Monsieur Death

Evangeline

The Golden Gate bridge is bigger than I thought it would be. Two big gargoyles stood Out

I had never been there, even though I had wanted to, because Mom and Dad had some stupid bad experience there with Uncle Hugh, even though it was in our state. Uncle Hugh had promised to take me, but we’d never gotten around to it, and now he wouldn’t be taking me anywhere. We were actually going to go this year. Liam touched my shoulder and I nodded at him.

“Let’s go. We’ll have to ditch the car, right?”

He looked at me blankly.

“Get rid of it? You know, leave it here?”

His expression cleared. “Oh. Yes, we should.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Monsieur Death.”

He frowned. Maybe he sensed I was irritated with him. We let the car at a Seven-Eleven, and walked down to the muddy river bank. It stunk like rotting bananas. The bank was slippery and twice I almost fell in the water. Even though we searched for an hour or two, we couldn’t find any secret portal or bunker anywhere in the mud. Liam finally gave up and told me we’d have to get to the other side.

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

“Climbing.”

“Climbing?!”

Yeah.” He pointed to the beams hanging from the bridge.

“Why can’t we walk across like normal human beings?” I squeaked.

“Because we aren’t. Or, at least I’m not. Besides, the bridge is made for traffic, not feet. And Shalkra’s are guarding the entrance.”

I jumped as I realized the two giant gargoyles were not at all stone. Instead, they were two heavyset green monsters with purple dents.

“Wha- they were gargoyles a minute ago!”

“You just needed to be told. Have you ever seen a bird only after someone points out with you?”

I nodded. He didn’t say anything else, though, as he expected his little analogy to explain everything. I shivered as l looked back up at the Shalkra’s.

Liam had already begun climbing the beams. I had no choice but to follow him. They were slippery and stunk like the river. We were halfway through the beams when I slipped. There was a particularly mossy spot on one of the longer beams. Just my luck, I grabbed it. I was falling before I knew what had happened. My second hand reached wildly for something, for anything to grab hold of. It fell on Liam’s hand. He had a firm grip, but he was straining, and the spray from the smelly river wasn’t helping. I managed to swing my other arm up on a beam and hold on for dear life.

“Look down!”

“Why?!”

“Because it makes you terrified, so you tense, and that makes you lighter!”

Ah, well. I shouldn’t have watched all those romantic movies anyway. Liam brought up his arm and nearly yanked mine out of my socket, but I managed to get up on the beams.

“There wasn’t any easier way to do this?”

“We could have just gone on the bridge.” Liam pointed out.

“But the Shalkra’s-“

Liam pointed behind me. The two Shalkra’s had found us.

************

I hated Liam. I knew that wasn’t fair, but he had to be stupid Monsieur Death. He had to get stupid insane monsters after us and not know how to fight them.

“Do we have any steel?!” Liam shouted over the two monsters gleeful shrieks.

“The beams might be steel!”

“No!” He shouted back. “They’re aluminum!”

“How do you know?!”

“I can usually feel it!”

“What?! Why?!”

“Not important right now!”

The Shalkra’s jumped. The one of the left headed towards me. I ducked, almost losing my balance.

“Whoa!” I gripped the beams on either side of me. The Shalkra sailed by and smacked it’s head into another beam. It slid down and splashed into the water.

“Yes!” I pumped my fist, almost falling backwards. Then it crawled back up on the bank and took a flying leap towards me.

“Darn it!” I grabbed the beam above me and started to hike up. Liam has his own problems. He had pulled a loose nail out of the wood base above us and was trying to block the Shalkra teeth.

“Here!” He threw me a nail.

“Uh, thanks?”

“It’s steel!”

“So?”

“Steel will kill them!”

“Gre-“ I cut myself off with a scream. The Shalkra had gotten a hold of my pants leg with it’s teeth and was starting to pull. Unfortunately, it’s teeth sank into my leg in the process. I threw the nail as hard as I could at it’s face and then all I remembered was falling, and darkness closing in.