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Goblin Hunter
Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Ollie stopped the truck halfway down the gravel road leading to Kimmie’s house and killed the ignition. He grabbed his duffle bag from the backseat and started the long walk up to the house, where Kimmie said she’d be waiting on the front porch. They’d decided that it might look bad to her boarders if he kept pulling up to the house and then disappearing with her into the woods for hours at a time. So, they’d do their hunting with a little discretion.

He reached the house to find Kimmie sitting on the porch swing, dressed in rugged outdoor clothes. She hopped up and bounded across the driveway toward him.

“Where’s Grika?”

He adjusted the bag on his shoulder. “I left him in the hotel with a bucket of chicken. We’re only setting up traps today, so we don’t need him out here getting your dogs all riled up.”

“Oh.” Her cheery expression melted away, only to return when she remembered what she held in her hand. “I got a picture!”

She held up the photo. Ollie scrunched his forehead and leaned in close to see it.

“It’s distorted, though,” she said. She turned it to get more of the moonlight. “It’s a blurry shape between those two taller shapes. Those are trees, by the way.”

“How did you get that?”

“I attached a camera to the motion detector I have in the back of the house. When something moves on the far side of the pen, the camera goes psht!” She flashed her fingers out to emphasize the effect.

“Why did you expect one to be rummaging around right in that spot?”

“I baited it. With dog treats. And candy. And a little bit of leftover pie that’s been in my refrigerator since last Tuesday.” She smiled like a kid who’d just aced a test.

Ollie came to a halt, his lips slowly forming into a scowl that gave quite the opposite impression.

“So, it’s not enough that you have one of these things hanging nearby, you have to lure it right up to your house? Where you have innocent people staying?”

Kimmie’s excited demeanor melted away.

“Oh…” She glanced back at the house, covering her mouth as she did. “Oh my God. I didn’t think about that.”

Ollie turned to face her, exasperated. “This is what I’ve been trying to warn you about. You think you’re bulletproof, but you aren’t, and neither are your boarders. You already have people dying out in the middle of the woods, now you want bodies on your kitchen floor?”

“No,” she whispered. She seemed genuinely appalled by what she’d done, but Ollie didn’t let that stop him. She needed a reminder of what she was getting into.

“What if, after those snacks, it decided to bash down your back door and take what it wanted from your kitchen? And what if Wendy had been in its way? This is not a game. You can’t be this reckless anymore. You have to be–.”

“Reckless?” Kimmie blinked at the accusation. Suddenly, her lips tightened, and she straightened her shoulders. “I’m sorry, why is it not reckless for you to chase monsters through the forest at night? You can traipse through the woods, bashing goblins on the head with your inferiority complex of a shotgun, but I’m the one being reckless?”

Ollie held up a finger.

“Hold on. First, I don’t traipse anywhere. I walk, or I run. Second, my shotgun is not indicative of anything other than a need to shoot goblins in the face. Same with my truck, because I know you were going there next. Third, you want to chase goblins? Fine. Do it to your heart’s content.” He pointed at the forest on the other side of the house. “Out there. Way out there.”

He started walking again. She followed while also taking a deep, unnecessarily loud breath. “Do you enjoy being a little bit mean to people?”

“Don’t complain to me when Wendy and Albert are dead.” He held out his arms. “That’s all I’m saying.”

He left the driveway and wandered around to the back of the house. He followed the path up the hill and into the trees, Kimmie walking silently behind. He regretted being so harsh, but it was necessary. His dad had hammered the same lessons into him every day, without sparing Ollie’s feelings. And as much as he actively tried not to be like his old man, he had to admit Jed had done some things right in his life. And stressing the danger of hunting to his children was one of them.

This wasn’t a game.

He stopped a few minutes later at a clearing in the woods and dropped his bag on the dirt path. He turned around in a circle, scanning the trees for suitable spots for a goblin trap.

“So now what?” Kimmie asked. She still had a look of annoyance plastered on her face.

“We need to find spots to build some traps. Thanks to your picture, we know he’s coming out this way at night, so we’ll stick close to the path for now, if that’s what he’s using to travel by.”

“Whatever you say.”

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Ollie bit his tongue. One blowup a day was more than enough. He leaned over and unzipped his bag, then pulled out a coil of nylon twine. He found a skinny tree branch nearby and tied one end of the twine a little past the midpoint of the branch, pulling it down a bit to test how much give it had. He crouched down and searched for an exposed root he could use as a trigger.

“Is that a tripwire?”

“It’s a snare.” She didn’t say anything in response. For some reason Ollie felt the need to fill the silence. “This twine will end up as a loop, somewhere low to the ground. I’ll put a toy or some bait in the middle, and when the goblin reaches for it, if he nudges the edge of the loop, it’ll release the tension on this branch and then zip up around his arm. It won’t take him long to get out of it, but it should be enough time for us to get to him and knock him out.”

Another awkward silence. He found a suitable root and pulled his hunting knife out of a sheath on his belt. He carved a small notch on the side, then searched the ground for a small stick to use as the trigger for his snare. A few moments later, Kimmie finally spoke.

“I’m pretty sure my aunt and uncle were killed by a goblin.”

He glanced back to see her staring at the ground, a blank expression on her face.

“I know that’s why you asked about them in the first place. It’s not like bear attacks are that common.”

He turned back to the trap. “I have my suspicions.”

There was no response at first. Then, “So you believe me? You think that’s what killed them? This goblin?”

Ollie sighed. “It probably wasn’t a bear.”

Kimmie laughed, her expression brightening briefly before the serious look returned. “I’m sorry. You were right. I should have thought about Wendy and Albert, and Mariah and David. It’s not fair to get them involved in this. It’s just…”

Her voice trailed off. Ollie kept his eyes on the trap. “It’s okay.” He got on his hands and knees, scouring through the dead leaves and grass for a suitable stick that would fit in the notch. “You used a digital camera, didn’t you?” He glanced back at her and she nodded. “Goblin magic screws those things up. You need an old-school camera, with film. Get the disposable ones. It’ll still be fuzzy, but not as bad.”

“Oh.” She stared at the picture for a while. “Wait. How does goblin magic screw up a digital camera?”

“Magic and electricity don’t mix. They’re like,” he smacked his fists together repeatedly, “two magnets with the same pull. They push each other apart. Only worse. Electricity is like a constant whine in a goblin’s head. That’s why they hide out here, in remote areas. They avoid people, and towns. Which means there’s a reason you have one so close to your house.”

“Is that why you told me to turn off my cell phone?”

He nodded. “They can hear it. Phones are pretty loud compared to other devices, so goblins know right away when humans are encroaching on their turf. Most of the time they hear it and go into hiding to keep from getting discovered. Every once in a while, though,” he raised an eyebrow in warning, “they use it as a beacon so they can do some hunting of their own.”

She nodded in thought. “Do you have a phone?”

“Yeah, but I keep it back in my room, and it’s usually turned off.”

“Does it hurt Grika?”

He shook his head, resuming his search. “Pygmies can hear it but they aren’t usually bothered by it. They’re more about scent, and less about sense.” He stressed the consonants in each of those words.

He found a stick and broke it in half. He tested jamming it into the notch on the root, bracing the other end on the ground.

“I need to tell you something,” Kimmie said. “Full disclosure, you know?”

He turned his attention to her.

“There’s a reason I was so adamant about hunting with you.” Kimmie chewed her lip and stared at the ground. “I want us to catch the goblin together because,” she paused, searching for the words, “I need it to be me. If this thing killed my aunt and uncle, then I need to see its face, and look it in the eye when I tell it how much they meant to me. How much I miss my uncle’s fishing trips to Stone Lagoon, or my aunt’s...”

Her voice broke. Ollie froze, unsure what to do, or how to comfort her.

“Her name was Annabelle. To me, she was Auntie Belle. She was more than that, though. She was my mom, when my mom couldn’t be there for me. She always was. Uncle Rob, too. They both went out of their way to give me a home and make me feel wanted. And now they’re both gone.” She shrugged. “People don’t even ask me about them anymore. It’s like the world just forgot about them.”

He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He’d think of his own family, and he might break down right here with her.

Kimmie wiped a tear from her cheek. She looked up at him, red eyed and rosy cheeked, but with concrete resolve on her face.

“I’m not an adrenaline junkie. That’s not why I’m doing this. This is about…” She looked away for a moment. “It’s about closure.”

Ollie gave her a sympathetic nod. He wondered if she knew how much he could relate to what she’d gone through. How much he’d lost to this stupid profession, and even more stupid mistakes. But he also knew how a blind thirst for vengeance could destroy her life.

“I was a little harsh.” He stood up and brushed the dirt from his hands. “I’ve seen what happens when people let anger control them. I don’t see that in you. But you need to know that no matter what you do to this thing, it won’t bring your aunt and uncle back.”

“I know. They’re gone.” A sad smile formed on her lips. “I’m not looking for some magic pill that makes everything better. All I want to do is ask, ‘Why?’”

She looked up at the sky for a minute, then sniffed. “And you don’t have to worry about me hacking it apart with an axe like a backwoods serial killer. I can’t even hurt a fly.” He thought she was joking at first, but she didn’t laugh. “Seriously. I’m incapable of hurting any living creature. I don’t even kill bugs in my house. I trap them and release them outside. So how am I going to kill something that can look me in the eye? A living, breathing thing? If it even breathes, which I’m not completely sure it does since you told me it’s magic. But either way, I don’t have it in me to kill, no matter how angry I still am.” She looked away. “That’s why I need you here. To pull the trigger.”

He resisted the urge to walk over and give her a hug, even though she looked like she needed one.

“We’ll find it,” he said, “and you’ll have your closure, if you want it. Just…” He crouched back down and pretended to work on the trap, unwilling to look at her directly. “Be careful about getting your hopes up.”

She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Why?”

He took a deep breath. Hopefully he could be gentle with her about this part. “When a goblin kills someone, it’s usually blunt force trauma. They beat people to death, then scratch them up after the fact to make it look like an animal attack. I read the articles on your aunt and uncle, and that isn’t how they died. They were,” he paused, “torn apart from the beginning.”

She stared at him for a long time.

“Are you saying they weren’t killed by a goblin?”

“I’m saying maybe they weren’t killed by a goblin.”

Her expression went cold. “But… if it wasn’t a goblin, then…?”

“This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. Goblins are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a long list of monsters out there, most of them way worse than goblins, all of them waiting to end you and everyone you know.” He turned around, finishing the trap for real this time. “A very long list.”