There are only a hundred of us left, probably fewer now since the last time I counted. We’ve lost two of the more elderly humans, while many of our number have married off, leaving the rest of us behind. The best we can hope for on the New Eden preserve is to find a partner and move away, hopefully for good. Luckily for those who remain, we’re a desirable commodity. Monsters send in applications months in advance just to get a chance to meet a human, and even then, our approval isn’t guaranteed. My friend Maddie went home with two other monsters for a trial marriage—first an incubus, then a shadow demon—just to test out what their homes were like and what kind of life they would give her. Each time she came back disappointed, until she found Egorr, the big ogre with a heart of gold. I can’t imagine what the sex is like. He’s probably eight feet tall and could lift a car without trying. But whenever I get on a Zoom call with Maddie, she seems happy. Egorr’s usually in the background, cooking something for them. He dotes on her hand and foot. That’s the promise they make: that we’ll have our needs met, and they’ll worship us if we give them the chance. Like Maddie, I don’t know what I want yet. Unlike Maddie, I’m not bold enough to meet a monster, not to mention go home with one and try out married life. Then we’ll be alone together, and who knows what could happen to me? A monster could flip out on a dime and decide I’m their next meal. And what if I don’t want to stay? What if I have to say “no” and return to the preserve? I can’t imagine breaking someone’s heart like that—and I don’t know if I could stand the disappointment myself. Besides, living out in the world is risky for a human like me. I’m small and helpless, really, in a river full of piranhas. As much as I long to see the outside world, to experience all the things we can’t get at New Eden, it’s dangerous to venture out, even with a monster at your side. So I turn away almost every application I get. On the rare occasion that I have accepted a visit request, we don’t mesh at all. Once I sat down with a centaur, but all she wanted to talk about was where she got her nails and hooves done, and her favorite hair conditioner. I wonder if I’m not cut out for it. Maybe I’m not supposed to get married at all, and I’ll just get old and die on the preserve like Julianne did. It’s hard not to feel lonely with both Julianne and Maddie gone now. I tend to the garden we all share, and occasionally someone will join me to pull out weeds, and we’ll have a conversation about the weather or the bugs being especially bad this year. Rob is my only close friend on the preserve. It’s a cool, quiet day when he shows up after lunch to help me with some transplanting that I’ve been putting off. “You’ve been quiet lately,” he says as we pull the seedlings out of their nests in the starter box. “Nah,” I say. “You’re just used to Maddie blabbing all the time.” Rob chuckles. “Maybe. She kind of forced you to crawl out of your cave, didn’t she?” I take offense to that. Sure, I’m not the most approachable person, but it’s not like I’m a sullen bridge troll. He’s right, though—I do miss her. It feels even less like home without Maddie flitting around and chattering all the time. “It’s less of a cave and more of a den,” I say, digging out a little hole for one of the seedlings. “Really, though, I’m fine. Just life as usual here.” Rob doesn’t speak as he continues patting the soil around the base of a plant. Then he turns to me with a serious look on his face. “Don’t you want more than that, Celeste?” Rob asks. “More than just ‘life as usual’ in the walled garden?” We each have our own small home, a space to call ours. I’ve decorated mine with a few houseplants, a reproduction painting or two in chintzy black frames, even a vase. “We have more than we could ever want here,” I say. “What do any monsters have that I don’t already?” Rob shrugs. “Companionship. Sex. All the things that people have been sharing with each other since the dawn of time.” I considered marrying Rob once upon a time. Wouldn’t it be ideal to extend the human species? But I find that I don’t care about the “species.” When we’re gone, we’re gone. Besides, I like Rob as a friend and that’s about it. His voice drops a little. “Don’t forget that you’d have safety, too. And freedom. You could leave without being afraid.” The big world outside. New Eden can seem like its own small, tame universe with the convenience store and the parks and the fake little river that divides it in half. It’s easy to forget there’s more out in the wider world. Maddie gets to go out to dinner with Egorr. They see movies, walk along the boardwalk, and visit museums—all sorts of things I can’t really go do as a lone human, fragile and small, in a world where a stray basilisk might try to swallow me whole. “I’m not going to marry someone just so I have a bodyguard,” I say, jamming my spade into the dirt. “That’s not fair.” No, when I marry someone, I want it to be for the right reasons. I want it to be for life. Maybe that’s too romantic of me, too unrealistic, but I just can’t see myself walking down the aisle with someone because I want to go to the movies safely. “Then marry someone for love.” Rob stands up and dusts off his knees. “You can’t meet them unless you try, though.” He’s right, of course. But there’s a lot of risk that comes with trying. “Just look at a few of the applications, okay?” Rob arches an eyebrow at me. “Maybe you’ll find something surprising.” I narrow my eyes. “What about you? All this sage advice from someone who’s still here.” Rob shrugs. “I’m dating Rassa. We didn’t click immediately, but there’s time.” Right, the orc woman with a braid down to her butt and a stack of muscles that could pop my head like a blueberry. I’m surprised. He doesn’t really talk about her. “I didn’t realize you were still together,” I say. “I thought you’d have done a trial marriage by now.” He sits back on his heels. “Taking it slow.” Maybe he’s right. Maybe I should at least try. You don’t know what could walk in the door until you open it. “Fine.” I finish planting the last seedling, thinking of the stack of applications waiting for me at home. I feel a twinge of anxiety at the idea of meeting any of the monsters who have applied for me, but I could get lucky, like Maddie did with Egorr. “I’ll give it a try.” * * * That night I sit down at my little breakfast table to sort through the last batch of applications I got. Ghoul. Not quite tangible enough for anything fun in bed to happen, and I know if I’m after a life partner, that will definitely be part of the equation. Next. Imp. Too mischievous. More likely to ruin the laundry than do it. Next. Merman? Hmm. It would be tricky with one of us land-bound and the other ocean-bound, but maybe it could work. Except he says on his application that he likes watching sports, specifically water polo, and that’s a huge no-no for me. Next. There’s a fairy looking for someone to share her tree home, and a reanimated corpse searching for a partner who doesn’t mind the smell. I am, of course, neither of those. Heights aren’t my strength. One of the applications makes me pause. He’s a minotaur who works in construction, which I know entails long hours and lots of manual labor. It’s his answers to the interview questions that draw my attention. “I want someone to spoil,” the application reads. “Someone to go to the movies with me, to go out to dinner with me, to help me make my house a home. She needs to like dogs because I have two of them. I’m a good cook as long as meat isn’t involved, and I’m clean. I know how to do my own laundry and I actually like grocery shopping.” I wonder if he’s just giving answers he thinks will attract me, or if he’s being honest about himself. It sounds like he enjoys venturing out and living life—just what I would want to do if I could go and explore the world. Plus, I’ve always loved dogs, even though we don’t have many of them on the compound. I want someone to spoil. The moment I read the words, I think I want to be that someone. What if I had a monster I could love and depend on? A companion who would give me a safe home, who could hold me with a soft pair of arms? Fine. I’m going to take Rob’s advice and ask to meet him. Maybe if we click—and this minotaur is telling the truth about himself—I could have that life, too. I turn in the application at the front desk. “I’d like to make an appointment with Theo,” I tell the relationship coordinator. She seems surprised to see me. “I’ll contact him right away,” she says, pleased. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear from you.” Guilt turns my stomach. I’m probably not going to like him, and then I’ll be wasting his time. For someone who works construction, that lost time could be a big deal. But the coordinator has taken the application behind the desk already, and it’s too late to go back now.