Page 3 of Nightmare For Hire
Rivenfield.
Chapter 1
Nox—Present Day
My client, a jackalope, fidgets across from me in a booth at the noisy Portal Place Diner. Their long jackrabbit ears twitch as they tell me the story of how their ex, a human, cheated on them. They have this habit of running a hand over one of their antlers when they talk. Their front teeth are oversized in their human form and they have a slightly upturned nose. Who could ever cheat on this cute bunny?
“Jaxson told me no one could love a beast like me, then went back on Monster Match and found someone to cheat with. Who does that?” Their wide brown eyes plead with me to take their case.
“Don’t worry, Nev. I got you. They’ll be having nightmares for however long you want.”
“He cheated on me for three months.” Nev wipes their eyes.
“Then three months it is.” I jot the information down on my phone. “That’ll be three hundred dollars or a one inch strand of unicorn hair.”
Nev’s eyes grow wide. “That’s a lot cheaper than I was expecting.”
I shrug. “You’re my first client. Don’t wanna oversell myself. What’s your end goal? Just scare him? Make him change his ways? Come back to you? I can’t guarantee anything except for nightmares, but I can direct them.” I wave my long fingers as if I’m conducting an orchestra.
Nev shakes their head, and their tight black curls bounce. “I don’t want him back. He can rot in nightmare hell as far as I’m concerned.” They cross their arms across their chest.
“I can do that, make him crazy, but it’ll cost a lot more than three hundred bucks or a bit of unicorn hair.” I tap my temple. “A bit of your conscience goes away when you agree to something like that.”
If it’s even possible, Nev’s eyes grow even wider. “No. No. Just scare him. And maybe not every night. Give him a couple of nights’ rest and then start again. He won’t get a lot of sleep and that’ll make him grouchy. Hopefully, his hookups will dump him for being an asshole.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Nev eyes me. “You’re not what I expected a Nightmare to be.”
I give them a bright smile. “I get that a lot. People expect this tall, dark, and brooding emo goth kid and I’m the total opposite.”
“But you do have a different form, right?”
“Oh, you mean this?”
They suck in a gasp, no doubt because my usually green eyes turn completely black. Sclera and all. Slowly, shadows wrap around my lithe body until I’m practically nothing. All sound muffles until it’s like Nev and I are in a vacuum, where only weexist. Of course, I can do this transformation in a blink of an eye, but I like dramatics.
“Yeah.” Nev sucks in a breath and I drop back into my human self because shadows can’t talk.
“I don’t use it unless I’m feeding, much preferring my human self in recent years.” Humans arewaycuter than shadows. Right now I’m in a hot pink pleated schoolgirl skirt and a matching crop top with capped sleeves. My golden blond hair is a bit shaggy around the ears and curling at my nape. White liner makes my green eyes pop. And I have a dusting of shimmery blush over the bridge of my nose and apples of my cheeks. I’m fucking adorable. And don’t get me started on how much I love these pink platform boots. They’re the best part of the outfit, along with my crossbody bag that’s shaped like a heart. Ineverleave home without one of my bags, at least if I can help it.
Never in my life have I let human gender ideas decide how I dress. I dress for myself, and today I’m a happy pink princess. Right down to the pretty silver jeweled barrette in my hair that in the right light could be a tiara. I’m a guy that knows exactly what he wants and goes for it. Human ideals be damned.
Nev nods. “I wish I had a fully human form, but this works.” They sigh as they wave to their head. “Makes it hard sometimes, to find someone to accept me for me. Yeah, I have antlers and rabbit ears, but I’m still a good person, ya know?”
I reach a hand out to pat theirs. “I get it. I’m old. Likeold, old,as old as the universe old, and I’ve watched humans evolve over the years. They aren’t even nice to each other. I hope someday that changes, though.” This kind of talk always gets me down. “But let’s not dwell on that, okay? I’m gonna go scare the bejesus out of this guy. I’ll text you results if you want.”
Nev’s eyes light up. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
“Great. I’ll get started tonight.” I pull up the Monster Match app and find Jaxson. “This the guy?”
Nev confirms. I send the bait. We wait.
“Wanna milkshake?” I ask. “My treat.”
“No, I’m good. My stomach’s upset just wa—”
My phone buzzes and I open the app. “Gotcha. He’s up for dinnertonight. He—and I quote—wants to find a sweet monster to settle down with.” Ew. Barf my nonexisting soul.
