RANGE: Dark street corners. Darker alleys. Vacant lots. Abandoned buildings. Just outside the window. Was that the wind? Beneath the broken street light. Lurking in that doorway. What was that? Only a shadow. Only a cat. Footsteps. Behind you. Don’t panic. Don’t run. Don’t scream. Getting closer. Turn. Turn, now. That face! Those crazy, burning eyes! Oh no, it’s him! HABITS: Every night is Hallowe’en as far as this nocturnal goblin is concerned, and he really knows how to treat a trick. He appears only when you are alone. He is the cause of those mysterious howls, crashes, and random booms that echo in the city at night. He rattles your doorknob and taps at your window and creaks in the hall. He knocks over trash cans, smashes empty bottles, and calls in false alarms. He fills your head with horrible headlines as he pounces from the shadows to ask you for a light. You leave him huddled in the back seat of the last train, and by the time you’re home, he’s under your bed, breathing in time with the steam in your radiator pipes. And the worst of it is, he doesn’t exist, he can’t exist, and nobody knows that better than you, as his heavy hands open your attic window, and his footsteps echo in the hall. HISTORY: At the turn of the century, William Randolph “Citizen” Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer (that prize of a journalist) were locked in a titanic struggle for the hearts, minds, and pennies of the American newspaper reader. Between them, they invented Cuba, comics, sex, graft, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Night Mayor. This last quickly acquired a family, with whose roving members city dwellers are by now all too familiar: Hugger Muggers, Fire Bugs, Street Gangs, and the rest, all of whom prove the axiom of fairy historian J. M. Barrie: if enough people believe in them, they can come true. SPOTTER’S TIPS: Night Mayors usually roam the streets of any city in which there is a newspaper circulation or TV ratings war going on. They are frequently spotted in urban centers frequented by hick tourists, who are always on the lookout for something to feel superior about. In cities where a paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch or an “eyewitness” news team is “working ’round the clock,” you probably can find a Night Mayor before local news of import. *The Night Mayor—a harmless but highly publicized urban terrorist.
棲息地 あれはなんだったのだ
ろうか? 暗くせまい裏通りや
人の住まなくなった建物のな
か, 壊れた街灯の下、うす暗い
戸口での待ちぶせは……?
ただの影なのだろうか、 それ
とも猫だろうか?
あなたのうしろから, 足音が
近づいてくる。 しかし, あわて
てはいけない。 走ってはいけな
い。 叫んでもいけない。 足音が
近づくのをじっと待つのだ。
いまだ, そっとうしろをふり
むけ!! その恐ろしい顔, 燃え
あがるような狂気の眼･･････ 彼こ
そ夜の悪鬼だ!!
習性 この夜行性の小悪魔に
とっては,毎夜がハロウィーン
の夜のようなものだ。 そして、
彼はこの祭りの楽しみかたをじ
つによくこころえている。
夜行鬼が現われるのは, あな
たがひとりのときだけ。夜なか
の都会にこだまするあの奇妙な
うなり声やとどろき, とつぜん
はじまったかと思うといつのま
にか消えてしまうブーンという
反響音･･････これらはすべて夜行
鬼のしわざだ。 ドアのノブをガ
チャガチャいわせたり, 窓ガラ
スをたたいたり、廊下の床をキ
ーキーときしませるのも彼のし
わざだ。
暗がりからとつぜん現われ、
たばこの火を貸してほしいとた
のむ彼の姿に、あなたは思わず
ギョッとして、頭のなかは恐ろ
しげな新聞の見出しでいっぱい
になる。 終電車の後部座席に丸
く身をちぢめた彼を残してあな
たは電車を降りるが, 家に帰り
夜行鬼はもう
ついたときには、
ついたときには,夜行鬼はもう
あなたのベッドの下にもぐりこ
んで寝息をたてているのだ。
そしてもっともやっかいなこ
とは,たとえ夜行鬼が無器用な
両手であなたの書斎の窓を押し
ひらき、足音をひびかせながら
廊下を歩きまわっても、 彼は存
在しないという事実だ。 彼は存
在するはずのないものなのだと
いうことは, あなたがいちばん
よく知っているはずだ!!
歴史 夜行鬼の出身はイギリス
だが, 今世紀がまさにはじまろ
うとしていたころに, アメリカ
の新聞経営者たちにとりつい
て,現在の繁栄を誇るにいたっ
た。 スキャンダル, コミックス,
セックス, 収賄事件などが新聞
紙上をにぎわすたびに、 夜行鬼
の一族は数をふやしつづけ、い
まではもう都会人にすっかりお
なじみになってしまった。
私立探偵の情報 夜行鬼は、だ
いたいいつも新聞が売れている
か、テレビの視聴率競争が進行
中の都市を歩きまわっている。
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Habitat
What was that? A lurking presence in dark, narrow back alleys, in abandoned buildings, beneath broken streetlights, in shadowy doorways…
Just a shadow? Or a cat?
Footsteps approaching from behind. But don’t panic. Don’t run. Don’t scream. Just wait, perfectly still, as the footsteps draw closer.
Now — slowly turn around!! That terrifying face, those eyes blazing with wild madness… he is the demon of the night!!
Behavior
For this nocturnal imp, every night is Halloween. And he knows exactly how to enjoy the holiday.
The night demon only appears when you’re alone. Those strange moans and rumbles echoing through the city at midnight, that buzzing reverberation that starts suddenly and vanishes just as quickly — all his doing. Rattling doorknobs, tapping on windowpanes, making floorboards creak in the hallway — also him.
When he materializes from the darkness asking for a light, you nearly jump out of your skin, your mind suddenly flooded with frightening newspaper headlines. You spot him curled up in the back seat of the last train and make sure to get off — but by the time you reach home, the night demon has already crawled under your bed and is snoring away.
And the most troublesome thing of all: even as he pushes open your study window with his clumsy hands and creaks down the hallway — he doesn’t exist. You know better than anyone that he cannot exist!!
History
The night demon originates from Britain, but around the turn of this century he latched onto American newspaper magnates and rose to his current prominence. Every time scandal, comics, sex, and bribery cases fill the pages of newspapers, his kind multiply — and by now he’s become thoroughly familiar to city dwellers everywhere.
Field Intelligence
The night demon can generally be found prowling cities where newspapers are selling briskly, or where television ratings wars are in full swing.
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