No, I just defeated the Sluagh! Not another monster!

Superheroes get days off right? These things were supposed to be spaced out over week long increments. I fought one last week, and then tonight. The next one wasn’t due until at least next Thursday.

Charice didn’t notice my discomfort. She was still smiling and chatting to me. I was no longer paying attention though. My mind raced. I need to get her home ASAP. Then I could see what this thing was and deal with it.

They gave me back my debit card and the receipt so I could leave a tip and sign it. I had a hard time computing the tip amount. But I had a pretty good time with Charice so I threw ten bucks cash in the tip jar.

Where the heck was Nehemiah? I couldn’t be everywhere at once. I couldn’t be expected to handle every monster that came to town. Wasn’t he already doing this way before me? That was the impression I got from him last week. And yet that was the last time I had seen him.

A new thought dawned on me. Perhaps he was handling monsters elsewhere too. Perhaps he’d gotten busy. Or maybe like me he needed a break.

But then I considered Spider-man. With power comes responsibility. And Spidey knew that no matter what he had to do the right thing, even if it meant exhausting himself. But I didn’t have superpowers, I had magic. Like Harry Potter. Harry-Spider? No. Spider-Potter. Potter-man.

I thought of Charice, my family, and the jogger. If I didn’t handle this thing, whatever it was, then nobody would. I couldn’t count on Nehemiah because I had no way to contact him.

No, like Spidey, I was caught in the middle of the web and it was my job to sort this thing out no matter how much I hated being sticky. I was Potter-man, and I had to do the right thing.

As we exited the restaurant I instinctively grabbed Charice’s hand. “Oh,” she said, caught off guard. It was still one of the first times we actually held hands. “So we’re doing that now?” she asked.

“Let’s just walk quickly to the car and get out of here,” I said.

My tone and face must have clued her in that I wasn’t trying to be romantic.

“You really want that frozen yogurt, huh?” she said, with a puzzled look on her face.

I picked up the pace as we headed for my car. Nausea flooded me. The thing was really close.

And then I heard it, the piercing screech.

Charice tried to stop and turn, because she was startled.

“Get in the car,” I said sharply. I glanced around the parking lot. There were a lot of empty cars, most people were still inside Pho and the surrounding restaurants. Except for one lady. Her face was aglow with smart phone light. She chatted with someone on speaker phone, like the rest of the world needed to hear everything they said.

Another screech sounded much closer this time and I looked skyward. Against the starlight I could see the black silhouette of another massive bird. Goosebumps trailed down my neck and arms.

“There’s more than one,” I murmured.

“What was that sound?” asked Charice.

Instead of dodging the question I pointed to the sky. No need to hide it now. We were in danger.

“What are you pointing at?”

“That massive bird, right there” I said as I opened the passenger door for her.

“I don’t see anything.”

I ran over to my side and opened my door before I remembered the lady on her cell phone. I waved my arms frantically and barked, “Hey! Hey lady.” But she was too engrossed in her conversation to notice.

Quicker than I expected the Sluagh dove like a black dart hurled straight down.

I screamed, unable to accept what was happening.

Like the jogger earlier, the Sluagh grasped her by her shoulders and took to the skies. She was in such shock she couldn’t even scream.

“Shoot!” I slammed my door shut as I watched the Sluagh fly west over the fenced-off former Kmart lot.

The car shot forward and I saw a gap in the fence where someone had cut a hole. The Mustang tore through the gate and I winced knowing that my paint job would be scratched now.

“That lady just flew in the air...,” said Charice.

“Yeah, the bird snatched her,” I said. I dodged potholes, weeds, and old light poles. The tires squealed as I weaved around the obstacles.

Charice’s face grew pale and she looked like she might hurl. Which would suck because I paid for that dinner. “There was no bird.”

I glared at her. What was she smoking? There is no way she could miss a bird that massive.

But then my conversation with Rob echoed in my mind.

“You can see through my Glamour?” Rob has said. “But you’re just a human. That means you’ve been…”

“To the Otherside,” I had finished.

Charice couldn’t see the Sluagh because Glamour masked its form. My magic had just awakened when I fought the Banshee, and I myself had seen glimpses of what she really was during our first fight. I’d been to the Otherside, Tir na nOg. Charice hadn’t.

My thoughts were interrupted as Charice caught sight of the lady again. “She’s floating in the air,” she said, pointing.

The Sluagh hadn’t gotten very high yet, and I had to give it to the lady, she was fighting back. She was fighting back too well actually because the bird dropped her. Charice gasped and my heart leapt into my throat.

But thank goodness she landed in a large pile of weeds and not straight-up asphalt. The car skidded to a halt. As I was getting out I said, “Stay here.”

Charice’s eyes were wide, too shocked for words. I popped the trunk and retrieved my katana. The metal sang as the blade leapt from its sheath. As I ran to defend the woman I saw Charice matching my pace stride for stride. “What are you doing?” I yelled.

“We’ve got to help her,” she countered.

We reached the woman who was moaning and cradling her left arm. Rips scored the shoulders of her shirt and small amounts of blood leaked through where the talons had punctured the skin.

“Are you alright?” asked Charice, her face a wrinkled with concern.

The woman shut her eyes tight. “It hurts,” she said.

“Her arm’s broken,” Charice said.

But I wasn’t really paying attention because the Sluagh circled back around to gather its prey. I raised my sword high and spread my legs shoulder width apart, grounding my stance on the cracked asphalt. I reached within trying to find my power, my Luck Magic. But it eluded me yet again. Why won’t you work? I just used you to defeat the last bird. So when the Sluagh came at me, I simply stood there dumbly. What was I going to do? Let it collide with the women?

It hit me full force and knocked the wind out of me. To my credit I stabbed it, which was why my katana was ripped from my hands as I was knocked to the ground. I rolled to my feet, but the pain was undeniable. The Sluagh crash landed a stone’s throw away. Behind me Charice called out, “Sean, what’s happening?” Out of my peripheral I could see her trying to help the woman to her feet.

“Get her to my car,” I said, then ran towards the Sluagh as fast I could. I reached for my katana and ripped it free of the bird who was a flurry of feathers trying to get off the ground. Black blood ran down my blade. “Come on,” I yelled. “Let’s do this!”

I went in for a stab again but the bird brought its sharp talons up and blocked my attack. It flapped its wings and rose onto its legs. Quick as a flash, it pecked at me over and over. I managed to block its beak twice with my sword, but it got me good several times. Sharp pain laced my right forearm. Hot wet blood ran down my arm under my plaid button up.

Our eyes connected and the beast knew that it had me. I danced around a nearby rusty light pole, trying to keep something between us. The Sluagh screeched in frustration as I moved about the light pole in circles, eluding further attacks.

Then I heard another screech from the sky and my heart almost stopped.

“Sean,” Charice cried in dismay.

I stole a glance back and saw the familiar silhouette of a massive bird swooping towards Charice and the injured woman. No, not more!

In a blur of shadow and feathers it descended and ripped the injured woman free from Charice’s helping hands before they could make it into the safety of my ‘Stang. The Sluagh lifted the woman higher still and carried her away to something worse than an early grave. But I was distracted for too long. I felt a sharp pain in my side as the Sluagh I was fighting landed a good peck, stabbing me with its beak.

I stumbled back losing my footing. It had the force of a punch but the sting of a stab. I fell to one knee and only had one hand on my katana, my other hand flailing for balance.

Charice was at my side in a flash, trying to help me to the car.

“What are you doing? You should have stayed in the car,” I grunted.

“I’m helping you of course,” she said. In the process her cell phone fell out of her pocket. She reached down to get it.

The Sluagh beat its wings and came in for another attack.

“Leave it,” I said.

I tried to raise my sword in time but the thing grabbed Charice by the shoulders and took flight with her.

I reached out to grab her outstretched hand but our fingers only brushed each other as she was taken into the night sky.

For an eternal moment, despair turned my world upside down and drowned me with crushing defeat.

“No!” I yelled.

I snatched up her phone and got in the ‘Stang, taking off like a charging bull.

I pursued the Sluagh but it rose higher and higher. Both birds headed west, past the empty Kmart lot and out into the marshes. I slammed on the breaks as I came to the natural end of the property, the marshes themselves.

I whipped the car around and headed for the South end of the property. The ‘Stang blasted through the chain link fence and drifted off of the curb onto the street. It headed West, out over the Highway 37 marshes. My mind’s eye raced ahead of me, thinking of the fastest path to keep up with the Sluagh on the streets. I needed to get to the overpass that went over the Napa River, then I could jump on the two lane Highway 37.

In less than two minutes I was on Highway 37 and approaching the Napa River overpass. On my left was the last block of houses in Vallejo, and on my right were the marshes that ended by the old Kmart.

I had to cross the water. I began my way up the steep incline over the overpass. By this time I lost sight of the Sluagh. My stomach got queasy and my hands were cold as I gripped the steering wheel. Don’t think about the water. It was crazy dark now and my only chance of seeing them was getting over the horizon of the overpass.

It seemed like forever but I finally cleared the crest of the overpass. Without knowing it, I had been holding my breath and let out the air. But halfway down the overpass was a big rig. At the bottom of the overpass the highway would merge from two lanes to one lane for about five miles as it cut across the marshes. If I got behind a slow driver I wouldn’t be able to pass them up because the center divider was a tall concrete wall and on my right would be a drop off into the marshes, and a slow murky death by drowning.

I stomped on the gas. “I have to make this, otherwise I will never catch up to her in time.”

The engine roared as I sped off down the overpass, glad to have any excuse to get out from over the water. I caught up to the big rig and managed to pull alongside it and slightly cut him off just as the lanes merged into one. He showed me one of his ten fingers and blinded me with high beams as well. I wanted to flash the shotgun at him but I didn’t have it. Plus he probably had one too. I sped up hoping to catch up to the Sluagh.

Scanning the night sky I caught movement on my right, more North West. Two birds beat their wings, heading deeper into the center of the Marshes, Skaggs Island. Yes, I was gaining on them!

A Vallejo veteran, I knew that there was only one exit in the middle of the marshes, and that was a road that led to the lonely and forgotten Skaggs Island. The Island used to house a secret military base back in the 1940s, but sometime during my childhood the place had been boarded up by the government. The Sluagh would probably be nesting there. There would be plenty of abandoned buildings they could dwell in or nest on where no one would even know they existed. If I drove out to Skaggs Island I could cut them off.

There were no cars in front of the ‘Stang, so I maxed out the horsepower, ninety miles per hour in a sixty-five zone. The turn off to Skaggs Island came quicker than I expected. I could catch up!

But as soon as I made the turn my headlights beamed on a large security gate that was reinforced with huge metal bars buried deep in the concrete. They had reinforced it for people just like me, who wanted to barrel through the gate. And on either side of the little dirt road were the waters of the marsh. No!

I slammed on the breaks, hopped out of the car and ran up to the massive fence, my fingers interlocking between the chain links.

No! No! No!