the sort of terror a man doesn't deserve was met some five minutes ago as i was standing on the balcony outside my apartment, smoking a cigarette and enjoying the newest addition to my HST collection.
it's generally quiet at night on this side of vegas, summerlin as it were -- all the crazies tend to constrain themselves to fremont street where anything can be had for a price. the occasional siren will cut the air and shatter the silence of a community populated mostly by yuppies and pathetic old fools who're clearly sick of blowing their retirement on the strip and have shifted ten miles north where nickel slots aren't jammed by truants reeking of fortified wine. those, you see, are the fiends that will scramble away from the oblivious tourists that cough up a dollar just to get them away from their teenage daughters (though to be honest, it's generally difficult to draw the line between 'teenage daughter' and 'vegas hooker' given the degenerate fashion trends of the day) and go directly to the nickel slots; where a dollar buys 20 plays and, if played correctly, will feed them free booze until they either vomit on the slot machine and are escorted out by the men in ill-fitting suits or they simply fall off the cheap, vinyl stools and are swept to the curb. it's a sick world down there, and certainly the most base example of the power of the dollar.
but i digress. yes, the horror i felt while standing on the balcony. like i said, there's little commotion in this area and the air is very thin -- sound travels great distances. which i can only hope was the case as the beautiful silence was shattered by this godawful noise, this cacophonous SHRIEK of pure terror like someone had skinned a wildebeast alive and doused the poor bastard with diesel fuel.
'god almighty!' i yelled, and it continued ... maybe for no more than a few seconds. regardless, i couldn't place it at first; though i was sure it was most certainly not human.
a cat perhaps?
no cat make a sound like that under any circumstance. there're no wildebeasts in this area, to my knowledge, and i'm not aware of the importation of any large felines but damned if it didn't have that cat-like screech; a jagged, horrible sound.
i'm still not sure of what i heard, but i may arm myself. any man bold enough to skin a wildebeast deserves respect on some level, if not with terror then with the greeting of a S&W 9mm.
it's generally quiet at night on this side of vegas, summerlin as it were -- all the crazies tend to constrain themselves to fremont street where anything can be had for a price. the occasional siren will cut the air and shatter the silence of a community populated mostly by yuppies and pathetic old fools who're clearly sick of blowing their retirement on the strip and have shifted ten miles north where nickel slots aren't jammed by truants reeking of fortified wine. those, you see, are the fiends that will scramble away from the oblivious tourists that cough up a dollar just to get them away from their teenage daughters (though to be honest, it's generally difficult to draw the line between 'teenage daughter' and 'vegas hooker' given the degenerate fashion trends of the day) and go directly to the nickel slots; where a dollar buys 20 plays and, if played correctly, will feed them free booze until they either vomit on the slot machine and are escorted out by the men in ill-fitting suits or they simply fall off the cheap, vinyl stools and are swept to the curb. it's a sick world down there, and certainly the most base example of the power of the dollar.
but i digress. yes, the horror i felt while standing on the balcony. like i said, there's little commotion in this area and the air is very thin -- sound travels great distances. which i can only hope was the case as the beautiful silence was shattered by this godawful noise, this cacophonous SHRIEK of pure terror like someone had skinned a wildebeast alive and doused the poor bastard with diesel fuel.
'god almighty!' i yelled, and it continued ... maybe for no more than a few seconds. regardless, i couldn't place it at first; though i was sure it was most certainly not human.
a cat perhaps?
no cat make a sound like that under any circumstance. there're no wildebeasts in this area, to my knowledge, and i'm not aware of the importation of any large felines but damned if it didn't have that cat-like screech; a jagged, horrible sound.
i'm still not sure of what i heard, but i may arm myself. any man bold enough to skin a wildebeast deserves respect on some level, if not with terror then with the greeting of a S&W 9mm.
(I don't know what came over me....Cap'n Howdy? Is that you???)