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Hello there and Happy Halloween, dear readers! This is my short story submission for this year's Halloween contest! I hope that you like it!

It is said that deep within the sewers beneath the nocturnal district is where it lives. Who are they, you ask? It is the one that slithers. No, not a snake... not exactly...

It was seen for the first time over one hundred years ago. Around that time, several children had gone missing. It was reported by a little fox kit, named Macie Grey, who claimed that her twin brother had been dragged into the sewer by a snake with clawed arms. No one had believed her at the time, and the disappearance of her brother was never solved.

Twenty years later was when it had been seen again. Almost a dozen children had already disappeared before little Timothy, who was a ten year old beaver. He had claimed that a giant snake, with red eyes, and arms that ended in claws, had snatched a little tiger girl who had been walking by a storm drain by herself. The scales on its body were white, and it let out a spine tingling cackle. He said it had shot out of the drain, like lightning, and surprised the girl. It had stared into her eyes, its red eyes glowing even in the middle of the day. It spoke to her, revealing multiple rows, an impossible number of them, of razor sharp teeth. The little girl, whose name was Laura, had at first been terrified. But as the creature continued to speak, not once blinking, her face became slack.

Timothy had always been a shy boy, but he had managed to summon enough courage to scream and throw a stick he had picked up without realizing it at the creature. It let go of Laura and turned to face the little beaver boy, opening its jaw wide to let out a hissing roar that terrified Timmy to his core. But Laura suddenly started, and turned and ran, with Timmy hot on her heels. They found both of their parents at the market, and tearfully told them about the monster. They had not been believed either. Although Timmy went the rest of his life, swearing that he could see the glowing red reptilian eyes staring out at him from the darkness of any storm drain he peered into. He claimed that they eyes stared at him, filled with pure hatred.

"Wait," Judy said, stopping Nick just as he opened his mouth to continue. They were working parking duty again, thanks to a little autumn scare that the fox had decided to play on the chief, which the cape buffalo had not found nearly as amusing as Nick did.

"Yes, Fluff?" Nick asked as he bent down to clip a ticket to the windshield of a sports car sized for a mouse, which, amazingly, was double-parked.

"If no one believed the children, then how come you know about this story?" Judy asked.

"No adults believed them, but other children did. And that was how the story kept getting spread by word of mouth."

"So basically this is a story told by little kits?" Judy asked sarcastically as she simultaneously ticketed three cars, one mouse-sized, one her size, and one elephant-sized, which she needed to hop up to tuck under the windshield wiper.

"It's a true story, Fluff," Nick said, peering over his aviators at his bunny partner.

"Sure, and this is in no way some spooky story you made up just to tell me to try and scare me for Halloween," was Judy's response as her ears twitched upon hearing another nearby meter click.

"Ask around, it's an urban legend," Nick defended, with a smirk.

"Urban legend, as in a made up story," Judy said.

"Every story, no matter how crazy, always has a kernel of truth to it," said Nick, just before he took a sip of coffee courtesy of a nearby SnarlBucks.

"Which just means some kids might have seen what they thought was a snake in a storm drain, and that the story just grew from there." Judy hopped up again to give a ticket not only for the expired meter, but also the expired tags on the car.

"And still do see it... well, the ones that get away..." Nick said, smiling at the eye roll he had instigated in his partner.

"Anyways," Nick continued, "Another twenty years later, once again during a time of children going missing, never to be seen again, there was a little mouse boy, who claimed that a local gang of bullies had been taken by the creature. He said that they had chased him, after school, all the way to a more run-down part of Tundra Town. They were a group of five hyenas, and they had him, little Harrison, cornered between a building and a snow drift. When suddenly--"

"The bullies were attacked by the monster and the mouse boy got away," Judy interrupted, now sporting a smirk of her own. "You kinda told me how that so called encounter went down."

"As I was saying," Nick said, looking down at the amused bunny before continuing, "out from a storm drain, a white, scaly hand grabbed ahold of one of the boys, and dragged him in. He screams were quickly cut short, followed by a hissing roar. Two more of the boys cautiously stepped closer to the storm drain, thinking that their friend was just pulling a joke. One slowly leaned down to peer inside, while the other one was ready to pull his friend back. Then, the one hyena that was looking in, his face took on a blank and slack-jawed look. He started to crawl into the drain, while his friend tried to pull him away. The second hyena got too close to the drain as he tried to pull his friend back, and they were both grabbed and dragged into the darkness. Once again, the screams were cut short and there was a hissing roar." Judy was checking meters as they walked along, shivering not only due to the cold of Tundra Town.

"By this time, the remaining two hyena boys didn't know what to do, while Harris had slipped through a crack in the building and was huddled up in terror. He watched as a white snake with two arms slithered out of the drain. It turned to regard the two hyenas with its glowing red eyes, a wicked grin on its face. It was at this point that Harris covered his eyes and ears, trying to block out the sight and sounds of what happened to the last of the two bullies. He thought that they had tried to fight the creature, but had been quickly overwhelmed. He heard a sickening crunch that almost made him throw up. And then, he heard it slowly slither closer to where he was hiding. He didn't open his eyes as he scooted back further inside the crack of the wall, as far as he could go." Despite knowing that it was all just made up, Judy started to feel a tingling in her spine.

"And then, Harris heard a raspy voice speak to him," Nick said.

"Come out, little mouse," Nick spoke, making his voice rasp as he slowly leaned in close next to Judy, "come out and we can play. Come out Harris, and we can play together forever. Just open your eyes."

"Harris didn't know how he knew this, but if he opened his eyes, he would have felt compelled to go towards the monster. It terrified him, as did the fact that it somehow knew his name. But he kept his eyes shut and hummed to himself, before finally it left, dragging the last two hyena boys into the sewer with it. After a while, Harris finally made his way, cautiously, out of the crack, and scampered all the way home. He told his family what had happened and, true to form, he wasn't believed. But once again, he claimed to have seen the eyes looking at him from within the storm drains, wherever he went in the city." Nick stepped closer to Judy, wrapping his tail around her.

"Okay, made up by you or just an urban myth, that's still a creepy story," Judy said, making Nick chuckle.

"True, but that's what's so fun about scary stories."

"Oh yeah, I'm already having a blast," Judy said, smiling as she hugged the fox's tail, before hearing another meter expire, and rush off excitedly to give her three hundredth ticket of the day so far. Nick smirked again, and followed after her. Neither the fox nor the bunny noticed the pair or red, glowing, eyes with slit pupils, staring at them from underneath a storm drain.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Judy," the raspy voice said, a clawed and white scaly hand reached out from the storm drain before disappearing back inside the inky blackness. There was a hissing roar that neither officer heard over the sound of an eighteen-wheeler truck rushing past.