My mouth dropped open in shock. "Kinski," I found myself saying outloud. I got up from my seat. Kinski looked horrible. He was thin, like he lost a couple of pounds. His clothes were more ripped and tattered then before. There was more filth and dirt. Vomit stains were visible on the front of his longsleeve shirt. There were darker stains on his arms as well, I guessed it was blood. His head was down so I couldn't see his face, only the top of his head. His fair hair seemed longer then before. It was dirty and tangled.
Bill smirked at the poor jackrabbit. He moved away from the fireplace and then turned to me. "Yes, I think it would be nicer to think that he would be better off with a freak show then 'ere, wouldn't you say?" joked Bill. Chorizo and Stump laughed. Stump grabbed a fistful of the hunchback jackrabbit's hair and lifted his face up.
Kinski's face was as worse as his clothes. The hair on his face was dirty and looked like it grew longer. His mouth and droopy ears were dripping with vomit, and his eyes were bloodshot and sad. Kinski blinked his red tinted eyes. Then he squinted from the sunlight pouring in from the huge window behind me.
"Bllahh, sshlupid, shlunligh…" he slurred. Then he turned to me. He blinked and stared at me for a minute. Then his face lit up. He smiled, revealing a row full of rotting, vomit covered teeth. "Ba…n…shlee…" he said, trying to pronounce and remember my name. Bill, Stump, and Chorizo laughed at the drunk hunchback jackrabbit.
Then Bill turned to me. "So, do we have a deal? You join me and become my secret weapon and he goes free, if not… Well, let's just say it won't be a happy ending for hunchback boy 'ere," said Bill grinning. I glared at the Gila Monster.
It was horrendous to see Kinski like this. It angered me. How could Bill do this to him? He was his friend! On the other hand, Bill was cold and heartless. Bill didn't care if he had one less gang member, he had everything in the palm of his stupid clawed hand! I turned my head back to Kinski. Kinski's eyes were transfixed on the fire in the fireplace.
Anger boiled inside me. My wings gripped the armrests of the chair tightly. My fangs jut out. "So this is how it is? You give me a poor Kinski you have imprisoned, in exchange for me to work for you? And you threaten me that you will kill him if I don't do what you want?! You bastard!" I screamed. The chandelier above quivered and the crystal pieces clicked against each other. Bill grinned, "he wont know that I killed him," he said, "He is nothing to me." Then I lost it.
I roared angrily and transformed into The Nightmare. Bill, Stump, and Chorizo stopped smiling and watched as I transformed. My grey dress ripped and fluttered to the floor in shreds. I grew ten times bigger and loomed over them. Stump and Chorizo dropped the drunk jackrabbit and moved away from me. Their faces white in sheer terror. I spread my wings out and screeched a horrible beast- like roar. Bill, Stump and Chorizo screamed and bolted to the other side of the huge room.
Just then, the chandelier above me screamed in agony in a high pitch shrill and then shattered into a million pieces. I quickly reacted and moved closer to Kinski's collapsed body and used my massive wings to shield Kinski and myself from the flying glass and crystal. The impact of the sharp shards pierced right through my massive wings. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes shut. I stifled a scream.
Kinski rubbed his head groggily and looked up at me with his tired red eyes. He got up and staggered a bit, using me as his support. "Banshhleeee? Wooww… you have… grown…eh?" he slurred and then laughed. I didn't have time to listen to his drunken nonsense. It was time to escape. I suddenly heard gunshots behind me.
Stump and Chorizo were on the other side of the room firing their bullets at me. I quickly grabbed Kinski in my massive wings and placed him on my back. Then I quickly turned around and screamed at the huge window.
My scream broke the window, and the wall that surrounded it. I took off and flew out of the window of the hotel and took to the skies. I kept flying up and up, trying to get away from the bullets. I screeched in pain when a couple bullets pierced through my wings.
"Stop firin' you bloats!" snapped Bill angrily as he grabbed his henchmen's guns away and chucked them across the room. The guns skidded across the cold marble floor. "But boss, they're gettin' away!" protested Stump. Bill bared his teeth. "That's the point!" the Gila Monster snapped. Chorizo and Stump exchanged confused glances. "It is?" asked Chorizo. Bill nodded. No one spoke.
Then, all three cautiously walked over the broken glass up to where the window once was. They watched as Banshee, also known as The Nightmare, and Kinski, fly away, over the City. Bill grinned at the two creatures who just escaped his clutches until they were out of sight...
Kinski had some sense to hold on. He gripped two fistfuls of my dark mane as we soared through the air. We were up very high. The city looked very small where we were. Kinski looked down and instantly felt nauseous. "Oh…gawd, zat's too high…" he slurred and gripped my mane tighter. I could feel all the hairs on the back of my neck being ripped out of their roots when Kinski's grip tightened. Obviously he wasn't used to being up so high. Fortunately, we were going down…unfortunately, we were going down fast.
My wings were screaming in pain because of all the shards of glass and crystal that bore into my huge leathery wings. Trickles of blood went down my wings, and then the droplets of blood went up because we were falling very fast. Kinski was screaming and laughing at the same time.
"Hold… on!" I screamed to Kinski, but all that came out were strange screech noises. The City came closer and closer. Suddenly Kinski's grip loosened. Before I knew it, he was off my back. "Kinski!" I screamed. I felt my body tense up as I flipped through the air frantically. I cursed angrily and then fanned out my injured wings. The blowing air caught my wings in an updraft and I went straight up after Kinski.
After a couple seconds, I felt the drunk jackrabbit crash right back onto my back. "Owww…!" he drawled and gripped my mane again. He started slurring and yelling about something else, but I couldn't hear him over the loud winds and we were all of the sudden soaring over Market Street.
A lot of gasps and screams escaped the traders and passerbys of Market Street. "The Nightmare!" they screeched and bolted out of the way. I was flying at top speed through the market, I tried using my wings to slow us down but they screamed in pain because of the sharp shards of glass.
I dodged and swerved around the obstacles that appeared as I tried to find a place to land. I veered over and around roadrunners, wagons, boars, food stands, people, and even kids.
All of the sudden my wings gave in. They went limp and folded up around me. "No!" I screeched. Then I turned my head to Kinski to see if he still was on my back. "Fffrlloooot!" screamed Kinski and pointed past my head. I had no idea what the jackrabbit said, until I turned my head back to the front. I screamed and braced myself.
We crashed right into a fruit stand. Fruit exploded all around us. One of the supports that held up the awning splintered and collapsed making the awning go right over us and the cover flutter in front of us. I groaned and got up from the crushed crates and boxes of squished fruit. I was covered in globs of mangos, apples, oranges and grapes.
Kinski groaned and sat up. He fell off of me when we crashed. The vomit smell was almost gone because of the fruit that covered his face and clothes. He looked around where we crashed and started laughing. "We didn't die! Hahaha! Zat's good flyin, yeah?!" he said in his strange accented slur and faltered, but still continued to laugh.
I used my front sharp teeth to pick out all the shards of glass from my wounded wings. The blood on my wings was already dry. I started to lick a section on one of my wings that hurt the most. I licked the blood from my wings without second thought. When I was done I lifted my head and sniffed the air. I smelled something. I looked down. An untouched basket of perfect fruit sat right next to me. My wild bat instincts kicked in and I lowered my head down to eat the fruit out of the basket.
Kinski staggered as he tried getting up again. He slipped in some squished mangos, but he had his arm on the table to support himself as he tried getting up again. I was too busy eating to notice. Juice dribbled down my huge mouth and my nose was covered in globs of mangoes but I didn't care. I was starving.
As I ate, I felt myself growing smaller and smaller. I stopped eating and realized I was turning back to my normal self. I quickly grabbed a blanket that was on the ground to cover up my body. When I was back to my normal size I stood up and squinted out into the afternoon sunlight.A crowd was already forming around the destroyed fruit stand Kinski and I were in.
One wing gripped the two corners of the blanket I was wrapped in, the other grabbed Kinski's arm and we both quickly exited out the other side. Kinski kept throwing up as we briskly walked down the street. Leaving pools of vomit. It reminded me of a snail, leaving a slime trail. I pushed the thought out of my head and kept pulling him. He groaned and staggered along. He tripped a couple of times, and I had to stop and help him up with my free wing.
"Come on, Kinski," I said impatiently. I realized I wasn't talking like a wild bat anymore. It was only when I was the Nightmare I couldn't speak English, I realized. I half led, half dragged Kinski down Market street. We turned a corner and walked down an allyway. Then we turned down Rebel street. As we went down the street, the sun was gone. Bill's huge hotel blocked the sun. My sensitive eyes sighed with relief.
Kinski looked up at the dark trashed street with his bloodshot eyes. We walked past a couple more town buildings. Then we stopped at the Rodent family's house. I helped Kinski up the steps and knocked on the door.
"Who's there?" asked a familiar, female voice. "Banshee…and a friend," I said after looking at the drunk Kinski. Kinski looked down at his feet. Breathing heavily. The door opened. It was Priscilla…with a shotgun. Her eyes widened in surprise. "Banshee! You escaped Bill's men!" she cried happily and hugged me. Kinski vomited next to her. Priscilla quickly recoiled and raised her gun at him. "Priscilla, wait!" I said quickly and moved in front of the hunchback jackrabbit.
"What is he doing 'ere?" asked Priscilla angrily. I tightened the blanket around me. "He was Bill's prisoner, he's sick, I need to help him," I explained. "Blahhh…" agreed Kinski, sticking his tongue out. Priscilla still had her shotgun aimed toward him. "He's part of Bill's gang…and he ain't no friend," she pointed out.
I shook my head, "No, Bill wanted to kill Kinski if I didn't do what he wanted, please Priscilla, let me bring him in, he wont bring harm, I promise…please," I pleaded. Priscilla looked down. Thinking. Then she looked back up at Kinski. Kinski swayed a bit, then winced and held his head. Priscilla sighed, she lowered her gun and let us in.