The girl still didn’t move. She watched the woman with the same kind of mistrust and fear that everyone in this city had all the time.
The whistles started from up the street to the woman’s right. It was still a short distance off, but if they were close enough to be heard then they were in danger.
“Come on!” She tried again, stepping out of the alley all the way, so the girl could see her fully. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have to hurry!”
The girl took a hesitant step forward, then stopped. She still watched the woman, but when the noise came from up the street again, nearer now, she turned to face it.
“No! Don’t look that way! Come with me!”
Finally, the girl started toward the woman, slowly at first, then in a panicked run. The woman grabbed her and ducked back into the shadows, barely glimpsing the figures coming down the street. With luck, they hadn’t been seen.
She held the girl close and pulled her further into the alley, pressed to the wall, moving quickly, but carefully. If she tripped on an errant piece of garbage and fell, there was a good chance they’d both be caught.
The noise came close and the woman froze, holding the little girl in a tight embrace, keeping her head turned from the street. The woman kept her eyes glued to entrance of the alley, waiting to see a head appear around it, the white mask peering eyelessly in, searching for her.
She held her breath, afraid that even that noise would be enough to draw them in.
There. They slowly walked by the alley, four of them, all dressed in different bright colors. One was tall and thin, as she was, dressed in bright red. Another, shorter, stockier, in emerald green. Followed by two who could have been twins, the same height as the heavier one, but leaner, dressed in brilliant blue and a shocking orange. Their hair was done in different crazy styles, sticking up in horns and whorls. And all of them with those stiff, white masks.
The one in green glanced into the alley as they passed, and the woman stayed as still as a statue, hoping the girl knew enough to do the same. Nothing to see here, she thought, willing them to pass on. Just another piece of the wall, just another dirty smudge.
Her hopes were answered and the four passed without stopping. Either they hadn’t seen her, or they were after something else this evening. The strange whistling noise occurred again when they were out of her sight. It rose, skirling higher, then plunging to a deeper note before ending. It was answered by a quick stuttering type of whistle, and then silence again.
The whistles were the only sounds they made. The woman didn’t know if that was what passed for speech among them or if it was made to unnerve others. Either way, it was unsettling.
She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed slightly. It wasn’t unheard of for them to double back. Other people had hidden in alleys and been taken when the group split up, coming in from each end after their quarry was sure they passed by.
“Come on,” she said quietly to the little girl. She let her out of her embrace and took the girls hand and edged toward the end of the alley. “It’s going to be all right,” she muttered when the girl tried to hang back.
They quietly approached the street and the woman slowly leaned out of the tentative safety again.
The one in red, the tall one, was waiting for her, staring at her from that featureless white mask. It had no eyeholes, none for the mouth or nose, and no visible way that it was attached to the head, but it was looking right at her.
She screamed and ducked back into the alley, turning to run, only to see the twins coming from the other end, walking slowly, in no hurry to get to her. They had all the time in the world.
The woman spun back, to find the tall one directly behind her, the shorter one in green right behind that one.
The one in red reached for her, its arms seeming impossibly long, but she ducked from its grasp. Rather than running, which it would have expected, the woman jumped forward, her hand balling into a fist and striking the figure in the throat. It staggered back, making a high-pitched whistling scream, and fell into the one in green.
The woman grabbed the girl’s hand again and ran, pushing past the two masked figures. They felt like wood. Both when she punched the tall one and pushed into it, its body was hard and unyielding. Yet, it sounded like she had hurt it.
The masked ones stayed on their feet when she rushed them, but the woman managed to get past them. Get out to the street, run as fast as she could, and find a new place to hide. They stopped stalking the city when the sun went down. She only needed to hide for a couple of hours at the most, and she would be safe for another night, at least from them.
Tomorrow, when it was light, she could find a place for the girl, but right now just get away.
There was a sharp tug on her arm. She glanced back and screamed again.
The one in green held on to the little girl. Its gloved hand was wrapped around her arm, stopping the woman dead in her tracks.
“No!” She screamed loudly, hoping it would startle the thing, but her shout had no effect. It held fast to the girl, not even swaying as the woman pulled at her.
The girl screamed as she was stretched between them, and all four of the brightly clothed things whistled, the noise creating a discordant clash.
