Page 12 of Of Monsters Of Kings

Hands clawed at my ankles in the dark. I was dragged backward over uneven wooden boards through a narrow crevice. The edges grated at the sides of my body, pulling my dress to my hips as I battled to the land of the waking.

Light erupted, and I shielded my eyes from the harsh glare. My mind surged to catch up with each gasping breath.

I was flat on my back on the floor of my apartment bedroom. Light blared in through the single window, a burning contrast to the dark elevator shaft.

“She’s been living here rent-free,” a shrill voice declared. A wet cough followed.

I sat, pushing my linen dress down. “Rent is due today. You’ll get it.”

My senses kicked in. They’d pulled me from the elevator shaft. I whirled in panic to look at the small hole in the wall and at the trunk upturned on the ground by my cot. They’d found me. They’d found Mother.

Mouth drying, I turned a horror-filled gaze on the occupants in the room.

Two law enforcement officers. The landlady.

I scrambled to stand and backed up until I covered the hole in the wall. As if that would stop them from investigating when they’d just yanked me from it. Had they seen Mother? “What do you want? I'm not late on my payments. Rent is due today.”

I willed my mother to stay silent. Sometimes she moaned nonsense in a medicine haze.

“Today?” the landlady screeched. “Rent was due three weeks ago.”

Three weeks ago. I hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but at most, I’d slept a matter of hours. There didn’t seem to be a plausible reason for them to have burst in like this, and how on earth did they find our hiding spot? I held my stance in front of the hole. I had to deter them from checking inside the shaft. They’d missed Mother once, but they wouldn’t miss her a second time.

“Get out of the way,” a law enforcement agent growled. He wrinkled his nose and went as far as to hold an arm over his nose and mouth as he approached me.

When I didn’t move, he shoved me toward his partner, who gripped both of my upper arms.

I blurted, “I couldn’t pay rent, so I decided to hide in there.”

My voice went unheard in the chaos.

“You owe me three weeks of rent and more for the stench.” The landlady lunged forward and slapped me, clawing at my cheek with her cracked, yellowed nails.

“Get back,” snarled the man holding me.

She darted him a look and scuttled away, throwing me a vicious smirk as blood dribbled over my jaw and down my neck.

The first agent cursed. “Hole’s too small to see properly. There’s something dead in there for sure.”

I stopped breathing.

He glared over his shoulder. “Did you have an animal in there with you? Food?”

Mother.

“The stench is filling my building.” The landlady cut in. “I’ve got complaints the length of my arm. Demands for discounted rent. I won’t have it! She needs to pay up.”

The stench. Three weeks.

The man holding me gagged.

I croaked, “What month is it?” When no one answered, I repeated my question in a louder voice.

“July,” the landlady sneered. “You won’t get out of this, so don’t cry insanity. Three weeks to the day, and three weeks you will pay.”

I spoke over my shoulder to the gagging man. “It’s been three weeks?”

The first agent cursed louder. “It’s July. Now shut your trap.” He kicked at the wall to widen the hole into the shaft, ignoring the whining protests of the landlady.

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