by E.J. Stevens
Tales from Harborsmouth
E.J. Stevens
Tales from Harborsmouth
E.J. Stevens
Published by Sacred Oaks Press
Copyright 2017 E.J. Stevens
All rights reserved
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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FROSTBITE
“What a beautiful cat, Miss Granger.”
I frowned, but let the comment slide. I didn’t have any pets, not unless you counted the dust bunnies collecting beneath my desk.
Jess “Jinx” Braxton raised a questioning eyebrow, but I shrugged. I didn’t have anything helpful to share with my rockabilly business partner. The frail woman tottering along at Jinx’s elbow either needed new glasses or she was nuttier than weresquirrel poop.
Mrs. Boyd wouldn’t be my first loony client. Working for a client who sees things that aren’t really there is an occupational hazard when you advertise as the city’s best (and only) psychic detective.
Who was I to judge? One of my special talents is the ability to see through glamour. A lot of supernatural creatures use glamour to hide in plain sight, and my gift cuts through the glitz and glitter of vampire compulsion and faerie magic. It’s not as fun as it sounds. I’ve seen things no human should ever see.
Second sight is a blessing and a curse.
Monsters walk the streets of Harborsmouth. If it slinks, slithers, flies, or oozes, I’ve probably had the dubious pleasure of making its acquaintance. The fact that some of those things cross the street to avoid me hasn’t escaped my notice. A detective’s job is to take note of the little things, the small details that can break a case wide open, but having anthropomorphic snot treat you like you smelled worse than a troll fart could give a girl a complex. Some things are best to ignore or chalk up to sunny disposition.
I gave our client my best smile and waved a gloved hand at the seat in front of my desk. She flinched and latched onto Jinx’s tattooed arm, huddling like a gryphon chick beneath its mother’s wing. My partner shot me a warning glare and I toned down the charm.
“So, what can we help you with, Mrs. Boyd?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
Best not to scare the client, at least not before she paid. Jinx reminded me of that often enough, and she kept the books. If she said we were in the red, then we were hemorrhaging our last pennies. Magic weapons and protective spells don’t come cheap, and Jinx complains when we run out of food. So, I rested my gloved hands on the desk where my client could see them, adopted a relaxed pose, and tried not to let the woman’s cat comment stir up painful memories of my childhood pet. Fluffy was dead and there was no sense living in the past. Surviving in the present was hard enough.
“Please, call me Maggie,” she said, taking a seat.
Mrs. Boyd, Maggie, cast a nervous glance toward Jinx. I sighed, but nodded for Jinx to stick around. It looked like we’d be working this case together.
The fingers on my right hand reflexively went to my forearm, checking and double-checking the comforting presence of the silver-tipped iron blade hidden beneath my leather jacket. Something had our client spooked and Jinx was the people person in our little business venture, but having my partner leave the office set my teeth on edge. She was organized, great at keeping me on track, and sweet as cherry pie to our clients, but my partner had a knack for personal injury. We didn’t call her Jinx for nothing.
“Okay, Maggie,” I said. “How can we help?”
I held my breath, trying not to fidget in my chair. Maybe this would be an easy case, something completely mundane. Not every case was fraught with danger. Jinx might finally make it through a case without bumps and bruises.
So why were my insides being torn up by a pack of rabid vampire bats?
“It’s my house,” she said, waving her hands. Her cheeks flushed and her over-bright eyes darted between Jinx and me. “It’s haunted.”
That was doubtful. There are a lot of weird things that exist in Harborsmouth. I knew that more than most. But I’d never seen a ghost.
I put on my best poker face, leaned forward, and made a show of picking up a pen and flipping open my notepad.
“Can you describe this ghost?” I asked.
“Oh, the place is quite haunted,” she said. “There’s more than one ghost. I’m sure of it.”
“And what makes you say that?” I asked.
“Furniture moving, moaning, groaning...that sort of thing,” she said, blinking rapidly.
Jinx mouthed “pooka orgy?” from over Maggie’s shoulder, and I had to stifle a giggle. My lip twitched, but I’d learned the hard way not to act like a crazy person in front of the clients, not until the check cleared.
“Have you noticed anything missing?” I asked, pen tapping a blank sheet of paper. “Spoons? Candleholders? Jewelry?”
“Nothing like that,” she said, shaking her head.
Well, that ruled out Jinx’s pooka orgy theory. I’d worked a few pooka infestations, and the supernatural rodents were notorious for stealing anything shiny that wasn’t nailed down with iron. The only thing the bacchanalian critters liked more than an orgy was thievery.
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“No, the only thing I’ve lost is weight,” she said. “Which is strange since I’m hungry all the time. Not that I’m complaining. I was carrying around more than a few extra pounds before moving here last month.”
That was hard to believe. The woman was gaunt to the point of emaciation. I narrowed my eyes and turned my head, trying to see through any lingering glamour. Most of the time, my gift works on its own, whether I want it to or not, but sometimes it needs a nudge.
“You moved here recently?” I asked, making a show of taking notes.
Sneaking up on the truth works in tricky cases, but all I saw in my peripheral vision was a frail woman in need of a sandwich. Something strange was going on here, and I had a bad feeling that I’d have to use my psychic gift before this case was solved.
You see, I’m twice cursed. Not only do I have the gift of second sight, a gift I’d happily return, but I also get visions when my skin touches certain objects. During a vision, I slip into a memory and experience events through the eyes of whoever left a psychic impression behind. The trouble is, it takes strong emotions to leave behind a psychic impression, and most things that make a person feel that deeply are painful or terrifying. Experiencing that much fear isn’t healthy, and there was a very real risk of losing my sense of self, becoming trapped in someone else’s nightmare, but sometimes it was the only way to solve a case.
Psychometry was a dangerous gift, but it paid the bills.
“Were there any belongings left behind by the previous owners?” I asked, chest tightening. “O
r any rooms that weren’t fully renovated before you moved in?”
“Oh, yes,” Maggie said. “I’ve barely touched a thing. I had big plans for the place, but I haven’t felt up to a big D.I.Y. project yet. I just haven’t had the energy. And there are the ghosts to think of. Will you look into the matter? I know it’s a strange thing to investigate, but when I asked around, everyone said that you’re the one to handle weird...unusual cases.”
I gritted my teeth, but nodded. I’d always been an outcast, a weirdo. Screaming about monsters and slipping into unwanted visions had led to a lonely childhood until I’d met Jinx.
“I’ll take the case, but I need to investigate your house, go through some of the previous owner’s old things,” I said.
“Of course,” she said, clutching her handbag to her chest. “Is today too soon? It’s just...I haven’t been sleeping. At least, I don’t remember the last time I slept.”
“No problem,” I said. “Jinx has the address?”
She nodded, and I pushed away from the desk and stood. We had an active case and I didn’t want to waste time, but it would be foolish to run off without a plan. My eyes flicked to the wall clock.
“Expect us around two o’clock,” I said. “You’re welcome to go out while we investigate. Just leave the door unlocked.”
That gave us over an hour to come up with a plan and stuff my pockets with weapons and protective charms. I’d like more time, but the woman was visibly shaken. Whatever had invaded her home was drawing her energy in some way. She was practically fading out of existence as we spoke.
“Thank you, Miss Granger,” she said, already standing and scurrying toward the door. “And don’t worry about me being home. I retired just before moving to Harborsmouth, and I hardly ever leave the house.”
Maggie Boyd walked out onto the streets of the Old Port Quarter, and I frowned. She was so sickly and rail thin, I’d mistaken her for an elderly lady, but the woman was only recently retired and more likely in her sixties. So much for my keen observational skills.
“Buck up,” Jinx said with a wink. “So what if we have a reputation for taking on whacked cases? I say bring it on, the stranger the better. Weird is the new cool.”
That was easy for her to say. Jinx hadn’t seen the creatures that roamed our city, stalking humans as prey and ensnaring them in a deceitful web of pestilential lies and poisonous bargains.
I shrugged and opened the desk drawer where I kept my stash of hardcore protection charms. We were once again heading into unknown territory with no clue of what we were up against. Jinx could go on thinking a weird case like this was cool, but I listened to my gut, and right now my insides were churning into painful knots as my stomach tried to climb out my ear.
I was good at finding the truth, but I had a nagging suspicion that Maggie’s house wouldn’t reveal its secrets without a fight.
*****
Maggie Boyd’s new digs were in a neighborhood to the north of the Old Port Quarter, wedged between the slums of Joysen Hill and the gentrification of the Quarter. There was a lower ratio of bars to homes here, but the streets weren’t entirely residential. I would have missed the dead-end lane entirely if it wasn’t for the kids using the sign for target practice. Their ammunition was broken chunks of pavement, but I gave them a smile with too many teeth, and they scattered.
We made it partway down the alley before the gang tags stopped and the brick buildings ended, replaced by a truck graveyard on one side of the street and a weed-strewn lot on the other. At the end of the lane, stood a simple house that had seen better days.
The house was a basic single-story Cape with faded clapboards that might have been red at one time, but now gave the appearance of flaking rust. A chain-link fence and the backside of a warehouse rose behind the structure, leaving the house in deep shadow. The alley was also dark, making the yard in front of the house the only sunny spot. Weeds, grass, and tangled vines thrived in the patch of sunlight.
“She has her own secret garden, cool,” Jinx said with a grin.
“So did Miss Havisham,” I muttered.
I eyed our exits before approaching the house. Maggie hadn’t lived here long, but it was still surprising that the exterior and grounds were this rundown. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed the place abandoned for decades.
I stepped gingerly over bits of debris, boots crunching on gravel as I made my way slowly down the footpath. The gate was gone, rotten away or scavenged for firewood, but my skin tingled as I passed beyond the dilapidated wooden fence and into Maggie’s dooryard. A chill ran up my spine and I spun on my heel, but whatever I’d sensed, I was too late.
Jinx let out a startled cry, arms windmilling in an attempt to stay upright, but her platform sandals weren’t helping. She reached out a hand, and I jerked away. It was a reflex born of years of negative visions, but I knew I’d screwed up.
As if Jinx's look of hurt and resignation wasn't bad enough, I overcorrected and landed on all fours. Warm wet grass slid inside the gap between my sleeve and glove, as if the ground was hungrily running its many tongues along my wrist, tasting my skin.
I shuddered, yanking my hand away and rapidly climbed to my feet. I'd had a run-in with Hunger Grass on a previous case and it hadn’t gone well. In fact, the case had gone to Hell in a handbasket of woven rusty razorblades.
I rubbed gloved hands against my pants, and shuddered. Backpedaling, I glanced left and right, but nobody was trying to eat our faces off. It was just Jinx and me.
“What the heck just happened?” Jinx asked, frowning. “You get a vision?”
“Not a vision,” I said, voice shaking. I swallowed hard, attention shifting to the house as I stepped back onto the path. “Our client ever mention an unexplained hunger or neighborhood pets going rabid?”
“No,” she said, brow wrinkling.
“You sure?” I asked.
“I'd have remembered pets foaming at the freaking mouth,” she said. “What gives?”
The correct question was, what takes? Hunger Grass was nasty stuff. Most people who step on a patch of the stuff end up changed and not for the better. First you lose your sense of right and wrong. Then you lose everything and everyone you ever loved.
I was immune to the stuff, but I had no idea why and even less interest in finding out. I’d hoped to never encounter that kind of magic again. No such luck.
“Our client has a patch of Hunger Grass in her front yard,” I said, glancing at Jinx. “You know what that means.”
She did. Jinx went pale, eyes widening.
“Oh shit,” she said.
Oh shit was right. Hunger Grass was extremely dangerous. Most faerie magic is. But it takes more than just magic to create the slavering circle of weeds.
Something bad happened here, really bad. Like famine or a hard Maine winter driving a family to cannibalism bad.
“You think there are actually ghosts in there?” she said. I had to hand it to my partner. Her face was ashen, but she didn’t run away. “The ghosts of eaten people.”
“I don’t know,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “But we're going to find out.”
The crunch of gravel beneath my boots punctuated my words and I tried not to think about trudging over bones picked clean of flesh. I barely twitched when Jinx rapped on the door, announcing our arrival.
We didn’t have to wait long. The door swung open and Maggie stood there, eyes appearing sunken in the dim light. Had she touched the Hunger Grass? Was she infected with its magic?
“Please, come in,” she said. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything. Don’t leave without coming back for tea. The kettle’s almost ready.”
I stepped inside the house, a polite refusal on my lips, but gasped. The shabby living room fell away, revealing a horror so great I was at a loss for words.
This is not at all what I expected.
“What do you see?” Jinx asked, sidling up to me as our host passed through what I assumed was the kitchen doo
r. “Looks normal enough.”
“You don’t want to know,” I said, swallowing bile.
The walls were slabs of pulsating meat and the floor was sticky beneath my combat boots. I winced at the moist fetid air that hung heavy with the distinctive stench of a slaughterhouse. Fear and blood permeated every fleshy crevice, but over the underlying terror loomed a hunger that threatened to devour us whole.
“Jinx, go outside,” I said, voice hard.
“Outside with the creeptastic Hunger Grass?” she asked.
She had a point.
“Fine, but keep close to me,” I said, lowering my voice. “Stay away from the walls and don’t touch anything. Assume that nothing in this house is what it seems.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” she muttered.
“Good,” I said, palming my knife. “If you’re scared, we might just get out of this alive.”
“What about Maggie?” Jinx asked.
A tapping came from the kitchen, and I stilled. Tap, tap-tap, tap. There was an agonizing pause before the tapping began anew. As much as I’d love to run screaming from this bizarre charnel house, we had a case to solve and a client to rescue.
“We’re going to accept that cup of tea and find out what the hell is going on in this house,” I said.
“And if it’s a trap?” she whispered.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said.
I just hoped that if we did encounter a bridge, it wasn’t made of oozing muscle tissue.
On my signal, Jinx pushed open the kitchen door. At least, she swore it was a wooden door. If we made it out of here alive, I’d need a gallon of brain bleach to scrub that orifice from memory.
I gasped, staggering forward, but abruptly froze as my eyes darted back and forth from Maggie to the corpse wearing her clothes. Corpse might be too kind a word. The body was missing parts and had been gnawed on by more than rats.
