The Outsiders - By Neil Jackson Page 0,3

the time, before shoving it, too, into the bag. It was 1:26 am.

“I’ve brought some more nibbles,” Susan said, dropping a number of fingers and toes into a stainless steel snack dish.

There were already some in there.

“Ah, I see I’ve missed Dr. Thompson’s departure,” she said. “The man from the Woolston practice. I so wanted to say goodbye to him!”

LURKER

Peter Mark May

Eddie Vaisey was a lucky man...and was totally oblivious to the fact.

11.31pm and the family were long tucked up and he had just locked the house and turned off all the lights in readiness for his imminent slumber. There was little reason as to why he pulled back the dining room drapes. A full moon hung in the clear skies outside and shone down with such illumination, that Eddie initially thought one of the neighbours had left their car headlamps on.

Barnes Street looked quiet and peaceful. But there was something... misplaced...not quite right. No other light seemed to shine from any of the other windows across the way. Then something caught his eye as he was about to close the curtains once more. Next to Dan Brummell’s pick-up was a small cherry tree that produced the loveliest blossom in Spring. And the taste of the fruit that followed was a sheer delight.

The tree was tall, emaciated and usually cast an almost nightmarish shadow, yet on this night, it seemed to have two shadows. The second was shorter and seemed to be different from the shape one would normally associate with a tree...any tree He watched as the thin shadow suddenly rose up and then skipped away from the tree, leaving no connection, an independent entity of something that could not be seen.

The thin, loping shadow seemed to have legs and thin spindly arms and a head with spikes on it like thorn bush. Then there came a briefest of double flashes from the head of the shadow, like two cats eyes suddenly flaring green and boring deep into Eddie.

The strange shadow then leapt back into the tree as a car drove past and merged into the gloom and Eddie became the first person in Ohio to see a Lurker in close to fifty years - in fact it was the 2,168 sighting in history. On these facts, only the Lurkers themselves pondered such things, spending most of their lives flitting from the shadows of one tree to another under the cover of darkness.

Eddie waited, his eyes fixed. He blinked...and the second shadow was gone. He stayed rooted to the spot for what seemed like ten minutes, more likely sixty seconds.

Nothing unusual moved near the cherry tree.

He exhaled and rubbed at his tired eyes; too much stress at work at the mail depot and early morning rises must be causing his eyes to play tricks on him. He closed the drapes and headed off to bed and to his surprise fell into a fast dreamless sleep, unfettered by imaginary wraiths or shadows.

The sun shone as he opened the curtains the next morning and any silly thoughts and half-remembered daydreams of tree shadows were erased by the hot sunshine and thoughts of another long day at work.

Eddie was last to bed and first to rise, as was his habit, and now he found himself standing before the dining room drapes. An illogical primal fear crept up from his belly to his rational mind.

“Eddie, don’t be a putz,” he admonished himself in a low voice and pulled the drapes half apart, to lay the apparitions of his tired imagination to rest.

The remainder of his day passed uneventfully with all thoughts of the creature, the shadows...the Lurker, gone.

Another mundane shift passed into another mundane evening.

11.33pm. Time to lock up and then hit the pillows before continuing the monotonous circle of life.

A check of the street before checking the drapes. Just in case.

No cars. A single cat. Even the cherry tree was fine...but next to Dan’s mail box, at the edge of his lawn, lurked the strange shadow from last night. Eddie took two faltering steps back, but that and blinking rapidly for effect, did not make the shadow creature vanish.

The Lurker’s eyes flashed briefly again, like jade gems from some lost Aztec treasure haul.

Then it pointed at Eddie.

Its shadowy arms crept toward the house. They elongated until they were across the street and onto the pavement outside Eddie’s drive.

Eddie gave a most unmanly shriek. He quickly pulled the drapes shut and ran up to bed, hurriedly cast off his clothes, down to his