"The House on Herren Street”
By David Charlton
31st October 2009
This accursed night will be one year since I fell prey to the wicked man who is my captor. How ironic that I, who had been hunting him--- arriving in a place only after he had fled leaving a trail of woe behind him--- should fall into his foul clutches?
I know not why he has kept me alive all this time, unless it is to torment me with my wretched fate. My cell is dank and unlit. Every day I test the pitted iron bars, but he has put a spell upon them, and they are proof ‘gainst even my strength. Perhaps to taunt me, he keeps my sword and flintlock hanging on a wall just out of reach. I saw them once when that abomination on eight legs came down to test me; it scuttled away on the three I left it with, its torch guttering unattended on the slimy flagstones, giving me a fleeting look at my drear surroundings.
Basement or dungeon, it matters not: it cannot not hold me forever. And then my captor will know my Promethean wrath. It was dusk and the trick-or-treaters were just starting to appear on the quaint and orderly streets of Ivy Town. They went from door to door, clad in ghost-sheets, and vampire-fangs, in their annual ritual. Proud and anxious parents walked discreetly behind the younger kids, waving to friends and neighbors as they passed.
“Too much competition on this street,” said a young boy in a Batman-mask to his two companions. One was a girl in a cowboy outfit, her hair tucked up under her hat and a prosthetic burn applied over one side of her face, and the other was a boy in jeans and a white t-shirt, a Green Lantern symbol drawn expertly on it in green marker. “Some people are already out of candy! We need to find some houses that haven’t been hit yet.”
“Strike out into new territory, blaze our own trail!” Susie agreed, drawing her guns and firing at smug looking trick-or-treaters with full pillow cases of candy. “Ptoo! Ptoo!”
“I have a plan,” Charlie told them, scanning the street through the slits of the Bat-mask. “Why don’t we cut across Burchette and work Herren Street?”
“Because it’s a dumb idea,” Ramon drawled, adjusting the rubber string that held the green domino mask over his face.
“What? Are you afraid to cross town?” Charlie taunted in his best, raspy Bat-voice.
“Green Lanterns have no fear!” Ramon protested, holding up the replica power ring his older brother had gotten him at a Superhero convention. “But that end of town is pretty quiet, not a lot of houses… How’re we going to fill our bags that way?”
Charlie shrugged. “If we’re the only ones working it, all the more for us!”
“I say we do it!” Susie slapped Ramon on the back. “What’re you, yella?”
Ramon threw his hands up and gave in.
* * *
The Ivy Town Grand Hotel was hosting its Third Annual Para-Science Conference, and leading minds from all over the world were in attendance to compare notes, deliver lectures to the public or announce findings to peers and the press. This year Dr. Kirk Langstrom came alone. Francine had had enough of his “peculiar affliction,” despite the breakthroughs he had made. But Kirk knew his work had value… in the right hands, of course.
The night’s keynote speaker was the aged-but-venerable Warren Griffith, a well-known lycanthrope who had served honorably in World War Two with the US Army outfit the Creature Commandos. The veteran soldier and hero spoke for an hour about the continuing need for research about his own condition, then with a wry glance at the time excused himself to knowing laughter and a standing ovation.
Afterward, Kirk sipped champagne and mingled with the other attendees, browsing the exhibits and chatting with old friends from past years’ conferences.
“Dr. Langstrom,”
He looked towards the playful voice and had to cough to cover his immediate reaction--- the woman was gorgeous. Her evening gown was cut to fit the curves of her form perfectly. Her long luxurious brown hair was done up in an elegant twist atop her head and her eyes sparkled with a knowing, sensuous glint.
“Dr. Zeul,” Langstrom cleared his throat and adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses. “So nice to see you again. Missed you last year--- Ah! I mean, sorry that…” His cheeks flamed as he tried to recover from his slip-up.
Doris Zeul watched him a moment, her lips forming a crooked smile, as Langstrom squirmed.
“Never mind, Kirk,” she finally let him off the hook. “Occupational hazard in our line of work. If you’re going to be a mad scientist, you’re going to step outside the law from time to time. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve done some time yourself, right?”
“My sentence was commuted,” Langstrom objected. “The court decided I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions as Man-Bat.”
“Also didn’t hurt that Batman stood up for you. Either way, we’ve both paid our debts to society.” Zeul sipped her champagne, staring at him over the tip of the glass. “So. Still married to that wallflower--- what’s her name?--- Jeanine?”
“Yes!” Kirk spluttered, annoyed and trying to ignore how the rosy tip of Zeul’s tongue ran along the bottom of her top lip. “I mean, she’s not a wallflower. And her name is--- You know, what? Forget it. Nice to see you again, Doris. See you next year.”
Her eyes widened as he turned away, and he couldn’t help but feel slightly pleased with himself--- until he saw what had caused her surprise. Waddling upright towards them was a chimpanzee wearing a tweed jacket and a deerstalker cap. He rolled his eyes, and glanced around for an escape route.
“Hello, Bobo.” Dr. Zeul raised her glass with some amusement at the chimp. “I’d heard that you were going to be here. I’m looking forward to your lecture on the Amplified Animals Project.”
“Change of plans, Giganta,” said the primate, not bothering to hide his irritation. “And you know damn well its Detective Chimp. Bobo was my slave name.”
“What’s up, Chimp?” Kirk asked, hearing the urgency in his colleague’s voice. “You looked worried about something?”
The chimp’s brow furrowed, and he took a cigarette from his breast pocket, lit it, and only responded after a long drag. “Worried? Yeah you could say that. Hope you two lovebirds didn’t have any plans tonight, because I’m going to need your help…”
* * *
On the other side of town, Charlie, Susie and Ramon strolled along the cracked and weed-choked sidewalk, their trick-or-treat bags still less than half-full.
“See, I told you this was a dumb idea,” Ramon muttered as he dug in his bag for something interesting, giving up in disgust after finding only a few sticks of gum and some Tootsie Rolls. “Lame.”
“I admit, this hasn’t worked out like I planned,” Charlie conceded, checking his own bag and only coming up with some Starburst and a toothbrush. “I didn’t realize this was such a rundown area. Lots of empty houses…”
Susie shrugged, twirling her six-shooters on her fingers and said, “It’s not always about the treats, pards, sometimes it’s about the tricks!”
They both stared at her.
From her bag she took out a carton of eggs, grinning mischievously. “We don’t get the loot, there’s always Plan B!”
* * *
“Let me get this straight,” Kirk Langstrom leaned across the table and stared at Detective Chimp. “You think someone in Ivy Town is kidnapping children tonight for some nefarious scientific experimentation? And
why[/i] is that exactly?”
The two of them, along with Dr. Zeul, had adjourned to the hotel bar, and sat together whispering and sipping drinks while a piano player tickled the ivories and crooned an old standard. On the table in front of him, Detective Chimp was tapping away on a small wireless laptop.
“Because it’s Halloween,” Dr. Zeul answered for him, sucking a martini olive off a toothpick. She seemed to be getting a kick out of this. “It’s just
done[/i] this time of year.”
“Doris, be serious!” Langstrom hissed at her.
She leveled an innocent look at him as if to say she had been.
Detective Chimp took a long drag on his cigarette, then stubbed the butt out in the already full ashtray. “Because I recognize the signs. He never stays in one place very often. Last year he was in Prague. The year before that, Montevideo. I’ve been following the stories on the internet since I first read about the disappearances,” he turned the laptop towards Langstrom, showing him article after article, all dated October 31st, with more-or-less the same headline: CHILDREN MISSING.
“But what makes you think he’s here, in Ivy Town? And how do you know scientific experimentation is involved?”
“And what makes you think he’s a
he[/i]?” Dr. Zeul added.
The two of them turn to look at her, stunned.
“I’m just saying.” She shook her head in mock exasperation.
“He, she, whatever,” Chimp grumbled, moving on with a casual wave of a callused paw. “Last year in Prague, it seems like there was an altercation. Apparently, someone else is also on the trail of our mad scientist. There was a fire, and an unusual artifact was discovered in the ashes. This.” He showed them the laptop screen, displaying a photograph of something that looked like an articulated ant’s leg.
“So what?” Zeul shrugged. “It’s the severed leg of a bug.”
But Langstrom peered closer, reading the Austrian article that accompanied the picture. “That ant leg is over a foot and a half long… and this can’t be right?” He looked up at Detective Chimp. “It had human DNA…?”
The simian genius sat back in his chair, allowing that to sink in.
“But I still don’t understand why you think he--- or she!--- is in Ivy Town tonight...”
Wordlessly, Detective Chimp pulled something from his tweed jacket and set it heavily upon the table. It was a snapped-off insectoid antenna. It was over a foot long.
“That was connected to the monstrosity that attacked me in my hotel room about an hour ago.” Chimp pointed accusingly at the appendage. “It was connected to a human/ant hybrid, that I sent packing. But its appearance in Ivy Town tonight--- the same date as all the other disappearances!--- can’t be a coincidence. Whoever sent it knows I’m investigating, and it wants me dead!”
* * *
After so long in the dark, the light was blinding.
The door at the top of the stair was thrown wide, and the searing radiance forced me to look away. “Bring him, Ophidian. The time has come.” Came the familiar rheumy voice of my captor, once my prey.
I heard a rasping hiss, as of scales dragged across stones, and I knew without seeing what approached. I had fought the creature in Prague, and it was a fearsome foeman--- though no man was it! It had the body of a serpent with ten pairs of legs, and a reptilian face with eyes that robbed will and compulsion. My hands ached for my weapons, but the bulk of the thing blocked my way. Still blinded, yet did I hazard my chances: I threw myself at the beast but at such a disadvantage was no match for it in brute strength. It o’erwhelmed me, twining me in its coils and dragging me bodily with it up the stairs and into the light.
“Bind him into the Transducer.” Wheezed the scientist-sorcerer.
Through squinted eyes I spied such a hellish laboratory as e’en my Creator could not fathom in his most prideful moment. Electricity crackled from fantastic machines built of copper coils and glass tubing; in specimen jars floated pink, pulpy things with mournful eyes that stared back in despair. Grimoires sat open on work benches next to Bunsen burners filled with noxious, boiling liquids… And amidst it all scuttled and scurried them.
The one called Ophidian who now bound me with chains onto the vivisection table was not the only aberration. Clacking about checking instrumentation was a man with the head and limbs of a praying mantis. On a far wall was a leech with human eyes, trailing slime. Chittering around me to secure my bindings were ant-men with enormous multifaceted eyes. Something that was three-legged and horn-billed cavorted across the room, menacing a cage filled with mewling, terrified children!
I thrashed in my chains, straining ‘gainst the rusty links. Something crawled up the table and unto my chest--- it was a hand, thrice the size of my own not inconsiderable appendage, with only a human head fused atop it, it’s cranium elongated and hairless.
“Struggle all you like, monster! Nothing will stop my master from seizing the divine spark which resides in this husk!” It tapped my chest with two enormous fingers and leered at me with bulging, yellowed eyes and a mouth full of crooked teeth. “And we who are dying and mortal shall be granted eternal life!”
“Enough, my darling Cranius,” the depraved old man came into my view, his gnarled hand stroking the pate of the creature on my chest. “This spawn of my former student hardly knows the ineffable grace with which it has been endowed. Suffice it to say, the stars are at last aligned again for the Transduction. And he shall be the living battery with which I shall create an immortal legion of Un-Men!”
One of his minions threw a switch and current surged into my body. I screamed and jerked and thrashed--- but all I could hear were the hysterical lamentations of the children in the cage across the room. Gods Below, but they knew what was coming next…!
Splat. Splat, splat. Splat, splat, splat!
It was the sound of eggshells cracking ‘gainst the walls outside.
The current ceased at a wave from the old man, and I fell silent, weakened. In a rage, he turned upon his minions, spittle flying from his lips. “It must be that damnable chimpanzee! See to it, my children!” * * *
Charlie wound up for another throw, even as Susie and Ramon pelted the dilapidated old house again. They had chosen this particular house as it looked deserted and ramshackle, the lawn overgrown and no car in the driveway. They stood on the sidewalk, lobbing eggs and laughing.
“If we can’t get candy, then we at least have to have some fun,” Susie giggled and threw her last egg. It hit a first-storey window, and she watched with pride as the gooey yellow mess slid down the glass.
That’s when the glass was illuminated by a light from inside.
The three children froze in place and just stared for a moment.
Then the window shattered outward--- as did two others and the front door. Horrible, misshapen creatures exploded from the house, slavering and gibbering, heading right for them.
As one, Charlie, Susie and Ramon screamed, turned and ran.
* * *
“I can’t believe you two talked me into this,” Doris Zeul said from the backseat of the custom-modified Hummer dubbed the Chimp-mobile.
In the front seat, Kirk Langstrom felt the same way. He wasn’t sure how much credence he gave to Detective Chimp’s story, but the primate was no fool. The pieces did fit together, and if there was a mad scientist on the loose in Ivy Town---
other than the ones in this car[/i], he thought ruefully--- snatching children, then he had to do something about it… He imagined his own children Trick-or-Treating tonight in Gotham, and was relieved to know that Batman was on duty, and that no harm would befall them.
“I mean, altruism is not really my thing,” Zeul stifled a yawn. “We should just report this to the police and get back to the Conference. I don’t want to miss Professor Palmer’s lecture on the properties of White Dwarf stellar radiation---.”
They had just turned the corner onto Herren Street and Chimp was forced to jam on his brakes. Three costumed children ran by the front of the Hummer, yelling for all they were worth. They were followed closely by a pack of mutated child-sized monsters .
“Something tells me this is it!” Detective Chimp punched a button on his dashboard and the roof of the Hummer peeled back. “Go do your thing people!”
Kirk Langstrom did not have to be told. He triggered his transformation instantly and rocketed up and out of the Hummer, spreading leathery wings and loosing a piercing screech. Zeul stood and began to rapidly increase in size. Her evening gown stretched and ripped over her expanding flesh, falling away as she stepped from the Hummer.
“Oh, please. Did you think I hadn’t thought of this?” This to Detective Chimp’s disappointed look at her specially-designed leopard print spandex underclothes.
Men are apes, no matter the species. Man-Bat arced up and swooped back down, strafing the street straight at the pursuing Un-Men. The creatures reared back, unsure of what to make of this new arrival: was this a new creation of the master? But Man-Bat barreled directly into their ranks, his wings extended their full length. His greatest breakthrough with the serum allowed him to keep control of the feral monster he became--- his second greatest breakthrough was that now he could trigger the transformation anytime he wished, as long as the serum was in his blood that day. He wheeled around for another pass at the confused creatures, noting with relief that the kids had gotten away.
He had to pull up suddenly as Giganta lumbered into view. One gargantuan foot slammed down upon a hapless monster, splattering it, while another foot scattered a half dozen of them.
“Eww.” Giganta lifted her foot to examine the bottom of it. “That’s going to ruin my pedicure.”
The Un-Men fled before them, unwisely heading back to the house. Noting their destination, Detective Chimp yanked the Chimpmobile into gear and floored the gas. The Hummer clipped one of the misshapen creatures and steamrolled a couple others. Letting out a wild ululation, Chimp aimed the vehicle through the hedges, up the lawn and slammed into the front porch of the house!
* * *
The old man was mightily wroth as he returned to my side, his eyes alight with infernal intent. “This but delays your fate, Spawn of Frankenstein,” he croaked, lips trembling.
“Adam,” I said, and in my voice he heard my pledge to rid this world of him. “My name is Adam.”
At that moment, the far wall erupted inward, sending wood spars, cement dust, steel tables and glass jars filled with effluvia exploding across the laboratory. I was thrown, as well, knocked across the room by a yellow vehicle driven by… a monkey?
In the chaotic aftermath of this event, I had struck the opposite wall of the lab with enough force to leave me momentarily dazed--- but the impact had freed me from my bonds. Wrenching free from the twisted metal of the vivisection table, and still hung with lengths of snapped chains, I roared my rage and exultation:
“Vengeance!”
My declamation shook the roof of the house--- or so it seemed. In sooth, the reality was far stranger: as I gazed up at the ceiling, I saw it lifted away, peeled off like the lid of a jar and discarded with a ground-shaking crash. A giant woman peered down, and circling her head was a bat-winged man!
I heard the sorcerer-scientist cry: “Ophidian! Save me, my pet”
The ten-legged serpentine abomination emerged from a mound of debris and shattered equipment, launching itself into the air at the female colossus. She caught it, and it was little more than a toy in her hands--- but she knew not its true danger.
“Look not into its eyes, lest it glamour you!” I called to my unlooked-for ally. But it was too late. She gripped it in her hands, looking down upon it, snared by its gaze! That lovely visage twisted and she turned upon her bat-winged comrade, lashing out with her enormous arm. The surprised creature was knocked across the sky, and the colossus stomped after it to finish her violent work.
I could spare these strange rescuers no more attention; my enemy was getting away. The flash of his white coat caught my eye as he fled downstairs.
“Anton Arcane,” I bellowed, rattling the remnants of chains on my wrists. “Face your frightful judgment!”
His Un-Men scattered before my wrath, proving no impediment to my pursuit. I dashed down the stairs, back into the basement where I had been a prisoner, lo these many months. It was lit now with the garish glow of hellfire, and I saw that it was much larger than I had suspected: in the center of the wide chamber was a pit, from which came the flames. Arcane stood on the opposite side of the pit, hands outstretched and mumbling words that profaned the very air.
My flintlock and sword hung from the wall, and I paused only to take them up. He kept the pit between us, edging along the outer rim. In the depths of the pit, I spied what seemed to be the fiery forms of children, reaching up and demanding justice for the wrongs down upon their souls.
“Anton Arcane, there is no place left to run. Your dark deeds stink to Hell Below, and now you must pay the cost of your crimes!” I leveled my gun at him through the flames and squeezed the trigger. It was a fearful blast, as this was no ordinary pistol, handcrafted as it was in the Lost Smithies of the Homo Magi. It created a cloud of smoke, the recoil jolting my arm up. But Arcane was proof ‘gainst its puissance, the ball ricocheting back and striking me in the chest.
Blood spurted and I was felled. The villain laughed and laughed, the sound of it stinging my ears… * * *
Giganta chased Man-Bat down the length of Herren Street, trampling across lawns, cars and deserted homes, the ground shaking beneath her feet. Kirk Langstrom looked back over his shoulder at the creature perched on Dr. Zeul’s shoulder and clinging to her neck. He had heard the warning shouted by the fearsome Frankenstein’s Monster, and knew that the serpent was controlling Zeul. He just needed to get rid of it.
Every time he gained altitude, Giganta grew to reach him. He dove and she shrank, her enormous hands snatching at him. He barely avoided her grasp, pulling in his wings and banking away at the last second.
“Come back, Kirk! I promise to make it quick!” Giganta taunted her voice booming out over the neighborhood.
By this time, the events on Herren Street were attracting attention from the rest of Ivy Town. There were sirens in the distance, and soon there would be helicopters and spotlights… Kirk Langstrom was not overly fond of Doris Zeul, but he did not want to see her go to jail again--- especially as she had only been trying to help!
You owe me for this big time, Zeul, he thought as he wheeled 180 degrees and flew back at her. Unprepared for the sudden attack, Giganta threw up her hands to protect her face, swatting at him. But Man-Bat swerved at the last second and instead hit Ophidian full-on, knocking him off the 100 foot woman. The two creatures fell, tumbling to the ground, grappling the whole way, screeching and hissing.
Their impact shook the street.
* * *
After freeing the children locked in the cage, Detective Chimp made his way across the shattered laboratory, towards where he had seen the Spawn of Frankenstein follow the sorcerer-scientist.
Anton Arcane[/i], the monster had called the villain. Chimp knew the name from his studies: Arcane was a sorcerer from the Balkans, and much older than he even looked. It was rumored that Victor Von Frankenstein had been his pupil, and that he had sought the fabled Philosopher’s Stone with Paracelsus. He had served the Nazis in World War Two as the director of their gruesome eugenics program. It was said that he sought to create perfect life, immortal, obedient and in whatever image he desired. Chimp saw his handiwork all around, in the hideous Un-Men who fled, abandoned and in terror, from the house.
But surely even Arcane could not stand against the fury of that enraged green-skinned horror…?
In the basement, Chimp found Frankenstein’s Monster in a heap, surrounded by a spreading pool of blood. On the other side of a firepit, the flames shooting high, was Arcane, flush with triumph.
Chimp’s heart sank at the sight. Arcane saw him, and his flabby lips curled.
“Did you think to best me?” Arcane’s voice was high, hysterical. He shuffled around the pit towards Detective Chimp, leaning towards him with a menacing glare. “You?
A monkey?[/i] All you’ve done is delay me! My work will continue, but you will be
dust!”
Chimp saw the sword where it had fallen on the ground. He lifted it up, barely able to keep the long blade steady.
“I’m a chimpanzee, bub. And a detective. I was clever enough to find you, and if I saved even one little kid tonight, then I will die a happy camper!”
Arcane stared at the look of almost comical determination on Detective Chimp’s face then burst out laughing. He raised his arms for a blast of magical might---
And was lifted bodily into the air! Blood soaking his clothes, his knees buckling, the Spawn of Frankenstein hefted his old foe over his head, staggering with the effort.
“
To thy reward!” he yelled and heaved Arcane into the pit of fire.
The flames flared as if hungry to greet him, and the sorcerer-scientist’s bloodcurdling scream echoed a long while--- all the way down to Hell--- until it faded into silence and the fire went abruptly out.
* * *
By the time Charlie, Susie and Ramon had cautiously worked their way back to the house on Herren Street, their curiosity getting the better of them, it had been surrounded by emergency vehicles and police cars. The back end of a yellow hummer was still sticking out from the front porch, and police and EMTs were tending to frightened, sobbing children.
“That could’ve been us,” Susie gaped at a little boy who was crying in his mother’s arms.
“Yeah,” Ramon nodded, impressed. “Best. Halloween.
Ever.”
Look,” Charlie pointed up at the house.
Two mismatched figures limped from the shattered front door, the much larger one staggering and supported by the smaller--- who was a chimpanzee in a tweed jacket and a deerstalker cap.
“Man, Frankie, with that wound, I thought you were a goner.”
“My name is Adam,” came the subterranean voice of the green-skinned brute. He was dressed in clothes out of fashion for almost two hundred years, and there was an odd, but dignified formality in his rumbling voice. “And I cannot be killed thus. Immortal life is my gift, but it is also my curse. Seek not for that which grants not wisdom, but withholds life’s greatest mystery, and ye shall forevermore---.”
“Kirk, Doris! You’re alive!” Detective Chimp ignored what was apparently going to be a long platitude, and called over to two figure huddled together on the back of an ambulance. The man was in the tattered remains of a tuxedo, nursing some newly bandaged ribs, while the woman was dressed only in leopard-print underwear, adjusting her hair in a pocket mirror.
Charlie and Ramon could only gape at Dr. Zeul. Susie gave each of them an elbow in the stomach to snap them out of it.
“It was a pretty close call,” Kirk Langstrom winced and fit his wire-rimmed glasses on his face. “Giganta here almost pulverized me a dozen times.”
“I did say I was sorry, Kirk.” Dr. Zeul did not actually sound contrite. “That horrible creature had me hypnotized. Thank goodness you were able to take him out. Imagine my guilt if I had hurt you.”
“Well, I do have a concussion and three broken---.”
“I mean--- all things considered--- would that have been fair to me?”
Kirk Langstrom stared at his comrade in disbelief, then shaking his head, turned to the approaching Detective Chimp and Spawn of Frankenstein.
“Looks like you were right about what was going on, Chimp.”
“I usually am,” Detective Chimp said without a hint of smugness. “And the four of us made a great team tonight,” he inclined his head up at the sullen monster-man he supported. “Including you, big guy.”
Unable to restrain himself any longer, Charlie called out to their four rescuers: “Are you guys with the Justice League?”
Man-Bat, Giganta, Detective Chimp and the Spawn of Frankenstein turned to look at the three children they had saved, taken aback by the question. Then they all started talking at once.
“I’m not a superhero,” Doris Zeul snorted, looking around as if embarrassed by the accusation.
“Well, Batman once told me that if I ever---.” Langstrom held up a finger to make a point.
“No, but you could be onto something there, kid,” said the Chimp.
“In the annals of history and myth,” Adam’s sepulchral voice rose above all the others, drowning them out. “When evildoers rise up, there have always been those who stand against them. And oft times, it takes a monster to fight a monster.”
There was a thoughtful silence at that pronouncement. But the wheels in Detective Chimp’s head moved quickly.
“The Monster League of America…!” He held up his hands as if to frame the words. “I like the sound of that! Whaddya say, guys and gal? We worked pretty well together, and I think we can do some good…”
“Well, I don’t know,” Dr. Langstrom hedged, looking uncomfortable. “My wife has already put up with a lot…”
“I am
not a superhero, and I most certainly am
not[/i] a monster!” Dr. Zeul jabbed her finger into Detective Chimp’s chest.
The Spawn of Frankenstein actually turned towards the three watching children and for a brief moment, his solemn, sullen façade was broken… by a wink.
Grinning broadly, the three children walked away. Between them, Charlie put an arm around their shoulders and said, “All in a Halloween night’s work…!”
NOT THE END!
THE MONSTER LEAGUE OF AMERICA WILL RETURN!
[/b]
