Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

He remained tensed, motionless, as they both listened. Running footsteps sounded below. The dog's barking stopped. Below them, the fire escape creaked.
    With a muttered curse Will sprang up and jerked Tessa to her feet. As they ran across the pebbled surface, Tessa took in the limited options for escape. A rooftop garden had been laid out next to a small shed. Beyond this, the building's access door stood in an elevated, wedge-shaped structure. Will reached it and yanked. Locked.
    They turned and ran into the garden shed. Will snapped the lightweight door shut. "There's no bloody bolt," he muttered.
    "Garden tools don't need to lock themselves in," hissed Tessa. She peered through the ventilation slats of the flimsy barrier. At the edge of the roof the lymerer swung a booted leg up and climbed over. He stood. Big and ugly was all Tessa's mind could register for a moment. He came closer, and through the narrow spaces she saw him pause and swivel his gaze over the rooftop. One of his eyes was covered by a patch, and his face was marked with splotchy blemishes. His sloping forehead hung down over a thick, misshapen nose. The lymerer's one good eye fixed on the toolshed. He bared his blackened, broken teeth. It was something like a smile.
    In the small, shadowed space, standing hip to hip with Will, Tessa saw the lymerer approach and her heart lurched. They were trapped in here. She turned slightly, trying to make no noise. "He's coming." She barely mouthed the words.
    "Find a weapon," Will whispered into her hair. Tessa reached out and grabbed the first handle she touched as Will searched the cramped, stuffy space. In the dim light Tessa saw his fingers racing lightly over the piles of plastic tubs, watering cans and flowerpots. He lifted a bag and turned to her. He pointed to the skull-and-crossbones warning label.
    "What's this?"
    "Weed killer. Poison for plants," Tessa whispered.
    Will nodded his understanding and opened the plastic sack to peer at the white powdered contents. Outside, the crunch of boots on gravel came closer.
    "That won't do anything," she said in a desperate undertone. "Not unless you can make him eat it."
    "I was thinking of something more immediate," he answered, reaching into the bag.
    The door snapped open. Will shouted and flung a handful of the white powder into the lymerer's face. In an explosion of dust the man reeled back with a grunt, clutching his one good eye.
    Will and Tessa scrambled out. The lymerer's face was plastered with white powder, and he squinted through one red, blinking eye. He swung a bulky arm, catching Tessa around her waist with such force that the air was knocked from her lungs. He dragged her closer and held her pinned to face him as she struggled helplessly. With a grunt he reached up and pulled off his eye patch. Beneath it, a scar-skinned globe veered in its misshapen socket. The milky, grotesque eye rolled down and fastened on Tessa. The lymerer grinned.
    Tessa screamed, "He can still see!" and kicked out her legs, trying to wriggle away. With her free hand she swung the unwieldy weapon she had grabbed in the shed and dragged it across the lymerer's face. The metal prongs of the rake scraped his check, leaving trails of red before he ripped the tool out of her hands and flung it aside.
    "Tessa!" Will charged into the lymerer's side. The blow didn't knock the enormous man down, but it broke his balance, and his grip on Tessa. She was tossed sprawling to the ground. Will snatched up the rake and broke it over one knee, leaving a sharply pointed wooden pike in one hand.
    The lymerer lumbered to face him as Will grabbed Tessa's hand. "Get back down!" he gasped.
    They raced to the edge of the building, and Tessa scrambled onto the fire escape. Will had just done the same when a thick hand reached over the edge and clasped his arm. The leering, dusty face of the lymerer came into view. Below, Tessa looked up and screamed.
    She saw Will throw his weight backward to pull free, but the man held on, stretching out from the rooftop to keep his grip. With a desperate cry, Will let go of the ladder. He dangled over the alley far below. Only the grasp of the lymerer kept him from falling. Will thrust upward with the wooden spike. The shaft sank deep into the man's throat.
    With a gurgling moan the huge man in black teetered. Will grabbed the ladder again just as his attacker lost his balance. The lymerer plummeted facedown past Tessa, arms wind-milling, the wooden spike