Don't Walk Through the Park at Night

Oak leaves stirred lazily in a warm, summer night breeze under the yellow glow of a streetlamp.

Shadows shifted within the stone walls surrounding the neighborhood park.  A group of punks, their thick forms taking shape as two lovers walk by, toss profanity sprinkled challenges of bravado at each other. The sour smell of weed spreads into the air.

The punks stop talking and watch the couple.  The couple travels down a path and then up a rise to a secluded tree with  a view that looks out over the Hudson River at the George Washington Bridge and the Palisades of New Jersey.  The embrace and talk softly, hiding in the darkness that the large oak provides.

"Well ain't this sweet and cozy."  A nasaly, accented voice intrudes on their intimacy.  The couple says nothing, just turns their heads to see where the voice is coming from.

A group of four males, thick, some fat, some muscular, stands in a pack, blocking any retreat of the couple.

"How about we join in?"  says the nasaly voice.  The rest of the pack giggles.

The one doing the taunting is short and broad, with a flat nose and pinched eyes that sit close together at the top of his nose.  He makes an obscene gyration with his hips.

"We really don't want any trouble," says one of the lovers.  "It's probably best if you just turn around and walk away."

The group guffaws.  "Hahaha.  Oh, we're not afraid.  We think it'd be more fun to stay and play.  How 'bout you step aside and let me hug your friend."

The other lover turns to face flat nose.  No words are spoken, but flat nose's eyes fly open from what he's seeing.  "M-m-m=maybe you're right."  he stammers.  "Maybe we got somethin' better to do."

He turns to leave but it's too late.  The friend grabs him by the shoulder, immobilizing him.  The lover steps away from the friend and the tree and freezes the rest of the group with a stare.

The friend has now stepped up to flat nose.  The friend opens wide eyes aflame with a searing red glow just seconds before sinking sharp fangs into the shoulder of flat nose.  A sigh is forced out of the punk.  His knees buckle and the friend catches him and lowers him to the ground to feed.

The lover has singled out the fattest member of the group and clamped a claw onto his shoulder.  Releasing the other two punks from their hypnotic paralysis, the lover says simply, "Run."  The punks don't have to be told twice.

The lover pushes the fat punks head aside and eyes flare red as the lover readies to strike.

There is the sound of screeching tires and a loud thump as a body is stuck by a car.

Leaves on an oak tree rustle lazily, the only sound in the park now.

Don't walk alone in the park at night.