The Trouble With Monsters (Creature Crisis Hotline #1)

Prologue

Hailey

There was music to living if you listened hard enough—the boom-boom of trains going across the railway tracks, the hum of cars traveling down the freeway, the song of children’s laughter, and the discordant notes of adults yelling.

My teacher said little kids shouldn’t know words like discordant, but I read a lot.

Sometimes, if I didn’t know what the word meant, I guessed and asked my teacher what it meant later, but I was good at guessing the meanings by the clues around it, like a detective. Detective stories were my favorite.

I pulled at the grass, and even the soft tearing sound—more a feeling than a noise—added to the music.

My neighbors were arguing. They were creatures, and my parents spat on their front lawn every time we walked past, but I thought they were pretty, even the husband. I didn’t think men were supposed to be pretty, but he was.

“I don’t care, Erynan. It isn’t right. She’s eating grass.”

“Maybe that’s something humans do?”

An angry huff. “We both know it isn’t, and your willful ignorance isn’t attractive.”

A long sigh. “Okay, Tiael, but if this comes back to bite us, I will gloat about it for centuries to come.”

A tinkling laugh. “I have no doubt. Go inside and grab the basket in the back of the cupboard.”

“How long have you been planning this?” the husband grumbled, but his voice was farther away, like he was doing what she asked.

My father never did anything. He was the boss.

The neighbor’s pretty face appeared over the back fence, and her eyes darted around, looking for my parents. She was fine. They’d taken their medicine and were asleep in the living room.

“Hello there, sweetheart. I’m your neighbor, Tiael.”

I propped up on my elbows. “I’m Hailey.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Hailey.” The husband appeared. He was fast. “This is my husband, Erynan. We happened to have all this extra human food lying around, and I know you’re on school break, so I wondered if you’d like it?”

My stomach ached. When was the last time I had real food? When school finished for summer? No, there’d been a box of Fruity Pebbles I finished a couple days ago.

But I knew I wasn’t supposed to take food from strangers, and Mama said some monsters ate little kids.

My stomach rumbled again. I climbed to my feet and moved warily to the fence.

I didn’t want to get so close they could grab me.

She lowered the little basket of food onto the grass on my side of the fence.

The yard was tiny, no bigger than my bedroom, but Mama said I should stay in the backyard when it was summer and that sunshine was good for kids.

I didn’t like it when they locked the doors, and I didn’t like having to pee behind bushes, but I liked the life music and sunshine, and it smelled nicer.

I looked into the basket. It was all stuff in packets I could hide in the backyard, and it wouldn’t go yucky if it rained. Father couldn’t eat it… or Mama. Just me.

I opened one of the chocolate bars and shoved it in my mouth, chewing frantically.

“Easy, little human. You don’t want to choke,” the husband, Ery-something, said. Despite looking a little like a girl, he sounded like my principal, so I slowed my chewing.

“Very good,” Tiael murmured softly. “Where are your parents?”

I shrugged. Mama said if the police asked where they were, I should say they were at work so they didn’t take me away and give me to monsters who would eat me.

She said kids in foster care went to big snake creatures who ate children whose parents didn’t want them, but these were my neighbors, and not the police.

“They are sick.” It wasn’t a lie. That’s what Mama had said when she locked me out today.

I looked at Tiael. “You’re really pretty. ”

She let out a soft laugh. “You are beautiful too, Hailey.”

I screwed up my nose. I smelled bad, and I had dirt crusted on my knees. She looked so clean and shiny, and I was… not. She was lying to me, but Mama said it was okay to lie sometimes.

“Thank you.”

“How old are you?” Ery-something asked, and I blinked up at him.

He sounded mad, but maybe he didn’t like feeling left out. “You’re pretty too. I’m five.”

He made a scary noise and disappeared behind the fence. Did I make him mad?

Tiael’s smile didn’t falter, and she didn’t flinch like Mama did when Father got angry. “I think he’s pretty as well,” she said with a wink, then her smile dropped a little. “If you ever need help, you can come next door, okay?”

I nodded, opening a trail mix bar. “Okay.”

She hesitated. “And you can take food from us because we are your neighbors, but you shouldn’t ever go anywhere with other strangers or accept food from other fae. Do you know what a fae is?”

“The tall, pretty monsters.”

She winced. “Creatures, sweet one. We don’t like being called monsters.”

“Okay,” I replied, my mouth full.

“Tomorrow, I’ll make lunch, and you can come over and have a hot meal, okay?”

I nodded eagerly, because I hadn’t had hot food in forever.

“Okay, go find somewhere to put that food so the raccoons won’t get it, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded, and when I heard a sniff from the other side of the fence, I wondered if she’d fallen and scraped her knee too. At least Ery-something would hug her and make it better. I took my little basket and put it behind my pee bush.

* * *

School began tomorrow, and I couldn’t wait to tell Tiael and Erynan. I was going to be in first grade. Mama had even gotten me new shoes from the thrift store, and they were almost perfect. They had no holes or anything. When we walked up our street, though, it was all blocked off by firetrucks.

I raced ahead of Mama and realized Erynan and Tiael’s house was on fire. My heart pounded in my chest, and I tried to duck under the police tape, but there was a policeman there, blocking my way.

“Stay back, kid. Don’t want to get in the way of the firemen.”

Frowning, I looked through the crowd, searching for my friends.

I had lunch with Tiael and Ery every day.

They let me use their bathroom and even their bathtub, and Tiael washed my clothes.

They even made me a cake for my birthday last week.

I’d never had cake before. It was chocolate, and it was the best thing I’d ever eaten.

The firemen would have gotten them out of the building first, right?

“Hailey, get away from there,” Mama snapped, but I pretended not to hear her.

The police and firemen moved, and I saw them. “Tiael!” I yelled, and like she was tuned into my voice, her head whipped toward me. She ran over and dragged me under the police tape, kneeling so she could hug me tightly.

“You’re okay. I was worried you’d come over, and when no one could find you, I feared the worst.”

A hand gripped my arm and wrenched me back under the tape, out of Tiael’s arms. I looked up at my father’s face, his expression a scary mask.

Tiael straightened to her full height, her own face not wearing its usual happy expression. It was something uglier.

“Don’t touch my kid, monster,” my father grunted, and I held completely still. My hands shook, but I curled them against my thighs so he couldn’t see. “You think you’d learn. This neighborhood isn’t for you. My kid isn’t yours, you sick fuckers.”

Tiael stepped forward, as if to pull me back beneath the police tape, but I stepped away. I didn’t want her to be close to my father. He was… not nice. Her eyes dropped to mine, and her features folded into sadness, her eyes welling with tears.

Erynan was suddenly there, as well as a bunch of other tall creatures. I didn’t know what they were, but they felt big. I couldn’t explain it.

“Back away from my wife,” Ery warned in a soft voice.

My father spat at his feet. “Get the fucking hint and leave.”

One of the big guys stepped forward, but he didn’t say anything. He just stared until my father dropped his hand from my arm, ready to fight, I guess.

“Please, Chet. There has to be something we can do,” Tiael begged a tall man at her side.

“This is a human issue, and we have no authority. The cops will investigate your housefire, of course, and we’ll be watching,” he rumbled, glaring at my father, “but there’s nothing else we can do other than report it.”

Tiael let out a choking noise. It was probably the smoke.

It was burning my eyes too, making tears run down my face.

She crouched down again, holding her arms out, and I ran to her.

I’d get in trouble for it later, but I knew in my heart that they were leaving and I’d never see them again. I wanted to say goodbye.

Tiael wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my hair.

Erynan put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.

“I’m so sorry, sweet one. Just remember that you are smart, sweet, and so fierce.

You deserve all the good things in the world, and one day, you can escape this.

Don’t accept anything less than what you deserve. ”

“Back up,” someone growled behind me, but I didn’t move my face from Tiael’s shoulder. I didn’t want to be alone again. My chest felt like it was buried under rocks, and they were crushing me.

Erynan bent low. “Remember to trust your gut. Don’t judge people on how they look, but by their actions. The world makes it easy to be the worst version of yourself, but you can make it better just by holding onto that light inside you.” He ruffled my hair gently.

“You have to let go, ma’am.” I looked up at the soft face of a policeman.

He was human. Tiael let out a sob but stood.

“We’ll meet again, Hailey Swoon. I promise,” she whispered as Mama grabbed my arm and dragged me toward our front yard.

I watched as Tiael and Erynan got into a van with the big guys and drove away.

Tiael’s face pressed to the glass, her hand raised in a wave, but I didn’t dare wave back.