Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part IV

The following is the conclusion of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  I will be posting the update to the original post also If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part IV

"STOP!"  The man in the circle raised his hand flatly towards Ricky but did not look towards him.  Ricky looked at him wide eyed, questioning.  "It has not left us.  Stay inside.  Lock the door."  Ricky slowly closed the door and locked it once again.  He slumped to the floor. He and the ragged man sat in silence for a long while.  The ragged man had assumed a meditative stance and had closed his eyes.  Ricky scanned the darkness beyond for any sign of movement.  His jaw was tight and his teeth chattered lightly like he were cold.

"Whu-What is that thing?" Ricky finally asked.

Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part III

The following is the continuation of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  I will be posting each update to the original post as I go If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part III

"What the hell was that?!?" Ricky asked, but the man was gone, moved back under the covered area in front of the doors.  The man turned in a circle several times and poured the salt around him until one whole container was empty.  He tossed the container away and closing his eyes, began chanting.  It might have been Latin or maybe Spanish, but Ricky wasn't sure.  The howl came again.  Closer.  This time it extended into what sounded like a bird call, but deeper and almost clicking.

Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part II

The following is the continuation of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  The good news bad news here is that although I am updating the story here, this isn't all of the story.  Once I got fully into editing, several plot points expanded a bit and so did the page count, which created more pages to edit.  Regardless, I will be posting each update to the original post as I go If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part II

Ricky began sweeping.  Margaret had left him a long list of cleaning duties to be done by morning.  The store was being reviewed next Wednesday and Margaret always wanted the store cleaner than a new car on review day.  That always meant more work for Ricky: clean behind the shelving units, dust every surface, reorganize the freezer, sweep and mop twice during shifts.  Margaret was generally a relaxed manager, she even let him wear his earphones on third shift, but when a review was coming around, she became a relentless bitch.

The Featured Creature: The Night Thing

Here we have a strange winged denizen of the night. Once I'd inked this piece, I didn't care for the flame hair, but it was already integrated in the drawing.  However, in Photoshop I was able to remove it.  When I began adding the tones, a seed of a story came to me.  It didn't take long for it to explode into a full short story, but I haven't gotten it to a finished state just yet.  Expect an update with the full story soon.

Here is the beginning of the story: