Mischief Night (8 page)

Then another sound came from outside, as if some wild creature had found easy prey. Rusty listened in horror. Could Berger conjure up demons as well?

He smashed the stone again, hardly doing any damage at all. Dismayed, he fought madly against his smaller adversary, kicking him back several yards. Berger hovered nearby, the knife in his hand, but he also had been distracted by the noise from outside. Without warning, a large shape crashed through the window with blinding speed, and Rusty cried out in alarm. Jimmy also shouted, fighting to break Berger's hold on him, and he lunged at the dwarf, pounding him in the head. Rusty braced himself for another attack, wondering what he now faced, but the creature ignored him, instead going for
Berger
...

Rusty felt his heart pound as he got a close-up look at this new intruder. It was a large dog.

Krypto!

He screamed, not knowing if it was a laugh or a yell, and not really caring. It was Krypto! His dog! Why, he must have been under a spell as well, now released since Rusty had recovered his collar. The animal growled, savagely attacking Berger and knocking the weapon from his hand. Hope restored, Rusty smashed the rock repeatedly, making some real headway now. Again and again he brought the hammer down, until the rock was little more than a thousand bits of broken stone. Krypto had Berger cornered, and Jimmy seemed to have beaten down the old man's minion. Both boys stared at their enemy, waiting to see what his next move would be.

But there was none...

Berger raised a fist, shouting at them both in German. Rusty understood most of what he said, but for the first time he also heard something else in the man's voice -- desperation. The past encounters had shown him to be completely confident, in total control. Now, he appeared gaunt and pathetic.

Rusty moved towards him. "I've destroyed the stone and found the things you stole from us. Now, it's
your
turn…"

Berger slumped against the wall, and Rusty stroked Krypto's head. "You came back to me. I thought I'd lost you." He felt tears run down his cheek. Jimmy stood at his side. Before them, Berger seemed to shrink in size, growing smaller, and within moments all that was left was his clothing. There was no sign of the man.

Jimmy turned around. "Look. He's gone as well."

It was true. The dwarf had also disappeared, leaving only his small suit and the hat. Jimmy picked it up.

"Last year
this
was all that was left. Now we have the whole costume." He laughed, the relief spreading across his face.

"Two costumes." Rusty added. "And one big, wonderful puppy." He hugged Krypto, who licked him on the face.

"No one's ever gonna' believe this.
I
don't believe it." Jimmy shook his head. "And this time, it's really
over
."

"I'm going to return all this stuff to whoever it belongs to. And my mom, and Tommy…" Rusty hesitated. "They're free now. We're all free now."

"I wonder what he planned on doing? With us, with everything?" Jimmy pointed to the stone fragments.

Rusty shook his head. "We'll never really know. I don't think I
want
to know either. He was evil, from the old country. Somehow we were connected. My family, me. I guess he wanted to use us for whatever he had in mind. But I don't care anymore. I just want to go back home."

"Yeah, you're right. My dad is going to kill me…" He stopped. "After all this, bad choice of words. Oh well, I've been late before. And it
is
Halloween, you know. What would Halloween be like without some real tricks?"

"Safer," Rusty answered. "A
lot
safer."

"Maybe we should listen to our own advice from last year."

"What do you mean?"

"About retiring from raiding."

Rusty looked mischievously around him. "You mean you didn't have any fun tonight?"

Jimmy's mouth opened in surprise, but before he could reply, Krypto barked, answering for him.