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Oh! What a gala night! Oh, what an event! Everyone, simply Everyone, was there What a pity it had to be in the summer, in this dreadful hot weather But those workers had, just taken their time and those awful unions - everyone kne they could be

Yet it was done now Finished and co and wasn’t it simply marvelous! All those slopes and weird shapes? What was that architect’s name? Doesn’tis it’s all done now and what an event we are having tonight Everyone was there

Even the streets were dressed for the event With banners and strea both before and after the show, as all those people would be strolling out And, oh, the cameras and the street all blocked off and the chairperson of the Opera Coe with the mayor and his wife and

Oh, the street entertainers! Look at them! Aren’t they cute? All those ht stripes with those hats with the bells on them And even more fun were the period people, with those costu - as that? Mead? Or so? And meat pies And turkey on a stick And those two artisans, wearing that cute chain uaranteed to be authentic but shouldn’t they have at least painted over the plastic parts, ha ha?

Pity about the opera part of it all It was pretty, of course - beautiful, so, wasn’t it? Of course, operas are supposed to be long and one knows it’s Great Art and all the rest, but still one wonders - perhaps if it was just a teensy bit shorter? And if we could understand what they were singing? Perhaps they should just speak some of it? But then it wouldn’t be opera, would it?

Of course, it wouldn’t have to be subsidized then, either, but not to think of that now, because it was over and everyone, Everyone, had woken up from their little naps and Oh! The afterparties! All those delicious afterparties! Because this was such an Important Occasion, such a Cultural Milestone! Like New Year’s Eve, wasn’t it? With all the liy and wasn’t it so one down? People didn’t look quite so wilted, soown - how tacky! And the men, how handsoripe, but secretly, everyone knows, they love to dress up And they really are so handsouished, even those ed both in years and size? Both up and out? Ha ha!

Like that handso down the steps, the one alone going between the new brass pillars that hold up the awning, going toward that li the door

What was his na around from behind his "authentic crossbow" stand

The va as a baseball bat shot right through the glea expanse of his starched white tuxedo shirt and splattered clear drops out the back and the umbrella barbs popped open and held it fast

And for just athe cable to the thick brass pillar, was asp Unbelieving This wasn’t possible was it? Or part of the show? A trick? An assassination? Too surreal

Even thewide by the i his blackened soul

For just an instant

Then the eyes went up and the an

And Cat stepped in fro the first, and as he scrambled to tie his cable to the other brass pillar, the odly, unreal howling shot through the crowd and echoed off the street and the maniacal frenzy was i, tearing sound

And the people watching who had first thought: ht, What is this? What is that! It cannot be a man! It cannot be! Not that sound! An animal? What kind of an ani burst forth upon the-away shook the thick brass pillar and the secondabove it sway and then the second cable was tied fast and thetrapped and and the anger

the blazing fury

at this youngaway, the monster burst forward toward Felix

And into his balloons

They weren’t water balloons that broke and splashed on his face and chest, that awful sasoline And they broke, one-two-three, across his front and soaked him and Cat already had the flare lit and he tossed it and it hit the rushing chest and bounced off, but not before

The flames rushed up and out and around hi with it, a flaht and cracklingloud and when the black glob finally spat forth, it was burning

And nothing could have that evil, hell-wretched seance Not anymore No more The pain the pain! And it howled and warped into ave so, and the pillars started to buckle where they were bolted against the sidewalk

NO! No! It can’t get free!

The Gunht knee and ain and hit it And then the left knee and the howling! The howling as it cru itself back and forth, back and forth, faster and faster, screa and the pillars

The pillars broke free and it fell backward, rolling, and lay there for a second as two more silver bullets ra fla into the side of the li like a crab across the top into the street and -

And Gunain and, yes, there was an effect It jerked and swayed with each i it It was into theaway, the ends of the crossbow bolts sparking on the asphalt and

We can’t stop it! It’ll get away and the flao out and it’ll pull those stakes out

Now! We’ve got to stop it now! Just for a few seconds! It couldn’t take er

The Blazer, the one Davette had sworn to stay hidden in two blocks aas doing twenty-five when it vaulted across the sidewalk, thirty when it bounced across the curb into the street, and an even thirty-six when its front bu flames

The noise! The streak of fire as the vaainst the front bu wail as it lay, a frenzied fla over it when the burning hands tried to raise up, was staring dohen the blazing tortured eyes focused on hi when they collapsed backward into the fire

The swell of flaht and ias were escaping Then sparks So many sparks

Then that loud pop thunderous and deep

Then nothing A tiny circle of blue-and-white fla out around a s had no idea what they had just seen But so inside was relieved Sorateful to the pair in the chain et Or try But now

Supernatural

"We did it!" shouted Cat, unbelieving himself "We did it! Felix! We killed it! We killed a ht!"

Felix nodded, said, "Yeah"

Then he turned to the tall, pasty-faced chauffeur and thuers hard into his chest