“Say, how are we going to get rid of the goblins?” Dalton asked as he helped Malcolm pull the boards blocking the door. “You do have a plan right?”

“How about we just burn them all?” Ozul suggested.

“Our job is to kill the Goblin King, not all the goblins,” Malcolm said as he ripped off one of the boards. “If we burn down the building, you’re going to have to pay for it. Not me. You.”

“So, we go down and kill the Goblin King, that’s it?”

“And once we do, we don’t have child molesters or serial killers as clients anymore,” Malcolm pulled another board. “That’s enough for me.”

“Yeah, but why?” Dalton yanked another board.

“Come on Dalton. Stop asking questions and move with the flow,” Ozul said.

“Why don’t you help out?” Dalton wiped his forehead.

“Can’t. What you do is grunt work. I shall show you my abilities when we slay the Goblin King.”

Dalton leaned to Malcolm. “Does this idiot actually have useful abilities, other than pushing people through portals?”

“No. He’s as useless as a puppy at a shooting range.” Malcolm pulled the last one. “But you, you’re the most useful person here.”

That was suspicious. “Why?”

“Because you are.” Malcolm gave him a vigorous pat on his back. “Trust me.”

“I don’t trust you! I will never trust you! The way you just said that raises a lot of red flags!” Dalton said.

“Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s go find this Goblin King.”

He was absolutely worried about it, but he also did not want to deal with a child molester as his client. Dalton followed Malcolm into the warehouse.

The warehouse was completely in shambles, but there were no goblins that Dalton could see. There were metal pens and cages that were stacked and lined up, but all of them were open and empty.

Dalton was getting a bad feeling all around. Ozul was looking at some of the empty cages, and Malcolm crouched in the center of the room.

“I found something. Come over here!” Malcolm called them. “I think I may have found where all the goblins went.”

There was a gaping dark hole where he crouched. There were streaks of blood from all direction that ended at the hole. Right next to Malcolm was a broken sign.

Goblin Hole

“No shit!” Dalton snapped. “The sign says that!”

“But we have to make sure. I think one of us needs to go down there.” Malcolm rose and stretched.

At that very moment Dalton took a step back. He knew who Malcolm was going to volunteer to go down that hole. He bumped to Ozul, and he grabbed his shoulder to make sure he would not run.

“We’ll need you go down there,” Malcolm said.

“Fuck that!” Dalton screamed. “Why don’t you go down there, or have Ozul go down there!”

“Dalton.” His eyes glinted. “I don’t want to be raped by goblins. You go down there.”

“I don’t want to be raped by goblins too! I’m not going down there!” Dalton yelled.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Malcolm said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You’re going to be safe if you go down there.”

“Like I’ll believe that!”

Ozul gave Dalton and Malcolm a thumbs up, and a shit eating grin. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll probably never even remember being raped.”

“Why don’t you go down there asshole! You have experience right?”

“You should go down there.” His grip on Dalton’s shoulder tightened. Bloody tears dropped from his eyes even though he was still smiling.

“Let go of me!” Dalton pried the fingers loose.

“No! You’re going down there! I will not ever-”

Malcolm struck the two of them on the head. “Both of you will go down there!” He pointed his revolver at the two of them. “Or you’re going to have very big holes.”

The two froze, but they weren’t staring at the revolver Malcolm was holding. They were staring at the giant green hand that grabbed Malcolm’s ankle.

Noticing their gaze, Malcolm looked down, seeing a goblin gave a gaudy smile.

Then he was pulled into the hole. His revolver clattered on the ground where he had just once stood.

The two stood frozen for a silent minute.

“…Okay. I say we go ahead and just leave,” Ozul said.

“We’re really going to leave Malcolm in there?”

“You were just yelling that someone should go down there. You got your wish,” Ozul said.

“I’d leave if it were you, but Malcolm is our boss. Going back to Eira and telling her that we let him get raped by goblins doesn’t seem like a good idea.” Dalton shuddered at the thought of her using her grimoire.

“I’d rather deal with Eira than goblins.”

Dalton took the gun and pointed at him. “You’re not going to do that. You’re coming with me.”

He felt something grab his ankle. Ozul looked below him, and Dalton’s heart pounded against his chest as he slowly looked down. A goblin gave him a smile.

Dalton lunged and grabbed Ozul by the ankle. “You’re coming with me!”

The goblin dropped out of view and pulled Dalton through the hole. Ozul screamed in rage.

“No! I will not go down there!”

Dalton held an iron grip on Ozul’s ankle, making sure to grab the skin rather than the pant leg. Ozul was already fumbling at his belt, he could not let him escape.

“Yes, you are! I’m not going down there without you!”

“Let go!” Ozul tried to kick Dalton loose, but his blows missed him, because another set of green hands grabbed his free leg. “What is that? Is that you, Dalton.”

Another goblin appeared in Dalton’s gaze. He was muscular and ripped. He looked at Dalton with his red eyes, and then sunk back into the darkness, yanking Ozul from Dalton’s grip. The last thing Dalton saw before he dropped was Ozul’s terrified face.

Dalton flailed like a cat grasping in the open air. His heel crunched against the goblin’s nose forcing the goblin to scream and release him.