Page 6 of Mated to the Monster Under my Bed
“Oh my God,” I breathed, looking at them. “What the hell is going on here? Where is this place?”
“I believe my beautiful Heartmate told you that this is Hidden Hollow,” the devil guy—who I now realized was probably not wearing a costume—said helpfully.
“No, no, Malik—she’s not actually asking where we are. She’s in shock!”
Celia bustled out from behind the counter and took me by the arm. She grabbed the hot chocolate and shoved it into my hands as she pulled me back towards the door.
“Look, I’m really sorry I can’t explain everything to you right now, but there’s a big convention in town,” she told me. “I think one of their lectures just let out so we’re about to be swamped.”
As she spoke, more fairy-tale creatures started pouring into the bakery. There was another Minotaur and then I saw a huge, green, muscular guy with tusks growing out of his bottom teeth. Was that an Orc?
“I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Is this real? How can this be?”
Celia sighed and shook her head.
“Yes, it’s real. No, you’re not dreaming,” she recited rapidly. Behind her, a line was forming and her demon husband was beginning to take orders as fast as he could.
“But…but…”
“The person you need to talk to is Goody Albright at the Red Lion Inn,” she told me. “I’m really sorry—I would take you over there but Sarah went out for a minute and I can’t leave Malik to deal with this crowd alone. So just go to the Red Lion and ask for Goody A. You can’t miss it.” She ushered me out the door, which now had a line standing outside, and pointed up the street. “I’m sure I’ll see you later,” she added. “Hot chocolate’s on the house.”
Then she hurried back inside, leaving me to stare after her with the hot chocolate clutched in my hand.
What the hell was I going to do?
5
DANNI
What I did was take a sip of the hot chocolate. The warm, rich, impossibly delicious flavor rolled over my tongue and convinced me that I wasn’t dreaming. The cool whipped cream that I had to wipe off my nose added to the feeling that this really was real. I was in a magical town called Hidden Hollow filled with fairy-tale creatures and it appeared that I was stuck here.
Since I didn’t have anywhere else to go, I followed Celia, the bakery owner’s advice, and walked back down the street towards The Red Lion. Fairy tale creatures were coming out of it. I saw more Centaurs and Minotaurs and Orcs and some women who were tall and thin and looked like they had bark for skin as well as several others. Most of the people I saw seemed to be women—there were even a few that seemed to be human. All of them were talking amongst themselves and, aside from a few questioning glances, none of them seemed to notice me much at all.
Feeling awkward, I hung around the sidewalk, finishing my hot chocolate as I waited for the crowd to thin. At last the stream of people leaving The Red Lion Inn slowed and then stopped. They all seemed to be shopping or walking up and down the main street, ducking into the quaint little shops.
The only ones left on the broad front porch were several very ancient looking Grandmas, all dressed in black and purple dresses and pointed hats. They looked like they were dressed as witches for Halloween but now I was more inclined to believe they were real witches and the “costumes” they appeared to be wearing were just their normal clothes.
I climbed the front porch steps and walked past them—they didn’t even glance at me. I pushed open the door and walked inside to find myself in what looked like an old-fashioned hotel. The lobby was decorated in painted portraits of serious-looking people wearing stiff, uncomfortable looking clothes. There was a stairway that led up to the rooms, presumably, and an ancient cage-type elevator right beside it that looked like it would hold exactly one petite person at a time.
The front desk was manned by a person who looked like Mr. Tumnus from the Chronicles of Narnia books I had loved as a child. He had curly little horns growing out of his forehead and big brown eyes. When he took a step back from the counter, I saw that he had goat legs with neat little cloven hooves. The top half of him was dressed in a jacket and tie, though he wore no shirt and the bottom half was simply covered in fur.
“Hello there—how may I assist you?” he asked, raising his eyebrows politely and I realized I had been staring rudely at him.
“Oh, um…” I felt more out of place than ever and wished even more that I had taken the time to get dressed that morning instead of deciding to hang out at home in my nightclothes. At least I had put on a little makeup, but my hair was a curly mess and I was tired of feeling half dressed.
“Would you like me to throw that away for you?” the faun desk clerk asked, motioning to the empty hot-chocolate cup, which I was still holding.
“Oh, thank you.” I gave him the cup and then, gathering my courage I asked, “Can I please speak to Goody Albright? Celia at The Lost Lamb sent me to see her.”
“Hmm, she’s very busy with the convention just at the moment, but I’ll see if she has a moment.” The faun rang a little bell and another one of those strange women with bark-like skin came over at once.
“Yes? What is it?” she asked briskly. I couldn’t help noticing that her hair looked like moss and there appeared to be a small twig growing out of the side of her nose.
“This human has asked to see Goody Albright,” the faun told her. “I wouldn’t bother her, but it seems that Celia sent her over.”
“Oh, I’ll go see if I can get her for you.” The woman with bark-skin nodded at me and scurried off.
“Thank you,” I said apologetically to the faun. “I’m, uh, new here.”
