Wes Parker: Monster Hunter (Volume Two) Page 2

New York City. Major cities were not places that I liked to visit very often because there were never really any monsters in them and way too many people. Call me anti-social but I’d rather face a pack of vampires than face a large group of people. This time, however, I didn’t have a choice.

  I had been surfing the Internet, as I often do, and found that there is a large apartment building being haunted. Before you go getting any ideas I was pretty sure that it wasn’t a ghost. Why, you ask? I will tell you. It’s not a ghost because people mentioned little creatures running around. I researched the building and there was nothing out of the ordinary as far as deaths go.

  I drove around the streets, which were surprisingly easy to navigate, looking for somewhere to park. I couldn’t go to the building’s parking garage because it was gated off. It wasn’t like any small town I normally visit where you can park pretty much anywhere and no one cares. This place was much different.

  After much searching I finally found a place where I could park my car overnight. I drove up to the girl at the booth.

  “How long?” she asked.

  “I’m not really sure,” I admitted. “I think a night but I’ll say two to be safe.”

  “Eighty dollars.”

  “What?”

  “You deaf?”

  “No, I just think I heard you wrong.”

  “Did you hear me say 80 dollars?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you heard me just fine.”

  “OK then.”

  I gave her my card and she scanned it.

  “You can drive through now,” she said.

  “Right,” I replied and searched for a spot.

  I wasn’t too happy with the way the girl just treated me but I’m not one to complain. Or maybe I am. The streets were extremely busy with people. No one seemed to mind if they bumped into me and I won’t bother to tell you what they said. Some of them were extremely vulgar.

  It was a 20-minute walk to the building and that was 19 minutes longer than I wanted it to be. I walked up to the front of the building and for a second I thought about what I was going to do to get through. I decided that I would pretend to be a relative of someone that lived in the building. There was a Mr. Killingsworth. That seemed good enough to me.

  The doorman stopped me as I started to go through.

  “Can I help you, sir?” he asked me.

  “I’m Robert Killingsworth,” I lied. “I’m here to visit my uncle.”

  “And who is that?”

  I stared at him like an idiot. I didn’t think he was going to ask me that question. Clearly he saw through my bull crap story.

  “Mr. Killingsworth?” I tried.

  The doorman laughed. “Nice try, sir. I am going to have to ask you to leave now.”

  I let out a long exaggerated sigh. “I guess I had that coming.”

  I left and walked down the street out of view while I tried to think of a better way to get in there. The only problem was that the doorman had already seen my face and that put me at a severe disadvantage.

  “Wes Parker,” a voice came from behind me. I knew who it was right away.

  “Kelly,” I said as I turned around.

  “Hi there.”

  “Thanks for blowing up that town for me. No one has ever done anything that nice for me.” Just a reminder, Kelly works for an agency of humans that hunt monsters, just like me. She and her group helped me fight against a witch and she blew up a town of werewolves I had discovered.

  “Aren’t you sweet?”

  “What are guys doing here?”

  “The same thing you are.”

  “Fair enough.”

  She smiled at me and took a step closer to me.

  “That was a nice try,” she said mockingly.

  “Do you have a better idea?” I asked her.

  I looked at her crew as they were gearing up and they were all wearing exterminator outfits.

  “Ah,” I said.

  “Suit up,” Kelly said.

  I was expecting to go on this one alone but I had to admit it was good that they were there. I wouldn’t have been able to get in there without them. This was surely going to be interesting.

  When we went back to the apartment building I made sure to wear a mask so that the door man wouldn’t recognize who I was. Luckily it worked and we were able to get in without a hitch. Building management had decided what the people had been seeing was rats and called for exterminators. So, Kelly’s agency took that as an opportunity to sneak in. Having their resources really came in handy sometimes. They knew as well as I did that whatever was in there was not rats.

  When we were going through the front the doorman did look at me for a second and I thought he was going to realize who I was but he didn’t. That was good, too, because if he did he wouldn’t have let any of us in.

  The manager of the apartments was waiting for us in the lobby. He was a short man with his hair slicked back and he wore a cheap blue suit. The man looked like a little sniveling weasel. I don’t really like to make quick assumptions but I was usually right. Most of the time, anyways.

  “They are everywhere,” he said. “I’ve been getting complaints all week about these things. I can’t have my building getting this kind of attention. I need you to take care of this now.”

  Kelly stared at him. I thought for sure she was going to punch him in the face.

  “Can you show us to the basement?” she asked him.

  “Right this way,” he replied.

  He led us to a service elevator and took us to the basement level.

  “If there’s an infestation they will most likely be down here,” Kelly explained.

  “I think one of my normal maintenance people might have noticed that,” the manager pointed out.

  “Not if they don’t know where to look.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Is there any access to the air ducts down here?”

  “Yes. Over there.”

  “Are there any cameras down here?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Wes, will you?”

  “Gladly,” I responded.

  “Huh?” the manager asked right before I punched him unconscious.

  “I’m going to go put him somewhere out of sight,” I informed them.

  “Good idea,” Kelly agreed.

  I put the little jerk in a closet. I was pretty sure that no one was going to find him in there any time soon. I went back to the rest of the group. Everyone was grabbing all of their weapons and dividing them up. I already had mine on me concealed in my costume.

  “What do you think we’re dealing with?” Kelly asked me.

  “I’m not sure yet,” I admitted.

  “Why did we even bother bringing him in?” Lenny asked. He was one of Kelly’s men who really didn’t get along with me.

  “Well, Jenny,” I teased, “it’s because I am a paladin. I’m faster, stronger and smarter than you.”

  He walked towards me.

  “Stop,” Kelly ordered.

  Lenny did stop, which is good for him because I would probably just break his nose.

  “Let’s just start looking around,” said Kelly. She tossed me an ear piece. “Stay in contact. Let’s take the first four floors and split up in to teams. Wes, you go with Lenny.”

  “With all due respect, Kelly,” I began, “I’m going by myself. I work better alone.”

  “You could do that. I could also go tell the doorman that you snuck in with us and have security escort you out of the building.”

  I looked back and forth between her and Lenny. He was shaking his head and was just as upset about the situation as I was. I could have stood there and kept arguing with her but in the end that was only going to slow everyone down.

  “Fine,” I said.

  “Good,” Kelly sighed.

  “This is bull,” Lenny complained.

  “Drop it. We need to ‘distract’ security.”

  Just then the lights shut off and all powe
r was gone out of the building. For a second the backup generator came on but it immediately went off. The basement was completely dark now and none of us could see a thing.

  “I don’t think we have to worry about security seeing us,” I said. “Also I’m not worried about you getting them to escort me out either.”

  Whatever was in there had cut off the power and what was worse than that, they knew that we were there as well.

  The dark wasn’t going to stop us from doing our job, especially me. I have my own internal night vision. Did I not mention that before? My bad. I’m sure Kelly and her team has night vision goggles but they obviously didn’t want to scare anyone running around with those looking like they were there to attack the place, so they had flashlights.

  “This doesn’t change anything,” said Kelly. “Wes and Lenny, I still want you two to take the 4th floor.”

  “Great,” I said sarcastically.

  “I can still get security.”

  “Don’t bother. Let’s go Jenny.”

  Lenny grunted and I half expected him to hit me in the back of the head, but he didn’t. We took the stairs for obvious reasons and ascended up to the 4th floor. There were 16 total so this was going to take while.

  For the first five minutes neither of us said a word to each other. We hated one another and all I would do is antagonize him if I did speak. He finally broke the ice.

  “We should start knocking on doors,” he suggested.

  “Probably,” I said.

  “Split up?”

  “Gladly.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Kelly’s voice came through the earpiece.

  “Don’t worry. Wouldn’t dream of going against your orders. Especially since I work for your agency. Oh wait, I don’t. See ya Jenny.”

  “I’ll get security.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Lenny grabbed my arm as I started to walk away.

  “You may not work for her but I do,” he pointed out. “I’d rather not get canned because you’re reckless.”

  For a few seconds I just stared at him. I may hate the guy but I didn’t want to get him fired or anything.

  “Fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We walked up to the next door and began knocking. We waited a minute and then knocked again. Finally after another minute the door open as far as the chain lock would allow.

  “Hello?” came an old voice. The woman was tiny and looked very frail.

  “Ma’am,” Lenny started. “We’re exterminators and are here to stop the infestation of rats.”

  “Oh. Come in, please.”

  We stepped through the door after she unlocked it. The apartment was very clean and every shelf in there was littered with porcelain dolls. To be honest I expected that the moment she had opened the door.

  “Are you the ones that did this to the power?” she asked us.

  “No,” I said. “Whatever is infesting this building probably did it. Rats most likely.”

  “Oh no. It’s not rats.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  The woman sat down in her chair with a lot of struggle.

  “Well,” she began, “when it started there was a lot of strange stuff. Things were getting knocked over, I and several others heard voices, and people have gone missing.”

  “The manager didn’t mention anything about that,” said Lenny.

  “He wouldn’t. Only a couple have and it’s only been a day or two. A lot of us don’t have family and vacation a lot.”

  “How do you know they just didn’t leave then?”

  “I know. Plus I’ve seen the little devils.”

  I walked over to her.

  “What did they look like?” I asked her.

  “I didn’t get the best look,” she admitted, “but they were about the size of a child and had red skin.” Uh oh.

  Lenny and I both looked at each other.

  “Where are you two?” Kelly called through the earpiece.

  I stepped away from the woman. “Room 419. Why?”

  “Meet us in the hallway.”

  I motioned for Lenny and we both did just that. It took a couple minutes for them to show up but when they did I could hear someone struggling.

  “We found something,” Kelly informed them.

  “And?” Lenny asked.

  “They asked for Wes.” Not good.

  One of the other team members brought the monster forward and I did not like what I was seeing, or whom I was seeing I should say.

  “Hey, Wes,” he said.

  “Mygle,” I replied.

  I looked at Mygle and he looked right back at me. This was not a position that I had wanted to end up in. I never expected for both Kelly and Mygle to meet. To be honest I wasn’t really sure that I would ever see him again. That was just wishful thinking.

  Everyone in the group was staring at either Mygle or I and they were obviously looking for some sort of explanation. Like I said, I never really pictured the day when I would have to face this situation so I wasn’t really prepared for it.

  “What is this?” Kelly asked.

  “That’s Mygle,” I replied.

  “Yes, I understand that much. What is this?” She motioned back and forth between us.

  “Oh, right. We kind of go back. You guys can let him go.”’

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Listen to me.” I walked right up to Kelly. “I have run into him on many occasions and even though I would love to kill him—believe me, I would—he has saved my life more than once.”

  “You’re so sweet, Wes,” Mygle mocked.

  “Shut up.”

  Kelly was staring at me and I could see in her eyes that she didn’t have any intentions of letting the little jerk go. I couldn’t really blame her, though. If the roles were reversed I wouldn’t have even waited for Mygle to say anything and would have just killed him. Although, I guess I wouldn’t have because here he was. The first time we met I didn’t kill him. OK, fine. Yes I have tried to kill him on several different occasions but I think if I got my blade close enough I wouldn’t have actually cut it through him. Think what you want.

  “I know you don’t trust him,” I started, “but you can trust me.”

  That seemed to get somewhere because Kelly was now looking between the two of us again and I could see that she was entertaining the idea.

  “You do realize that he is letting you hold him, right?” I asked. “He can get away anytime he wants.”

  “Fine,” Kelly finally said. “Let him go.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Lenny complained.

  “Don’t worry, Lenny,” I said. We both looked at each other and were surprised that I called him by his actual name. That seemed to work, though, because he let it go.

  The two guys holding Mygle let go of him and the little gremlin came walking over to me.

  “Thanks, buddy,” he said.

  “Don’t ever call me buddy,” I demanded.

  “Why do you always try to fight our friendship?”

  “So how did you guys meet anyways?” Kelly asked.

  “Well,” I began, “it was online. I was having a really hard time finding someone and I figured I would give it a try.”

  “Seriously.”

  “We were both hunting vampires. He kills and eats other monsters not humans.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I just am.”

  Kelly still didn’t like the situation but who could really blame her? We hunt monsters yet here I was vouching for one. How could anyone expect her to just let it go and accept that? It was completely understandable.

  “I don’t like this,” she said.

  “Me either,” I agreed.

  “I’m right here,” Mygle pointed out.

  “Shut up, Mygle.”

  “So feisty.”

  Kelly walked up to Mygle. He pretended like he was scared and was hiding b
ehind me but he had a smile on his face.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked him. “Are you the one causing all of this trouble?”

  “Not exactly,” he replied.

  “What do you mean not exactly?”

  He pointed behind everyone and I honestly didn’t think it could have gotten any worse. We found out what was causing all of the trouble. There was a large group of gremlins standing there, staring right at us.

  We all just stood there. I think the gremlins were just as shocked to see us, as we were to see them. Of course, they had to know that I was here because they could feel me, just like I could feel them. That’s one of the perks of being a paladin. I can feel when a monster is close by. So, I’m sure they weren’t surprised to see me, but everyone else that was with me.

  “Mygle?” I muttered.

  “That’s why I’m here,” he replied.

  Kelly and her team held very still, which I was thankful for because I didn’t want anyone on either side to make any sudden movements.

  There were seven of them. We outnumbered them but they were all stronger than Kelly and her team. I wasn’t really sure whose side Mygle was on but we were definitely going to find out soon enough.

  Kelly looked at me out of the corner of her eye and she was livid. I didn’t blame her. This didn’t look good at all.

  “Mygle,” one of the gremlins spoke in a very raspy voice. “What great surprise.” Their English was just as bad as Mygle’s, apparently.

  “Hi,” Mygle said back. He seemed a little afraid.

  “Which one of you is the Paladin?”

  “I am,” I answered.

  Kelly turned to me with a look that told me I shouldn’t have done that.

  “There’s no benefit in not telling them,” I defended myself.

  “Did Mygle bring you here?” the gremlin, whom I assumed was the leader, asked me.

  “No. You did when you started terrorizing this place.”

  “You’ll regret coming here.”

  “So won’t you.”

  All hell broke loose. The gremlins exploded toward us with malicious intent buried deep into their eyes. Fighting Mygle was a pain in my rear, so you can imagine what fighting seven of them was like, especially with humans getting in my way. Actually you can’t imagine that because you’ve probably never fought a monster before. Stop nodding your head in agreement.

  The gremlins were fast and strong. They didn’t seem to be as good as Mygle was, which made me wonder about him a little more. As I dodged the first one that came at me I turned to Mygle to see what he was going to do. At first he just stood there, obviously afraid of which side to take. I thought he had turned his back on the other gremlins, so why wouldn’t he just start helping us?

  Another gremlin jumped at me and tackled me to the ground. As we fell and started to roll backwards I used the momentum to launch the little monster right off of me into a wall, leaving a nice little dent in the plaster. As it came back at me I took a swing with my axe, aimed right at him or her—it might have been a her—but it disappeared right before I could chopped off their head.

  I turned to Mygle again.

  “Do you plan on helping anytime soon?” I asked him.

  He looked back and forth between the battle and I, trying desperately to make a decision. I could see the inner turmoil he was going through but I honestly didn’t care at that moment. We needed his help.

  “Sorry, Wes,” he said and then he was gone.

  “Are you kidding me?” I complained. I didn’t have time to whine about it, though. There was a fight going on in a crowded hallway and I needed to focus on that.

  The gremlins were getting the better of Kelly and the rest of them. They were all good at fighting, even against monsters, but those red devils are just too fast and strong for them.

  The gremlin that had spoken to us was leaping at Kelly from behind with a knife held high in the air, ready to bring it down on her exposed back. Now even though I really don’t have any feelings toward Kelly, I couldn’t just let her die, could I? Ha like I was really thinking about letting that happen.

  I took out one of my Desert Eagles and shot him right out of the air. It wasn’t a kill shot but he wasn’t ready to attack Kelly anytime soon.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “No problem,” I said back.

  That moment I spent responding to her was the moment that I got hit in the back of the head. It was just in the right spot too because it didn’t knock me out but it was enough to completely disorient me.

  I fell to my knees and that’s when they started to drag Kelly and her team away. I tried to react but I was so woozy that I just stumbled as I tried to get up. If I didn’t do something and fast they were going to get all of us. As they grabbed Lenny and started pulling him away, I pulled out my Desert Eagles and just started firing. My aiming was spot on because the gremlin that was going to drag Lenny down the hall jerked several times and fell. It was dead.

  That scared the rest of them and then they were gone, with Kelly and everyone else. I looked over at him and he looked over at me.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” we said in unison.

  Let’s take a look at the situation: Kelly and almost all of her team were just kidnapped by a group of gremlins and most likely were going to be eaten. Mygle had taken off and left me high and dry. All I could think of, however, was that I was going to have to figure the rest of this out with Lenny, the one person in the world I hated more than anyone else. I knew that I was going to have to work with him at first but I didn’t think it was going to be just the two of us. I could tell he felt the same way.

  We both got up and stared at each other. We looked back and forth at the hallway and it was kind of a mess. Some broken up plaster and blood were spread out on the floor. I was surprised that no one had come out to say anything yet. We were making so much noise I’m sure that everyone in the entire building would have heard us.

  A door opened up next to me. I always speak too soon.

  “What’s going on out here?” asked the old lady that we were just speaking to.

  “Uh,” I stumbled. “I fell.”

  For what fell like forever she just stared at me. There was no way she was going to buy that bull crap story.

  “Are you OK?” she asked.

  Seriously. She bought that. “I’m fine.”

  “Should I call an ambulance?”

  “No. I’ll be OK. We’ll clean up here, too.”

  “Alright.” She closed the door behind her.

  I looked over at Lenny.

  “That was weird,” I said.

  He just stared at me.

  “Why isn’t anyone else coming out?” I asked.

  “Seriously?” he asked me.

  “What?”

  “Kelly and the rest of my team were just taken away.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Then what does it matter if people heard us or not?”

  “Calm down, Lenny.” I didn’t see the need to mock him at the time. “It isn’t like I haven’t been in this situation before. We’ll get them back.”

  “Let’s go then. Now.”

  I put up my hands in surrender and followed him as he took off. I could understand his panic. It wasn’t like I wasn’t freaking out a little bit on the inside but it didn’t do anyone any good to start throwing a fit.

  We headed off in the direction that the gremlins had been dragging the bodies but there was a lot of ground to cover. There was no telling where they were heading and there was no trail because they had done their amazing teleporting act. Or they might have gone invisible, but I didn’t think they could make humans go invisible, too.

  “There’s no telling where they are,” I pointed out. Lenny was freaking out and moving around erratically. “They could be anywhere in this building.”

  “You don’t think I know that, idiot?” he asked. He had turned around to say it right in my face.

  “Name call
ing isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

  “Can you just shut up?”

  I grabbed him by the arm and whipped him around.

  “Look,” I began, “I know this situation sucks but it is what it is. We could search this place top to bottom and probably wouldn’t get to them in time. We need to pull ourselves together and figure this thing out. They are in here somewhere and the gremlins would have picked a place to nest. If we ask around we can find out where that nest is.”

  Lenny looked at me like he wanted to say more but he was professional. He knew that I was right and we needed to work together to get this done.

  “Fine,” he spat. “Just follow me.”

  “I really think it would be better if you would follow me,” I said.

  “No.”

  “I have more experience and I’m better.”

  “I’m older.”

  “You’re uglier.”

  “I should just shoot you right here.”

  “Try me.” I don’t know how we got here.

  “I can lead the way,” said Mygle.

  Lenny and I both put our differences aside and pointed our guns directly at Mygle’s head.

  “Whoa, guys,” Mygle pleaded. “Don’t kill me.”

  “Explain why we shouldn’t?” I demanded. I was really mad.

  “Because if you do you’ll have a hard time finding your friends.”

  “I don’t care,” said Lenny.

  “Don’t.” I stood between the two of them so he wouldn’t shoot Mygle.

  “Do you think that is going to stop me?”

  I had to admit that I really didn’t think it was going to stop him. If he got to shoot the both of us he might actually come out of this happy, even if Kelly and the rest of them did die. I hoped he was better than that, though.

  “Yes?” I said.

  He looked like he was going to shoot for a second but stopped and put his gun down instead.

  “I don’t trust him,” Lenny admitted.

  “I do,” I told him.

  “If we are going to let him help us then he is just going to turn on us.”

  “I won’t,” Mygle promised.

  “You just did.”

  “Actually I didn’t. I didn’t help my others fight you.”

  “You took off, though,” I pointed out. “Why?”

  Mygle just shook his head. Something was really bothering him and I didn’t want to push it right then. But before this was all over I was going to get to the bottom of it, regardless of his feelings.

  “He asked you a question,” Lenny informed him, stating the obvious. Why do people always say it like that as if the other person, or in this case thing, didn’t hear them? It never really made sense to me.

  “Leave him be,” I said.

  “Fine,” Lenny submitted. “If he turns on us, I’ll kill him.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  Lenny walked away. I turned to Mygle.

  “Do you mind telling me what that was about back there?” I asked him.

  “Yes I do,” he said.

  “Fine. Just don’t do that again.”

  “OK.”

  It was odd. I had seen Mygle frightened before back when we fought the trolls but something had him really scared. I needed to find out what had happened to him that made him eat other monsters and not humans.

  We all headed down the hallway in search of all our missing friends.

  “So where are we going?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mygle replied.

  I stopped and turned around. Lenny looked like he was going to explode.

  “What?” Lenny was growling through his teeth. “If you don’t know then why did you make it seem like you did?”

  “I said I didn’t know where they were,” Mygle informed us, “but I didn’t say I couldn’t find them.”

  “Good. Find them.”

  “It isn’t that simple.”

  “Once again, why are you here?”

  This whole thing was going to be tough with just Lenny and I, but now I had to keep the peace between him and Mygle. Although, it was nice to not have Lenny put all his hatred towards me for once.

  “Just walk that way,” Mygle pointed down the hall.

  We listened to him and started walking in the direction that he had pointed.

  “Hey, Mygle,” I said, as I turned around. I was surprised to see that he was no longer behind us. He had ditched us again.

  “I’m gonna kill that little jerk,” Lenny promised. He didn’t say jerk but I have decided to keep this as clean as possible.

  I couldn’t believe that Mygle had taken off on us again. He was acting very strange.

  “He’s acting weird,” I said.

  Lenny was looking at me like I had three heads.

  “He’s acting weird?” he asked me.

  “Yeah,” I replied.

  “How should a gremlin normally act?!”

  “I don’t know, but I know Mygle and he wouldn’t just run away like this.”

  “Apparently he would.”

  I felt like punching Lenny right in the face but I held it back. I didn’t want to spend time fighting with him. So, I buried my anger deep inside and would let it come out later when we found all of the gremlins.

  With no help from Mygle we needed to search the old fashioned way, again, by asking questions. We traveled up to the next floor and decided to split up by going door to door. After each one, assuming someone would answer, we were to meet back in the hallway so neither of us lost the other. For the first three doors no one answered. Finally on the fourth one a man answered. He wasn’t as old as the previous lady I spoke with but he was definitely much older than I am.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “Hi,” I said. “My name is Wes. I’m an exterminator. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?”

  “Why would an exterminator need to ask me any questions?”

  He had a good point. “We are having trouble locating the nest of rats and we were asking around to see if we could locate the source.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Come on in.”

  I stepped into the door after he opened it fully for me and the apartment was very bare. Clearly this guy lived alone. The one thing it did have going for it was the huge TV and the surround sound system that was set up. The man noticed that I was looking at it.

  “Nice, isn’t it?” he asked me.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Wish I had this setup.”

  “I can’t really turn it as loud as I want. The walls are pretty thick and everyone else’s hearing around me is pretty bad but still, so is mine.” He laughed to himself. I smiled so he didn’t think I was rude. Plus, it was kind of funny.

  “Bet it cost a pretty penny?”

  “Yeah, but I’ve got more money than I know what to do with and no one to give it to.”

  I felt a little awkward after that.

  “So you were looking for the critters?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “The rats.”

  “Funny looking rats. I think it’s disgusting that there are rodents in this building.”

  “You’ve seen them?”

  “No but I’ve heard. Old Lady Haggard downstairs talked about them and a gentleman on the 8th floor said something about it, too.”

  “Are those the only ones?”

  He thought about it for a moment.

  “Yeah,” he finally replied. “I guess. The only ones I talk to anyway.”

  “OK,” I started. “I think I already talked to Mrs. Haggard so I should probably go talk to that other man. What is his name?”

  “Fred Hill.”

  “What apartment number?”

  “Eight zero three.”

  “Thank you.”

  I got up and headed for the door.

  “I’m going to go talk to him,” I said.

  “No problem.”

  I walked out the door and met up with Lenny in the hallway.

&nb
sp; “I’ve got a lead,” I told him.

  He didn’t say anything but just kept staring down the hallway.

  “What?” I asked him.

  I looked down in the direction he was facing and saw four gremlins, staring at us.

  This time I didn’t wait to see what the red devils were going to do. So, I charged at them with my axes held at my sides. Two of them came at me while the other two disappeared. I assumed they were going after Lenny but I started to think that they wouldn’t really see him as a threat, for good reasons, and were probably going to surprise attack me.

  I spun around and swung my axes at the two gremlins, both of whom jumped at me. Both axes sliced and hit nothing but air. Planning for the other two gremlins to appear in front of me I pushed off the ground and did a barrel roll. It was the perfect thing to do because the other two did appear in front of me and tried to attack my legs. As I spun through the air I swung one of my axes and managed to cut one of the gremlin’s head in half. The other one rolled out of the way.

  When I landed on the ground they didn’t give me any time to gather myself as they were on me again. I glanced at Lenny and saw that he had his gun pointed in our direction.

  “I’d rather you didn’t shoot that please,” I told him.

  “I can’t just stand here,” he said.

  I knocked one of the gremlins away from me and back flip-kicked another one that was charging at me. I caught it under the chin and I thought for a second that I might have broken something but they are resilient creatures. Instead it flew across the hallway right by Lenny.

  “There you go,” I said.

  “Thanks?” he sort of thanked me.

  “No problem. Try to cut its head off.”

  “Yeah, piece of cake.” I ignored his sarcasm.

  Now that I had one of them off my back fighting two of them was much easier. We went back and forth for a while and, I don’t like to brag but I had the upper hand.

  “You’re dead, paladin,” one of the gremlins threatened.

  “You’re voice is terrible,” I replied calmly. That seemed to get the reaction I wanted. I really don’t know why I have to antagonize everyone.

  The gremlin came at me with a renewed anger and moved quicker than I had expected. It slashed at my face with its razor sharp claws. I moved out of the way but it still managed to put a good cut across my right cheek. Right as it landed I kicked it like a field goal kicker as hard as I could. I wasn’t too happy that he managed to cut me.

  As the gremlin flew through the air I shot it right in the head. It wouldn’t be dead but it was definitely unconscious. There was one left for me and Lenny was struggling with the other one. It was like watching a two-year old trying to catch a ball. I almost laughed out of amusement.

  “You need help there?” I asked him.

  He grunted in response.

  “OK then,” I responded.

  The gremlin that was still attacking me swiped at my left leg. I lifted my foot off the ground and when its hand was in the right spot I stomped down, right on its hand. The thing yelped in pain.

  “I thought I was going to die?” I said, right before I lopped off its head. “Hmm. Guess not.”

  I looked down on Lenny and he was struggling with the gremlin on top of him.

  “Come on, Lenny,” I whined. “It’s no bigger than a child for crying out loud.”

  I grabbed the gremlin and threw it in the air. As it was coming back down, after it bounced off the ceiling, I chopped down and separated its head from its body. I turned back to Lenny who was still on the ground.

  “Lying around on the job?” I teased. I put my hand out to help him out. He knocked my hand away and got up by himself. “Fine.”

  Lenny was looking at me differently.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. “You’re pretty good.”

  “Lenny you are so sweet to me.”

  “Shut up.”

  I laughed and he actually cracked a smile.

  “It’s kind of hard to tell because they all basically look the same but those ones seemed different than the ones from before,” I pointed out.

  “I couldn’t tell,” Lenny admitted.

  “Hmm. No sense in dwelling on it.”

  “This seems like a lot of gremlins. I thought they travel in small packs, like three or four.”

  “Yeah. There has been a lot of that lately.”

  “Kelly told us about the town of werewolves.”

  “Ha. That was a doozy.”

  Lenny just nodded his head.

  “Let’s get moving,” I ordered. “There’s a guy on the 8th floor who might have some answers.”

  I had my back turned, facing down the wrong direction of the hallway. One thing you should learn from this is never have your back turned to an enemy, even if you think they are dead or unconscious.

  I could see it in Lenny’s face. One of the gremlins that I had shot was jumping at me with something sharp in its hands. It was too close for me to turn around. I had made the dumbest mistake.

  In the split second that I had before the gremlin was going to stab me in the back I could do nothing but let it happen. That was until Mygle popped out of nowhere and tackled the gremlin away from me. I had to say that I was not expecting that.

  The two of them wrestled on the ground back and forth across the hallway. I wanted to jump in and help him but I was afraid that I was going to do more harm than good. So, I just let the two of them work it out.

  Mygle took his little knife out to stab the other gremlin but it knocked the knife away and kicked Mygle off of him.

  “How could you?” the gremlin asked.

  Mygle didn’t say anything.

  “You betrayed us once,” the gremlin continued. Already. I am assuming the thing wanted to say already, or before. Really it could be anything that would make a complete sentence.

  “I did had to,” Mygle spat.

  “I can’t wait to cut you open and tell the King.”

  That seemed to sting Mygle a little bit.

  “I can shoot the other one,” Lenny whispered to me.

  “No,” I said back. “Let him work this out.”

  “I have a clear shot.”

  “Trust me.”

  Lenny was aggravated but he didn’t shoot.

  “The King has wanted you dead since,” the gremlin said.

  “I have no king,” Mygle replied.

  “No you don’t.”

  The gremlin jumped at Mygle but he simply sidestepped and killed the gremlin with the knife. For the longest time we all just stood there. Lenny had gotten the proof that he needed that Mygle was on our side. I was sure that he wouldn’t question it for the rest of the time that we were in there.

  Mygle was hurt. I could see it in his eyes. He had turned against his kind a long time ago but that didn’t meant he wanted to kill another gremlin. I slowly walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “It was a Monday,” Mygle started. “The night was there and it was raining.”

  Lenny and I both walked a little bit closer to listen to him.

  “My brother, Jenk,” he continued, “had found our dinner for that night. I was so hungry and I could smell the girl from mile away.”

  I suddenly felt like I didn’t want to hear the rest of the story.

  “There was nothing better than human flesh,” he admitted. “I craved it day and night. The thought of being to eat on your people meat was the best. Sorry.” Mygle stopped for a second and just shook his head. “I walked up to my brother and saw that it was just appetizer. The girl was no more than three I guess. She was crying for mama. Something snapped in me that day. It was just a baby and it didn’t know better. Most of the time gremlins don’t care but I did. I asked my brother to let her go, to find another human. I tried to stop him.”

  “He ate the girl?” Lenny interrupted.

  “No.” Mygle was agitated.

  “You said you tried to s
top him.”

  “Yes, and I did.”

  “Come on, Lenny, really?” I said. “Let him finish.”

  “Sorry,” Lenny apologized.

  “I killed my brother and brought the girl home,” Mygle told us. “I followed the scent to bring her back. My father not happy.”

  “Is your father the King?” I asked him.

  Mygle nodded.

  “Gremlins have a king?” It was surprising to me.

  “He was going to have me killed so I ran,” he said.

  “Mygle I had no idea.”

  “Now you do.”

  I nodded my head and brought us back to the situation at hand.

  “Why did you leave us again?” I asked him.

  “I was looking for them,” he answered.

  “You couldn’t tell us that?”

  “Sorry. We have to go to the 8th floor.”

  “Yeah we know,” said Lenny.

  “Oh. Let’s go then.” Mygle walked down the hallway. “I won’t just take off this time.”

  As we walked down the hall I thought about what Mygle had done and what he had to give up. He had to kill his own flesh and blood to do what he thought was right and be hunted by his father. I had a newfound respect for him.

  We walked up the stairs and headed up to the 8th floor. Mygle was quiet for the entire walk, which is not usually the case for him, but it was certainly understandable. I never knew that he had to kill his brother and that his father wanted him dead for it. He did it to save a human life. No other monster had ever done that. It really made me wonder.

  “So what did you find?” I asked Mygle, finally breaking the silence. “When you got to this floor, I mean.”

  “I didn’t go in there,” he said, “but I know they’re there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Trust me.”

  “If you know that they are in there then wouldn’t they know that you’re out here?” Lenny asked.

  “Yup.”

  “OK, good. So much for the element of surprise.”

  The 8th floor looked just the same as the rest of the building and felt just as empty. I still wondered where all of the people were because even after the last fight no one came out to check out what all of the noise was. Not even the man that I had just spoken to came out of his room.

  “Why does it seem so empty?” I asked openly, more to Mygle, though. “I mean no one seems to hear us fighting.”

  “Maybe the walls are just really thick?” Lenny suggested.

  “I’m pretty sure they would hear a gunshot, even with thick walls.”

  “It’s my kin,” Mygle informed us. “They are keeping hallways quiet so they can sneak around.”

  “Then how did people notice them in the first place?”

  “Once they get in the room they only as quiet as their feet can be.”

  “Fair enough.”

  We reached the room number that the man told me to go to and stood in front of it.

  “Do we knock?” I suggested sarcastically.

  “We barge in,” said Mygle. “Be ready. There will be a lot.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way. On three?”

  They both nodded their heads. I counted down and then I kicked the door in. It dented in the middle and the hinges snapped off with a loud crack. It flew down the hallway of the apartment and crashed into a very nice looking armoire. We charged in the room and readied ourselves for attack. There wasn’t one, however.

  I looked around trying to figure out what was going on, figuring maybe they were in one of the other rooms, but they weren’t. The only living thing in the apartment was the guy who lived there and he looked terrified. I tried to imagine if I was in his shoes and three people—one being a gremlin—came barging in my apartment with weapons drawn right after they kicked my door 20 feet, I think I might have crapped my pants.

  I put my axes away and slowly walked to him with my hand outstretched.

  “Hi,” I said.

  The man jumped, so I backed up.

  “Sorry about your door,” I apologized. “I’m Wes.”

  “D-D-David,” he stuttered.

  “OK David, there are some gremlins that look like that guy over there.” I pointed over toward Mygle. “We need to find them. Have you any of them.”

  He nodded his head.

  “Were you the first person to see them?” I asked him.

  “No,” he replied.

  “Who was?”

  “Old Lady Haggard.”

  “Thank you.” I turned to Lenny. “I assume your company can take care of the damages?”

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “OK. Let’s go.”

  I let the two of them get out first and erased David’s memory. There was no need for him to have to remember what I just did.

  We travelled back down to the 4th floor where the old lady we saw before lived.

  “I thought you said you knew they would be in there,” Lenny barked at Mygle.

  “I did,” Mygle responded. “That’s why they move.”

  “Same strategy?” I asked them. They both nodded.

  I kicked the door in and this time we were met with a much different situation. The gremlins had the rest of Kelly’s team and the old lady strung up on the wall. They looked like they were still alive. One of the gremlins was holding Kelly and had a knife held right above her chest. It brought the knife down straight at her.

  The blade was within an inch of Kelly’s chest when Lenny took the shot. I figured he would have been aiming right for the gremlin’s head but instead it hit its hand, knocking the blade out of its grasp. I was about to do the same thing but Lenny already had his gun out and could get to it quicker. It was a good shot.

  The gremlin yelped and cradled its hand, right where the new hole was. Every one of them in the room turned on us and were very angry.

  “You stink of dead gremlin,” one of them said. I think it was the same one that we first saw. “Especially Mygle.”

  Mygle didn’t respond but he didn’t lower his head and cower like he did before.

  “You been here long enough,” the gremlin continued. “Die!”

  All of them came at us. The door slammed behind us so we had no choice but to fight them in that tiny room. I have had some bad fights in my time but this is definitely in my top five. I think most of the hits against me were by either Lenny or Mygle. It wasn’t like I was perfect either. Even the gremlins managed to collide a few times.

  I reached back with my axe and my hand slammed right into Lenny’s face. Thankfully it wasn’t the axe.

  “Sorry,” I yelled.

  “Watch it,” he screamed back.

  “You’ve hit me, too, ya know.”

  “Just shut up and keep chopping.”

  I was very happy that Mygle was on our side and that he was a better fighter than the rest of the gremlins because if it were just Lenny and I we would have been screwed.

  The comical fight continued and we were gaining the upper hand, narrowing it down to two of them. One of them jumped at me and I simply sidestepped and chopped off its head. The other tackled Lenny and bit him on the shoulder—not a very vital area. Lenny screamed like a little girl and then Mygle tackled the thing off of him. The gremlin pushed with all of his might and threw Mygle into the wall, but Mygle had managed to wound the gremlin.

  “How could you?” it asked Mygle. “Your kin. Your own brother, for a human girl.”

  “It was right thing to do,” Mygle answered him.

  “The time is coming, Mygle. The King is gathering the army and soon the world won’t stand chance. Pick a side.”

  “I already have.” Mygle darted forward and cut the gremlin’s head right off. They were all dead now, in case you lost count.

  Lenny went over to help his team and I ran right up to Kelly.

  “Are you alright?” I asked her.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said.

  We gathered everyone and headed
out of the building. One of Kelly’s team members let the manager out of the closet I hid him in as the rest of us went outside.

  “You guys are going to take care of all of this?” I asked her, pointing toward the building.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It was good working with you, as always.”

  “A pleasure of course. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Unfortunately.” She walked away with a sly smile on her face

  I walked over to Mygle. He was standing on the edge of the sidewalk with his head down. He looked very lost. I assumed that he was making himself invisible to everyone but me.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hi,” he said back.

  “You OK?”

  “Not really. You?”

  “I’ve had worse days.”

  He nodded his head.

  “Why would the King be gathering an army?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know,” he lied.

  “Please, Mygle. Don’t lie to me.”

  He let out a long sigh. “There’s someone.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know who.” He was lying but I was going to get some truth out of him. “He’s planning. All the monsters know.”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but when does I don’t think even you can stop it.”

  Mygle walked away. My life just kept getting better and better.