I ran a bit late getting back to Mo’Lock and the creature. I wound up drinking half the bottle I’d purchased while I drove home, so I turned back around and bought another one. The clerk at the store said he’d give me a discount on cases. I sneered at him. I should’ve clocked him. Fucking dick.

It really pissed me off when some asshole butt-fuck thought it was his right to get into my shit. I mean, I’d never consider walking up to someone on the street and telling them what I thought. Oh well, screw it. Most people don’t know half the shit that’s going on around them anyway. If they did, they’d have a heart attack.

I made my way back to my house about forty-five minutes after I’d left. I ambled my way up the stairs, sensing something almost instantly. There was something very wrong ahead of me. I got to my floor when the scent rolled beneath my nostrils. Blood and lots of it . . . coming from my house.

I shifted my parcel into my left arm and took out my revolver. I slid along the outside of the house, moving quietly so that I could hear any noise that might be coming from inside. The sounds I heard were strange and unnatural. There was a sort of sloshing, followed by a wet slap, then more sloshing.

I got right outside my door and made my move. I hate putting things like this off. I kicked in the door. It flew open and the smell of blood grew thicker. My office was covered with it, and I mean fuckin’ everywhere. The walls and floor were smeared sticky red.

And there in the middle of the room was Mo’Lock, with a mop.

He looked up at me. There was a hint of fear in his hollow eyes, but beneath them, a slack-jawed guilty mouth.

“I can explain,” he said.

I almost dropped my bag, but instead put it on the floor, slowly, as I kicked the door shut. I kept my gun in hand. I could feel my body shaking, but I couldn’t tell whether I was scared or mad. I made a sort of side-swipe gesture with my head telling the ghoul to get on with the explaining.

He stood there holding the mop, covered in blood the way a spastic kid gets covered with mud. “Well, you had a client stop by. A new one, I think, and well, she came to the door . . .”

That was all I needed to hear. I was looking around the room. “Where’s that little fuck?”

“It’s in the bathroom,” said Mo’Lock. “It was a woman and I managed to lock the thing in the bathroom before she saw it... and well . . . while I was explaining that you were running an errand . . . the thing got out of the bathroom . . .”