One dark early December night, the air was biting and threatened snow, but none fell. Thin ice sheets covered the ground of New York's Central Park, slicking the concrete pathways and making them gleam in the clear, moonlit night. Three shadows crept earnestly along these pathways, huddled in their thick jackets and boots; they trudged forward in a silent line. The last figure, noticeably heftier than the other two, grumbled out loud.
"Ross, you sure about this? The cops've been through here already and they've cleared everything out. He can't still be here,"
Ross, the lead figure, a thin, wiry fellow, snapped back. "I already told ya Butch, he can and he will!"
Butch wasn't satisfied. "But that was all last week, Ross. You remember all those vans and coppers 'round the place! They cleaned the whole scene,"
"There ain't no way they cleaned him out," Ross growled, stubbornly.
The final member of the group, a wispy sort of woman known simply as Pam, cut in. "Alright, cut it out you two! We're on the same side here. Let's just look for the blasted thing before our digits freeze off, dig?"
The two men agreed. Soon enough, the three converged on the site of the infamous – and now ruined – Eccentric Circus, belonging to one Professor Screweyes. After that Black Friday night last week, during what was the biggest and scariest show yet with hereforto unseen dinosaurian monsters, a giant spaceship felled the great tarpaulin cover and lifted the dinosaurs to safety, literally toppling Screweyes' show and declaring him a sadist in the process. The three were here now, after the forensic drama of the last week, to find something.
Professor Screweyes had mysteriously disappeared after the show, so had most of his goons, and the eerie sort of inviting presence that gave his circus so much attention. It was as his former clown, Stubbs, used to say, "The people come here to get scared. Simple as that". Ross smoothed back his ultramarine mohawk and peered at the site. It was huge and bare of practically anything – most of that was thanks to the approaching winter, but also due to the giant tarpaulin cover that had once dominated this area. The three clambered down into the site and started their search.
Digging through old posters and trash on the ground, Butch wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. Unless Screweyes had magically shrunk to the size of a mouse, what would he be doing under these old—hold it, what was that? Underneath laid a small metal object, but what earned it the longevity of the gaze was the fact that is was glowing; a slow, rhythmic pulse of small silver and green flashes emanating from the exterior.
"H-hey Ross!" Butch squealed, hardly daring to pick the object up. "H-look what I found! It's…!" He pointed wildly, hoping the metal object would speak for itself. Ross and Pam hurried over to behold the mysterious luminescent object.
Ross bent hesitantly, frowning. "Wait, is that…?" He reached out with a finger and prodded the thing. It rolled a few inches, and the glow vanished like the light of a snuffed candle. Pam stifled a cry of surprise, it had happened so suddenly.
Ross snatched the thing up and peered at it in his gloved palm. It was a screw, a large one, but an ordinary screw nonetheless. Ross' face broke into a wide, pleased grin. "You guys know what this is?"
Butch wasn't sure he should be the first to answer – he would have said the obvious, but something in Ross' voice told him the obvious would most likely not be tolerated. He let Pam speak first just in case.
"A screw," she sounded disinterested. "A really kooky-lookin'…" she paused. "Wait, is that… his eye? Ugh!" She covered her mouth with her gloved hands. "Gross!"
Ross grinned wider. "Sure it's his eye. What other screw can glow like that?"
"But, how did it get… out of his face?" Butch felt his stomach drop like a stone.
Ross shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe the crows did him in." He smirked sideways as he tucked the screw into his pocket.
Pam tossed her head, unimpressed. "You tryin' to spook us, Ross?"
"Honest," Ross nodded to himself. "That's the reason there were so many crows – he was scared stiff of 'em. Didn't you guys notice that?"
"Then why didn't he just get rid of 'em?" Pam glanced over her shoulder, like there was a ghost lurking nearby.
Ross looked manically pleased. "He told me once. He said a crow put his eye out. So he kept 'em around, to master his fear."
"So, the crows killed him?" Butch was still a little slow.
"Maybe, maybe not. Ain't out of the question though, there was a ton of crows around here while the Circus was running."
"Ross," Pam's voice broke his monologue. The man turned and noticed she was pointing at one of the bigger piles. Strangely, that pile was also glowing with same sort of eerie brilliance.
"Let's check it out," Ross motioned to his friends to follow. The pile was actually more than a pile; it was a collectivity of metal bits and pieces and scattered among these pieces were some odd, pill-shaped objects where the source of the glowing was coming from.
"What're those, some sort of funky nicotine pills?" Pam wrinkled her nose as they approached. Ross, acting the brave one tonight, scooped a couple up into his hand, like he had the screw.
"They're pills all right, but I dunno of any pills that glow."
"Maybe Screweyes used 'em." Butch offered, huddling into his jacket. Had it suddenly gotten colder?
Ross snorted in reply. "What would he use these pills for?" He opened his hand to let the pills fall, but Butch stopped him.
"Well, maybe they helped the screw get all glowy like that, I dunno." The bigger man snatched a couple of the pills and tucked them into his pocket. "Maybe we can find out more about 'em here."
"I think I already have," Pam said, softly. She was standing over what looked like a crushed bucket and though the words were hard to make out at first, they managed to form the phrase "Brain Drain".
I was hit by a wave of nostalgia after seeing one of my favorite childhood movies the other day and got this brilliant concept - write a We're Back! fanfiction.
Just in case, the three goons are the characters in the movie that Louie and Cecilia encounter. Thought it would be fun to bring 'em back in ;)
Don't forget to read/review!