Death's Apprentice: A Grimm City Novel Read Online Free Page A

peach tree at the center of the garden square. Its withered, leafless branches raked like skeletal fingers through the rain-filled air above his head. When he stood back up, three more plastic action figures stood on the rain-soaked ground. Rescued from the trash, each now held a twig in its small, upraised hands, as though brandishing a weapon. The madman stepped back, nodding his head in approval of the miniature tableau.
    “You know that tree’s dead, don’t you?”
    The voice wasn’t one of those that nattered and yelped inside the madman’s head. Even he could tell that these words were real. Anyone in the deserted square might have heard them.
    Startled, the madman looked back over his hunched shoulder. Across the sodden rubbish and brown weeds straggling up between the paving stones, a figure sat on one of the broken benches at the side. Vandals’ boots had broken apart the bench’s wooden planks, leaving just space enough for one person to sit. The dim moonlight that managed to slide through the shafts of rain revealed only the glint of blue eyes watching the madman.
    “You’d better get away from there—” The madman didn’t like having his private rituals observed. “Before you get yourself in trouble.”
    “Trouble?” The figure sitting on the bench sounded amused. “What kind of trouble?”
    The madman dragged his gunnysack closer to the blackened trunk of the dead tree.
    “This place is dangerous,” the madman muttered darkly. “ He doesn’t like people coming in without his permission.”
    “He?” A fragment of a smile emerged in the darkness. “Who exactly are you talking about, old man?”
    “Him!” The madman could tell that he was being mocked. Face set in quivering anger, he pointed to the red-faced, cloven-hoofed toy figure imbedded in the ground. “If he sees you here, you’re done for. I can promise you that!”
    “But how would he see me?”
    “From up there, you idiot!” The madman pointed beyond the figure sitting on the bench, to the black office tower at one side of the garden square.
    The figure on the bench didn’t bother to look up. “What’s that thing sticking out of his chest?” He nodded toward the horned doll in front of the peach tree. “Is that a nail?”
    “That’s because they killed him!” The madman’s voice rose in demented triumph. “Look—it’s gone right through him.” He snatched up the doll and held it out before himself. With the thumb and forefinger of his other hand, he grasped the iron nail that had been thrust into it. The plastic squeaked as he pulled the nail out a bit, then shoved it back in. “With a great big spear—just like this! Killed the evil bastard dead!”
    In the shadows at the side of the garden square, a scowl replaced the smile on the watching figure’s face.
    “Killed him?” A sneer sounded in his voice. “But I thought he lives in that building? How can he do that if he’s dead?”
    “I … I don’t know,” muttered the madman. He pawed at the side of his head, as though he could somehow dig through the bone of his skull and release some of the chaotic images trapped inside. “It’s all … mixed up. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet. But it will!” His eyes shone with absolute certainty. “I know it will! I can see it! As clear as I can see you sitting there! It’s all true—I know it is!”
    “And who is it…” The watching figure’s voice softened as he studied the madman crouched near the dead pear tree. “Who’s going to kill him?”
    “The three of them, of course—who else? Look—can’t you see them?” With demented certainty, the madman squatted down and laid the red-faced doll at the other toys’ feet, the fatal nail sticking up from its chest.
    “Just like that! That’s how they did it! That’s how it’ll be!” The madman gazed down at the toys, fixated by the depiction of their victory. “This one here—” He tapped a dirty fingertip on the nearest one’s plastic head.