Sara's Job

You’ve all read Sara’s post. You know I have a new ward to deal with. It may not seem so from what she said, but she’s been surprisingly cooperative. There has been, of course, some conflict between us on certain issues, but she’s been remarkably accepting of the supernatural. Most people think I’m delusional when I explain Ichor to them, but she’s soaked it all in with only a sensible amount of skepticism. The majority of her complaints have been about the rules I’m making her follow.

In the spirit of honesty I will admit that I haven’t told her everything about Ichor. But my goal is keeping her alive, not turning her into an expert on the subject. She knows as much as she needs to know to survive. I’ve additionally had to explain the job Catty gave me to keep an eye on her, since she was reasonably suspicious about why I was suddenly willing to work for free. The way I see it, the amount Catty’s paying me more than covers the cost of taking on this additional job. I’m not sure what she thinks about a creepy person in a mask wanting me to follow her, but her feelings on that really aren’t my problem.

Right now I have a fairly heavy case load, but I set aside what time I could to interview her about this job she wanted me for. We had to conduct that interview in the dining room; not where I’d have liked, but I wanted to stick to rooms Sara was familiar with. I don’t want her to get lost in this labyrinth of a house. The dining room’s a real old fashioned looking place. Almost as if it was lifted directly from the set of a TV period piece about Edwardian nobility. I’m always a little worried that whenever I sit on those chairs they’re going to shatter from old age. At least the paintings are pretty, although a bit heavy on the “dead old white guys” side. Sara was already seated at the dining table when I arrived; a long mahogany piece of furniture with enough ornate carvings to qualify as a piece of art itself.

But before I could get to business, there was an elephant in the room that needed addressing. “So….” I warily said to Sara as I sat down opposite from her at the table. “I see Matthew brought this cat of yours here.”

Now I want to say from the start that I don’t hate cats. I’d just rather keep them far away from me. My opinion of the species wasn’t helped by the fact that this was easily the ugliest cat I had ever seen. A fat, hairless creature with oversized ears and scar tissue covering the spot where its left eye should have been. Sara was coddling the creature while it stared at me with the kind of smug contempt that only a cat can have. “Yes, he did!” Sara cheerily replied. “I was so happy to wake up and see little Sphynx again! He also brought back most of my things from my apartment. Matthew’s been really great at setting me up here.”

“Yes… he certainly is a great helper….” I weakly said as I tried to ignore the oversized rat meowing at me. “Let’s just get right to the point. What’s this job you were interested in hiring me for?”

Sara stopped petting Sphynx as her face grew solemn. “My… my boyfriend disappeared last month. The police haven’t been able to find anything. I was hoping that… that you might be able to find him.”

I tried to hide my annoyance, but I don’t think I succeeded very well. That kind of job seemed far too mundane for my attention. “And you’re sure he didn’t just run off with another girl?”

That got Sara upset. “I know it wasn’t that! There was all this, like weird magic shit happening around him before he vanished!”

“Doesn’t change anything. You’d be amazed how many fools run off because they think they have a shot at making out with the Boogeyman.”

Sara didn’t rise to that bait. All I got as a reply was her narrowing her eyes and staring at me in anger. I figured I should back down. “Fine, alright, let’s assume he’s not off somewhere trying to smooch a ghost. Tell me what you know.”

What she knew wasn’t really that much. Sara had mostly been a spectator to the events leading up to this case. The boyfriend’s name is “Nathaniel Montalvo,” or just Monty for short. Sara showed me a picture of him on her phone. A bit on the short side, with a round face that makes him look a few years younger than the 21 Sara says he is. Light brown skin, possibly Hispanic or at least some Hispanic ancestry. His hair’s cut short and bleached white. Shouldn’t be too hard to spot in a crowd. Over the course of October, he repeatedly told Sara that he felt as though he was being followed, and she says she heard strange noises at night when she stayed at his apartment. During November he started showing increasingly paranoid behavior. The involvement of the supernatural became obvious on November 27th, when Sara says a fire broke out in his apartment. Despite witnesses seeing the fire consume an entire floor of the building, nothing was burned. However, Monty had vanished. Two days later he called Sara to tell her that he was alive, but she was not to try and look for him. Never one to listen to good advice, she ignored that and has been spending the month since then seeking any clues towards his location.

After Sara finished her story, I had to get the obvious out of the way. “You know,” I said, “if he says you shouldn’t try to find him, you probably would be better off not trying to find him.”

She tried to give me another glare, but that fell apart when tears started running down her face. “I’m just… I’m just worried about him. He was so scared of whatever was following him, and then he’s just vanished! I don’t even know if he’s still alive!” She held Sphynx closer to her, and the cat gently patted her face. I gave her a moment before speaking.

“This may sound strange, but I need to collect some of your tears.”

A sob turned into a disbelieving laugh. “W-what?” Sara said with surprise.

“I need to check toxicity levels.” I didn’t wait for her reply before I pulled a sample tube from my coat and held it to her eye to let a few drops fall in. I couldn’t collect much more; my strange behavior seemed to have stopped her crying. I used the opportunity to push ahead with my questions. “Do you cry often?”

“No….” Sara softly said as she rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know what came over me, I just… suddenly….”

Emotional swings and changes in behavior. I made a mental note to keep an eye on that. “I’d recommend letting yourself cry more often. It can help stabilize your mood.”

Sara seemed to find that advice amusing. “Sure thing doc, I’ll be sure to cry every day.”

“I’m serious.” I said calmly. “The tears get rid of chemicals which cause stress.”

“Oh? You an expert on crying now? Got lots of experience with it?”

I wonder if that was supposed to be biting sarcasm, but I couldn’t help but find it funny. I shook my head ruefully in response.

“I don’t get stressed.”