Stuck at the Galleria

Act 2: The Duck Hunter (by Max Cromwell) (part 1)

It was a dark and stormy night. Or at least, it would be if it were later on in December, when the snow started to pile up and things started to get dreary. Nope, the night I'm referring to was just rather cold. But that's not the point. It was a rather cold night in December, and the mall was like it always was: bright, gaudy and full of light. Well, most of it was, except for one of the bigger places.

It was always kind of decrepit and macabre. The neon lights were fading and losing their color, and the arcade games, while still fun, were starting to show cracks in their screens and broken coin slots. And don't even get me started on the animatronic robots that shot out sparks every time the management turned them on.

Bucky Duck's Pizza Parlour. Where parents send their children's dreams to go die.

I had a score to settle here. The guy who owned the place owed me big time for those tickets he stole from me all those years ago, and I wasn't just going to let him get away with it. I wanted them all back. Plus interest. Those things were worth even more at that moment then they were when the duck made off with 'em, the sleazy crook.

The hinges screeched as I opened the glass doors to the restaurant. It was as if they were warning me about something, like I was getting myself into something I shouldn't have. Nothing was going to stop me from doing it though.

"Max, I don't think he's here," Piper said to me as I started to walk in. I turned around and looked at her, and got a bit of a smile on my face.

I replied with a confident tone, "Pip, he's definitely here."

She was such a nice girl. I wondered sometimes just why she got herself into the seedy underworld the Galleria became at night. This place wasn't meant for her type; she was just a silver-haired wallflower, really soft-spoken, polite, sweet, but this place was full of the snide, the seething, the snippy, and Grassy.

"So you're really going to finish the job?" she asked.

"Someone has to."

Pip gave me a hug. You'd think I'd be too hard-boiled for that kind of stuff, and usually I am, but Piper's a bit of an exception to that. I walked into the empty restaurant and waved back at her as she closed the doors.

I turned around and stepped further down the path, and everything just turned black around me. I tried to turn around to see if Piper was there behind me, but I couldn't find anything.

No turning back now.

"Alright, you've got me right where you want me, Bucky," I yelled out into the darkness. "Now are you gonna show yourself or what?"

There was no response, but a bit of a wind jostled the front of my mullet after I said it. I balled my hands up into fists. He was coming, and I had to be ready. That duck fought dirty.

"Have I ever mentioned to you that you're such a coward? Because you totally are."

Another wind, but it was behind me this time. I turned around, and as it blew I heard an odd, faint noise in the distance.

A quack. Here we go.

I elbowed outward and felt the fake feathers on my arm. He tried to get a good punch to the face in, but I grabbed his arm and threw it back the other way before returning back with a kick to his chest. He walked backwards into the darkness, but as I tried to chase him down the lights came on and I stopped dead in my tracks.

No duck to be found in the direction he went. Was he gone?