Mousey is the reigning jump champion!
Jenna Carter suddenly regretted explaining that mysterious cat. Ollie Blake was great in every way—except he was way too trusting of strangers.
When he'd first asked for help, she'd rushed in to help without even checking if he was safe. Now that strange cat-demon had shown up out of nowhere with a membership card—who knew what its real purpose was? Jenna should have been more suspicious instead of assuming it was a good cat just because of a card.
She thought that, but Ollie was so happy right now she didn't want to ruin it. She decided she'd investigate after she went back up to Northridge.
"You're not flying out to film that reality show without me. I'll go with you—people in showbiz can be complicated; I don't want anyone taking advantage of you," she said.
Ollie tumbled off Jenna's hand, rolled on the couch once, then landed on the floor. In a flash he'd shifted back into his human form, wearing comfy home clothes. He went to the kitchen, poured Jenna a glass of juice, and they sat down again in front of the projector.
"Huh…okay. I don't have a bad feeling about it. It's only three days. Aren't you about to go stir-crazy staying in Northridge, Jenna?" Ollie said.
He'd run away from the mountain because it was boring—his buddies who used to play with him had all left, and he was the only one left. He'd wanted to come out once he heard a friend had been sold like an animal, but his guardians refused, so he waited until he saw a chance and slipped away.
Now that he'd been out, he thought the world outside wasn't all that great either. Maybe being back on the mountain wasn't so bad.
Jenna didn't feel trapped. "I'm not bored. I brought you something."
He pulled a gleaming key from his pocket. "This is a little nest egg Uncle Ned left in a safe deposit box at Harborview Bank. He said if you ever needed money, you could take some."
Ned Blake was a homebody who hated going out, but he loved online shopping. At first he'd been overwhelmed, but ever since Jenna had moved to Northridge she'd been handling his deliveries and returns for him. Ned liked Jenna very much.
Ollie's eyes lit up. "Wait—so I have secret savings now? Hahahahaha! I'll never have to be bullied by Caleb again! I won't have to beg people for links to use my Yellow Kangaroo five-dollar promo credits!!"
Jenna: "…"
Oh my god, poor baby. She couldn't imagine what Ollie's life had been like before. Thank goodness she'd come by today.
Since Jenna's spectral form had stabilized, she'd been coming over to Ollie's place a lot. Ollie's apartment had a spare room for her—something Caleb Ross didn't know about, because Caleb was terrified of ghosts. Even though he knew, rationally, that this ghost didn't mean any harm, he was still scared.
Sometimes Ollie thought Caleb's fear was odd—not genuine terror so much as avoidance—but Caleb didn't see it like that.
The first few days after everyone discovered Ollie was a supernatural being, he could tell Caleb had a strong resistance to him. He'd even once seen Caleb hesitate about switching Ollie to another manager—but Ollie had charmed his way out of it by turning into a tiny hamster and being adorable.
Caleb was punctual. He'd said he'd be here at six, and at around 5:50 Ollie heard faint knocking.
He tried to force himself up to open the door, but he was so sleepy he couldn't keep his eyes open.
It's fine, it's fine…
Caleb has the keypad code…
If I don't get up, he'll just come in and wake me…
Ollie buried his head in the soft pillow and let himself drift back into sleep.
"AHHHHH!!!!!!"
The scream nearly split the sky. Ollie was so startled he instinctively shifted into his hamster form and sprang from the bed—straight up to the chandelier.
The tiny, frightened hamster clung to the chandelier ornament and looked around, on high alert. A couple of minutes later he finally convinced himself the room was safe.
His groggy brain cleared. He jumped down and snapped into his human shape, went out into the living room—and found Jenna standing at the door in an apron, holding a spatula with a fried egg on it. The apartment door was slammed firmly shut behind her.
Jenna, awkward: "Um… I didn't do anything."
Ollie: "…It's okay, I know."
Caleb was terrified of anything ghost-related. Jenna had been declared deceased long ago—her burial had been completed, and fans still sometimes went to the cemetery.
Caleb knew a little: he'd heard Jenna's soul had been taken up to Northridge. But seeing someone you thought was dead in the early morning, when your guard is down, could be a massive shock no matter who you were.
"Caleb, you handle breakfast. He's just scared of ghosts—he doesn't have anything against you. I'll go check on him," Ollie said, slipping out the door. Jenna smiled and went back to the kitchen.
Ollie knew he'd worried Jenna. Most of the residents up in Northridge were beasts and furries; a soul like Jenna's fit in there. If she went around acting like a normal human, she'd stick out. Jenna was only a spirit, so the creatures didn't see her as strange. They were all fluffy and easygoing.
Even though Jenna had a phone, she'd been away from human life so long she sometimes almost forgot what it was like.
She…was dead.
She was no longer the same as other people.
Because of who she'd been, she could never walk in sunlight or appear in public again. Ollie and the other human cultivators weren't afraid of her, but any ordinary person would react to her with fear at first sight.
She could never go back.
The Rowan Tate case was huge and tangled. Jenna had handed over a list of suspects that still left almost sixty percent of missing women unlocated, so the verdict hadn't been reached.
Ollie had guessed at first that the people who should have been punished for what happened to Jenna hadn't been held accountable, and that's why she couldn't pass on.
But Ned Blake had checked. The Underworld's paperwork said Jenna didn't qualify for the usual procedures to be taken there.
That meant she was in limbo—neither fully dead nor alive in their records. Despite the deep good karma she carried, no psychopomps had come to guide her into the Underworld.
Ollie couldn't predict her fate. Most of the beings who'd managed to survive now could live peacefully with Precinct One, but nearly all of them distrusted organized groups like The Order. This trafficking case was laced with supernatural traces; nobody trusted it without members of The Order involved, so Jenna's case stayed stuck.
Ned had suggested they consult Bai Ze—the creature who understood heaven and earth—but Bai Ze had been missing for years. It wasn't something you could find on demand. Maybe someone on Ollie's side would find a freelance diviner first; maybe Ned would track down Bai Ze first. No one knew.
When Ollie rushed out, Caleb had already run down at least ten floors using the emergency stairwell.
People really could tap into incredible reserves when frightened. It had taken all Caleb's effort to finally stop the poor manager. When he saw Ollie appear, his tightly coiled panic eased off a little.
"Caleb! Caleb! It's okay, it's okay, it's okay! Jenna came by last night—my uncle asked her to drop something off for me. I'm sorry I forgot to mention it beforehand >_
"I quit. I'm quitting. I can't do this. I'll go to the office today and tell the boss to assign you to another manager. I can't live like this!!! Ollie! How many times do I have to tell you—if you bring anyone home you have to tell me, you have to tell me!!! I'm a human, not one of your monsters! People can really die from being scared, do you know that?!!"
Caleb suddenly regretted the day he'd signed Ollie, who used to sit on the curb cracking sunflower seeds while eavesdropping on couples' arguments. How had he missed it back then?
He'd been around Ollie for days and assumed Ollie's weird, almost feral manner came from being raised on the mountain. Ollie had said a lady had handed him those seeds while they'd been sitting there together—and that he'd never tasted anything so delicious.
Seeing Ollie's pale, slight frame and the faded clothes he wore, Caleb felt sorry for him. It was a manager's reflex to not let a pretty face go to waste.
Caleb had asked, almost on impulse, "Would you want to be a star? I can make you famous. You'd earn a lot of money, you could do what you want, eat whatever you like, and no one would pick on you."
He reached to touch a small bluish bruise at the corner of Ollie's mouth, then imagined something else entirely.
Ollie had only been down from the mountain a few hours. He didn't quite understand how humans related to each other. He cocked his head, absorbed half of Caleb's speech, and chose the part he wanted to hear.
"@#/%…do whatever I want…eat lots of yummy things#%/）@…"
So he agreed gleefully. This human seemed nice—offered him a job and room and board. He'd work hard to repay him!
"Please don't—Caleb, I was wrong, don't leave me. You know I had no parents and was wandering outside after leaving the mountain, I was mistreated, boohoo, Caleb I can't lose you—"
Two years earlier, Caleb might've melted at that. But after everything he'd seen, he was certain this kid wasn't nearly as helpless as he made himself out to be.
— — —
(Mousey: Chirp chirp, what are you saying? What's for dinner tonight?)
[end of chapter]