Radley's Home for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (chromebook ebook reader TXT) 📕

“Fantastic,” Mike muttered, following Tink. She walked down the hall, her eyes intent on something he couldn’t see.

“Tracks everywhere,” Tink informed him. “Upstairs, downstairs. Elemental go in most rooms, but come back out.” As he turned to go down the stairs, Mike noticed the wardrobe at the end of the hall. He walked up t pot, then made to turn the latch.

“No tracks there,” Tink told him, yanking on the band of his pants. “We go look downstairs.”

Mike followed her, holding his towel ready as they stepped into the living room. They kept going into the kitchen where Tink opened up the trashcan. She reached in and pulled free what was left of the folder from Elizabeth. “Fire elemental come from here.”

Mike didn’t have to ask how she knew. The folder was burnt. Looking into the can he saw the nest of ashes at the bottom. The elemental started as a spark, and he wondered if throwing away the offer had triggered it to burn and grow. “Okay, so what now?”

Cecilia’s loud wail carried through the house, sending shivers up Mike’s spine. Tink covered her ears, frowning in the direction of her cries. They ran toward the noise, ending up in one of the sitting rooms in the front of the house. Cecilia stood just outside the window, her mouth stretched wide, pointing at the ceiling. Up above, Mike saw the creature standing on the ceiling, hissing in response.

Mike and Tink walked further into the room as Cecilia drifted through the walls, her shrieks rising in volume. Mike put fingers in his ears, his eyes on the angry red lizard. It looked like it was made of lava, the air around it shimmering from the sheer heat of its skin. Its eyes blazed like fiery coals, and it hissed at Cecilia. It leapt off of the ceiling, passing straight through the banshee and colliding with the carpet. Spinning in place, leaving scorch marks on the hardwood, it spotted Mike.

“Oh shit!” Mike yelled, raising his towel when the lizard came at him. It left a fiery trail on the floor, the hardwood burning up beneath it. It launched itself through the air, and Mike dodged out of the way, letting it collide with a piece of furniture behind him. The white sheet burned up, the chair underneath igniting. The elemental burned its way through springs and fluff, the chair burning up, but the flames remaining local. Uncertain how to proceed, Mike watched the chair from the side, squatting down to see beneath it.

The elemental charged him, crossing the space in a second. Leaping for his face, it was knocked out of the air by the fast crack of the wet towel from Tink. The elemental missed, crashing into the table behind Mike. Mike, acting fast, unfurled his own towel and scooped up the elemental inside. It shrieked, steam rising from the towel.

“Fuck!” Mike shouted, dropping his bundle from Hell. It was too hot to carry.

Cecilia grabbed the wet towel with both hands, span in a circle and launched it toward the window. The glass shattered, and the elemental and towel landed in the front yard.

“Quick!” Mike and Tink ran outside, where Cecilia met them. The wet bundle looked like an angry steamed dumpling, rolling around in the yard as the elemental fought its way free. Mike grabbed the towel from Tink, unfolding it. “Is there a hose out here?” Mike asked.

“Tink find.” She leapt over the railing and ran along the side of the house. Mike held up the towel like a blanket, going the long way down the front steps. Staying off to the side, he watched the elemental squeeze free, scorching a circle in the grass and growing in size.

“Tink!” Mike cried. There was no way he was going to be able to grab it. The lizard was now the size of a large dog. It ran at him on its hind legs, letting out a high-pitched shriek. He saw Tink off to the side, wrestling with a hose that had too many kinks in it.

A thousand pounds of stone slammed into the elemental from above and grabbed it around the neck. Flames licked at Abella’s stone skin, but the fire wasn’t hot enough to bother the gargoyle. Clutching the elemental in her talons, Abella lifted into the sky, flying over the roof and crossing over into the backyard.

Mike and Tink ran back through the house and into the garden in time to see Abella fighting the angry elemental above the fountain.

“Naia!” Mike shouted.

The nymph appeared directly below Abella. She waved her hands, forming intricate patterns in the air as a wall of water formed around the fountain’s perimeter. Abella landed in the fountain, pinning the fire elemental in place as Naia made the walls crash in. The fountain steamed, the elemental desperately fighting through the waves that kept catching it and pushing it back toward the middle.

The water in the fountain started to boil. Naia ran around the edge of the fountain, coaxing more water up from below to replenish the basin. The garden filled with steam as the elemental unleashed its magic, attempting to boil off the water and escape. Abella’s face was a mask of anger, her teeth bared at the threat beneath her as it shape shifted, an amorphous being determined to survive.

Mike and Tink could only watch helplessly as the air became too thick with vapor to see.

Several minutes passed, the noise dying down. A cool breeze sucked the steam away, revealing Abella crouched in the middle of the fountain, the water now gone and a tiny glowing ember trapped beneath her hand. Naia nodded at the gargoyle, and Abella crushed it with her fist, extinguishing its light. The fountain refilled, the water sizzling upon contact with the hot stone floor.

“Holy shit,” Mike muttered.

Abella collapsed in the fountain.

Mike hopped in, the warm water soaking his pant legs, to help her stand. The gargoyle was covered in soot marks. She sat in the water, breathing