"Night in the Lonesome October" by Richard Laymon

I found myself musing over the level of fear Laymon intended to evoke in this offbeat bit of horror. Our hero Eddie has been dumped by his girlfriend, and after a bit of a slide off the grid, he decides to go out one night and just ... wander around. We and Eddie are "treated" to a college town which is changed into a spooky, dangerous world peopled by man-like trolls who live under bridges (and eat people), among other predators. Eddie also finds the homeless girl Casey and learns from her "Ride or Hide" - basically a grand game of chicken, with scarily high stakes.

Eddie has sensual adventures and misadventures - I've seen these decried as gratuitous, but I always felt them to be well in line with the plot and theme. Anyway, Eddie, Casey, and a couple of other characters capture a sexual predator, cut his hands off, and feed him to the trolls. Not much of a plot, but the main point of this piece is its eerie atmosphere and satisfying denouement.