Park Ave Chapter 5: (Part 1)
By Dan Leicht
An hour went by and I was on the verge of putting Hardrow into a check. He was taking longer than usual with his turns, as if waiting for a timer to go off before he could move, two minutes on the dot each time, i’d been checking. With a few swift maneuvers he outsmarted my plans and turned the game back around. Hardrow usually always got flustered early on and would begin to make poor decisions halfway through the match. He didn’t even have a drip of sweat on his brow.
“Check,” he said as he slid a bishop.
“First thing you’ve said since I’ve been here, Old man.” I moved my King out of harms way.
“Check.” I was in the ringer again, this time to a knight. I moved my King but it was clear the game was coming to an end.
“Checkmate,” he declared with a blank stare. You’d think that after all the games we’ve played, all the times he’d lost to me, that his first win would at least bring a little excitement. At least that’s the thought that crossed my mind.
“So what’d you do with the real Glenn Hardrow?”
The shapeshifter looked up at me and scowled, the first real expression i’d seen out of this new Glenn. He quickly flipped the board and tray off his lap and sprung out of the bed towards me. I was able to react and land of punch on him, knocking him off the bed onto the floor on the right side. He got up and lunged towards me again, except he wasn’t Glenn anymore once back to his feet but a body builder with the agility of a yoga instructor. He slammed me to the wall, the world in front of me turning into the aftermath of a flash-bang. I got to my feet and tried to regain composure when I heard a loud crash. He had jumped through the third story window and landed on his feet as a cat. Feline or not that had to hurt. He’d be injured, but have a good distance on me by the time I reached the ground floor. Before I could reach the door I felt faint again, the back of my head bleeding.
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