Part Eight

********** I didn't do it, It was that way when I got here. - Adam's stock statement **********

Gregory shut his eyes and felt for the presence of their quarry. "Both of them are in here. In the back, over in the web roll stacks."

"Let's just get on the intercom and call everyone back here. Rip the shit out of both of them, dibs on that Watcher fucker." Adam snarled.

Dick pushed the kid away from the intercom. "NO! I've told you we can't wind everyone up. Too many loose cannons on the night shift for that. I don't want this to get messy, remember it has to look like an accident."

Adam took a snap at the salesman. "It's already messy, shithead. Or didn't you notice Rick got dusted?"

"Part of the game, Adam. Part of the game....." Gregory whispered as he moved toward the roll storage. "... someday you will learn."

Mary Ann took a step back toward the doors. "I don't like this. She seemed like such a nice lady."

"She threw away your Mississippi Mud! I found it after she had toured plating." The goblin reported as it crawled out from under the end of a rack.

"Why that bitch!" Mary Ann huffed, her attitude doing a one-eighty. "I'll start setting up the circle over there in the tool crib. Now which bridge are they going to feel the need to drive off of?"

"Statler Road, right above the dam." Dick instructed as Mary Ann headed for the back of the warehouse. "Now, Kimmie work your way into the web rolls, get close to them..."

Kimmie blinked at Herron and then rubbed her ears. "Hey, does anybody else hear a buzzing noise? Sorry Charlie, I've paid my dues, and since I'm not into martyrdom or non-recreational masochism - I'm blowing this dog and pony show."

Herron watched the retreating goblin. "Speaking of dogs, perhaps I should call up Cerberus? It likes your kind - can't eat just one."

"On second thought, dog and pony shows are entertaining." It said while making a U-turn and heading for the stacks of rolled paper.

Joyce squeezed between the rolls and assessed the next gap. "Back up Rupert, we can't get past the next stack of them."

"I don't think... I can... get past this one." He grunted.

"Don't get stuck."

Giles wriggled back and gazed up at the top of the column of web rolls twenty feet above them. "Maybe we could go across the top. They are not stacked perfectly flush so there are slight hand and foot holds."

"Ooohhhh, I don't think so. Heights make me queasy."

"You prefer vampires, witches and goblins?"

"Let's do it."

As Rupert made it to the top of the shortest stack the column slightly wavered as his weight upset the balance. He went down on his hands and knees and peered down at Joyce twelve feet below him. "I'm not going to be able to give you a hand up - this bloody thing could tip." He stood up and gauged the distance to the center of the next stack. "They're like stepping stones up here, staggered in about two or four foot increments. I'll clear this one and you come on up."

Joyce bit her lip and started up the stack. As she made a grab for the top her hand ran across the edge of the roll slicing her palm open. Even though it hurt like hell she pulled herself on up and crouched on the roll.

Gregory stopped in the adjoining aisle and smiled as he smelled the blood. Calling over to Dick and Adam as they made their way along the far wall. "I have located them. They are approximately twenty feet from the back end of the warehouse in the center of the stacks. One of them is wounded."

"We're not that far back yet!" Adam yelled. "But I smell the blood too. Hey, Kimmie! Ya see them?"

"Yeah, like I can see jack shit down in here... I don't even know where the fuck I am."

"Scale the rolls, Kimberly. We need a higher vantage point." Gregory directed.

"When pigs fly out my ass....."

"Xeralati Cerberus... tumbrous Cerberus..." Dick began to intone from the far wall.

"I'm going, I'm going." The goblin snarled.

Rupert and Joyce exchanged glances as they listened to the exchange. He put his finger to his lips and moved to the next roll. Joyce followed him and silently they began to work their way across the stacks toward the front of the warehouse. As they went from column to column each one swayed a tiny bit betraying their unstable nature.

They had made it almost halfway when a copper colored head came into view ten feet to their right. "Dry fucked asshole fubar'ed peckerheaded...." It muttered as it pulled itself up onto the roll. The goblin flicked its tongue out a few time before it addressed the humans with a lopsided grin. "Hi guys, how 'ya doing? Fancy meeting you here. Heh, heh, heh... HEY WATCH IT!" Kimmie yelled as Joyce's shoe flew a quarter inch past her head.

The goblin began to jump from stack to stack and called out to the others. "Hey guys! YO!! They're up here using me for target practice... Over here on top... Damn it... How about some friggin' help for a change? Is that too much to ask?"

Rupert heard the others coming up on either side of them drawn to the goblin's voice.

Herron and Adam joined Gregory in the center of the stacks. "Which one are they on?" Dick called up.

"In the center of these seven columns. The rolls are stacked together like a honeycomb. Looks like that seventy pound gloss we're putting the Accusport catalogue on." The critter answered while making it way back down to the floor. It crawled up Herron's pants and settled in on his shoulder. "The lady's bleeding like a stuck pig, and they both look whipped."

"Give it up Watcher, or you both die." Dick said with an edge to his voice as he stood before the stacked paper. When no response was forthcoming he motioned for Gregory and Adam to come over. "Break their necks and throw them down here. We'll push the car into the river." He whispered. The vampires nodded and began to crawl up the stack.

"Joyce, we are trapped and consequently we are now going to do something very stupid." Rupert told her as he planted his foot against one of the outer rolls of their perch. "On three, we will push this over and hopefully the result will be a diversion."

"One, two, three..."

The column swayed, the pair again pushed and were rewarded with a larger motion and the sound of the compression of an edge in a middle roll. "Again.." Rupert grunted and in slow motion the stack began to fall, each roll like a twelve hundred pound domino into its neighbor.

Herron had made the mistake of assuming that the first small noise he had heard was merely Gregory and Adam crawling up the stacks. He continued to nonchalantly pick at a fingernail while he ignored Kimmie's whining over her mistreatment."

"...she's god damn deadly with that broom, you could have sent the kid out here - at least she couldn't have knocked him head over asshole. But noooo....." The goblin suddenly shut up and raised its head.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!" The goblin screeched as it leaped clear off of Herron's shoulder a split second before a full ton of gloss stock landed on him.

Giles and Joyce watched as the sea of paper in front of them began to tumble like a wave toward the front of the warehouse. Web rolls flew in all directions as the speed and force increased with each falling stack. Like a battering ram the leading edge hit the far concrete block wall and crumpled it like tissue paper. As the juggernaut continued on through to the bindery, the rolls crushed and flung the barrels of chemicals which had been stored in what had been the solvent room. The outer stacks fell into the aisles and rolled into the metal racks causing them to collapse like tinker toys. Skids and boxes tumbled chaotically from the racks into a heap which blocked the doors with a mountain of books, brochures and supplies.

"Yes, this could be a diversion." Joyce confirmed.

Gregory and Adam had stopped their ascent at the sound of the goblin's panicked warning. Adam turned his head just in time to see Herron getting flattened. "Shit... bet that hurt."

Gregory jumped back down and pulled Adam off of the side of the roll. "Not for very long." He responded to the kid's observation. The two vampires then stood in shock as the forest of stacks fell away from in front of them. Even the goblin was silent as it stopped halfway up Gregory's shirt spellbound at the destruction.

Giles leaned over the edge and noted the three's open mouthed wonder. He reached over and shook Joyce's shoulder to get her attention. "We have to get down and make a run for it while they are still flabbergasted." Joyce removed his hand and continued staring straight ahead. Joyce.... come on." Giles whispered urgently. "Now..."

"Fire." She said softly.

"What?"

"FIRE!!"

Ignited by a spark and fueled by the shattered solvent drums the entire front of the warehouse had erupted in a sheet of flames.