Brooke Lee's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Brooke Lee wanted to make the old Marreiott the pride of the town again. Instead she stood alone in the lobby at midnight, mopping goblin tracks off the marble. Her fourth housekeeper had quit that morning. "People say this place eats folks," the woman had said, and left before lunch. Brooke pushed her cat-eye glasses up her nose and kept mopping. Her curls stuck to her forehead. Her pantsuit reeked of bleach. She hadn't slept a full night in two weeks. A scratching came from the walls. Then a shriek from the east stairwell. Brooke didn't flinch anymore. She just wrote it in her notebook, like a plumber logging a leak. Faded grandeur, cracked ceilings, and things that moved after dark. She loved the building anyway. She could not run it alone, and no one sane would stay. The front doors opened. Two women walked in from the dark. The first had rainbow dreadlocks and bare feet, carrying a jar of dried leaves. The second wore a schoolgirl's uniform and horn-rimmed glasses, her pink hair damp with rain. Brooke knew the barefoot one. Moonflower sold herbs at the market and never explained herself. "You have a nest," Moonflower said. She set the jar on the front desk. "Goblins. Third floor. I smelled it from the street." "I know," Brooke said. "I can't hold the place. Staff won't stay." Moonflower opened the jar and shook out a pinch of powder. "They stay if the halls are clean. Goblins hate this. Burn it in the vents." The pink-haired girl stepped forward. "Tia," she said. "I hunt things that hide in buildings. This one's loud." She said it flat, like a fact. Then she crossed to the east stairwell, listened, and pointed. "Nest is above us. I'll clear it." Brooke stared. "You'll get hurt." "No," Tia said, and went up. Brooke followed with the mop still in her hand. On the third floor, Tia moved fast. Small hands, quick feet. She kicked a hole in the drywall where the scratching lived. Green shapes spilled out, snapping teeth. Tia struck each one down before it reached the stairs. Moonflower burned her powder in the doorway. The smoke drove the last of them out a broken window. When it went quiet, the third floor was still. Brooke leaned on the wall, breathing hard. She had two people who did not run. "I can pay a little," Brooke said. "Rooms, meals, and honest wages when the money comes." Moonflower picked up her jar. "I want the garden out back. The soil's good." "Take it," Brooke said. Tia wiped drywall dust from her sleeve. "I'll stay while the building's loud." Brooke wrote both names in her notebook. The nest was gone, but the smoke had drawn something to the shattered window. A pair of purple eyes watched them from the dark outside, wide and patient, and did not blink.