A bunch of street bums, blow away a fur cop, and now you’re going to follow them into more trouble? HAH! SCREW THAT!

 

No, you’re ducking out of here – and fast. You’ve got a gun. You’ve got your legs. And before you know it, you’ve got about a fifty yard head-start full-tilt in the other direction. Through alleyways. Past buildings, higher and higher… through and around, the sirens fad, then blare again, and then die completely. You must have run at least two miles now, zigzagging through this mess… let the ones who actually killed that cop deal with the repercussions. All that’s on your mind at this point is getting the hell out of here.

 

Making your way back between two buildings, you enter a deserted street. It’s past twilight, and the streetlights have come on… but the closest ones that seem to be working are a block in either direction. It’s dim, and your eyes haven’t seemed to have adjusted just yet.

 

Gripping the revolver close, you step out onto the sidewalk, keeping close to the brick walls of the dilapidated, aging buildings towering above you. From the way you came, there’s a sudden, brief patter of footsteps.

 

Scanning back, you see nothing. Keeping against the wall, you’re soon about halfway to the first light…

 

*Thump…*

 

You freeze. Look around. Where IS it coming from?

 

A solitary figure jets across the street away from you, pounding its feet hard on the asphalt. Fixing your weapon on it, you wait – but it doesn’t approach. That’s when you realize it was all a ruse – that things footsteps were just enough to cover the ones coming from behind.

 

Even as you turn and fire a single shot, it’s clearly too late. The gun is whipped into the air as something powerful – and heavy – slams over your head from above, knocking you cold. Over your limp form lands a slender figure, waving its rather thick, tapering tail behind it… a forked tongue flicks out.

 

“What do you know…” It hisses with glee. “It seems mostly human… that’s good enough for me. I haven’t seen a human dumb enough to venture out here in ages…”

 

“Enjoy yourself.” The other rasps from across the street. “That’s TWO you owe me.”

 

“Thanks again. See you at poker tomorrow night.” The crouching figure kicks the revolver out of your hand, and leans down. A snakelike jaw parts immensely over your feet, after ripping your boots away, and proceeds up, slowly. Not that you can feel a thing in your condition. It snaps you up to your thighs before lifting your limp body stretching its maw wide, and letting gravity slide you into its ever-stretching stomach. The jaws of its reptilian visage clamp over your hand, and the creature begins to massage away at its prey, flicking its forked tongue a few more times to savor the last of you, before giving a soft, satisfied belch.

 

“So how was that… human we caught last night?” Marvin asks politely.

 

“Oh, not bad… rather filling though. I think I’m going to be feeling it for a while, though…” Klause shakes his head, glancing over his cards in one hand, and rubbing his soft, filled out hips with the other. “Enough to hold me over for half a month, it is…” He shrugs, tossing the cards down on the table.

 

“Full house again?” Marvin bumps his snout to the table in frustration, hissing. The others toss down their cards and roll their eyes as well.

 

“What can I say.” Klause shrugs. “You win some, you lose some.”