Monster - A. Lee Martinez [18]
She slid off the car hood. “Maybe you should stay off your feet, Miss Hines. That’s a nasty bump on the head.”
Her legs were a little shaky, but she needed a smoke. She paused before the missing wall that served as the entrance to her ruined apartment. The troll odor wafted over her, but nicotine called.
Paulie appeared. She didn’t know most of her neighbors, but Paulie was a fellow night-shifter, so they’d run into each other a few times. They’d slept together a half dozen times, when they’d both been in the right mood at the right time. He was a tall, blond Nordic god from the waist up with cartoonishly thin legs. He had a habit of walking around shirtless. It wasn’t to show off his perfect chest, powerful shoulders, and chiseled abs. It was just because he didn’t have any shirts. She’d checked his closet the last time she’d spent the day at his place.
“Hey, Jude.”
He always greeted her the same way. She’d assumed it was a joke, but she’d tested him and was pretty sure he didn’t know one damn thing about the Beatles.
“Whoa.” Paulie pushed his long hair out of his eyes and sniffed. “Smells like trolls. Hey, was that a kojin?”
She nodded.
“Cool. You don’t usually see them outside of Asia, y’know.”
“Yeah. Cool. Got any smokes?”
“You mean, like, regular cigarettes, right?”
When Judy wasn’t horny, there wasn’t much to appreciate about Paulie. Realizing he was magically cognizant annoyed her too. Although it did explain the strange herbs, those odd books on his shelves, and his collection of faerie skulls. Damn it. Why hadn’t she noticed that before?
She had. Many times, she realized. But always forgetting afterward. Even now, the observations were slippery, trying to get away from her. She knew that she would forget again as soon as she wasn’t consciously thinking about them.
It sucked.
She held her breath and ventured into her apartment. It was in shambles. In the three minutes or so that the trolls had been trapped behind that door, they had gnawed and broken every stick of furniture. The carpet was torn to shreds, and chunks of drywall were missing. Translucent, slimy troll droppings covered the floors, walls, and ceilings. Judy stepped in something wet and sticky.
It was the remains of the apartment manager. There wasn’t much left. Just a few bones, a red stain, and some pieces of meat that had gone uneaten. She very deliberately forced herself to not take pleasure in that. It wasn’t easy. Even though he’d made her life hell for months, her moral side knew he didn’t deserve to die, but her emotional core wasn’t willing to cooperate. She compromised by feeling just a little good about it, then feeling guilty about feeling good.
She picked her way through the apartment to her bedroom. Along the way she had to take in a breath, and the stench nearly caused her to black out. She considered turning back, but she’d gone this far.
Her nightstand had been devoured, but by some gracious nicotine miracle, a pack of cigarettes had survived. They had some slime on them, but not enough to deter her. She exited the apartment and gasped for air.
“Hey, Jude,” said Paulie. “Since you’re up, maybe you wanna come over to my place and watch a movie?”
“No, thanks. I’m not really in the mood.”
“Cool.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and nodded. He stood there with a blank look on his face. He could stand like that for up to fifteen minutes at a time. She’d clocked him once.
The cops had arrived, but they weren’t regular cops. Their cars and uniforms were red. There were two squad cars and four officers. Two were questioning Monster. A third was surveying the parking lot. The fourth approached Judy.
“The Reds. Damn.” Paulie turned his back to the cop and whispered to Judy. “If they ask, you don’t know nothing about that mandrake root I got in my closet. And I was holding it for a friend anyway.”
“Yeah. Sure.” She shook the slime off a cigarette (arbitrarily and very consciously deciding it was merely drool and not one of the many other possible bodily fluids a troll might excrete),