Crazytown

Ed pulls into the parking lot outside of his apartment building weaving in and out of police cruisers until he finds a parking spot on the other side of the lot from his front door. Even with traffic slowing him to a one hour trip home, it did not appear that the police attention could possibly have dissipated. Ed did not see how there could possibly have been more local officers on the scene unless they hired people on the spot.



Up the stairs and stepping under the police tape, Ed make his way down the hall to his doorway. He is not delayed at the door as no one is standing watch. They are all staring at a the remains of a lamp in his bedroom. He can see his wife smoking a cigarette on the bed through the hole in the wall from the living room.



"What in the hell happened here?" All eyes dart to the man in the doorway. One of the officers begins to stand and protest Ed's presence in the room before Jennifer runs over to put her arms around him. The officer relents.

"Mr. Brilke? I'm Sergeant Haskin. We arrived on the scene because your wife called in a B&E and kidnapping incident. We sent a car immediately to the scene, but required back up when the officers began to listen to your wife's full story. Have you heard her story yet, sir?" The Sergeant's eyebrows raised in a sign of concern that was not for Jennifer's situation. Rather it was a look of concern over the possibility of having more crazy people at a potential crime scene.
"No. She left a frantic message on my phone and I rushed home. What is going on here and what's the deal with my mother's lamp?" A couple of men looked up from the crouched position around the shattered lamp. They seemed curious to hear the story again themselves.
"Your wife claims that a... let me phrase this correctly... a lizard man in a velvet robe. Velvet robe, right?" The Sergeant calls over his should to the officer standing behind him.
"Yes, sir. Velvet is what she said."
"Right. A velvet robe and threw your landlord into a large sack before walking through the wall dragging one, Stan Garetti, with it."
"Someone kidnapped Stan from my bedroom and broke through the wall rather than open the door?" Ed had to interrupt the ridiculous story. What was Jennifer on today? Was this story true or had she made it up to hide what had made the hole in the wall? But if it was a phony story, why bring Stan into it? What was worse to tell the truth about than implying his landlord was in his bedroom with Jennifer while Ed was at work?
"Something, sir. And from your wife's account, the thing she saw seems to be able to pass through things like they aren't there. She said it walked through the bed and the lamp in the corner which she threw at him seemed to pass right through him. The way we figure, if we take the story as what really happened here, the thing can pass through objects but Mr. Garetti could not. This would explain the size of the whole being roughly Mr. Garetti's size based on your wife's description of the man." The Sergeant stopped expectantly waiting for Ed's response to the story. He cracked his knuckles impatiently as Ed finally spoke.
"Did she say why Stan was in my bedroom?" Jennifer looked up suddenly dropping the cigarette on the carpet. The Sergeant quickly stamped it out.
"Sir. I understand this will be a domestic matter once we've gotten through the other details, so please try to save those questions for your wife once we've left."
"Fine. Then why don't you explain to me why so many people are on the scene for such a crazy story." The Sergeant smiled. He loved the big reveal and was waiting for this sort of question.
"Because of the green growth, Mr. Brilke." The Sergeant stepped aside and, for the first time since entering the room, Stan could see the extent of the damage the lamp had suffered. The wide base had stayed intact upon striking the wall, but it was not the light shade of blue it had previously been. There was some black fungus lying inside the base and spread across the side. When one of the officers moved from the window, the sunlight hit it illuminating it from within in a dark green the bubbled and churned as if began to grow in size. The officer returned to his position blocking out the light.
"Mr. Brilke..."
"Ed."
"Alright. Ed. We would like to take this to the lab with us. If what your wife told us is accurate, it may give us a clue as to what we are dealing with here. To look at it in the most likely light, someone may have entered your apartment and thrown Mr. Garetti into a bag as your wife says. The likely threw the lamp at him cutting him and leaving whatever this is on the lamp behind. The suspect then threw Mr. Garetti through the wall before running out to the living room and taking him out of the building. A traffic camera in the neighborhood did catch a van speeding away from the vicinity of your residence and the driver did appear to be wearing a hooded outfit of some kind. We have the state highway patrol on the look out for the van now, but have not heard anything yet."
The Sergeant turned back to the lamp. "We would like to take this back with us to see if we can identify something unique in the blood that may tie us to the suspect and help us find your landlord."
"Whatever your need to do." Ed began to wonder if he would need to take some time off from work to deal with this as he watched two officers pull on latex gloves and pull out a plastic evidence bag.
The two officers bag the lamp with the growth to take it to the station's lab for analysis. The lab in town is not a well equipped lab, but the lab techs have been resourceful in the past managing to connect a string of car thefts to a chop shop based on the way the owner snubs out his cigarette in the ash tray of every car he steals. They didn't even try to run the cigarettes for DNA analysis before getting the guy to confess.
The Sergeant gathers the men and moves them toward the front door following the bagged lamp leaving Ed and Jennifer alone in the bedroom. Ed continues to stare at the corner where he witnessed one of the weirdest things in his lifetime.
Jennifer walks to the balcony to try and avoid answering Ed's question of why Stan was in the bedroom and to steady her nerves some more. She opens the pack she hides under the plant on the balcony so Ed will not know and stuffs a filter into her mouth. She flicks the lighter a couple of times without success before her shaking hand drop the lighter off the balcony. It lands near the police cruiser where the men are loading the lamp carefully into the back of the car. As the door slams closed, she looks up to the parking lot entrance and screams. There at the entrance to the parking lot is the hooded figure.