A second Walker

Joe McIntyre waited below and out of sight of the security camera. The grocery store, much like the one he worked at during the day, had closed hours ago. Occasionally light from a passing car shown through the front window and cast the shelves’ shadows over each other. Otherwise it was dark. Joe stayed motionless. He hadn’t moved in hours, but stillness was a unique skill of his.

Though Joe’s second job paid less than his grocery store one, he found it far more important. Unfortunately is would likely never pay the rent.

A small noise from the next aisle over was all the warning he had. Joe leapt to his feet and rounded the corner. A girl, no older than eight and as thin as bones, had her arms full of all the meat she could carry. She hadn’t seen Joe in the darkness; and had turned to Walk away.

She took two quick steps, then crashed directly into the shelves.

The girl cried out and fell on her butt. The meat she held scattered across the floor, and blindly she reached to collect them.

“Hello,” said Joe in what he hoped was a friendly way .

The girl’s head whipped around to stare at Joe, or at least where his voice had come from. He wasn’t sure if she could see him or not, but he put his hands up peacefully just in case.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said. “But I can’t let you keep stealing Mr. Garcia’s food either.”

The girl said nothing. She was motionless. Her hand frozen on top the package she had reached for.

“Look,” Joe said slowly taking a glass container out of the bag he had brought with him. “I made this for you. A nice homecooked meal. You don’t have to steal anything tonight. Why don’t we put this all back and have a nice little chat together?”

The girl said nothing. Then she chucked the meat she was holding at him and leapt to her feet. She would have turn and ran, but Joe had already lunged forward and grabbed ahold of her. The girl screamed and hit him. She was so small however Joe hardly felt the blows. Quickly he grabbed both her hands in one of his, and with his other hand covered her eyes. The girl tried to bite him.

Joe focused on his studio apartment. He knew exactly where in the wide-open room he wanted to go, and holding the girl to him, Walked.

In a single step, from the store’s darkness to Joe well-lit apartment, the two traveled. Once their Joe immediately let the girl go. She turned to run but froze when she realized she was no longer in the store. Joe placed himself between her and the only door. Fearfully the girl turned to look at him.

“I said I wouldn’t hurt you, but I need to talk with you.” Joe said. “You’re a Walker like I am, aren’t you?”

The girl said nothing. She took a few running steps one way, and then the other. She looked around and sprinted to the bathroom door. It was locked.

Joe knelt and looked at the girl on her own level across the room.

“You and I are the same,” he said. “We’re Walkers. We can go anywhere in the world we want, that is, as long as no one sees us do it.”

The girl stayed silent. She was obviously still scared, but she now completely still. Her muscles frozen. She had become stock-still, and Joe took it as a good sign. Not moving was a trait they shared with each other. After a full minute had gone by without her blinking Joe became hopeful. It was not proof she was a Walker like him, but it was a very good sign.

“My name is Joe McIntyre,” he said. “I work at the Green Grocer most days, but in my free time I run a supernatural detective, craftsman, and consulting service. The store manager caught you on camera and hired me to exorcise you, he thought you were a ghost, but when I saw you on film I knew what you were. You’re a Walker. Like me.”

The girl continued to say nothing. Joe sighed. He stood up and walked over to his table and sat down. From his bag he pulled the leftovers of his dinner last night and dumped them out on the plates he had already set.

“You can still have this food,” he said. “But only if you eat it with me at the table.”

The girl’s eyes flicked to him, then she cautiously approached the table.

“It’s spaghetti and meatballs,” Joe said. “It’s one of the few meals I know how to make. I have milk in the refrigerator too, if you want it.”

The girl froze again, this time eyeing the door. Joe watched her, sure that he could out race her again if she tried to run for it, but then she spoke in a very small voice. “Please, can I go now. Sir?”

It was a fair question, and not one Joe was sure he could say no to. He had only wanted to talk with her, find out more about himself through her, but he was suddenly aware he had abducted this child. The thought made him uncomfortable. He felt himself become still as he studied her, then asked. “Don’t you want to eat? Your so thin it looks like you haven’t had a meal in weeks.

“Please,” the girl said again. “I won’t steal from that store anymore. I need to go.”

Joe put down his fork. This meeting wasn’t going at all like he expected, and far from how he hoped.

“Where do you need to go?”

The girl opened her mouth, but then shut it and said nothing.

“Actually,” said Joe. “Why are you starved if you’ve been stealing months’ worth of meat every other night?”

The girl looked down. Her black tangled hair hid her face from him. She took a few steps forward, then looked at Joe.

“Please stop looking at me. I need to go.”

“Go where?”

The girl became still and silent again.

“Fine,” said Joe leaning back in his chair. “You can go, but only after you eat something and promise me you won’t steal from that store again.”

“But I already promised.”

Joe realized that she had and waved her to take her seat across the table from him.

The girl remained quiet, but she did slide into the spot and look down at her food with hungry eyes. She glanced once at Joe, then picked up her fork and dug in. Joe smiled and watched her devour the plate of spaghetti. He might not learn anything about himself or his power tonight, but he could take some comfort in completing his job and feeding this starving girl. If only he could get her to open up to him.

“Where’s the milk?” the girl asked after leaving the meatballs but slurping up every noodle she’d been given.

“The refrigerator. Do you not like meatballs?” Joe asked. He had given her a larger helping of them assuming she like anything meaty. He quickly counted them and found she hadn’t eaten a single one.

The girl said nothing as she poured herself a glass. She return the carton to the fridge, sat down, and took a large mouthful of milk. Then she spat it all at Joe’s face.

Joe stood up and cursed. The milk stung his eyes and he shut them relexify. He wiped them clear, but when he opened his eyes he found the girl was gone. She had Walked away, and taken her plate of meatballs with her.

Joe didn’t move a muscle for a full minute. Then he kicked a chair over in anger and plopped himself down on his couch. He held his head in his hands.

He’d screwed up. Joe had never known why he could Walk, but the only other person who could had left without answers. She wouldn’t go back to the market ever again. Joe had no idea where to look for her, and it’d be impossible now to search for her. He hadn’t even learned her name. Just that she stole more then she could possibly eat and didn’t seem to eat it anyways.

“Why take my plate of meatballs?” he asked himself out loud.

Joe sat up. That was the real mystery, and he felt something about the word ‘meatballs’, which he found odd. His instincts were telling him to investigate, and so he turned on his laptop.

His laptop, which was near and dear to him, was also nine years old. It had been high quality at the time and also the most expensive gift Joe had ever given himself. It was reliable, if slow, though Joe hardly ever noticed the wait. Now however his gut was rushing him, and he wished his laptop was faster.

As he pulled up pages his mind began to workout why the word ‘meatballs’ stood out to him. As a self-employed supernatural detective he was familiar and fascinated with myths and legends, none of which would involve meatballs. He thought that perhaps he’d read something about a monster that stole or feed on meat, but that was the wrong path of thought too.

Something made him look back at the online message that had started this job. It hadn’t been a direct offer from Mr. Garcia, he hardly knew how work the decade old security cameras in his store, much less anything on the internet. The post he said had come from a friend, but it was the username that Joe found odd. It was: MEAT8411sWalker.

8411, was BALL in Leet speak, which made the name essentially MeatballWalker. Joe remembered being curious about the name because he called himself a Walker, but now he was interested in the first half of the name. Why did it stand out to him again? He didn’t see a clue here for him to find, but still his gut told him that there was. How did this tell him anything about the girl?

If he assumed it meant something, and that MeatballWalker referred to the girl, then what did he have left? Nothing, so his thoughts weren’t right. Broken a different way, it could mean ‘meat’ ‘ball’ and ‘Walker’. If ‘Meat’ was a code for the girl, and ‘Walker’ a code for himself, that just left him with ‘ball’. No, not ‘ball’, 8411. Four digits. A house number?

A quick internet search told him there was a house listed under that in San Levi just across the street from Faust’s Family Beach Boardwalk. He didn’t know if that was important, but where would a young homeless girl want to live more then next to an amusement park.

Joe decided to look into it and began to pace and concentrate on the open street in front of that address. He’d seen it a time or two before, but he found he couldn’t Walk. Someone must be watching the street for some reason. No matter, Joe would Walk to the boardwalk.

A couple more steps, and Joe found himself still in his apartment. Who was watching the boardwalk this late at night? He tried again. He failed again.

Joe tried to think of an enclosed space hidden from public eyes. He didn’t have one though. He might have tried the stores, restaurants, or bathrooms, but if they were closed he may have to break out of them like a common thief, and since for some reason eyes were watching the boardwalk he was sure to be discovered.

An idea occurred to him. leading to one bathroom was a hallway-

-and Joe Walked into it. It was pitch dark except for the moonlight shinning ahead of him at the entrance. Joe grinned and then ran. He came out of the boardwalk’s lower courtyard where the kiddy rides were and turned up the path towards the main park. He expected to see at least a few people there, but what he found was a crowd.

Children were crying, old folks shivered, and married couples held each other’s hands. All of them were in pajamas or bathrobes, huddled around each other and speaking fearfully. Joe was about to ask someone what was going on, but then he saw the flames. They came from the other side of the rollercoaster, where the house address Joe had been running to was.

“Sir,” a police officer said when Joe pushed his way past the crowd to the boardwalk’s entrance. “We’re doing all we can but-”

“Have you seen a little girl?” Joe asked. “Thin, white ratty jacket, maybe eight years old?”

“They’re doing all they can to reach her sir,” said the man. “You need to have faith and trust us to get her out of there.”

“There? You don’t mean she’s in that inferno!”

The officer hesitated, but it was enough answer for Joe. He tried to lunge past him, but the officer pushed him back.

“It isn’t safe!”

“That’s why I have to get her out!”

“You would only burn, and what good would that do anyone? Leave this to the professionals.”

The two stared at each other. Then Joe clenched his teeth and turned right around and ran back the way he’d came. The girl was a Walker just like he was. She wouldn’t need help escaping a burning building, but that was only if she was being careful. She had run in plain view of people into the flames however, which was decidedly dangerous.

Joe sprinted across the boardwalk onto the beach. From his own experience Joe knew it took very little to Walk under normal conditions, but he also knew things could stop him. If he couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t physically take a step. What if breathing enough smoke was enough to prevent her from Walking, even if she wanted to.

He didn’t stop running until his feet felt water and he could crash into the ocean’s surf. He rolled in it once, then stood up and ran alone the coast.

“The entrance,” Joe said wadding through the water. “8411. The hall, the courtyard, the, the lobby, a bedroom-”

-Joe had never been there before, which meant his aim may be off, but the suddenly darkened ocean disappeared from sight. Light engulfed him. Then heat. Fire danced and crackled around him. Joe held up his soaking wet jacket sleeve to his face and tried not to breath in smoke. Any way he turned his face hurt from the heat of the flames. He bent it down and near blindly started forwards.

“Walker!” he shouted. “Little girl! Where are you!”

A wooden beam behind him cracked and toppled over. A shower of sparks and flames washed over him. Joe hunched down and crouched, and over the sound of everything, he thought he heard a voice.

“Get out of here!” he shouted. “What are you doing?”

This time Joe was sure he heard the little girl’s scream. He ran through the fire towards it. His cloths hissed as the flames licked him. He continued to shout. The girl answered him sometimes, calling “Joe! Joe! Over here!” or else pleading with someone else named Sally to come to her. Joe hoped Sally was a firefighter who had happened to find her first. But with how the building was he wasn’t sure they’d be able to leave without Walking.

At last Joe entered the room and found the girl. She was safe, but stood alone and scared in the center of the room. All around her the furniture burned, but she had her eyes turned upwards.

“What are you doing here?” Joe shouted as he took hold of her. “We could die!”

The girl struck him with her fists, but Joe didn’t let go.

“I can’t go without Sally!”

“Where is she?”

The girl pointed up at the chandelier above her. Joe looked up and gasped.

His mind hadn’t understood, wouldn’t have understood, if the girl hadn’t pointed it out. When he had entered the room he had only seen flames on top of the light fixture. Now he saw something else.

The creature had the talons of a large parrot, and feathers that burned and glowed like flames around it. The monster’s mouth had two rows of teeth like a shark’s, and its eyes were large and bright yellow with black slits. It squawked and hissed and spat like the around them. It flapped its great wings, and the fire around them burned higher. Embers fell on the girl and Joe, and she screamed as Joe tried to pat and put them out.

“What is that thing?” Joe asked her.

“That’s Sally! She’s my best friend.”

“Your best friend is going to kill you!”

“She’s sad! She needs me!”

Joe pulled on the girl, but the she scrammed, and the creature above flapped its wings. The fire around them burned brighter and hotter, and Joe let go of the girl.

“You won’t leave without that thing? Fine! Keep staring at it then!”

Joe stepped away from her, and as her eyes left him, Walked into the sea.

This time it was deep water. The flames had become unbearably warm, but now he was instantly cool. He wasn’t sure how deep below he was, but it hurt his ears as he felt himself sink down and touch the sandy ocean bottom.

Joe reached across himself and slid his jacket off his arms. He grabbed it in both hands. Took a step forward, and-

-flung the drenched duster up into the air. It spread outwards and wrapped around the creature like a new. The creature hissed, both in anger and physically as it struggled with the wet cloth. The girl spun around in surprise. Above her the creature lost its grip on the chandelier and fell to the ground just behind her.

“Sally!”

Joe moved quicker than the girl could and tackled the creature beneath the coat. The thing was angry, but blind, trapped, and ultimately not stronger than a determined man over twice its size. After a brief struggle Joe was able to hold the creature with just one arm. When the girl rushed to help it, Joe wrapped his other arm around her head.

With both their eyes covered Joe Walked them out of the fire and into the living room of his apartment. He released the girl but kept held of the struggling creature in his coat. His jacket was smoking and growing hot from the creature’s fire, but it held together long enough to unlock the bathroom door and toss the bundle onto the floor of his shower.

“You can’t!” said the girl trying to pull Joe’s hand away from the nozzle. “You’ll kill her!”

Joe ignored her and turned the shower on for a short quick blast. The creature flapped and the jacket was nearly no more, and so Joe blasted it with water again. The thing cried, shrank, but flapped its wings and embers up at the two of them. Joe hit it with water again. The creature cried out in pain, and so far had it shrunk that it was no larger than a baby chick.

“Stop it, stop it please,” begged the girl before throwing herself between the creature and the falling water. “Sally’s my own friend. She saved me.”

“Sally nearly burnt you down to the ground with those houses,” said Joe.

“That’s because she was hungry,” sobbed the girl. “She’s been getting hungrier and hungrier lately. That’s why I’ve been stealing meat for her.”

“Well that’s one mystery solved, but now I’m more concerned with what it is.”

“Her name is Sally,” said the girl scoping up the injured creature up in her hands. “And she’s my best friend and I won’t let you hurt her anymore!”

“Well as long as I don’t have to worry about her burning my apartment down with us inside I won’t.”

And indeed, Joe didn’t want to. He was afraid of the creature, but it was nothing like he’d ever seen before. It was similar to a phenix of legend, but also to some dragon’s he had read about.

“Where did it come from?” Joe asked the girl.

“Matches, and I’m not lying,” she said looking sharply at him. “I…lived in the yard of that house that Sally burnt down. The old lady there never used it, and there was a paved corner of it where I could lite a fire. Sally just popped out of it one day. She kept me warm and guarded me better than a fire would, but she was always hungry, so I always had to steal. But Sally just kept growing bigger and bigger, and she was wanting more food than I could give her. And, and tonight when you stopped me and made me come back late…”

“Sally went off to find her own food?” Joe guessed. The girl nodded.

“She was really upset,” she said. “I sure she didn’t mean to lite that old ladies house on fire. Please don’t arrest us!”

Joe looked down at the pathetic little girl and her fire creature sizzling in her cupped hands. Her jacket was smoldered made useless by the flames. There were angry red burn marks on her skin, and her hair was even worse than the rest of her. She was barefoot and looked about ready to cry.

“I’m not going to arrest you,” Joe sighed. “I never was, but only if you keep that thing under control.”

“Sally will be good. I promise she will.”

“Good,” said Joe. “At least that’s settled. What’s your name?”

The girl was quiet for a moment, then said “It’s Ashley.”

“Ashley,” Joe said trying out the name and deciding it sounded right. “Ashely I don’t think you should go back to that yard tonight. Do you have anywhere else to spend the night? No? The you should sleep on my couch tonight, and we can decide what to do in the morning. If you’re hungry you can help yourself to anything in the cupboard.”

“Thank you, Mr. McIntyre,” Ashley said already hurrying off towards the fridge.

“Just call me Joe,” he said. “And do you know who Meat8411Walker might be?”

“No,” said Ashley then to the fire creature she said. “Don’t worry Sally, Joe has a pork chop right here for you.”

Joe sighed; but decided to watch what happened. In the morning he’d decide what to do with the two of them, as well as look into who Meat8411Walker might be, but those we’re mysteries for another time.