Chapter 20
“Entity offers plenty of benefits to their employees and strives to do their absolute best to care for everyone under their employ. However, the time and research that goes into Entity’s clients is just as important and should not be taken advantage of.
Employees are expected to respect the rules, follow the guidelines, and understand the boundaries when they themselves might be both an employee and a client. ”
Entity Employee Handbook: HR Edition
Nic had never been one to shy away from conversation when it benefited him.
Despite being a very scholarly child, his mother complained endlessly about his lack of fear in approaching strangers.
Not because it was dangerous, but because he was embarrassingly blunt and lacking tact.
It was a trait that improved somewhat with age but still persisted today.
Which was why Nic had no qualms in walking up to complete strangers and asking if they were heading in the direction of Mercyhill.
Once Nic ascertained that Alexys had not only ditched him, but somehow managed to seriously dupe him by stealing his rental car, he didn’t waste a minute trying to hitch a ride. He figured she had a solid hour on him, maybe less, so he needed to act fast.
The statistics for hitchhiking were far from ideal, but Nic liked to think he was smarter than the average traveler. So, when a very large man in overalls with the most impressively long white beard informed him that he was headed up that way, Nic didn’t hesitate in accepting his offer for a ride.
The man didn’t look like a serial killer, but Nic had never met any before, so who could be sure?
At minimum, he could outrun the man should the situation call for it.
At worst, he died in the pursuit of knowledge which was, honestly, how he’d want to go.
Just preferably after he found the Hollow Walker.
And Keane.
Ride arranged, Nic did the only other sensible thing apart from sit back and relax: he called Zach.
“Nic, my love, my light, how I’ve missed you!”
“Hornsby,” he greeted dryly. “Do I need to put you through workplace harassment training?”
Zach laughed. “Excuse me, where do you think I learned all my best lines?”
“You would be an HR nightmare if I didn’t have so much patience for you.”
“Oh, please, they love me up there. Speaking of, how’d Keane take your impromptu arrival?” Nic felt a flicker of irritation, but he swallowed it down.
“Let’s just say she was less than enthused.” Nic tried to modulate his voice.
“She ditched you, didn’t she?”
There was a moment of silence as they both considered this. Zach tried his hardest not to laugh.
“What happened?”
“Keane is a slippery fish, yes,” Nic said, as if that should explain everything. “I’m hot on her heels, in any case. It’s not like she’s going any place other than Mercyhill.”
Zach gasped. “You let her go out there on her own?”
“No, no, didn’t let! And to be clear, I can’t control Alexys Keane any more than a Warden can control a Black Dog.”
“So it went that badly yesterday, huh?”
Nic took a deep breath. “I’m sure my sleeping in her hotel room didn’t fill her with delight.”
“You slept in her hotel room?”
“There was a second bed, crucially, but yes.”
“Did you notice anything? Did she have any—” Zach cut himself off.
“What were you about to say?” Nic asked, bracing himself as the driver took a sharp corner at speed.
“I didn’t mean, er, never mind!”
“Spit it out, Hornsby. What are you hiding?”
“Ugh. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone,” Zach protested weakly. “Especially you. I’ve done so good, boss. Don’t make me break my promise.”
Nic closed his eyes and shook his head. He’d always thought Hornsby might have a little crush on Keane, not that she’d roped him into something confidential. And whatever it was, it was big, Nic could tell by Zach’s voice. “Are you breaking company policy by not telling me?”
Zach exhaled.
He had a heart of gold, and Nic knew when he hired Zach that it would be a weakness as much as a strength.
If the secret was about anyone else, he would have cut him some slack.
But it was about Alexys, and she’d just ditched him, and he felt bitter about it, and even more bitter that Zach knew something about her that he didn’t—for reasons he couldn’t quite comprehend in that particular moment.
“You can tell her I threatened you with unemployment.”
“What?” Zach squawked, eyes going wide and almost filling the screen. “You’d fire me?”
“Of course not. You’re my favorite purple-haired researcher.”
Zach scoffed. “I’m your only purple-haired researcher.”
“Regardless, you’re too important to the office ecosystem, but she doesn’t know that.” Nic gestured for him to hurry up. “Now, tell me.”
Zach fidgeted, glancing at the room behind him as if Alexys might materialize at the very idea of him spilling her secret.
He groaned and finally caved. “She has really vivid nightmares that might be premonitions. She thinks they’re being caused by a monster, so she’s got me doing some under-the-table research for her.”
Nic blanched. The connection began to cut in and out, chopping up whatever Zach said next, but Nic barely noticed it. He was too caught up in the realization that Alexys might actually be in more danger than he had originally thought.
Immediate danger.
The list of creatures that created and fed on nightmares wasn’t long, but they were all deadly. Coupled with a trip into a place as wild as West Virginia and as haunted as the Appalachian Mountains, and the list of things trying to kill her easily doubled.
“Zachary.” Nic’s voice was calm, carefully masking the panic he could feel constricting his chest. Panic served no one and was best kept out of any decision-making or conclusion-drawing.
“I want you to email me whatever file you’ve created on her case.
I want it in my inbox by the time I arrive in Mercyhill.
If it’s not, I’ll work out of your office for an entire week. ”
The thought of Nic, the embodiment of disorganization, entering his office was enough of a threat to immediately cause Zach to end the call amid plenty of apologies and platitudes.
Nic tapped his phone against his palm, thoughts spinning.
The creatures Entity specialized in had a tendency to be drawn to each other.
If Alexys went into a monster-infested mountain range with an already unknown creature attached to her, the possibility of a fatal encounter with any of them was almost a guarantee.
At best, Entity would send a Reaper after her, making her chance of survival slim to none.
Reapers were notorious for having little regard for bystanders, especially when it came to cleaning up a case.
At worst, Entity would abandon her to the field, and they’d never see her again.
Firmly reminding himself that panic wouldn’t do him any good, Nic fixed his gaze out the window and prayed Alexys hadn’t made it too far.
If her driving was anything like her work ethic, she strictly obeyed speed limits.
Nic’s phone pinged a moment later, and he pulled up the email with Zach’s file.
He was disappointed to see how small it was, but it was understandable given how covert Zach had to be.
He doubted Zach could have made much progress no matter how long he’d worked at it without the help of the company’s full Archives, both digital and physical.
Nic skimmed through the pages to pick up on the major details and then sat back in his seat.
Her case was an interesting one, there was no denying it.
Nic immediately ruled out Kikimoras seeing as the nightmares happened in various places.
A Wendigo wasn’t likely because of the varying themes and the lack of the creature’s presence within the dreams. Her insomnia felt like a distraction, like it could have come before the nightmares and was an unrelated symptom that was throwing off Nic’s direction of thinking.
The premonitory nature of the nightmares was odd as well.
When all of the information was put together, none of it added up.
Like a puzzle that was either missing pieces or contained pieces that didn’t belong in the first place.
Nic dropped his head into his hands and groaned.
Leave it to Alexys to have an encounter with an undiscovered and possibly undocumented creature and refuse to go through proper channels to deal with it. It was infuriatingly in character.
Nic didn’t have as much time for research as he would have liked. He tried to call Alexys again, to ask her more about the nightmares and to tell her to stay the hell away from Mercyhill, but the call went straight to voicemail.
No signal.
Without the ability to ask her relevant questions, his hands were tied.
Nic didn’t know what region she was in when the nightmares started, he didn’t know if there were any common subjects or themes in the dreams themselves, he didn’t even know how often she had them.
Research was stalled until he could ask her himself.
Another reason to find her quickly, Nic thought grimly. If she was still alive and able answer his questions. He groaned.
Nothing was going to ruin his chances of finding the Hollow Walker more than Alexys dying on the job.
The doomsday spiral was less than helpful, but he couldn’t seem to silence the cynical voice in his head.
It kept churning out facts about the thousands of people who vanished from the Appalachian trail every year, horrible deaths caused by Haints and Not Deer, and the alarmingly large populations of Black Dogs and Jackalopes.
Nic’s palms wouldn’t stop sweating, and he was pretty sure his heart rate was edging toward tachycardia.
He was about to demand the driver floor it when a non-doomsday-spiral idea finally surfaced. Nic weighed the pros and cons before he relented and pulled out his cell phone.
Nic opened the chat thread and closed it several times before huffing in defeat. He pressed the tiny microphone icon and started recording himself.
“Hey, Lottie.” He paused, realizing that he was leaving a voice note for his ex-girlfriend, and he couldn’t even remember the last time they’d talked.
Charlotte was a close family friend and fellow researcher.
They’d spent several years working together at Entity’s London branch.
Nic hadn’t seen her in years, not for lack of trying on her part.
And his mother’s. But their breakup had been messier than he’d intended, and he wasn’t entirely sure she’d be willing to help him.
Nic awkwardly cleared his throat and pressed on, “I have a favor to ask. I need you to pull any information you have on creatures that create, ingest, or are at all related to nightmares and premonitions. Unofficial channels if you’re able. Sorry to throw this on, but it is quite urgent.”
For a moment, Nic thought about asking how she was doing.
Maybe asking after her family—last he heard her brother was living in Switzerland—or how work in London was going.
But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “Any information you have would be appreciated, regardless of location or cultural influence.”
Nic sent the voice note through and then pocketed his phone.
With a long drive ahead of him, Nic hoped Charlotte would have something to share with him before he arrived.