You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. – RecklessPrudence
(#00298)
Walter had left his house unlocked. Everything inside was in more disarray than usual. There was no sign of Walter and, most alarming off all, the cage was empty.
The cage that contained possibly the most dangerous creature in the world. Correction, the cage that had contained, etcetera. Which meant that It must have got out.
Take a breath. Keep calm. Look at the evidence. Track them both down and remember to grab the re-enforced net and the chain mail gloves. One bite was more than plenty.
How Walter could withstand them on a regular basis was a permanent mystery. But it was his resilience that made him the best guardian/captor of the beast.
Properly equipped, Lorraine followed the trail of wreckage from Walter’s flat, down the fire escape, through several shady alleys and half a park. She finally found Walter in an old subway station. It was an unpopular stop, even amongst the homeless, so Walter and his own version of armor went unseen and unremarked, down here.
The last time It had got out, the news about It was almost as disastrous as It was.
Walter called It Fluffykins.
“Great, you’re here,” Walter smiled. He’d had a glancing relationship with reality ever since It turned up in his life. He may have had one, before, but Lorraine never knew him before he went weird. “Shall we flip for Bait Duty?”
“You be bait,” Lorraine decided. “You’re used to it.”
“I hate being bait.”
“But you do such great work at it,” cooed Lorraine. “Here. Have a legal brief on proper office conduct. You’re waiting for the 5:57.”
Walter groaned theatrically, but took the brief and sat on a bench in the middle of the lonely platform like a pro.
Lorraine concealed herself almost from view behind a column bedecked in disintegrating flyers.
It was fast, but It could never resist boredom. That was one of the reasons It was attracted to waiting rooms, bus stations and train platforms. Areas of boredom were irresistible. And so was someone being bored.
THERE! A streak of purple and pink, racing across the area where Walter sat, ploughing through each and every perplexing word of the brief. Lorraine knew better than to swipe at the first pass.
A second blur. A nearby trash can wobbled and -yes- she could see Its fluffy pink tail behind it. One more pass…
A third. It was focussed solely on Walter, now. Hungry for boredom.
Lorraine ditched her noisy shoes and crept up on It, net ready.
She lunged just as It pounced, catching it neatly in the net with a cry of victory.
“O God. I nearly had a heart attack… You got it?”
Lorraine looked briefly at the net, where Fluffykins was growling and snorting like a demon caught in a cassock. “No, Walter, I let it go. Of course I caught it.”
Walter ignored the sarcasm and swapped the brief for the net. “Aaaw, da poor widdwe fluffy-wuffy-kinnnssss…”
Bleh… “I think it chewed its way out again. You really need to start making a better grade of Plotbunny cage.”
Walter shrugged. “My fault for having an unusual pet, I guess.”
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