**This is the eighth part of a continuing story. If you haven’t read the previous parts, start here!

11:31

As soon as he walked out his front door, Jack knew how different town was. Just walking down Main Street didn’t feel right. Usually there was slow-but-steady-paced traffic. Sometimes during winter, Jack and his parents would go to the highest point of town by the city’s airport. When you are up on the hill you get a good look at the city’s main streets. And from that view you can see all of the lights. Some of the lights in that spectacular view were the headlights of traveling vehicles. But Jack had a feeling that if he went up to the airport he would see no headlights at all. Just being down on the street, you could tell nobody felt like driving tonight. Or maybe there wasn’t anyone to drive those cars.

And there was something else he noticed walking down the street and into the city. All of the cars he did see were all scattered in the street. Only a few here and there along the curb, but from the way it looked it was as if they drove up to the curb and did one of those door dives you see in movies where people jump from moving cars just before if goes over a cliff.

Some of the buildings that were little businesses along the street were boarded up. It was mostly just little stores: a thrift shop, an antique store, and a few places to eat. One of these looked odd to Jack. It was a painting shop, but because of the boards, you couldn’t even see through the bay window or the doors to see the art. And on the boards covering the door there was a crucifix nailed to the wood.

It was around this time when Jack realized his father had been right. And be was regretting his decision to leave home tonight. But here Jack was with a decision to make: One, go back home, or two, try to make it to his friend’s house. At this point he chose the second option. He thought he had walked too far to go back.

***

12:13

There he saw his friend Ralph standing on the street corner. His glasses had slid down his nose. He was holding his “snack pack” in one hand and a chocolate bar in the other. That would probably explain why he had a smear of chocolate on his lower lip and chin.

Ralph was a short kid for his age and a little overweight, too. He gave off a nerdy vibe, and that was why he was mostly avoided by every student in school. But Jack had known him for close to three years and knew that he wasn’t really like that at all.

Jack and Ralph got the same stereotype. Not only because of their similar interests, but because Jack was treated as an outcast, too. His dad was a cop.

And that is the reason why he is pushed aside. His dad had apprehended and even arrested some of the troublemakers in his grade. He tells people that his dad is a detective, not a cop. Of course, if John Thorn needed to arrest someone, he had the authority to do so. But just because his dad has arrested some people doesn’t mean that the other students should take it out on Jack. But they did it anyway.

“Hey, Ralph!” Jack shouted.

Ralph, as a result of Jack calling out his name, dropped his chocolate.

“Aw, dang it…” Ralph said to himself, not knowing of course those were going to be the last words he would ever speak. He hitched up his ripped jeans and bent over to pick up the chocolate.

That was when Edward Kraft lunged out of the darkness. He leaped at Ralph and grabbed him by his neck. And when Kraft had a good hold of the kid, he took to the sky. This all seemed to happen in less than two seconds: the predatory lunge, the snatched kid, and the woosh of air as Kraft to bolted skyward.

It was at this moment when Jack bolted in the direction home.