Page 127 of Shroom for Improvement

“I’m s-sorry, who? Who are you?”

The fire daemon pointed a meaty finger at me, held it aloft dramatically, and Paul hobbled backwards. He turned towards me, though not all the way, choosing to keep Jasper the main target of his sights.

“Hey, sorry kid, I’m not arguing with that thing.”

“Understandable,” I said, unbuckling my belt. I slid out the door, slipped the driver a twenty despite only travelling a single kilometre at most, and fetched my suitcase from the boot.

Paul reversed away from the scene before Jasper had even tossed my bag into the bed.

“I thought your monster truck was in the garage?” I said.

“This is a rental.”

Sure. Monster-truck rental. Okay.

“Hey, your teeth are growing back,” I said. Jasper glared at me. “So, you taking me to Stinkhorn Manor?” I resisted the urge to celebrate. As much as I couldn’t wait to get back to Claude, there was something... unsettling about the whole situation.

Maybe I’d forgotten something. There was no phone signal at Stinkhorn Manor, or even out here, so if I had left something behind, there would be no way for Claude to call and tell me.

But why not just send whatever I’d forgotten with Jasper? Why dismiss the taxi and have the daemon bring me back?

“Fuck that! I’m taking you to the station,” he said instead.

Every nerve ending in my body suddenly went into warning mode. Internal alarms were popping off left, right, and centre. Danger. Danger.

I hung back in the middle of the empty street, unwilling to take a step closer to the truck until I knew what was going on. “I was already in a taxi on my way to Agaricus Station. It doesn’t matter anyway, I’ve cha—”

“I ain’t taking you twenty minutes down the road to Agaricus. I’m driving you all the way back to Onyxshire.”

Danger! Danger! Danger!

“No, I’ve changed my mind. I want to go back to Stinkhorn Manor,” I said.

“To hell you are. You’re coming with me.”

Holy fuck, he was enormous. But I forced myself to remain calm, at least on the outside. “No, I’m not going to... I need to be with Claude.”

Jasper crossed the ten-foot gap between us in two strides. “I said you’re coming with me.” And with that he picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like a rag doll. Then he threw me into the rear seat of his truck. “I have rope and duct tape. Don’t make me use it. We’re gonna have a fun trip to the station.”

I barely had time to bleat my objections before he cut me off.

“Do you like car games?”

I massaged my hip where his spiky shoulder bone had dug into my flesh. “How long is the drive?”

“Good ten hours.”

I puffed out a breath and subtly removed my phone from my pocket. Still no signal. Damn, damn, damn.

And then it occurred to me. Claude must have known I would change my mind and want to come back to Stinkhorn. He must have sent Jasper to make sure I didn’t miss my one-time-only meeting with Dr Sorrel. “Sure. Car games are fine.”

What other choice did I have?

Speak of the Devil

Claude

I stood in the grand doorway of Stinkhorn Manor, staring at the spot at the end of the drive where Sonny had disappeared. Five, ten, thirty minutes passed. Oggy and Willow retreated into the house. Only John waited with me, like he had all the time in the world.

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