The Equalizer: You Better Watch Out

Part 5 - creatures are stirring

I gave myself an extra push. Everything around me blurred. The damn laws of physics hadn't cut me any slack before and now this was more of the same. I had way too much momentum going backwards like that.

The Mark flared up. My skin and bone itched as I healed deep inside.

I blinked green again. I twisted around, dropped into a crouch. I leaned forward, put my left hand down and steadied myself. Didn't do much good at first. I didn't slow down until I slid backwards twenty feet. Everything Around me faded from shades of grey and then back to dark purple shadows as I went from Marty's backyard into another location topside.

I was somewhere else.

No snow. Green grass slipped through my fingers. I sure in the hell wasn't in Maine anymore. It was still night.

Flashing red and blue lights all around. Radio chatter in the air and it sounded awfully damn familiar.

Like law enforcement.

Cops all around, standing next to their cruisers, on the front steps and the porch of the house behind me. The coroner's meat wagon was there too.

Everyone turned to stare at me. Temps in the upper seventies and there I was covered in ice and snow doing a pretty damn good imitation of Frosty the Snowman, minus a carrot nose, two pieces of coal for eyes and that dumbass black top hat.

Nobody said a damn thing. These cops were too damn professional to stand there with their jaws dropped, but the general feeling was what the fuck is this? all the same. Only the ones on the radio kept talking, and that was because they weren't there and didn't know what was going on. A huge brown police dog nearby strained at its handler's leash and started barking its fool head off.

Demon GPS kicked in just then, even though I didn't need it. I knew good and damn well where I was: the front lawn of 8471 Palmetto Way. Tampa, Florida. The last earthly home of Mr. and Mrs. McPerv, Randall and Lorraine DeLeon.

I'll be damned. Well, I already am, but still. I was right back where I started tonight.

The shock of seeing a snow dude pop in out of thin air holding a wicked looking bone blade wore off pretty damn quick with this crowd. Several of the cops nearest me drew their weapons. In another second all of them did.

I smirked at them. "Is there a problem, Officers?"

WE SHOULDN'T GO BACK! The Mark yelped inside my head.

We already had this conversation. I'm not listening to you and you can't make me.

As you often say, what are you, four?

Shut up.

"Put the weapon down and lie on the ground! Slowly! Hands above your head!" the red-faced older cop by the nearest squad car roared.

If I moved, they'd shoot me.

I ignored them. I saw Marty's yard inside my head. More of the minions came out of the snow. They crowded around Goat Boy purring like kittens. They rubbed their faces against his robe. Krampus stood there swaying back and forth. His hands shook as the minions crowded around him and grabbed at his fingers. Underneath the ice and snow I was covered in bites and bruises. He looked worse than I did.

Good. I was just getting started.

I reached out with my mind. Goat Boy wasn't the only one who could create wild weather. I needed cover, so I made some. The wind picked up; all I had to do was think about it. Snow filled the air. Thunder and lightning flashed overhead.