only without any wrappings and dressed in modern clothes.

Mummy A and Mummy B had been looking from house to house for the Thief and the Hypnotist when they ran into a man and a woman wearing sharp business suits as they huddled over the man's smartphone. Thinking it weird people like that were exploring what were basically abandoned ruins, Mummy A got the idea to follow them. He was glad to find his police instincts were still intact, because as soon as he heard the man mention the pearl, he knew he hit pay dirt. It sounded like they were close to finding it.

Too bad they got found out before they found the pearl though.

"You don't seem surprised to see our ugly mugs," Mummy A observed. Well, at least the lady wasn't surprised. The man practically jumped out of his skin when he saw the Mummies. "Since you're also looking for the pearl, I take it you guys are like that wizard?"

"So you were eavesdropping on us," said the Secretary.

"Not like you already knew that," said Mummy A.

The Wealthy Son turned and cried out, "Wait, you knew the whole time we were being followed?"

But the Secretary ignored him and kept her sharp eyes on the mummies. "I don't know anything about a wizard, but that sounds like who you're working for. If both he and you are after the pearl, that makes you our enemy."

"Seems like it, yeah," said Mummy A.

The Secretary bent down a little to a battle stance. Mummy A raised his fists. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Mummy B stepped in between them. "Hold up! Can't we all just get along? We should talk this out like civilized people. Violence never solves anything."

Everyone stared at him.

And then the Wealthy Son told Mummy B, "You really are an idiot."

Mummy B rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. Violence it is, then." And then to Mummy A, he loudly whispered, "You can take the lady. The dude looks waaay weaker and wimpier, so I'll take him."

"I can hear you, you know!"

Mummy B shouted back at the Wealthy Son, "You were meant to!"

That was when the Secretary seized her chance to attack.

"Whoa!" cried Mummy B. He saw the Secretary's fist go flying to his face and shrank back, too slow to get away. Luckily for him, Mummy A came to his rescue and caught the Secretary's punch in his palm.

With a twist, he tried to shift the Secretary's whole arm behind her back, but she quickly untwisted from his grasp and kicked out her foot. Mummy A bent backwards and the tip of the Secretary's shoe cut across the air in front of his face.

After letting out a low whistle, he said, "You've got some nice moves."

"Thanks," said the Secretary. "You're not bad yourself. Those moves though . . . Were you in law enforcement?"

"Once upon a time," Mummy A answered.

As he and the Secretary danced around, exchanging and blocking each other's punches, chops, elbow strikes and kicks, the Wealthy Son and Mummy B bent low and slowly crab-walked in a circle while locking eyes.

"Come on," Mummy B goaded the Wealthy Son. "Give me your best shot, which I'm sure ain't much. You look like you've never held anything heavier than piece of paper."

"For the record," said the Wealthy Son, "my mom used to make me carry all the groceries when I was a kid. And one more thing . . ."

He straightened up, spread his arms apart and began floating up to the sky. Curtains of lightning dropped to the ground from both his hands.

" . . . I can do more than just a little heavy lifting." 

Mummy B looked up, jaw dropped. And then, keeping his eyes on the Wealthy Son, he called out to Mummy A. "Hey, Partner? On second thought, mind if we switch? I wanna fight the wushu business lady instead. And you can deal with the dude that can fly and shoot electricity out of his fingers."

He turned to see the "business lady" was gone. Instead, he found his partner pinned down by a huge, orange tiger.

Mummy A glared at Mummy B while pushing the tiger's set of sharp, pointy teeth away from his face. "You were saying?"

"Never mind. I'm cool with the flying dude."

With a crazed laugh, the Wealthy Son threw lightning at Mummy B's feet. Mummy B jumped around, yelping in fright, which only made the Wealthy Son laugh more.

"Dance, monkey! Dance!"

"Come on, dude!" Mummy B cried out in dismay. "That's so offensive!"

But the Wealthy Son just shouted back, "Like I care!"

And then he threw some more lightning at the mummy.

Meanwhile, Mummy A was able to throw the tiger off and scramble back before she could swipe his head off with her massive paw. And then, fingers balled into a fist, he threw a punch. The tiger jumped aside and Mummy A's attack blew a hole in the wall.

Mummy B saw and was surprised. "Whoa! Cool! I didn't know you got super strength."

"We're freak mutants transformed by an evil wizard's magic spell! Of course we got super strength!"

As the tiger jumped away from Mummy A, she did a somersault and transformed back into a human. She threw a punch back at Mummy A, and then another one. Mummy A dodged both. The Secretary's fists left behind trails of bright blue light as they sailed past him.

**********

Meanwhile, in a house that overlooked the fighting, both the Thief and the Hypnotist were leaning against the wall, sound asleep. The Hypnotist had her head resting on the Thief's shoulder while their hands remained stuck together, connected by an apparently sticky Pearl of Fate. After fleeing from the Chimera and the Giant, they ran around for a bit before coming across a house with an opened gate and took shelter in it. Exhausted from all that running, they sat down on the living room floor and immediately conked out.

BOOM!

When Mummy A punched a hole in the wall, there was a loud burst of thunder that roused the two criminals from their slumber.

"I'm up! I'm up!" cried the Thief.

The Hypnotist made a big snort.

They turned and faced each other, bleary-eyed. And then, fully awake, they jumped up and tried to get away from each other, only to be pulled back together by the pearl stuck to their hands and crash their foreheads together.

"Ow!"

They each took a moment to rub their sore spots and were startled again by a beastly roar that came from either a lion or a tiger. 

The Thief and the Hypnotist exchanged looks and then, pointing opposite ways, they shouted at the same time, "This way!"

They paused and looked at each other again. And then, pointing opposite ways again, they said, "No, this way!"

After another pause -

"This way!"

They glared at each other.

"I know this place like the back of my hand," said the Thief. "So you should follow me."

Defiantly, the Hypnotist went, "Oh yeah? Well, I got magic powers that comes with a ninety-nine-point nine percent accurate fortune-telling. And that fortune-telling is telling me that YOU should follow ME!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"NUH-UH!"

"UH-HUH!"

CRASH!

Suddenly, a mummy man flew into the house, blowing the doors off their hinges. He hit the ground and rolled to a stop beneath a wall-mounted altar. His feet were pointed up and he laid upside-down.

"Ow, that hurt!" the mummy groaned. "Lucky Boss Man made me super-tough, like Superman. Ow! Huh?"

He rolled his eyes to the corner of the room where the Thief and the Hypnotist stood, huddled together. They looked like they were holding hands, but then the mummy spotted the pearl between them.

"The shiny!" he cried out.

Both the Thief and the Hypnotist screamed. And then the Hypnotist scooped the Thief up into a princess carry and took off running deeper into the house.

A thought crossed the Thief's mind as he was taken up the stairs. Huh? Why's she carrying me? Shouldn't I be the one carrying her?

**********

Mummy B watched the pair go to the next floor and then stood back up. He hurried out of the house to call out to Mummy A. "Hey, partner! I found the - !"

He never got a chance to finish, because the Wealthy Son descended into the courtyard and threw another bolt of lightning at him. After convulsing while electricity danced through his nerves for several seconds, Mummy B blacked out and collapsed. 

The Wealthy Son gave the fallen mummy a cold look and then raised his hand. Above it, a spear made out of white-cold ice appeared. He was prepared to skewer the shriveled-up monster, but then -

"HEY!"

The Wealthy Son spun around to see Mummy A charging in from the gateway.

Mummy A had heard Mummy B call out and broke away from the Secretary. She tried to stop him, but he slipped past her and made it to the house just in time to stop the Wealthy Son from finishing off his partner, by tackling the Wealthy Son to the ground and keeping him pinned face down with his arm twisted behind his back.

"Ow! Get off of me!" The Wealthy Son roared, enraged at being detained like a criminal. He struggled to break free, but Mummy A had a solid hold that was strong from years of experience doing the same thing to tougher-looking guys. So, it was up to the Secretary to come to the rescue.

From the gateway, she pushed a gust of wind from her hand and blew Mummy A off the Wealthy Son. She tried helping him to stand back up, but the Wealthy Son ungratefully shook her off while throwing an angry glare at the mummy.

"That hurt!" he said. And then he threw the ice spear.

Mummy A ducked away from the spear and then threw a punch at the Wealthy Son. But the Secretary got in his way and blocked the attack with her forearm. 

Mummy A took a few steps back. He gave his fallen partner a glance and then returned his gaze to his enemies.

Not good, he thought. My partner's down and I'm outnumbered. 

Running away would be the obvious thing to do in a situation like this. But the only exit was blocked by the very people he wanted to run away from. And one of those people just made more ice spears appear out of nowhere, floating in the air above his head, so flying wasn't an option either. Not that either Mummy A or Mummy B could actually fly, anyway.

So this is how I go, Mummy A thought. Well, on the bright side, at least I don't have to listen to what that convict has to say anymore."

He gave Mummy B a glance. 

I'm just sorry this moron's coming with me.

"Any last words?" asked the Wealthy Son. "No? Good!"

Mummy A scowled. Why bother asking if you're not even going to wait for an answer?

"Now, good-bye!"

The Wealthy Son brought down his hand. But at that exact moment, a huge dark shadow darted into the courtyard and swatted the Wealthy Son to the left side, and then the Secretary to the right side.

With the Wealthy Son's control interrupted, the spears all dropped to the ground. Their blades stuck into the concrete, allowing them to stand upright as a sort of fence between the mummies and the dark shadow that saved them, which turned out to be a wolf-like creature with overgrown arms.

"Come with me if you want to live."

<== Chapter 11

Narrow Alleys Ch. 11

Chapter 11

The Chimera and the Girl

As the sun shined from high up the sky, its light baked the Chimera who laid on the ground, sometimes making hissing sounds whenever he breathed in. 

A lot of time has passed since his fight with the Giant, but the wolf mutant was still in a world of hurt. Thanks to a rush of adrenaline, he was able to get away, but it was not enough to get him anywhere safe and he ended up collapsing outside on the road, unable to move.

Curse that Giant, he thought bitterly. It's all his fault! Not only did I lose the pearl, now I'm stuck outside under the hot sun, aching all over so bad that I can't move an inch! 

"Well, look on the bright side," he told himself. "This area being abandoned, at least you don't have to worry about getting found out by a human."

It was at that moment, his ears caught a sound. The sound got closer and closer. And then, a moment later, the Chimera found himself locking eyes with a little Girl.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

For a while, neither made a peep. During that time, the Chimera's mind raced.

Now what am I supposed to do? What CAN I do? I can't even move! But I can't just do nothing. It's all over for me if she gets a grownup over here. Think, me! Think!

His train of thought was broken by the sound of sandals clapping against the pavement and he realized that the Girl's face was now right up to his as she squatted in front of him. The way she stared blankly but intensely at the Chimera made his hide break out in cold sweat beneath his fur.

Did she just walk closer to me? Why? What's she thinking? Wait, what's she doing now?

The Girl reached out and then started rubbing her hand on the Chimera's head.

Is she . . . petting me!? Don't tell me she thinks I'm just some kind of overgrown dog!

I've never seen a dog this big before, thought the Girl. It feels so soft and fluffy.

Suddenly, a loud gurgling sound disturbed the quiet moment between Girl and dog.

The Girl stared at the Chimera and the Chimera stared at the girl. And then, without a word, the Girl straightened up and walked away.

THAT'S what scared her off!? The Chimera thought as he watched the Girl's receding back. Definitely not. She was walking away too calmly.

And just as the Chimera had expected, the Girl showed up again while later. This time, carrying a stainless steel bowl, filled to the brim, that she set down in front of the beast man.

She knelt down in front of him, staring at him expectantly. The Chimera could practically see the twinkling in the innocent child's eyes.

There was no need to explain in detail what the Girl had brought with her in that bowl. But if you need a hint, this is what the Chimera thought as he reluctantly chowed down: "This is utterly humiliating."

Unaware of the Chimera's true feelings, the Girl just rubbed her hand on his head. It was at that moment that the Chimera noticed an unusual, yet very familiar scent and he tensed up.

That smell . . . he thought. Could it be? But why is it coming from her?

What the Chimera smelled was the scent of the Giant who had clobbered him just last night. There was no mistaking that alien stench.

Could she be from the same world as that Giant? The Chimera wondered. Perhaps, an ally of his?

He stopped eating to look up, but the Girl just stared blankly at him, clearly having no clue what was going on. After a few seconds, the Chimera broke eye contact and resumed eating.

Forget it, he thought. No matter how he looked at her, the Girl was clearly just a normal child. She probably passed by the Giant's base or something. Even if she was related to the Giant somehow, there was nothing to be gained from being hostile to her. More importantly, it wasn't right.

That said though, the Chimera got worried. By itself, an abandoned area like this was already dangerous for a child to be exploring by herself. With last night's battle and many more to come for possession of that pearl, the danger of being here was sure to be a hundred times worse.

I have to do something to make sure she doesn't come back here, he thought. But what?

An idea popped into his mind. He wasn't really thrilled with it, but he had to steel his heart. This was for the Girl's own good, he told himself.

With some of his strength returned, he lifted himself up and bared his fangs in a soft growl. He tensed his muscles as he prepared to do what he had to in order to scare the Girl away.

But just before he had the chance to unleash a ferocious and loud roar to frighten the Girl out of coming back to the Ghost Quarter, she also straightened up again and waved her hand.

"Bye-bye!"

And then she turned and skipped away, leaving the Chimera frozen with his jaw hanging open. He stayed that way long after she disappeared at a turn. A pigeon landed on his head and got to rest a while.

Finally, the Chimera used a finger to lift his chin up and close his mouth, and he shook the bird off his head before turning to wander the narrow alleys and look for the pearl. He took a few steps and then stopped. His ears twitched as they picked up sounds from further away than most people could hear. 

"Is someone fighting?" he wondered aloud.

He took a big sniff. 

"Humans . . . but not the ones with the pearl. Could it be other people who are after it?"

The pearl was close by, but not too close to the fighting.

"Not good. I need to hurry!"

He broke into a run down the narrow alleys as fast as he could, and then jumped. He landed on the roof of a house and leaped onto the roof of another.

As he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, he thought to himself, Thankfully, all that fighting was in the opposite direction from where the Girl went.

<== Chapter 10                                                                           Chapter 12 ==>

Poem: The Soothsayer says

"I warned you!" The Soothsayer says.

"Fire in the streets!

"Oppression of freedom by self-proclaimed kings!"

"I foresaw the disasters to strike!

"I warned of the times that be harrowing!

"But little did you do but usher them in anyway!"

"You brought this upon us all!

"Ignorant of lies, blinded by rage, overwhelmed by greed!

"Thinking only of yourselves and your own petulant amusements!"

"Need not I, the Power of Delphi!

"The hints were plain to see.

"Examples of the past to mirror the future"

"Blood be on your hands, the decision you made.

"Not just the fault of the tyrants above.

"But it is not just those deemed inconsequential who pay.

"Your choice, your consequence, your price!"

"The clown up top feels nothing, learns nothing.

"Not even when the Devil comes knocking on his door!"

"But you, the losses you face are numerous.

"Who was once untouchable, unbeatable, ever prosperous, a prime example."

"Now there is nothing left but to wait for Evil's work to be done.

"The holy knights are no more.

"Only those in rags remain,

"To fight the good fight."

"But alas, a correction I must make

"One final task, I can do.

"To etch this story to stone, so not one forgets

"However futile an effort already proven to be."

Narrow Alleys Ch. 10

Chapter 10

The Chimera

Chimera.

For those of you who need a refresher, Chimeras are creatures mix-mashed together or mutated by users of the magic arts, most of the time for terrible and evil experiments. And sadly, a lot of people end up kidnapped and transformed into these monsters, just like the wolf-like man with super long arms.

He was just a normal little boy when he ran into an evil wizard while on his way home from school. After being snatched off the streets, the evil wizard forced him to drink some rancid-smelling, horrible-tasting drink. And then the next thing the boy knew, he had fur, claws and fangs.

For the next couple of years, the boy had his powers tested in experiments. And part of those experiments was learning how to fight. The evil wizard's goal, the boy would learn, was to perfect a formula to turn himself into an indestructible monster. But for what reason, the boy would never know. 

On the boy's sixteenth birthday, another wizard showed up and destroyed the evil one. This wizard was kinder and offered the boy and other survivors of the evil wizard's experiments a home created for people just like them, an apartment complex that he owned. That apartment complex was called by its residents as the Village of the Chimeras.

The kind wizard promised to find a way to turn all the Chimeras back to normal. Sadly, though, it was a promise he failed to keep because years later, he got sick and passed away, leaving the Chimeras to run the village themselves.

Over time, more and more Chimeras joined the village. Some escaped their prisons while others were simply thrown out by their evil masters when they were no longer useful. And many of the Chimeras even married and had children who inherited their parents' monstrous natures.

But although the Chimeras have lived relatively peaceful lives, many didn't stop looking for a way to become normal again and continued the kind wizard's research, becoming masters of the magic arts themselves. The boy himself yearned to be human once more, but not just for himself.

Now a grownup, in the afternoon, the Chimera laid on the rooftop of an abandoned house beneath the shade provided by the doorway. He was lost in thought, staring at a polaroid picture of a little wolf pup carried in the arms of a bigger wolf creature just like him. The bigger wolf is his wife who was also transformed by the same evil wizard he was. And the little wolf pup was their child, a girl.

"I swear to you," the Chimera mumbled aloud to the picture, "I will do whatever it takes so you can have the things me and your mom could not, the things that were taken from us by that evil wizard."

The sky soon became noticeably darker, and then blacked out. With the arrival of night, it was time for the Chimera to begin the hunt.

He lifted himself off the floor and went hopping from building to building, sniffing the air out for anything unusual and powerful. Almost immediately, he picked up a scent he had never smelled before. His instincts told him that it did not belong to this world, yet he doubted it was what he was looking for. For one thing, the scent undoubtedly belonged to something alive. And for another, there was something really, really macho about it.

"That cannot be what the elders were talking about."

So the Chimera turned his attention elsewhere. After a few more minutes of sniffing around, he picked up on another out-of-this-world smell carried by the wind. It was mixed with the smell of humans, two of them. A man and a lady.  The man smelled like he had been swimming in garbage a little while ago.

The Chimera took in one more big whiff and then went hopping over more houses until he heard voices and stopped to take a peek down below. There, he saw two youngish-looking people fighting over a glowing, silvery-white ball. As soon as he laid eyes on the ball, a chill ran down his spine.

"There it is," he muttered to himself, eyes squinting at the ball.

He turned away and then climbed down the side of the house to the ground. Slowly, on all fours, he snuck up to the squabbling man and lady. Neither noticed him, even after he got so close.

Now that he had a better look, the Chimera realized that the ball was not a ball, but actually a really big, perfectly round pearl.

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" screamed the lady.

"No! Mine! Mine! Mine!" screamed the man.

It was pretty funny to watch the two acting like immature children, but the Chimera didn't have all day to amuse himself with this show. So, he made himself known. Once they turned their heads and looked his way, the Chimera gave them one demand.

"Ahem! I'm only going to say this once. Give me the pearl."

The man and lady stared at him, jaws dropped and speechless.

Losing patience, the Chimera growled. Other smells were closing in, including the otherworldly one from earlier. Chances were high they were also after the pearl.

"Give it to me! NOW! Or I'll tear your throats out!"

He wasn't used to threatening others. Honestly, even just pretending gave him a bad feeling. But all that practice paid off, because both the man and the lady held the pearl up to him and said, "Gladly."

The Chimera pinched the pearl between his index finger and thumb, and then pulled. But the man and lady did not let go.

"Hey."

The man frowned. "Huh? That's weird."

He pulled the pearl a few times.

"My hand's stuck! Is this your doing, Hypnotist?"

"What? No!" The lady whose name was apparently "Hypnotist" also pulled the pearl a few times. "What is this? I can't get my fingers off!"

The Chimera bared his fangs and growled.

"Hey, man," said the man. "I swear I'm not kidding around. My hand's really stuck!"

It was the truth. At this point, the Thief had gotten fed up with the trouble the pearl had attracted and wanted nothing to do with it anymore. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not peel his hand off the blasted thing. It was as if his skin had been glued to it.

"Mine too!' said the Hypnotist. 

The Chimera, however, didn't believe them and roared, "LET GO OF THE PEARL!"

He lifted the pearl high into the air and tried as hard as he could to shake the Thief and the Hypnotist off. But no matter how much the criminals were flailed around while screaming in terror and pain, they stayed stuck. They were mighty relieved when the monstrous wolf creature finally stopped, but it was still too soon to relax.

"Grrr," he growled. "It looks like you really are stuck."

"Told . . . you . . . so!" the Thief said in between huffs and puffs as he and the Hypnotist dangled in front of the Chimera.

The Chimera put one hand to his hip and sighed. "In that case, I have no choice."

Dread filled the Hypnotist and she asked, "No choice? What do you mean, no choice? What are you going to do to us?"

"If you cannot let go of the pearl, I'm going to have to tear your arms off."

"But I like my arms not teared off," said the Thief.

The way he whined made the Chimera feel a pang of guilt, but he shook it off his head and said, "Sorry, but I need that pearl. And I will do whatever it takes to get it!"

He sucked in air, making a hissing sound with his lips and then breathed out with a beastly rumble. While he grasped the pearl with one hand, he wrapped the fingers of his other hand tightly around both the Thief and the Hypnotist. They both went, "Guh!" as the air was squeezed out of their lungs.

The Chimera raised his elbows a little. His heart going ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump very hard and fast as he prepared to give a good, sharp yank. And then - 

Thump!

The Chimera turned and so did the Thief and the Hypnotist.

A shape had jumped over the wall and landed heavily in the courtyard, a really huge shape.

Something in the Hypnotist's head broke. "Is that . . . a GIANT!?"

It was not just any giant, but THE Giant. 

The Thief couldn't blame the Hypnotist for being stupefied. He felt the same way when he first met the Giant.

The Chimera, however, was not surprised. His snout twisted into a bare-fang snarl as he thought, So that's what I was smelling earlier.

The Giant glared coldly back at the beastly monster. After running around the narrow alleys of Ghost Quarter twice over looking for the pearl, his magic compass finally picked up traces of it and pointed him to a nearby empty house. He could hear the commotion from down the road, what the Chimera planned to do, and knew he had to act fast.

In a low, stern tone, he commanded, "Let the humans go."

The metal slap attached to his right arm snapped open and unfolded into a round disk. It was a shield with a picture of a tree on it.

The Chimera said nothing, but growled.

That was all the answer the Giant needed, and the metal slab on his other arm snapped into a second shield.

The Hypnotist gasped. Recovering from the shock of the Giant's appearance, she realized that now was a good time to make her escape and cast a spell, the same one she used on the Wealthy Son and the Secretary.

"Lux caecans!"

She shouted the incantation taught to her by her grandma in case she ever needed to make a quick escape and a blinding halo of light flashed from her crystal bracelet.

"Gah!"

Startled, the Chimera let go and both the Hypnotist and the Thief dropped to the ground.

"Ow!"

A rush of adrenaline helped the Hypnotist to push aside the sharp pain to her behind and pick herself up. She gave the pearl a sharp pull and shouted, "Come on!"

The Thief, blinded for the second time by the Hypnotist's spell, got his feet moving before he could even think. Together, with the Hypnotis half-dragging the Thief behind her, they tumbled out the gate and fled down the road.

After blinking bright spots out of his eyes, the Chimera spotted the Thief and the Hypnotist running away and cried, "No! The pearl!"

He chased after them, making it outside just in time to see them turn a corner. But before he could follow, his way was blocked by the Giant who dropped down in front of him after leaping over the wall again. Behind the Giant, the Chimera could see the pair disappear, taking the pearl with them.

Angry that he had lost his people's, his family's, hope for a better future, he roared a very beastly roar that was loud enough to wake the dead. He directed that anger at the Giant, the cause of his failure and glared.

Sensing that a fight was inevitable, the Giant raised his shields and braced for impact.

Seconds passed in tense silence and then - 

"RAAAAH!"

The Chimera attacked. He charged forward, leaped and kicked off the wall, launching himself further in the air. As he fell back down, he raised a fist over his head and slammed it down against the Giant who blocked just in time.

With a grunt, the Giant pushed the Chimera away, flinging him back into the air. The Chimera did a somersault and landed gracefully on the ground on all fours before charging at the Giant again. But the Giant stepped aside and the Chimera flew past him.

The Chimera touched down with his hands and, with a twist from his arms, he swung his entire self and threw a double kick that hit the Giant in the torso.

"Oof!"

The Giant hit the ground with his back and bounced back onto his feet before skidding to a stop. 

When the Chimera got close for another attack, the Giant swung a left hook and then a right. The Chimera leaned right and then left, his neck barely grazed by the Giant's shields, and then lashed out with his sharp claws. He raked the Giant's shield with his left claws and his right claws swiped at empty air after the Giant ducked and rolled beneath. 

Staying low, the Giant kicked out his foot, sweeping the Chimera off-balance.

After falling flat on his back, the Chimera sat up, but froze when the edge of one of the Giant's shield came flying towards his eyes. It stopped just an inch away from his face.

"Enough!" the Giant barked. "Stand. Down."

But to the Giant's dismay, the Chimera refused. "Never!"

The Chimera swatted the shield aside and lunged for the Giant's neck. But the Giant was faster and spun. His foot hit the side of the Chimera's face and sent the wolf-like creature crashing against a wall. But that was not enough to stop the Chimera from attacking again and he threw himself at the Giant, crashing against his shields.

Using those shields, the Giant lifted the Chimera up over his head and flung him away. And then, as his shields folded up, the Giant spun at his heels and turned, punching the left side of the Chimera's face hard, and then the right side. Finally, with a double palm strike, the Giant sent the Chimera sprawling to the ground.

Every hit the Giant dished hurt a lot, but the Chimera would not stay down. He could not. Not when the future of his family depended on him.

While pausing for breath, the Giant said to the Chimera, "I will ask you one more time, will you please stand down?"

But again, the Chimera refused. "No! Never! I must have that pearl!" 

"Why do you want the pearl that badly? What do you want to use its power for?" 

"You will get nothing out of me, alien!" the Chimera snarled.

The word alien stung the Giant worse than that kick the Chimera hit him with earlier, but he kept his cool and tried one more time to reason with him.

"Fighting is pointless now. The humans have already gotten away and day approaches. Neither of us is getting the pearl tonight."

The Chimera risked a peek at the sky and saw the truth in the Giant's words. Daytime was indeed approaching. And it was approaching fast. Even if the Ghost Quarter was abandoned, there was still a chance that people could show up and start a ruckus that'd only add to the things that make it harder to get the pearl.

But with a final angry bark, he snarled at the Giant, "Rah! I swear, if you get in my way again, I will destroy you!"

And then he fled with the Giant watching his receding back.

Once the Chimera was gone, the Giant turned and trudged back home while wondering how the next time the Girl showed up, he was going to get her to stop visiting these narrow alleys.

<== Chapter 9                                                                                  Chapter 11 ==>

Poem: As the decades pass

 As the decades pass

The World changes before my eyes

For better and for worse

Buildings fall and rise

Technology evolves

Views sway one way and the other.

Looks differ from past to future.

What once brought connection

Between those far apart

Now brainwashes and steals

From the Innocent, the Unwise and the Vulnerable.

Greed and rage reach heights thought no more.

And struggles continue for what should not need struggling for.

Differences turn on each other when they should be friends

Rights are dashed by their own Protectors

But as the World turn

New smiles are born

New faces streak across the floor

Through gardens and playgrounds

Past time hobbies become full-blown careers

Acts continue to baffle the mind.

And Wealth is gained by ways new, creative and once unimaginable.

New foods are tasted

New sights are seen

New paths are tread

Bright and shining all around

Things of the Past get left behind

Things of the Present are hoarded

Things of the Future arrive

To hands eager to embrace Them.

Where These will all go, I cannot say

I cannot see, but still look

With anticipation, eagerness and fear

As the decades pass

Narrow Alleys Ch. 9

Chapter 9

The Thief's Night

The Giant was hunched over in the kitchen and just finished a whole plastic crate of food bars. He was about to leave when he spotted a human man at the doorway staring back at him. To the Giant, the human looked like a fish out of water the way his mouth hung open. A soft, long croaking noise came out of his throat.

Blast! Thought the Giant. I've let myself be seen my another human. And this time, it's an adult!

That was the first thing to cross his mind. But then his eyes turned to the object in the human's left hand.

Wait a minute. Is that . . . ? "The Pearl!"

The Thief was snapped out of his stupor by the Giant's cry and he screamed, "AAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Huh? Wait!" The Giant shouted, but the Thief did not listen. He turned tail and ran out of the house as fast as he could, taking the Pearl of Fate with him. The Giant chased after the Thief, never minding the damage he caused to the walls and ceiling.

Once out the gateway, the Thief turned left and screamed, "There really is a giant!"

Said Giant jumped over the high wall and bolted after the Thief down the road.

Round and round they ran, going left, right, right, left, right and right, left and left. The Giant got close, arms spread to catch the Thief as he loomed over the small human yet never finding the chance. Overhead, darkness was cast over the Ghost Quarter while the clouds above were tinged a fiery, reddish hue of late afternoon.

"Hee! Hoo! Hee! Hoo! Hee! Hoo!" The Thief wheezed in and out. Sweat poured down the sides of his head like a waterfall and his guts felt like they were going to tear apart. He had never run so far and so fast before in his entire life. 

I can't keep this up! He thought, daring to take a quick look back over his shoulder. The Giant was right on top of him, nose flaring. His face looked almost like a dragon's whose eyes stared straight ahead. 

Whether he tired out first or the Giant catches up first, either way, it was just a matter of time before the Thief was caught.

But just when things were looking bleak, he spotted a very thin gap between two buildings and was struck with an idea. 

"One last push!" With a sudden burst of speed, the Thief dove into the opening. 

At that moment, the Giant reached out and tried to grab the Thief, but it was too late. Not even half his hand could feet into the gap and all he could do was watch as the Thief, along with the Pearl of Fate, became a speck in the darkening distance.

"Blast!" Frustrated, the Giant stamped his foot, making a dent on the pavement. He did not notice the bird crossing the sky over his head.

**********

It was a tight squeeze between the two houses, but the Thief made it to the other side no problem by crab-walking along the path while both the front and back of his shirt scraped against rough stone. After popping out of the gap, he stumbled and then stopped, panting for air.

"I should be safe now, right?" he wondered aloud. "He can't reach me here, can he?"

He turned around to look back, but nighttime had quickly fallen and he could no longer see a thing. Everything around him was just pitch black. 

Unable to stand the darkness for long, he pulled out his smartphone and turned on its flashlight to look around. He found himself in a concrete square boxed in at all four sides, except for a sizeable gap at the furthest corner away. Near the Thief's side was an indentation in the floor with a faucet shaped kind of like a Christmas candy-cane. Possibly in the past, people used to come here to collect water, but clearly not anymore now. 

Out of the edge of the light's shine, the Thief spotted the back end of a large cockroach before it scurried away. A shiver ran down his spine, and not from the night chill (There wasn't even one as around this time of year, the night was as sweltering as the day).

"I need to find someplace to crash," he grumbled to himself. "Somewhere indoors, hopefully with no bugs."

A sigh escaped his lips when he realized the depressing fact that any house he found to spend the night would be full of bugs. They'd be abandoned, after all.

But before he even had a chance to find another house to replace the one that apparently had a Giant living in it now, this happened:

Just as he was about to leave the square through the wider gap, someone stepped into view and blocked the way out. This person had his own source of light, a ball of fire floating above his held-out hand like a spirit ball.

As soon as he saw the person's face, the Thief's blood ran cold. Standing before him was none other than the Wealthy Son.

The Thief turned to flee back the narrower gap, but that exit was also blocked off when a woman suddenly dropped down from the sky with a graceful landing. It was the Secretary.

"Now then," said the Wealthy Son, "it's time you gave back what belongs to me."

The Secretary didn't bother to correct the Wealthy Son that the pearl actually belonged to his father. She kept her eyes laser-focused on the Thief so he couldn't get away.

Turning his gaze from the Secretary to the Wealthy Son, the Thief held his hands up, one clasping the pearl, and said, "Sure, sure. I know when I'm beat."

He tried to keep cool, but his voice trembled, exposing his nervousness and fear.

"But mind telling me one thing first?" He asked. "What's so great about this pearl? Sure, it's pretty looking. Probably worth a lot of money. But I've been getting the feeling lately that there's more to it than that."

"He's stalling for time," said the Secretary. "Likely looking for a chance to escape."

"Pfft!" The Wealthy Son scoffed. "Fat chance! I've placed a force field around us, closing off any and all exits. There is no escape."

"Oh, come on," the Thief whined in dismay. "That's just cheating!"

Force fields sounded extremely outlandish to him. But then again, the guy who claimed to put one up was right now holding fire with his bare hands, which was, itself, a pretty outlandish thing to see.

"A tricky Thief like you has no right to complain about what's fair or not," snapped the Wealthy Son. "But I guess I can at least tell you a little bit about that pearl. It is an ancient object with magical powers that's been a big help to my family for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years."

"So this thing's where you got those superpowers from?"

At the Thief's question, the Wealthy Son guffawed. "If you're thinking to use that pearl to transform into some kind of mystic wushu warrior, think again. There's no way the likes of you with absolutely no training in the magic arts can ever hope to unlock its powers."

"Hey, you never know," said the Thief. Meanwhile, to the pearl, he silently urged, Come on! Gimme something here. Anything to get me out of this mess!

"Ha!" The Wealthy Son scoffed again. "I'd like to see you try."

"I don't think it's a good idea to let him," said the Secretary. "We should take him down now while we still have the chance."

Seriously, come on! The Thief mentally screamed at the pearl. Oh? Wait, did it just flash? It's not a trick of the light from my phone, is it?

He thought he saw the pearl shine and it got his hopes up. 

It did! It did flash, he thought.

"Oh, very well," the Wealthy Son replied to the Secretary with a sigh. "Sorry, Thief, but I'm afraid it's time to say good-bye. I'd like to also say that it's been a pleasure talking with you, but then I'd be lying."

Bravely, the Thief puffed his chest out and said, "Yeah? Well you're no fun to be around either!"

Believing he was granted magic superpowers, the Thief pointed the pearl at the Wealthy Son and screamed, "Eat magic laser, scumbag!"

One second . . . Two seconds . . . Three seconds . . .

Nothing happened.

"I said, eat magic laser!"

That yell didn't do anything either.

"Are you done now?" asked the Wealthy Son.

"Wait, hold on!" said the Thief. "I think I almost got it!"

But the Wealthy Son said, "Yeah, I don't think so. And even if you could get that thing to work, there's no way I'll give you the chance to."

He raised his hands over his head and the fireball grew a hundred times bigger. And with that explosive growth was a burst of heat that stung the Thief's face and made him shrink away with an, "Eek!"

"Time to turn you to ashes!"

With nothing more he could do, the Thief raised his arms over his face and prayed to Heaven for a miracle.

The Wealthy Son pulled the ginormous ball of fire further back over his head, ready to hurl it at the Thief. But just before he could fling the definitely deadly inferno - 

"Lux caecans!"

A woman's voice rang out, speaking words that the Thief had never heard before, not even from movies from other countries.

The Wealthy Son turned with a start and then both he and the Secretary cried out in pain and surprise as the whole world around them was blanketed by white light. Above the Wealthy Son's head, the fireball exploded with a force that swept him off his feet and sent him rolling to the side.

Because he shut his eyes tight, the Thief had no idea what was going on. But then he felt something tug on the pearl and a familiar voice shout, "Mine!" It gave him a sense of deja vu. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see the Hypnotist pulling him along.

She came to rescue me? At first, the Thief was touched by this gesture of goodwill. But when he lowered his gaze to the pearl, he realized, Nope. She was really only after the pearl and just accidentally dragged him along. Typical thief.

Not that the Thief was one to talk.

After running around the abandoned neighborhood for a while, the Hypnotist pulled the Thief into an abandoned property with an open gateway and slammed the steel door shut. When she turned around, she cried out in surprise. "Hey! Let go!"

"Not a chance!" the Thief snapped back.

The Hypnotist tried to shake the Thief's hand off the pearl, but he wasn't about to let her have it. Even if she did save him, however unintentionally.

And so, once again, the Thief and the Hypnotist tugged on the pearl back and forth while screaming at each other like tantrum-throwing children. In their hands, the pearl shined a dim mystical light.

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

"No! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Neither of them noticed a huge, looming dark shape approaching from the side of the house. It watched them make fools of themselves for a little while before deciding to make its presence known.

"Ahem!"

The Thief and the Hypnotist stopped. They could both see out of the corner of their eyes a huge something stood right next to them. Slowly, but reluctantly, they turned their heads to see a giant wolf standing on two legs with long, gorilla-like arms staring back at them with fierce, squinting eyes.

He was the Chimera who, like the Mummies, was once human before being mutated by an evil wizard's magic spell but was able to escape slavery along with others like him. 

The Thief, of course, had no way of knowing that. But after the day he's had, he was not surprised when the monster spoke.

"I'm only going to say this once," he said. "Give me the pearl."

<== Chapter 8                                                                             Chapter 10 ==>

Narrow Alleys Ch. 8

Chapter 8

The Girl of the Ghost Quarter

After running and running, and running for what seemed like forever, the Thief stopped and rested his hand on the stone wall with a loud and stinging slap.

"Seriously, what is wrong with today?" he cried to no one in particular. "First, we got people transforming into giant bird monsters, then we get zombies? What next? Giants? It's like the whole world's gone crazy! Is this the end? Is that it? Is this the end of the world? Are we all going to die?"

He paused to take a few deep breaths. When he finally calmed down, he took a look around to see some open gates leading to overtly abandoned houses. He had somehow reached the Ghost Quarter.

This should be welcome news to him since that meant his safehouse, his home away from home, was close by. But the eerie quiet and dark appearance of the long-deserted houses just creeped him out and sent shivers down his spine. And it only got worse as the sun began to set, plunging the neighborhood in further darkness. 

This area would be the absolute worst place to run into that zombie monster again, he thought before a loud gurgle from his belly made him look down.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't had anything to eat all day."

Seeing no point in loitering outside any longer, the Thief made his way to the safehouse. He was a bit worried he might get lost in the neighborhood's maze-like roads, but he turned out to have worried for nothing.

Thanks to regularly wandering around the Ghost Quarter at least once every week to get to know it better, he quickly found the way to his safehouse without even having to stop to think. On the way, he even ran into a familiar face, a fellow explorer of the Ghost Quarter, the little Girl.

"Ow!"

While walking down the road and humming a jingle to distract himself from the eerie vibe around him, his foot hit the bottom step of some stairs leading up to the side entrance of a two-floor house. He managed to stop himself from falling flat on his face, but he accidentally dropped the pearl as he stumbled.

After slipping from the Thief's fingers, the pearl fell and bounced off the pavement once, then twice, then three times before rolling down a slight slope in the road.

"Oh, shoot!"

The Thief chased after the pearl, bent down with his hands awkwardly held out as he sought a chance to snatch the runaway treasure off the ground. But that chance never came no matter how close he got to the blasted thing. He ended up following the pearl down a curve to a split in the road where, from the Thief's right-hand side, the Girl walked in.

As soon as he saw the Girl, the Thief came to a screeching halt. The pearl went on ahead until it hit the brick wall with a sharp, PAK!

Hearing a sharp noise, the Girl turned her gaze away from the surrounding rooftops to the ground where a silvery ball laid. It looked like one of the pearls of her mother's necklace, except much bigger. She picked it up and gave it a look over. 

Have you ever gotten the urge to throw a ball while pretending to catch a Pokemon? Because that's what the Girl got as she felt the size and weight of the ball in her hand. But before she could do that, a man's voice called out to her and she turned.

"Hey! Over here!" The Thief waved to the Girl. "Mind passing that back to me? It's really important."

The Girl looked at the Thief warily. He wasn't like that weirdo from earlier, but he was still a stranger. Still, if the ball was his, the right thing to do would be to give it back. So, she tossed it.

The ball flew up and then dropped down in an arch. 

Eyes on the pearl, the Thief took a few steps back and then clapped his hands around it over his head.

He flashed the Girl a smile and said, "Nice throw!"

The Girl smiled back.

With his prize back in his hands, the Thief quickly bade the Girl farewell and walked back the way he came. But halfway up the road, he stopped and turned around. He couldn't help but worry about the Girl wandering around a place like this on her own, especially now that there were dangerous weirdoes roaming about, such as the Wealthy Son and the Secretary with weird mutant superpowers, and those Mummies. 

The Thief conveniently didn't think that maybe it was his fault that those dangerous weirdoes were showing up, even though they were all clearly after the pearl he had brought with him.

He quietly crept back down to the end of the road, hid behind the corner and peaked out just in time to see the Girl disappear at another left turn. Beyond that, the Thief could hear the voices of children who sounded like some of the Girl's friends.

Relieved to know that she would not be on her own, the Thief turned away again to look for his safe house.

*********

The Wealthy Son took a look around while flapping a decorated folding fan beneath his chin. Dark-stained walls surrounded him and the Secretary with gates leading to old houses. Some houses looked fairly new while others looked like they've been neglected for a while, at least on the outside.

"You're sure this is the right place?"

The Secretary answered the Wealthy Son's question with a nod. "I peeked into the memories of some locals who saw him running this way. My guess he plans to hideout somewhere in the famous Ghost Quarter."

She had a concerned frown on her face, but the Wealthy Son didn't notice.

After taking another look down the road, he gave his phone a glance and sighed. For some reason, the compass app enchanted with his magic spell was not working. He had heard of the famed Ghost Quarter as well, and knew that it was a massive and maze-like place with more than a few abandoned houses to choose to hide in. Without the enchanted digital compass, finding the Thief or the pearl was going to be very, very hard.

"Well, we'll just have to look around and find anyone who may have seen where he's gone."

He turned to the pitter-patter sound of slippers and spotted the Girl approaching.

"Good timing. Go check with her. Kids are always out exploring, so she might have seen something."

"Understood," said the Secretary.

On the Wealthy Son's orders, she walked over to the little Girl and called out to her. "Excuse me!"

Just before opening the stainless steel gate, the Girl stopped and turned.

The Secretary flashed a friendly smile and knelt down. Pink light flashed and spread from the Secretary's eyes to the Girl's. 

Meanwhile, the Wealthy Son stood on lookout at a corner a few feet away. To make sure they're not spotted, he clapped his hands together and pulled out something invisible from his palm. He tossed this invisible something in the air and suddenly he, the Secretary and the Girl were invisible too. They could still see each other, though so the Girl never noticed she had turned invisible. She didn't notice anything really, being half-asleep while under the Secretary's spell. The invisible veil also served as a wall to keep people from getting too close.

Not long later, the light retreated from the Girl's eyes back into the Secretary's.

Flashing another smile, the Secretary said to the Girl, "Thank you. It's getting late, so better get inside."

The Girl blinked and then smiled back. "Okay!"

The instant the Girl retreated inside, the Secretary's smile dropped into a frown and she walked away to rejoin the Wealthy Son. 

"So?" went the Wealthy Son. "Found anything?"

The Secretary nodded. "A lot more than I expected."

The Wealthy Son raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"It is as you said, sir," said the Secretary. "The Girl spotted the Thief at the Ghost Quarter while she was out on a walk about a half-hour ago."

"Ha!" The Wealthy Son grinned triumphantly. "What did I tell you? I'm always right!"

That is debatable, the Secretary thought.

"And?" asked the Wealthy Son. "Do you know where the Thief went?"

"Up a stretch of road that slanted slightly up. I can take us there right now. Fortunately, the Girl explored the Ghost Quarter quite frequently. From her memories, I was able to extract a complete layout of the area."

"Good, good," said the Wealthy Son. "With that, it'll just be a matter of time before we get the pearl back."

"But that is not all that I found out," said the Secretary. "The otherworlder that your father warned of is here."

"Well, that's no surprise," said the Wealthy Son. "You said yourself that Father told us they'd be coming."

And then he frowned.

"Wait, did the Girl SEE the otherworlder?"

The Secretary nodded. "Not only that. I think they've become friends."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. I know where the otherworlder has made his base. I suggest we go and take care of him now so he does not pose a problem later."

The Wealthy Son rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "No, wait. Let's hold off on that."

The Secretary blinked. "Sir?"

With a wicked smile, the Wealthy Son explained, "I just got an idea that may come in handy later."

He glanced back at the Girl's house and his wicked smile grew wickeder.

**********

Further away by a few feet, the Hypnotist poked her head out from behind the wall. She had just been wandering the neighborhood, cursing her luck that the Thief got away when she saw the Wealthy Son, the Secretary, and the Girl disappear before her very eyes, as if they had been covered by some kind of invisibility cloak. Curious, she stuck around and waited a bit until the Wealthy Son and the Secretary reappeared.

The Hypnotist heard every word they said and realized that they were sorcerers just like her who were after the pearl.

That bit about the otherworlder was interesting, but more importantly, she thought, they knew where the Thief was. As long as she stuck with them, they were sure to lead her to the pearl.

**********

Meanwhile . . .

As the sky darkened into nighttime, the Thief finally reached his safehouse. Eager to get some food in his stomach but thinking the snack bars he brought with him would not be enough, he headed straight for the kitchen expecting to find crates full of more bars. But instead, what awaited him were wrappers littered all over the floor and something so outrageous staring back at him that his mind just went blank. His mouth hung open and his eyes popped, making him look like a fish out of water.

Hunched down and yet still towering over the Thief was an armored up, green-skinned Giant.

<== Chapter 7                                                                             Chapter 9 ==>