The old fart looked at me with a static stare. “I suppose it’s time we all come clean. I assume you have the key, then? Am I right?”

Fuck it, I thought. This guy knew what was happening. I didn’t. Part of wading through the murk of the macabre is knowing when to throw in the towel. I pulled the key out of my pocket, letting the brain go. It flew back to the old man. I threw him the key.

“This was part of the deal I had with Annette,” he said. “She knew I couldn’t leave without the key.”

As he spoke he worked the key under his collar until we heard a loud cracking sound. Then he turned it and the skin of his head split open. He grabbed it with both hands and tore it back and off. It all became a little clearer when I saw his real face.

He was a greenish-gray, with no nose or ears. He had huge eyes that blinked slowly and smoothly. Just like those stupid UFO drawings you see in the tabloids. The head was a lot smaller than you’d think, but I guess compared to the skinny body it was a pretty large melon.

All I could think about was Sabrina off in Mexico taking pictures of crop circles, and I had the real deal right in front of me. She was gonna shit.

The old man alien-thing reached into his pocket without moving his big blinking eyes from us. He pulled out a device that was about the size and shape of a television remote, and pointed it at us.

I jumped a bit. Mo’Lock, beside me, stepped forward just a touch. It was his way of saying he had my back.

A misty ray of sorts came from the object. A thin light-like line appeared like a flashlight in fog. It didn’t touch either the ghoul or me, but connected with the little beast and grew slowly around it like a spreading stain on cloth. Then, as if it couldn’t resist, the creature was pulled by the light that surrounded it to the alien’s side.

We all stood there for a moment in the quiet of the park just sort of studying each other: me, the ghoul, one alien, one alien animal, and a flying brain. The little monster looked agitated, but could do nothing to free itself from the grip of the light.