The Terror That Flies By Night

Outside the Westminster Parliament, the chimes of Big Ben could be heard chiming 6 PM.

Magog Rhys Petley the Labour Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Newbridge walked along the Thames.

He was considered a member of the far Left wing of the British Labour Party. Some of his colleagues called him the Last Bolshevik.

The caucus meeting he had attended this morning was a dreary affair.

Nothing serious or important was discussed.

What seemed to be the hot topic of the day was a news story being promoted by the more sensationalistic of the Fleet Street tabloids- that there was a werewolf in Wales.

Strange attacks on sheep and farm hands near the Welsh village of Llanvihangel Crucorny.

A barmaid attacked by a wolf in the Welsh capital of Cardiff.

Of course as someone pointed out the attacks hadn't occurred at night and the moon hadn't been full. Something unusual for a werewolf if it was a werewolf.

Magog Rhys Petley felt uncomfortable about the whole thing when it was discussed.

And not just because the caucus was discussing things that were of no real concern to the working man in Britain.

He just felt uncomfortable with this talk of a werewolf.

Not that he believed in werewolves.

It was just that this talk... well it felt like someone was walking across his grave.

Magog Rhys Petley walked into a small confectionary and news stand to get out of the damp rain.

The confectionary radio was tuned to BBC 1.

"Our guest," said the voice on the radio, "is our country's top vampire hunter Edmund Van Helsing who's the cousin of the world-famous Canadian vampire hunter Dracul Van Helsing. Mr. Van Helsing, the topic tonight is not vampires but werewolves. The recent mysterious attacks in Wales where this particular wolf seemed to have almost paranormal powers. Yet these attacks did not happen at night but during the day and not during a full moon. That's unusual for a werewolf isn't it?".

"Yes, it is," Edmund Van Helsing replied, "but I was talking to a professor of folklore at the University of Manchester. He did some research and told me that he found an obscure tablet which says that if a person is bitten by the demon Rahu- the demon who is believed to be responsible for lunar and solar eclipses in Hindu religious tradition- that person can change into a wolf no matter what time of day if powerful sexual urges arise."

"And this demon Rahu?" asked the BBC interviewer, "what does he look like so if any of our listeners have been bitten recently and have felt the urge to grow fur and tails and fangs and howl and snarl, they will know what's happened to them?".

"Well Rahu is generally depicted in art as either a snake's head without a body or a dragon's head without a body," Edmund Van Helsing answered.

Magog Rhys Petley left the confectionary in a sweat.

He recalled that night a little over two weeks ago when he was walking home late from a London pub and thought he had been bitten by a snake's head without a body.

But he had attributed that to too much to drink.

Rhys Petley stood at the street corner.

Across the street he noticed a very attractive young blonde woman police constable wearing a fairly short skirt as part of her uniform and black silk nylons.

Rhys Petley felt the pangs of carnal desire.

The policewoman felt the fangs of a strange creature that seemed to emerge out of nowhere.

To be continued.