None of us really liked the house, but it wasn’t up to us. The officers assigned dwellings to each family depending on size. There were five of us, so we got the four bedroom. They couldn’t know we’d used to make do with a two bedroom. Us three kids in one room together. But we weren’t going to complain about having our own space for once.
No. What we’d complain about was the thing under the sink.
We’d been there for only a few days, our meager possessions unpacked into the large rooms. There was a television in the family room, but there wasn’t anything to watch since the internet was down. But after some digging, Madalyn found a DVD player and a handful of old movies. And so it turned out okay in the end.
There was a small amount of food in the pantry, left from whoever had been there before us. And the guards said they’d drop off more rations at the end of the week. So, mom was in the kitchen trying to put together something to feed the lot of us while we watched Mulan on the large screen.
We were maybe thirty minutes into the film when mom screamed.
All of us ran into the kitchen to find out what had happened. She stood in the center of the kitchen, clutching her chest and staring at the sink.
“What? What is it?” Dad asked. He took her arm and rubbed her back, dragging her closer to him.
“I — there was — an eyeball!” Her words came out between gasps for breath and she shook her head.
“An eyeball?” Drew looked more curious than frightened and hurried toward the sink.
Dad reached for him, but he was too quick. With a hop and a groan, he’d lifted himself onto the counter to look in the sink.
“There’s nothing — oh!” Drew leaned closer to stare into the drain. “It’s under the sink!”
Dad hurried across the room and snatched Drew off the counter. Then he ushered all of us further back. He turned back towards the sink and squared his shoulders, but before he could reach forward to open the cabinet under the sink, there was a knock on the front door.
“I’ll get it,” Mom said. She’d regained her composure with all of us around her, but she was still pale.
The voice from the front hall was surely an officer. And to our surprise, he followed mom back into the kitchen. He had a bag of food that he set on the counter.
“I understand you folks have a visitor.” He raised an eyebrow at dad who still had an arm outstretched towards the cabinet. “How about you let me have a look?”
Dad stepped aside at once. “Of course.”
The soldier knelt in front of the sink with his hand on his pistol and then opened the cabinet.
“Hmm.”
I heard the scuffling of a small creature trying to back away. But then a cackle and smacking of lips.
“Hello there,” the soldier said.
“Hello there,” a creaky voice echoed and then cackled again.
I wanted to see what it was, but also didn’t. I held onto Madalyn’s hand to keep her from looking either. She’d have nightmares for the rest of the week already from the cackle. I didn’t need her to see what sort of thing made that noise.
The soldier closed the cabinet after another second and stood up. “Well, folks, looks like you have a goblin.”
“A… a goblin?” Dad choked on the word.
The world had been overrun with these fantastical creatures over the last year. And people were learning to live with them. But more often than not, us humans were displaced and had to make do with whatever the creatures left for us.
“And… what do we do with it?” Mom asked when dad seemed to be at a loss for anything more to say.
The soldier forced a smile on his face and shrugged. “Well… mostly you can leave him alone. He seems to have a good thing going under that sink. He gets all your scraps from the garbage disposal. And I would advise against using these cabinets here,” he pointed to the ones to the left of the sink. “That’s his house.”
“That’s it?” Dad finally gasped. “We just… live with a goblin?”
The soldier shrugged again. “Well, it’s either live with it, or give it the house. But I’m not sure when we’ll have another four bedroom available for you.”
“It’s fine.” Mom glared at dad and then the rest of us as though daring us to object. “It’ll be fine. Thank you for your help.”
The soldier nodded and left.
Mom rounded on us. “No one is to open that cabinet. No matter what that thing says. Carl, get some zip ties on those knobs so it can’t get out. Drew, keep your hand out of the drain.”
“How did you -”
“Because I know you.” Mom stood with her hands on her hips. “Are we clear on the rules?”
Everyone gave a quick nod and dad hurried towards the garage to do as she asked.
And so we lived with the thing under the sink…