Joseph Walker looked at the sunset from the top of the building. The golden orb had just touched the black horizon when the stars to the darkening eastern sky began to shine weakly. From his vantage point he had an unobstructed view of the cityscape. Like so many times before, he had been subtly pulled and manipulated by things he could barely grasp to find himslef in the right place at the right time. A cold, bitter wind howled between the skyscrapers, pulling at his worn clothes and ebony hair. It was saturated with a scent he knew far too well. He remembered the stories his grandfather told him, about the Nightbanes that came out of nowhere and fed on the cattle.

"They're coming tonight," he said to the huddled form behind him.

"Who--who's coming?" Roger asked uncertainly.

Walker turned and looked at him. Physically, Roger was larger than himself, but he seemed so much smaller hugging himself against the cold. His blonde hair nearly obscured his wide, fearful eyes. Walker almost felt sorry for him. "Nightbanes," he said.

"Nightbanes? I thought you said they only raided the countryside."

"Usually."

"So what are they doing here?"

Joseph was becoming somewhat irritated. "I don't know, but they just are. You can feel it in the air. It feels thick and has this funny kind of sour scent to it. Smell it? That's them getting ready to break into our world."

"Have you ever seen one before?"

"Yes, a long time ago." Joseph paused. "I need you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

"I left a couple of boxes on the sidewalk near the entrance. I need you to go get them."

Roger frowned. "If you left stuff down there with nobody looking after it then it's probably gone by now."

"Just go," Walker said irritably.

"Okay, okay," he mumbled, trudging to the stairs.

While Roger climbed down the stairs, Joseph remembered a time that felt like a several lifetimes ago. Joseph never really believed that monsters actually existed until he saw the luminous snake-like things crawling across the sky. It was the night he lost his father. He was ten when it happened. First came the smell of the Nightbanes as the sun set. He knew that something bad was going to happen, even though he had absolutely no idea what it would be. Then he saw them wiggle their way across the black sky and saw his family's barn explode into flames. He heard the cows scream with panic. He remembered his father getting ready to go outside, to try to put out the fire. It wasn't until much later he remembered seeing the fear etched on his father's face. Then he remembered his mother grabbing him and carrying him down the the basement. She was crying, and he didn't know why. He never saw his father again. He was never told what happened to him, but as the years went by he pieced ittogether.

"Christ, Walker," Roger said, emerging from the stairwell, "what's in this box?"

Joseph turned around, residual memories still haunting his thoughts. Roger was holding the box gingerly, stretching his neck to try to keep his face as far away from it as possible to avoid the stench. "Set it down here," he said.

Roger dropped the box thankfully and then wiped his hands on his pants. "Whatever it is, it sure is slimy. Stinks too. You should have seen the looks I got on the elevator."

As he spoke, Joseph opened the box and the tattered plastic bag inside. He plunged his arms inside and lifted out a bloody mass.

Roger stepped backward. "What the hell is that?"

"Pieces of cow," Joseph said flatly as he unloaded the box, dumping its contents into a pile on the roof. "Mostly brains, eyeballs, and lungs. Parts Nightbanes like."

"What the hell are you planning, Walker?" Roger asked, swallowing hard.

"We're giving the Nightbanes an easy meal so they won't have to hunt on the streets. Now go get the rest of the boxes."

Roger hesitated.

"Go! The sun's almost down. We don't want another Chicago or Peshtigo, do we?"

By the time Roger brought up the third and final box, the front of his shirt was covered with blood. Joseph was little better off, his arms and pants soaked. The two of them spread the organs across the roof. Then they waited. The sun dawned a new day on the other side of the world, leaving the jurisdiction of the sky to the crescent moon. The freezing wind was burning Joseph's skin, and Roger had begun shivering badly. Multitudes of people in the streets below continued about their mundane lives, unaware of the terror that was bearing down on them. Joseph's heart thundered in his chest. He had learned everything about Nightbanes from hearsay. This was to be his first true encounter with them. He hoped that he knew enough to stop them.

"Walker?" Roger asked through chattering teeth.

"What?"

"How long have you been doing this kind of stuff?"

"Too long. Why do you ask?"

"Well...how long do you think I'll have to be doing this kind of thing?"

Joseph looked at him, and then turned his gaze back at the night sky. "I honestly don't know. I've never met anyone who-" His sentence was cut short by an eerie whistling sound. He turned his eyes back to the night sky, his muscles rigid. "Here they come," he whispered.

A new star, brighter than all the rest, seemed to appear in the sky. It began to elongate, gradually forming into a jagged white scrawl on the curtain of the night. Suddenly the luminous crack seemed to split open with a blinding flash. Joseph heard Roger cry out as the riveting pain in his own eyes made him stumble backward.

When his tears cleared, he looked back up at the sky. The crack was gone. There were two dimly luminescent spots descending on the city. As the lights approached, Joseph saw their serpentine shapes bobbing on the currents of air.

"Oh Jesus, oh Jesus," Roger repeated over and over through chattering teeth.

"Walk back to the stairs. They won't bother us," Joseph said quietly, trying to sound sure of himself. As he inched away from the edge of the building, Roger did as he was told and jogged back to the stairwell. Joseph kept his eyes fixed on the advancing pair of beings. This was the first time he actually gotten a good look at the things that had killed his father so many years ago.

The Nightbanes had come within a few hundred feet of the building. Joseph was completely caught up in the almost hypnotic waves of their bodies, and all hatred he had for these creatures vanished. For the first time he realized that the Nightbanes were held aloft by huge, almost invisible wings that did not flap, but undulated with the rest of the creatures' fifteen-foot long bodies. Their heads were covered in a kind of carapace that tapered into a sharp point on the front and back. Their slanted eyes were black, and the only part that did not glow. Joseph caught himself almost admiring the Nightbanes' ethereal beauty.

Then one of them opened its mouth. A ball of fire erupted from the depths of the creature and shot straight for Joseph. His admiration evaporated and his panicked mind wondered if his father died the same way. He turned and bolted toward the stairwell. With a few short strides and a broad jump he collided with the transfixed Roger as the heat from the flame singed the hairs on the back of his head. The two of them tumbled down the flight of stairs, crashing in a tangled heap on the landing.

"What were those?!" Roger demanded.

"Nightbanes," Joseph mumbled, trying to ignore the myriad pains all over his body.

"You didn't tell me they could breathe fire!"

"Life's full of little surprises, isn't it?" Joseph picked himself up and began stalking back up the stairs. When he reached the top, he could not see any sign of the Nightbanes, only the charred remains of the cow parts. He climbed on to the roof and scanned the black skies. The screams and car horns of a panicked city engulfed him. He saw the glow of a fire a few blocks away. In his mind's eye he saw the Nightbanes flying down the streets, indiscriminately picking out targets to blast with flames. "Why didn't it work?" he asked himself desperately.

"What's going on?" Roger called.

Joseph turned and ran back down the stairs. "Hell's breaking loose," he said as he brushed by Roger.

He bolted down the stairs several at a time. He ran into the lobby of the building and out into the road. He saw billows of smoke illuminated by fire rise into the sky, obscuring the stars. He forced his tiring legs to carry him the four blocks to the fire. He ran across streets, paying no attention to the lights, dodging cars, and shoving pedestrians out of his way. He finally reached the building.

The flickering orange light of fire illuminated three windows on the fifth floor. As he watched, a fourth one suddenly flared up in orange. Joseph charged into the building and raced up the stairs. He covered his face with his arm and kicked open the door to an office complex on the fifth floor. The doors to each individual office were broken down, their interiors in flames. The nightbanes seemed to have been indiscriminately setting offices on fire, regardless of whether or not they were occupied. Joseph did not see any bodies, but he knew that there had to be a reason. There had to be a target. Then he heard a window shatter in one of the offices.

Joseph looked into the office in time to see the two luminous bodies wriggle out through the window and head up into the sky. There was a body that was nearly reduced to charred skeleton lying on the floor. Joseph jumped over the smoldering remains and looked out the window. He saw the Nightbanes fly up to the black sky and and merge with smog-obscured stars.

Satisfied that they were gone, Joseph turned back to try to find a way out of the building. He took a quick look around the spacious office, as the smoke burned his lungs. He was only vaguely aware of the stuffed animal heads mounted on the walls and the charred, smoldering leopard skin on the floor. He saw a few pictures among the burning papers on the dead man's desk. He saw a picture of the man with his children, one of an older woman of average appearance, and a third one which was vastly more interesting. He pulled his hand into the sleeve of his coat and picked the picture out of the fire. It showed the man, smiling, holding a shotgun with one hand and a three-foot long snake-like thing with thin, membranous wings in the other.

Joseph left the photograph to burn with the rest of the office. He had to find Roger. He had to tell him why the food on the rooftop did not work. The Nightbanes did not come to eat. They had come for revenge.