The Grimmer by Naben Ruthnum

Author:Naben Ruthnum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2023-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The lights in the apartment above Greycat weren’t on when Vish and Gisela walked around the corner onto Pandosy. A few cars had passed them, but sidewalk traffic was mostly gone, except for people walking to and from the downtown steakhouse. If the bookstore was a place of calm during the day, it looked as peaceful as a crypt after nightfall. Gisela pulled a small key ring out of a deep pocket and opened the door.

Vish felt better already, much better. Dry, safe, relaxed. There was a skittering sound above their heads as Gisela locked the door behind them. Moby. As Gisela flicked the lights on, Vish could hear the skitter turn to a padding as Moby walked across the floor of the apartment upstairs.

“Is Agastya here?” Vish asked.

“No. He doesn’t drink here. He promised Isla that he wouldn’t drink in this place, whether she was around or not.” Here, Gisela boosted herself up on the counter and threw the wet hoodie in a bundle onto the floor behind it. She sat, swinging her legs a little. The pants were tough and dark green, Dickies maybe, and her black t-shirt was blank and a contrast to her skin, which looked greenish-white under the dirty and dim lights of the bookstore. The sickly tone would have been more appropriate for Vish, after what he’d been through, and he thought about making a joke along those lines. He decided it would sound stupid, or worse, like flirting, so he just sat on the store’s one tall stool, which had a printed DO NOT STAND ON THIS sign under a thick layering of clear tape on the seat.

“I’m kind of starting to wonder about the timing of things,” Vish asked.

“Kind of? Timing of things? Please just say what you mean. And do you want tea or something warm? There’s a kettle back here.”

“No. I mean, no thanks. Thank you. And I mean how everything — I just came in here on Friday, and then Mr. Farris arrived, and tonight has been — well, things are just happening really quickly. And by ‘things’ I mean terrible events. Is that specific enough?”

Gisela laughed and blew hair off her face.

“If you’re being sarcastic, I guess you’re starting to feel better.”

“Answer me.”

“You said you didn’t want to talk about magic stuff for twenty minutes. I’m going to respect that.” Gisela leaned back and popped open the till after pressing a couple of buttons, then extracted a twenty-dollar bill.

“I’m not stealing this,” she said. “But we might want to get some food, right? You need something with nutrition in it, soon. Fruit or vegetables or a roast chicken or some cheese, something like that.”

“I’m not hungry. And not feeling like ‘roast chicken or some cheese.’ You really are from medieval times, aren’t you?” Vish said. Gisela laughed, and looked nothing like the nearly torched witch that had been shown to him in Isla’s dream movie. She looked as 1996 as possible, like she was from the future, if anything, not the past.

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