Silver and Salt by Rob Thurman

Author:Rob Thurman [Thurman, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

The Boogety-man

A week later, Melanie was found dead in a dumpster behind a fast food burger place five blocks from her house and two blocks from the park. The window to her room had been pried open and Melanie taken…by the “boogety-man” I’d told her wasn’t in her room and under her bed anymore, but out in the rest of the big, wide world. Sometimes, you can’t know what a monster will do, not the real ones and not the lesser, invisible-man kind.

I turned off the TV, blacking out the news from sight a helluva lot easier than I could from my mind. I let the remote fall from numb fingers as Niko finished fixing us supper, his blond braid swaying across his back. Whatever he was cooking was something nutritious—I hated that word—with rice and vegetables sizzling in a pan. He’d been paid; that meant our food would be healthy for a day or two if far less tasty than a pizza. That was good. I wouldn’t have to make up an excuse as to why I wasn’t hungry. Niko’s “nourishing” as he called it, food was excuse enough. I pulled my knees up to my chest and looped my arms around them. I’d thought…I’d been sure Melanie would be safe. I hadn’t guessed he’d go after her if she wouldn’t come out to him. What to do now?

I couldn’t tell the police what I’d seen, as we were on the run. We spent our life on the run, from Sophia’s creditors and knee-breakers to the monsters. They’d put Sophia in prison, no loss. But they’d put Nik and me in foster care until Nik turned eighteen, another year. And I…I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t be with people who didn’t know about the monsters that would circle their house. That didn’t know what would irritate me and what would make me mad and what I could do if I got mad. People who wouldn’t have any idea that I needed help in watching the dark, watching for Grendels, and, if they knew, impossible as that was, wouldn’t care if I needed help or not. Couldn’t be bothered to do it. I’d be alone. Just me, the monsters, and people who’d be eaten because they didn’t know to lock all the doors and windows before night. Who didn’t know to sleep with knives under the mattresses or to keep at least one knife hidden in every room. Stupid, stupid people who didn’t know fucking anything.

Thoughts tied in panicked knots, I managed to stop myself a second before I would’ve started rocking back and forth. Niko would’ve seen that in a heartbeat and he wouldn’t let it go. Okay. Okay. I had to think. I took a deep breath and didn’t waste time finding it ironic I was more afraid of foster care than supernatural monsters. Taking hold of my emotions and mind, I shook them both ruthlessly. I could handle Grendels, I could handle this. Calmer, I considered the options.

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