The Ghoul of Christmas Past

of what was expected at this point and charge the human/rhinoceros hybrid instead.
Yeah, Michael wasn’t up for that.
‘Arrrrrgghhhh!’ The sound of Michael’s panic was loud enough to rise above that of the crowd, but only for a brief second because his leading toe caught the lip of a cobble, stopped his foot dead and pitched him off balance. His arms cartwheeled as he tried to stay on his feet, but knowing he was doomed if he didn’t make it out of the alley and back into sight of the people in the cathedral plaza, made no difference to whether he did or not.
The ground came up to meet him as he sprawled across the cobbles and his breath rushed from his lungs in a painful whoosh of outrushing air. He had maybe two seconds to get moving again before the ghoul would be on top of him and that just wasn’t enough. Heart pounding, he rolled over to face the horror bearing down on him and finally got a good look at the thing’s face. It was a greyish white and the features were all out of proportion. Its chin seemed elongated and the nose was far larger than it needed to be to suit the face. The ears too were oversized, but Michael’s attention was drawn to the hands which were already reaching down to grab him.
Trying to scramble back though he knew it to be hopeless, nothing could have shocked him more than the swish of something passing over his face and the ghoul’s hands both jerking back to avoid it.
‘Be gone, foul beast!’ roared a voice Michael knew.
The ghoul had danced back a step, showing surprise and possibly confusion. Seeing it, Michael realised it hadn’t really shown any expression on its face until that point. It was as if the thing wasn’t connected to what it was doing or had no emotional connection to the horrible acts it performed.
There was no time to discuss such topics for the ghoul had recovered from its initial shock and was coming for him again.
Frank, the owner of the voice, stepped over Michael, hefting a double headed axe. It looked to weigh as much as the bookshop owner, but it was enough to make the creature question what it ought to do next.
‘I said begone!’ Frank shouted again, perhaps using volume to augment his threat and make him seem braver than he was feeling. Another probing swing drove the ghoul back a foot, but Frank was not well balanced with his weapon and the inertia of the axe made him pivot dangerously around and away from the ghoul as he tried to slow its motion. If the ghoul were to catch the axe shaft, it could kill them both in seconds.
Mercifully, a horn sounded at the other end of the alley and that caught the ghoul’s attention. It turned and ran, heading away from them and down the tight alley to a silver van at the other end.
The sound of a police siren seemed to spook whoever was in the van though because it took off, burning rubber before the ghoul could get to it.
Galvanised into action, even though he was shocked to be alive, Michael pushed down the pain in his ribs and shoved himself off the ground. The ghoul was on the run and it looked like its ride just left him behind.
Frank was still holding the axe but looking like it was getting to be too much effort already. It wasn’t so much that Michael wanted to chase the enormous creature, more that he never thought to question whether he should.
Snatching the axe from Frank, he yelled, ‘Come on, Frank! We’ve got it on the run!’

Look Out He’s Got an Axe! Saturday, December 24th 1737hrs
Yelling a battle cry, Michael charged down the alley, getting his feet up to speed just as the ghoul reached the High Street and turned left. The van had gone right, so he wasn’t trying to follow it, but where was he hoping to go?
The double headed axe had to weigh at least fifty pounds. Goodness knows what size of man it was originally made for, but it would exhaust anyone in battle in seconds and was having that effect on Michael Michaels right now even though all he was doing was carrying it.
There were sirens in the air, the police converging on their general location, Michael prayed. Now was not the time to throttle back and let them take over the chase though, the quarry was running and even though he had no plan to swing the axe or cause harm, he hoped its presence might give the ghoul reason to pause until the police could catch up.
From the High Street, the screams of terror he expected to hear were strangely absent, but he saw why the moment he reached the end of the alley: to his left, the parade of ancient shops were undergoing construction work, their front façades covered in both scaffold and hoarding. The ghoul was running through the tunnel it formed and was hidden from sight. The pedestrians in the High Street elected to stay in the middle of the cobbled road rather than venture into the dark tunnel which gave the ghoul a safe route of escape. Following would leave Michael in an enclosed space with the huge creature and simultaneously give him no room to swing the axe, the only thing that might even the score a little.
On the ground was the creature’s top hat – it had fallen off as he ran. Without thinking why, Michael scooped it as he started running again, stuffing it onto his head to leave his hands free.
A shout came from behind, but it hadn’t come from Frank who had caught up already. Pumped on adrenalin, when Frank appeared at his side holding a pair of wicked curved knives, Michael