Your Job Bites!

Chapter 33 Alp and split

Madraeus pushed himself up on to his knees and squinted through the dust. Rami sat up and coughed waving his hand in a futile attempt to clear the dust away from his eyes.

"What just happened?" Madraeus looked over at the giant. He looked gray from the coating of plaster dust that covered him.

"At least the noise stopped." Rami coughed again spitting dust into the air.

They climbed unsteadily to their feet and approached the bell. Bits and pieces of the broken floors from above continued to fall making tiny donging noises whenever they hit the bell.

Madraeus looked at the pile of rubble then reached out and brushed the dust from a raised spot on the bell. The Three Hares symbol was engraved into the metal of the bell. He frowned.

"Rami, look at this."

"Those damned rabbits again." The giant grumbled as he tried to swipe the dust off of his coat.

"What the Hell is going on?" Madraeus scrubbed at his hair sending a cloud of dust flying. He moved around until he could look up the tower. He waved the dust away trying to see if there was anything up there.

There was a keening sound then a flash of movement. He moved sideways trying to keep his footing on the pile of rubble as he tried to see the thing in the tower.

"Rami, there's something up there." He said quietly. He stayed where he was and didn't take his eyes off of it while Rami climbed over the debris to stand next to Madraeus. Rami followed his gaze to where the second stairway landing used to be. There something crouched. They stared at it for a long moment then it darted out and across to the opposite side of the tower. There wasn't much for it to sit on there so it darted back again.

"What is that?" Madraeus whispered.

"Looks like an Alp." Rami shifted a little trying to get a better view.

"A what?"

"It's a creature out of folklore and legend. It is supposed to be the cause of night terrors. It's kind of a cousin to vampires. They feed off of nightmares."

"Guess that's why the monks went all loopy." Madraeus gave short humorless laugh.

"Not a real great thing to have in a psychiatric hospital either." Rami glanced down the hall. The Orderlies were starting to organize themselves.

"We're gonna have company soon."

"You've got to be joking." Madraeus glanced at the hospital staff and sighed. "Alright, how do we get rid of it?"

"No idea." Rami rumbled staring up again.

"Great."

"Looks like its the old fashioned way." Madraeus growled then said in a sing-song way, "Lop off the head and it stays dead." He sighed and started to climb. He sprang from broken beam to broken beam. Then grabbed onto part of the missing stair railing and hauled himself up ward. The Alp dodged away from him trying to escape. Madraeus climbed faster. Once or twice the hand hold that he found crumbled away as he removed his weight from it sending it crashing down to join the rest of the debris. He wasn't sure what it would do when he caught it but he didn't plan on wasting time. He chased it nearly to the top of the bell tower.

"Hurry," Rami warned watching the orderlies point in their direction.

"I'm trying," Madraeus snarled under his breath. Finally he drew even with the creature as it huddled just under the steeple's window sill. It wasn't more than a couple of feet tall. It was spindly and hunched. It was the color of shadow. It had a long pointed face with tall ears and was wearing a hat making it look almost silly.