Chapter 2
"What the!"
"What happened to the lights?" The door in the rear creaked open and fire more armed henchmen stormed inside, fumbling through the darkness.
"Someone get the lights back on!" one of them shouted. One of the Black Mask thugs moved back to the Grand Marquis and gunned the engine, turning on the head lights. One of the men flanking Maroni did the same with their own car.
"Maroni, get that door open!" the Black Mask representative demanded, drawing a chrome M19A11 from a shoulder holster.
"Steiss, get the door open!" one of the mobsters barked. Drawn like moths to the light, the armed henchmen slowly consolidated to where the cars created the only radius of visibility in the thick darkness of the warehouse. A henchman drifted to close to Maroni, nearly bumping into him.
"Get out there and fix this!" he growled, huffing with anxiety.
"Steiss! Did you hear me?" the mobster called out again. The Black Mask mobsters all had weapons drawn now as they kept close to their Grand Marquis. As a henchman scanned the darkness around him, he spotted another dressed in plain street clothes with his MP5 clutched close. Suddenly, the thug was swallowed by the darkness with a wail. The henchman jumped, eyes wide with fright.
"What in the world," he muttered as he forced himself to inch closer. Through the haze of darkness, he could barely make out a shape. Looking closer, he found the man that had disappeared dangling upside down, out cold and strung up by one of his legs. The other leg bent awkwardly and his arms hung loosely, his MP5 discarded on the floor below him.
"Holy frick!" the henchman screamed loudly, attracting the attention of another. As he inched closer, he too exclaimed in horror.
"How'd-." The two felt a sudden whoosh, tickle the backs of their necks before two large hands grasped their faces and slammed them together like cymbals. The blow stunned them instantly, making the legs go limp as they slumped to the floor. One of Maroni's mobsters dressed in a fine suite leveled his Uzi as he made his way to the source of pained groaning. Turning the corner of a stack of shipping containers, he instantly spotted the two on the floor then noticed the third strung up to the walkway above. Backing away, he bumped into the corner of the container, then stumbled away in a hurry.
"There's something going on here," he said with a quiver in his voice. Maroni glared back at him
"What do you mean?" he demanded. He jumped slightly, his wide open gaze drawn overhead by the sudden clatter of metal on metal. "Everyone on me!" he barked. Still the Black Mask mobsters orbited their car. From the shadows to the right, a sparking flash emitted and with a scream, one of the mobsters in black was yanked forward into the shadows. Gunfire burst from the two huddles of thugs.
"Stop, stop!" shouted one of the mobsters. "You'll hit him!"
"Yeah and the thing that got him too," a henchman said.
"Check to see if its dead?" a mobster said to another.
"Are you kidding?" he exclaimed. A sudden burst of utter blackness surged past the edges of light, taking another of Maroni's henchmen with it. The crime boss felt the gust but knew it was too late as soon as the scream faded into the darkness. From his own jacket, Maroni drew a Sig Sauer P226. With a sudden crash, all four headlights burst with glass, leaving the warehouse in complete darkness. Maroni shook, now staring at where the bulbs had once been lit with life. The sudden sounds of struggle, blindly attracted his attention. As Black Mask's mobsters managed to fire off a total of three rounds, the flashes of the muzzles offered little illumination. Maroni and his three remaining men cowered in the dark as the screams of the mobsters suddenly went silent. Another sparking flash burst, but not long enough for them to notice before the thug to Maroni's left, the last of the backup team, was wrenched off his feet overhead into the shadows. It all happened too fast as suddenly the darkness produced a black figure. A ghostly shape soared their direction. Petrified, none of them could force their trigger fingers to move. Maroni was hit hard, powered with momentum as the shape landed on top of him. Terrified, the last suited henchman took off as fast as his quivering legs could carry him. Maroni's heart pounded in his chest as his upper body was lifted off of the hard floor of the warehouse. The shape was menacing, in the utter blackness blurred any features but more terrifying were the two, long, sharp ears on the top of its head. Maroni felt its breath as it inched his face closer to its own.
"You're finished," a deep growling voice said just over a whisper. Maroni's silent scream choked him as it stuck in his throat before he suddenly felt one final blow and the darkness all faded to an even deeper black.
