The Ugly Kids Read online

no, no!” Gohber shouted. “Not food!”

  “Look food.”

  “Not food!”

  It was at this point that Lily finally managed to get a look at what was going on.

  Gohber was standing with his arms spread wide between her and the thing standing in the shattered ruins of the doorway, but the little boy didn’t block her view of the creature at all. Gohber was just too skinny.

  The thing in the doorway could have perhaps been called a man, but only if the man were enormous, disfigured, and so grotesque that he made even Lily look appealing. It was at least eight feet tall and had to duck to stand inside the house, its shoulders hunched against the ceiling. Its wide frame had broken through some of the wall on the way in. It was vaguely gray in color, like the hue Lily imagined a corpse might turn. Smallish eyes peered out at Lily from a deep brow, regarding Lily slowly in a dim-witted sort of way. It had a snout that quivered about and moved slightly in each direction, picking up scents. The nose reminded Lily of the way a bear could almost lift their nose up and away from the teeth. Drool trickled down its chin, and the creature didn’t seem to have any discernible ears, except for two holes on each side of its head. All it wore was a loincloth and strands of what looked...and smelled...like rotting seaweed of some kind.

  “I’m not f-food,” Lily said finally, finding her own voice. “Get out of my house!”

  It was a ridiculous feeling. Lily had never been the smaller person in a confrontation before. She wondered if this was how other people felt when she intimidated them.

  The thing scratched its bare head ponderously.

  “Snack?” it tried.

  “No!” Gohber almost screamed. “Lily! Lily is my girlfriend!”

  Lily started to say she wasn’t, but Gohber slapped a hand over her mouth.

  The creature frowned with confusion, and Gohber sighed.

  “She me girl,” he clarified.

  The thing’s face brightened, and its smile was like despair made visible, revealing a row of surprisingly healthy, pointed teeth. Lily could see a buckle stuck between two fangs, and she hoped that her father hadn’t met the creature.

  She shivered at the thought, her stomach fluttering with butterflies.

  “You, she, come,” the thing said, and with that, it scooped Lily up under one arm like she weighed nothing at all and pinched Gohber between his fingers, carrying them carefully sideways out the front door again. “Ma, Pa, sad. Want whelp.”

  “No! No! No!” Gohber was screeching.

  “Let me go!” Lily cried, trying to wrench the arm from around her. The thing’s muscles were like steel though, and she nearly fainted from the stench coming from its armpit.

  The creature didn’t go far though. It carefully juggled the two of them around in the yard for a moment, then pulled a bone from inside its loincloth and snapped it in two.

  The world spun around Lily, and just when she thought she couldn’t get more nauseated, a stench like none she had ever smelled before reached her nostrils.

  She couldn’t help it. She retched all down the side of the creature.

  It didn’t flinch, or even seem to mind for that matter, and dropped her and Gohber on the ground.

  Lily looked up.

  They were surrounded by mountains...of trash. Styrofoam cups, broken appliances, empty cereal boxes, puddles of who knew what kinds of chemicals, waste, rotting food, and who knew what else. There was too much for Lily to ever list out completely, and her attention wasn’t currently on that.

  Instead, she was focused on the two people standing in front of them. In some ways, they looked like Gohber, but Gohber was more Human-like than either of them. They both had faces that were like melted rubber. Bright green eyes peered out at Lily from beneath heavy brows.

  The one that Lily guessed was female was short, tanned, stick-thin, and had copious amounts of black greasy hair, and more of it appeared to be streaming from her armpits. She wore a stained and torn T-shirt that said “I