0.5-The Asylum Interviews: Bronx: An Asylum Tales Short Story by Jocelynn Drake Read Free Book Online Page B

for the chance to shed the cloak of civility so that they could return to their roots.
    I watched as the trees blurred by my window as I rushed into the forest, feeling only moderately protected by the heavy steel frame of my car. It had been a long time since the last roadside attack, but most people still didn’t feel comfortable leaving the safety of their respective towns at night. I hadn’t brought a weapon, but I tried to reassure myself that I did have a large troll sitting next to me. Large and frighteningly strong, Bronx could take on most things that could be thrown in our direction. Of course, I still had my magic, but a big part of staying hidden meant not using my magic in front of another person. I had also promised Gideon no more magic while dealing with the Parker problem.
    My gaze strayed to my companion to find that his expression was tight and his shoulders were taut. He didn’t look happy about leaving Low Town and less thrilled about being in the open forestland, which seemed odd to me.
    “You good?” I asked after looking down at my speedometer. I wasn’t speeding too much so I didn’t think it was my driving that was making him nervous.
    “Fine,” he bit out.
    “Sounds like it,” I murmured. I paused, waiting to see if he would comment further, but Bronx remained silent. “I’ve never cared for leaving town. You grow up with other kids telling you every kind of horrific faery tale imaginable, knowing that most of them have some kernel of truth to them. It really is no wonder that most people don’t ever leave the town they’re born in.”
    “I was born in the Bronx,” the troll volunteered after I ran out of things to ramble about. “Moved to Low Town about twenty years ago.”
    “Then Bronx isn’t your real name? It’s a nickname?”
    “It’s my birth name. Trolls are named after the places in which they are born.”
    My face scrunched up as I mentally digested this unexpected bit of information. I had only spoken to one or two other trolls in my entire life and I hadn’t caught their names. Truth was there wasn’t a lot known about trolls because they didn’t tend to be very talkative. Most people thought that they just weren’t very bright and tended to avoid them because they weren’t pleasing to the eye like elves and were frighteningly strong like ogres.
    “So, there could be several other trolls running around with the name Bronx,” I said.
    “I would imagine so, but then there are other humans running around with the name Gage, correct?”
    “Probably. But do you also have siblings with the same name as you?”
    “No, I’m an only child. Most trolls have only one child.”
    “Really? Why?”
    “The mother tends to eat the spares.”
    I jerked the wheel as I twisted around to look at him in shock. I had heard of animals sometimes eating their young, but never another race that I actually spoke to and worked with. My mouth hung open as I struggled to recover and say something that was coherent and not overly insulting to his people when I heard him softly chuckling next to me. I caught sight of the huge grin on Bronx’s face out of the corner of my eye. He was teasing me.
    “Fucking asshole! That wasn’t funny,” I grumbled, slowing down the speed of the SUV so I didn’t kill us in case something ran across the road in the dark.
    “Sorry, it’s just that humans tend to believe the worst about trolls,” Bronx said in a smooth, even voice, showing that he wasn’t in the least angry about the fact that I believed him. His shoulders slumped slightly as the tension that had hummed through his large body dissipated.
    “Are you really surprised considering the world we live in? The only things that humans seem to know about trolls are that they are big, strong, scary, and frequently violent.” I ticked off each item on the fingers of my right hand as I released the steering wheel. “You’re not exactly the most talkative group.”
    “I’ll agree with all