The Thing At Geode Creek

5.

Gilbert had guessed incorrectly, it had taken three hours to clear the Lovejoy's house of goblins. Ultimately it didn't mater Julia Lovejoy did not return, so Gilbert locked the house up and pocketed the key, he'd mail it back to her once the payment had cleared. He left the bill on the door with a note written by Clarissa about the key. Gilbert was thankful for Clarissa as his own hand writing was rather poor, and her's very fine, he felt at that time he'd made the right choice at taking her on as his assistant. Both of them had been covered in goblin remains by the time the job was through. Clarissa had also got a scratch that ran the length of her neck, Gilbert had done what he could with his first aid kit, but told her to watch for an infection, goblins had poor nail care.

"Are all jobs like this?" They were down the road, it was getting dark out and Clarissa could see storm clouds on the horizon.

"More or less, some are obviously harder, involve more prep work, but at the end of the day, proper technique applied properly will get you home and mostly in one piece."

"Mostly in one piece." Clarissa could feel the burn from the claw marks, she didn't even see the goblin that gave them to her, she just felt the pain and then the splatter of the goblin as Gilbert killed it.

"I'm really sorry about your neck, even small jobs in this business are dangerous, never forget that."

"I won't Gil, and don't worry it was mostly my fault, I got a little blood lusty there and I paid for it." Gilbert laughed, "What's so funny?"

"Oh just how things went, you started today not knowing monsters were real, and you end it that you got hurt because you were trying to kill goblins recklessly. World is a funny place sometimes."

"I guess that's true, so do you have any other..." Clarissa was interrupted by Gilbert's phone going off.

"Doris you know I don't like talking while I'm driving."

"I know that, client insisted."

"And I'm insisting I'm tired Doris, it was a long day, lots of goblins."

"I did not realize tired was a reason not to do work Gilbert, maybe I should be too tired to balance the books next month, or make sure that bills get paid, or answe..."

"Point taken Doris, so the client is insisting."

"Said it can't wait till the morning and you're close to Canada anyway." Clarissa got a little worried when she heard Canada, she didn't have her passport with her.

"Canada?" Gilbert sighed and pulled the van over, they were on a two lane highway and were the only car in the area, but driving safety was something Gilbert took very seriously. He pulled a small note pad and pen up from the center console area. "Ok put the man through."

"Didn't say it was a man Gilbert you know that's sex..."

"Doris put the client through and stop trying my patience." There was a sigh and then a click and then a man's voice replaced Doris.

"Is this Gilbert Dunkley?" The voice sounded upper class, just the way he pronounced Dunkley made Clarissa feel embarrassed.

"Speaking."

"What do you know about Geode Creek." The place sounded familiar to Clarissa, but she couldn't remember why.

"Nine murders, they said it was a serial Mr?"

"Dufton, Francis Dufton, and yes I heard the same thing, just some lone wolf killer, let me buy the cabins up there at a discounted rate, and rent them out to thrill seekers looking for ghosts."

"Smart people don't go looking for Ghosts Mr. Dufton, they leave that shit be."

"All the same, I made some money, everything was going fine except recently."

"You lost contact with people you sent up to those cabins, and you suspect it wasn't a serial that killed those nine people."

"Correct Mr. Dunkley, something is up in those woods that's for sure, and it killed at least nine people, and an associate of mine said you handle these things."

"And you need me up there right away?"

"Tonight if you're able, your receptionist said you were in the area." Gilbert cursed under his breath.

"Yeah I'm able, won't be cheap though, you'll get a weekend rate."

"Money is no object, success is all that matters."

"Give me the address, speak slowly please Mr. Dufton." Dufton gave Gilbert the address and then Gilbert hung up his phone and got the van going again, the windows had fogged up a bit while he was talking.

"Sorry to do this to you Clarissa, and I can let you out if you don't want to go, this will not be an easy job, and the danger level is rather high."

"As long as whatever this is doesn't explode on me I'll be ok."

"Well don't necessarily know if it'll explode, but you never can tell with shit like this." That caused Clarissa to laugh and Gilbert found himself laughing along. Just two people in a van driving down a dark highway laughing at the idea of exploding monsters. The usual.