Rites of Passage Read Free Page B

their backs straight and looked down their stubby, misshapen noses at where Finn sat leaning against the wall. Both had stringy hair that hung nearly to their waists. Finn was surprised to see that one of them was female.
    Both of them held what looked like white plastic toy guns in their hands. Only Finn knew they weren’t toys.
    The female goblin gestured at Finn. “Stand up,” she said. “You’re in the presence of Ooveth.”
    He didn’t move. “You say that like I’m supposed to be impressed.”
    She shot a chunk of concrete out of the wall two inches to the left of Finn’s temple. Her yellow eyes burned with repressed rage.
    “I won’t tell you twice,” she said.
    Finn stood.
    He’d just found out what he needed to know.
    Ooveth and the female goblin were the only ones with guns, but she was the one assigned to keep the prisoner in line.
    That made her the precision shooter.
    The other gang members carried weapons that were more in line with what Finn was used to. Knives with thick wooden handles to keep the steel blades away from their skin. Chunks of concrete fastened to wooden handles, the modern version of an old-fashioned stone club. Spears with obsidian points, the tips no doubt dipped in poison.
    If Finn could get to his katana, he could take them all out.
    If he hadn’t been wounded.
    The female goblin gestured at Finn again, this time with her gun. She wanted him to stand in front of the male goblin.
    Finn obliged. No point in getting shot again for no good reason.
    The gang’s leader had the kind of face that not even a mother could love. His teeth were too big for his mouth, twisting his lips into a permanent sneer. Chunks of flesh had been ripped from the ear on the right side of his head. Together with his flat skull and dull yellow eyes, the damaged ear made him look like an alley cat who’d lost one too many fights.
    A not-very-bright alley cat.
    “Ooveth, I presume,” Finn said.
    Ooveth hit him across the face. The goblin’s hand was as big as Finn’s head, and the blow hurt like hell.
    This night just kept getting better and better.
    “You’re in my territory,” Ooveth said. “You will show me respect.”
    “You want me to kneel?”
    Another blow rocked Finn’s head in the other direction.
    Ooveth had anger management issues. Finn might be able to use that if the goblin didn’t knock his head off first.
    A deep thrumming filled the building, a sound like a subterranean jet airplane getting ready for takeoff. Finn felt the vibrations in his bones.
    An instant later the greenish flight from the window turned bright, hot white.
    Instead of filthy glass, the window now framed a rip in reality. Light so bright it hurt Finn to look at poured through the rip.
    Something moved inside that light, making it ripple and writhe like a living thing.
    The creep had managed to finish the portal. Its master was in the passageway, mere steps from breaking into this world.
    Finn was out of time.
    “We’re all going to die here,” he said to Ooveth. “I don’t know what kind of deal you made, but the thing coming through that portal won’t care.”
    Ooveth wasn’t paying attention to Finn anymore. The goblin was staring into the light. He looked like he was experiencing the rapture.
    Instead of responding to what Finn said, Ooveth waved his massive hand at his female lieutenant. “Take care of this annoyance,” he said.
    She tilted her head. The intense light had washed out the greenish-gray color of her skin. Except for her prominent brow and misshapen nub of a nose, she almost looked human.
    She raised her white plastic gun and pointed it at Finn.
    “Duck,” she said.

 
     
     
     
     
    4
     
    From the moment Finn passed his driver’s test, his dad had told him, over and over again, that drunk driving would get him killed.
    “And don’t you let any of your buddies drive you when they’re drunk,” his dad always said. “I used to be a teenager once too, you know.”
    At this