That night the three of them met at Levi’s place to go over the plan one last time.

“So I’m doing this, but you guys are doing exactly what I tell you. Alright?” Alice was staring at Paul, but Levi nodded furiously. He’d been having second thoughts since he’d said yes to this stupid plan, but now it was happening and he still couldn’t think up a good way out.

Well now I’ve got to hope that Alice really does know what she’s doing.

It was past midnight when they made their way over to the unusual antique shop and the whole street was quiet, quiet and dark. The street lights around the shop seemed to conspire for them, conveniently out of order, and the whole section of the street was a blot of inky darkness. Well, convenient for them or for whatever monster caught them, he thought with a shudder. The night sky seemed to be conspiring too, with moon and stars hidden in the clouds.

Levi stuck close to the others, as they walked the short distance from his place, so close that he kept stepping on Paul’s heels, till his companion turned. “Dude, back off, alright.”

“Yeah, sorry,” He said, feeling sheepish. And he did, about six inches. He couldn’t help it, he kept seeing things in the corner of the eye, sensing eyes on his back and hands grasping for him from behind. Feeling like the dark was closing in on him. He hadn’t minded the dark --up until Christmas break that it-- but now… He didn’t think he’d been out of doors past dark more than a half dozen times since then, and when he did, he’d hurry from one pool of light to the next, breath coming fast and shallow.

But knowing what he knew, could anyone blame him? Caught up in these gloomy thoughts, he almost bumped into Paul when he stopped in front of the alley.

They stood there for a moment, hesitating. He imagined that he looked less like a brave hunter and more like a scared kid at the dentist’s office. It was Paul who broke the silence with a sharp whisper.

“So, we doing this? There’s no one around, like at all.”

Levi hesitated. “What about the monkey thing? You think it’s in there?”

Alice pushed past the other two, walking resolutely down the alley. “It’s a little late for that. Just shut up and come on.”

The two of them followed her obediently, a row of shadows in the gloom. To cope with the dark, Levi imagined them as full fledged hunters, sneaking down into some beast’s lair to dispatch it. This picture lasted about two seconds before his foot caught an old can and sent it skittering down the dark alleyway. The three of them froze and Levi’s breath caught. He was sure he’d woken everyone on that block with how loud the noise sounded in his ears. They waited as the slow moments slipped by but nothing happened and eventually Alice started moving again, the quiet crunch of her boots sounding loud in the darkness.

Within a few moments she stopped again.

“Hey, Levi,” she whispered. “Which one’s the window?”

“I can’t tell, just keep trying till one opens.”

Some more crunching, with a short stop as she ducked down to check something, then more crunching and a second stop. This time there was a creak and a dark spot near the ground swung out.

“I think this is it,” she whispered. “Get in.”

Down went Paul.

Levi waited, terrified they’d hear an alarm or something… but nothing happened. In a moment they heard his voice from below. “We’re good. Come on down.”

Levi went second. He squeezed through the window backwards, his coat scraping the top of the sill even while his chest was pressed against the asphalt. The drop wasn’t far but he would have landed on a stack of boxes if Paul hadn’t helped him down. He wasn’t sure how Paul had missed them, as they were right below the window. The two of them helped Alice down, though she had them help her back up a moment later to do something to the window. Then they were all there in the dark basement.

It wasn’t completely dark, as there was a thin line of light coming from through a door at the top of some stairs.

“There’s a light.” Whispered Levi. “We didn’t see anything from outside. Is someone here?”

“We’re already in, just shut up and let’s see what’s there. Levi, show us where it is.” Alice seemed irritated and Levi figured she must be rattled by the light too.

They wound their way through the darkness, occasionally bumping into furniture, boxes, or other unknown items. There was one scary moment when Levi heard the creak of floorboards above, he was so startled by the sudden sound that he jerked back, upsetting a stack of boxes. He swung around, faster than he thought possible, catching the boxes before they fell. For a moment he thought he saw a faint glow on his forearm, through his coat.

There was a tap on his shoulder. “I think we need some light,” whispered Alice. A second later a dim glow from her phone screen lit up the space right in front of them. “No flashlights, but this should be enough.”

He started to nod, then caught himself.

Like she can even see me right now.

Instead he pulled his phone out. Dialed down to minimum, the brightness from the display was still enough to keep him from bumping into things. Still, he’d only seen the creature’s stash once --from a dirty window at that-- so it took him longer than he expected. As happy as he was for some light, the longer they took, the more his mind was playing tricks on him. His adjutor hadn’t gone off, so he figured there wasn’t any danger, but he kept imagining the piles of junk with eyes, staring at him hungrily.

They probably weren’t down there more than a few minutes before he found the spot where he’d seen the monkey thing before, but it was a long few minutes. The drawer opened easily enough and there, sure enough, was a large pile of purses, phones, watches, necklaces, and other valuables, mixed in with bits of glass and shiny scraps of metal. Levi wrinkled his nose at the smell. It was musty, like a wet dog.

“Well, we found it,” whispered Paul excitedly. “You were so right. This thing’s been stealing tons of stuff. You think the guys who own this place trained it?”

“I don’t know if they even know it’s here.” replid Alice. “It’s like it just takes whatever catches it’s eye. Look.” She shone her light over everything. “Half of it’s valuable, but half of it’s total junk. But it’s all.”

“Shiny,” said Levi, catching on. “Everything’s shiny. It’s only stealing shiny stuff. Even the purses are shiny”

Alice agreed. “Yeah, I bet the owners don’t even know it’s doing this. It could be their pet, but I doubt they trained it to steal for them, or they wouldn’t have let it hoard all this in the basement.”

She sounded like she was about to say more, but the sound of a door slamming made them jump. Then heavy steps creaked above them and a male voice, speaking some language Levi didn’t understand, could be heard clearly. He seemed angry about something and kept up an angry conversation with someone they couldn’t hear. Levi wondered if he were on the phone.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He froze where he crouched, not even daring to breathe, and prayed they didn’t decide to come down to check on the basement. To his relief, the steps faded steadily, till he could barely hear the conversation, still going on in some far part of the building.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Levi said, stumbling toward the open window. What on earth were they doing down here? He had to get out now. His shin collided with something hard, and the pain seemed to clear away his panic. Had he left the others? Were they following? What was he thinking? He looked back and his phone caught Paul’s figure right behind him, but Alice, faintly visible in the darkness, stood at the base of the stairs.

“Alice,” Levi whispered as loud as he could. “Alice come on. Let’s get out of here.”

She didn’t seem to hear him, instead she started up the stairs as if drawn by something. She didn’t get more than a few steps when she bumped into something that fell with a loud.

‘THUNK’

They all froze, and he heard Alice gasp. The footsteps that they feared didn’t return, instead they heard something else. It was a chittering sort of sound that Levi had heard once before. “It’s the monkey, he whispered. “I think you woke it. Come on Alice.”

But it his whisper must have been loud enough for it to hear, because a moment later there was a crashing, and a howling, and something leapt at Levi from the dark, knocking him off his feet. He couldn’t see what hit him, but he could feel it. A wiry, hairy thing that smelled like wet dog was tearing and clawing at him. It couldn’t have been able to see any better than he could, or it would have landed more blows but, as it was, all he could do was throw his hands up to protect his face.

There was a noise like a tenderizer hitting a slab of meat, and the thing rolled away from him with a grunt.

“Get up Levi,” Paul called. Hauling Levi up by his coat. He looked around, panicked, searching for the creature that had disappeared into the darkness. Paul was a faint outline beside him, holding something in his hands. It might have been a bat. There was more chittering and screeching from the dark, though it seemed to be all over the place. Could there be more than one? That thought made Levi shudder. He backed up next to Paul, who seemed to be pressing closer to him too.

Then he heard Alice scream, and he felt Paul rush past him.

Screw this.

He thumbed the phone’s light on, sending a blinding --at least for his eyes-- light across the room. Alice was missing, but a hairy figure Then it leapt again, this time at Paul. It hit him hard knocking him to the ground. Levi leapt on top of it, hoping to grab it from behind to wrench it off of Paul. As he did so he dropped his phone, which skittered across the floor, plunging the room again into darkness.

Miraculously he managed to grab the wiry creature; but it was fast. No sooner had Levi grabbed it, then it twisted in his hands, snapping at him. It’s teeth missed though, sinking in on a clump of Levi’s coat instead. It started pummeling Levi with kicks and punches as Levi held on desperately. A blow hit him hard across the face, which made him loose his hold as he staggered backwards. Free from Levi’s grasp, the thing seemed to have gotten the club Paul was using, and it started battering Levi with it. He grunted as it made contact with his side, leg, and arm. He braced for another blow when there was a yell from above, followed by heavy footsteps.

There was a clatter and the thing disappeared. A moment later, a hand grabbed his and was pulling him to the window. “Get going.” He hear Alice’s voice from beside him.

“My phone,” he managed to get out, as she hauled him along.

“I’ve got it. Keep moving.”

Then she was boosting him up to the window, as he tried to scramble through that thin rectangle. His coat stuck on something, but another set of hands shoved hard and he shot through, onto the asphalt. He turned to help haul Paul through, and noticed the cinder block holding the window open. Now he knew what Alice had been doing when they snuck in.

Paul came up fast, with a scraping sound against the window frame. Then the door at the top of the stairs started shaking, and there was a rattling of bolts. He said a silent prayer of thanks. The think must be locked. Reaching down to grab Alice, he found her almost level with the window. Surprised, he almost let go, but she clung to him tightly, practically climbing up him to get out. As she came through, he heard boxes fall behind her. She must have climbed up that pile of boxes he realized. Scrambling free, she kicked the cinder block away and the window slammed closed, just as the basement was flooded with light.

A moment later they were dashing along the alley and didn’t stop when they hit the street. They only slowed a block later, when Paul called, gasping. “I can’t… I… oh stop.”

Levi and Alice slowed, looking back the way they’d come. No one seemed to be following, so they waited till Paul caught up, still panting hard.

“Did you… Did you see that?” Paul asked between gasps.”What was that thing?”

“It was a nightmare,” said Levi. “You okay Alice? We heard you scream.”

“I’m fine. It knocked me over into an open box is all. What about the two of you?”

“I’ll live,” said Levi. “Let’s get somewhere safe.”

A few minutes later found them in Levi’s place; with the door bolted and the curtains closed. It was Alice who insisted on the curtains --something about keeping nightmares out. Actually, she’d done that the other time she’d been over there too. He dismissed it as not mattering much right then.

“Well, that went pretty well don’t you think?” Said Paul, falling back onto the couch.

Levi gaped at him. “Are you kidding? We got beat up by a monkey and almost caught, and we don’t have anything to show for it except this.” He pointed to his bruised face and ripped coat. There was still a tooth lodged in the fabric, which he plucked out gingerly.

Paul grinned through a pair of black eyes. “Yeah, you don’t look so hot.”

“Have you seen yourself?” Alice said, rolling her eyes. Somehow she’d come out of the adventure without so much as a scratch that Levi could see.

“Nah, but I know where it hit me.” Paul said, touching his face gingerly. Then he started shaking, and Levi panicked, thinking he was sick or… Then Paul threw his head back and laughed, long and hard. Levi looked at him shocked, then over at Alice who lasted a moment longer before she started in too. Then looking at his friends, doubled over, faces red, he realized they were alive, and then the elixir of relief washed over him as well. He laughed right along with them as well. He laughed so hard his side hurt. Of course that was where that creature had hit him. As he laughed, the stress and fear of that night, of the past week, it all sort of washed away.

After a while the laughter died out, and they sat there panting and grinning at each other.

“Well,” Paul said, “at least we’re alive.

“Yeah?” said Levi, holding his side, wincing. “I might be better off dead.”

Paul stopped in the middle of saying something, suddenly noticing Alice. She had suddenly turned and was busy at the table with pen and paper, scribbling something down, all her focus on the task. “Hey Alice, you alright?”

She didn’t look up from her scribbling, muttering to herself in some foreign language. Levi looked at Paul, who shrugged. Levi watched her work, wondering if he should try to stop her, but something about her manner made him think she wouldn’t appreciate it if he did. A few moments later she stopped, dropping the pen and pushing her chair away from the table. She looked up and seemed surprised they were staring at her. “What?”

“You totally went all weird on us there.” Said Paul. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I had to get all this down before I forget it though. My russian isn’t all that good.”

“Your what?”

“That guy was speaking something that sounded like russian. Well, it wasn’t, it was something else, but it was close enough that I got a lot of what he was saying.”

“I totally did not know you spoke russian.” Paul said, looking interested. “So what did he say.”

“My dad’s side were all russian, but that doesn’t matter right now. That guy was talking about something big and we’ve got to tell the hunters.”

“What is it?” Levi asked, alarmed by her tone.

“He was talking about preparing something. Something about their master coming. He didn’t say who it was, but he talked about weapons and ‘don’t let the hunters know’. That’s what really caught my attention. Whatever it is, it sounds like it’s something we should warn them about, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, yeah it does. But, uh…” Levi trailed off.

“What?” Alice demanded.

“Could you tell Beth. I don’t want to admit to Connolly that we snuck in there.”

“Yeah,” said Paul. “Levi’s got a point. I don’t think we’ll survive that conversation.”

“Fine, but you guys are a couple babies. He’s not that bad.”

“That’s cause you’ve never had him as your advisor,” said Levi grimly.