Here Be Dragons (Finally)

The park was amazingly dark, cold, and slippery.

Who could have imagined a place in Manhattan could ever be so black and inhospitable. Rachel's feet slid with every step, and she could no longer tell what was frozen ground and what was slushy mud. She wished she had a cigarette, but more for the light and warmth than the smoke.

"Testy," she whispered. Why was she whispering?

There was no sound. Her drag queen guide had gone ahead, ostensibly to make sure they were going the right way so Rachel didn't have to kill herself on this path for no reason.

There needed to be one hell of a good reason at the end of this, Rachel had decided. She slogged on.

The path led uphill, twisting and turning through trees and underbrush which Testy swore had been there since the island was bargained away from those unsuspecting Wappingers, who had clearly never heard of charging full retail.

Mixed in with the trees every now and again was an old fashioned lamppost, which sort of weakened Testy's claim, but none of them worked and Rachel could only see them if she happened to catch one silhouetted against the deep gray sky, bony as a scarecrow's skeleton looming above her. She shivered.

"Come on, Testy. Where the hell are we going?" she muttered.

The ground got steeper and she scrambled up it. The river, surely just over this rise and down a long way, could be heard louder here. Or maybe that was a lot of snow, coming in an avalanche to bury her once and for all. She couldn't decide if she'd mind that or not.

Up. Up more. Slipping and sliding, and clambering to the hilltop to find Testy standing with her fists on her hips in the dead dark.

"Testy!"

"Sh! I think he's coming. There!" Testy slung an arm out.

"What? Who's coming? Who is this friend of yours, anyway?"

"Shush, doll. No time to tell you. You'll have to figure it out for yourself now. I promise, it'll all be okay." Testy was suddenly standing right next to her, staring up at her with wide eyes. "Promise. Really."

"Okay. I guess."

"Look up."

And Testy pointed straight at the sky.

Rachel followed her finger, feeling foolish and waiting for her friend to start laughing. Probably this was all a joke, just Testy teasing her, giving her shit for following her up here like a crazed stalker.

"Higher."

Rachel looked higher. Waiting for the laughter. She'd better play along, or they'd be out here all night.

"Do you see him?"

See him? Rachel saw nothing. She reached out to grab Testy's hand, just in case her friend was thinking of sneaking away in the dark to really spook her, and kept on staring straight up.

And something brushed past the branches up there.

"No joke," Testy told her.

Rachel took a breath. No joke.

There was something large and dark up there, cruising by. It was remarkably quiet. It flapped, turned, and then broke through the trees and came down lower, snapping some branches and a small tree. It was huge, and it was heavy, and it was graceful in a black, stealthy manner. There was nothing funny about it whatsoever. It was not a joke, not in any way.

Rachel’s vision got fuzzy, and she started to see stars. The stars shifted and whirled and zoomed in at her and out again. The dark thing broke a few more branches, and she clearly felt Testy pulling on her hand to make her step back and give it more room.

It occurred to her how blank her mind was. This might all have been rehearsed, a big new production number for Extravaganza! 3 about a monster, and a maiden... there should be a boy, somewhere. A male lead — a hero. He wouldn’t save her, the monster always won in the end in Vegas, but she needed someone tall and handsome to dance with, before she got eaten or sacrificed or whatever. There would be a nice adagio number.

And then, as those thoughts ran together and whirled through her brain, the big black shape landed heavily, finally, ten feet in front of her and the stars in her vision brightened, rushed together, and exploded silently.

Rachel passed out.

NEXT POST: AUDITIONING HEROES (Friday 3/5)