Moon Lovers 1(2)

I took a seat in one of the chairs closest to the wall so if someone came in I would have a chance to duck between the wall and the last dryer. Then I’d have to hope they leave without spotting me. To pass the time I whipped out a short romance novel I’d been reading where the hunky guy gets the thin, smart, beautiful girl. It almost made me wish I’d go on a diet, exercise more and buy me a nice pair of breasts, but that would have involved effort and money. I was short on both, mostly because I was just fine with my weight and not fine with emptying my bank account to buy myself a pair of breasts that would make Mount Everest look like a hill.

While I was brooding over my unrealistic but tantalizing love story I heard noises out in the hall. They were men’s voices, and I ducked down into my hiding spot just as the door to the laundry room opened. I peeked around the corner of the machine and watched a half dozen of thugs walk into the room. They wore green bandannas on their heads showing they belonged to the Green Bandanna gang, one of the most unimaginatively-named gangs in the neighborhood. Their crimes, however, weren’t anything to joke about. They’d been accused of everything from petty theft to rape and arson, and they came into the laundry room to stir up one more crime for their list.

“All right, boys, pick a machine and grab the cash,” their leader, a tall man wearing a black hat, called out to them.

I ducked behind the machine and squished against the wall as one of them came up to the washer behind which I hid. The gang members pulled out small crowbars from their jackets and smashed the coin slots. Coins spilled out onto the floor, and they scooped up the change and shoved it into bags. One of the guys looked familiar, like I’d seen him around the apartment building, but I wasn’t sure. I just hoped they wouldn’t notice-

“Hey boss, there’s some underwear in this machine,” one of the thugs piped up. I cringed and peeked around the machine to see what was going on.

Mr. Hat went over and inspected my laundry still swooshing around in the washer. He stopped the machine and pulled out the same pair of underwear Cartwright had played with. Mr. Hat plastered a wide, stupid grin on his face as he held it up for all the men to see. “Anyone have a girlfriend who wants these?” They laughed.

“I think I could get two of my Maria in there,” one of them quipped. I rolled my eyes. Even these guys were weight critics.

I must have rolled my eyes too far out from behind the machine because one of the thugs pointed at my corner. “Boss!”the man yelled.

The boss scowled and marched over to me, where he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my hiding spot. My half-nakedness caught their lecherous attentions immediately, and Mr. Hat tossed me in the middle of those vultures. They practically consumed my flesh with their lustful eyes. Mr. Hat held up my underwear in front of me. “This yours?” he drawled with that sick grin on his face.

“Yeah, but you can keep it.” I tried to push my way through them, but was pushed back into the circle. They edged in closer to me, and more than one had tight pants.

“No hurry, we jist want to play with you some,” Mr. Hat insisted.

“I, um, I left my toys in my apartment. If you’ll just wait here I’ll go get them.” I tried again to break through their line to the slightly ajar door, but like every other Red Rover game in my life I was pushed back and fell on my butt. At a signal from Mr. Hat one of the gang members grabbed my arms and another one caught hold of my legs. I thrashed and kicked, but they were stronger than me. “Let me go! Somebody help me!”

Mr. Hat knelt down beside me and slapped my chin. “Shut your mouth or we’ll hurt you worse,” he growled. They didn’t get a chance because at that moment the lights in the laundry room went out. The windows along the outer wall didn’t give much light because they faced an alley, and the light from the hall outside the room was extinguished when somebody shut the door. “Somebody get these damn lights on!” Mr. Hat ordered. I saw the silhouette of one of his men move toward the door, but another shadow overtook him near the switch and he let out a blood-curdling scream. The men holding me let go and backed away from the door and behind their leader. I sat up and scooted over to the outer wall in front of one of the machines. “Ricardo?” he called out to his missing man.

“B-boss, let’s get out of here,” one of his stooges pleaded.

I saw Mr. Hat’s silhouette grab the scared man and toss him out front. “Then leave!” he shouted at his man.

The frightened man scrambled for the door, but the large shadow rose up from behind the end dryer and grabbed him. He screamed and thrashed, but nothing stopped the unknown vigilante as the gang member was tossed across the room. His body hit the wall and he fell to the floor. He didn’t move, and I wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

“Shoot it!” Mr. Hat ordered.

The men pulled out their guns and fired at the shadow. I swore they hit it with more rounds than those guns could hold, but they didn’t even slow it down as the shadow barreled into their tiny group. The men scattered or were tossed aside, and Mr. Hat scrambled toward me. He slid behind me, wrapped his arm around my throat and pulled me onto my feet with his gun aimed at my temple. He shook hard enough to pull the trigger, but after so many shots I doubted he had any bullets left.

His men tried to escape the room, but each of them were thrown against the wall or machines, and didn’t move. The shadow rose up and turned its head toward us, and through the dim light I could see a pair of yellow eyes. “S-stay back or she gets it!” Mr. Hat threatened. The creature raised itself up to a height of six feet and growled at him. “D-don’t come any closer!”

In a flash the creature covered the short distance between us and grabbed the gun. It tore the weapon from his hand and I heard the metal crunch between its strong fingers. Mr. Hat screamed like a girl and dashed to the door, but the creature followed him. The thing’s shadow covered him and he screamed. That was when I decided it was a good time to faint, and collapsed to the hard, cold floor.





3





The next thing I remember is Garrison standing over me with a worried expression on his face. He cast his shadow over me and hid me from the bright ceiling lights. It must have still been night, but how late I couldn’t tell. I tried to sit up, but he held me down. “Easy there, you’ve got a good bump on your head.” I felt what he meant when a throbbing pain pounded into my head from the egg-size bump on the back of my noggin.

“Ouch…” I murmured.

Garrison slipped a pillow beneath my head. “I’ve called the cops, but it looks like whoever came in here and attacked the place left in a hurry.” That reminded me of the gang members and that hulking shadow, and I whipped my head to the left and right. The place was a mess with machines torn from the walls and coins everywhere, but there wasn’t a sign of any of the guys or the shadow thing. All that whipping gave me whiplash, and made my head hurt worse. “Don’t go moving too fast,” Garrison warned me. “Did you want any water?”

“N-no, I’m okay. Just let me sit up.” He hefted me up so I sat with my back against one of the washers. It was the one that had held my laundry, though not anymore. My shirts, pants and underwear were strewn throughout the room, including on me.

Garrison picked a pair of underwear off my shoulder and plopped it on the ground. “Do you remember anything about what happened here?”

I shook my head, and I winced when that caused more pain to shoot through my skull. “There was this group of guys, some of the Green Bandanna gang, and they smashed up the machines. They found me hiding and held me down on the floor-” I shuddered when I recalled what they were going to do.

“Skip that part. What happened next?” Garrison asked me.

“Then the lights went out and somebody kept sneaking out of the dark and grabbing them. I got out of the way when they shot at him, but whoever it was must have been wearing a bullet proof vest or something because he ran into them and threw them everywhere.” I glanced up and noticed the flimsy ceiling tiles were broken from the impact of a human body.

Garrison followed my eyes, and raised an eyebrow. “Even up there?” he guessed.

“Must have. I guess the guy may have chased them out of here when they were done.”

“I’m not sure that’s quite what happened,” Garrison hesitantly argued.

I frowned. “Why?”

“Let me show you something.” Garrison helped me to my feet and turned me around so I faced the exterior wall. All the windows were broken out and there were drops of blood on the shards around the sills. “They must have been really desperate to get out.” He tilted his head to one side and frowned. “The police are finally coming.” I listened, and sure enough there were police sirens coming down the street. “Come on, let’s get you into my apartment so you can sit down on something warm. That floor can’t be comfortable.”

Garrison helped me into his apartment and set me back in the kitchen chair. His place was long and narrow like the laundry room, but it went back farther toward the stairwell where there were a few rooms partitioned off from the kitchen and living room. I assumed those were bedrooms and bath. Before he left to answer the knocking of the police at the front door he tossed me a shirt from his bedroom. “You might need that,” he told me and left the room.