Chapter 29
On being abandoned, Noble stared at Ollie's retreating figure, baffled as his Baby fled rather quickly with the heavy ass gnome, before bursting out laughing.
“Don’t encourage his hoarding!” Jahla snapped.
“I mean, if he has room for it, I fail to see the issue?”
But then, Noble didn’t tend to collect things, so running out of room hadn’t really been a problem for him.
“UGH!” she hissed. “Just get away from me before I throw something!”
Smirking unapologetically, he held his free hand up in defense and hurried past.
Noble found Ollie near the doors of the back stairway looking embarrassed, his freckled face as red as can be, with the heavy wrapped gnome still clutched in his arms. He honestly had attempted to convince Ollie to let him carry the gnome for him, but the witch had insisted.
Noble had to say, despite the weight, the man didn’t seem to be struggling, not even when running away.
“Hi,” Ollie said sheepishly, before rushing to add, “I didn’t mean to leave you behind, but I figured she was less likely to yell at you than me…”
Noble snorted at that, before pulling open one side of the double doors and waving the man inside. “Come on, Baby. Let’s head up. You can show me your other gnomes, and we can get your new one settled with the rest. I am, of course, assuming the rooms are located in your apartment.”
“They are. As for placing it, I suppose that's the best thing we can do until I’m ready to sit down and coat it with a new sealant.” Ollie went through the opening and started up the stairs, before musing, “I mean, I could have used one of the rooms down here. There are a few storage rooms that I could have easily consolidated and whatnot, but like, I don’t want to risk anyone going in and breaking something.
Especially, with doors randomly…” Ollie frowned as he trailed off.
“What is it?” he asked with a brow raised.
“The doors on floors two and three tend to close and lock themselves. I was just thinking that maybe it was the ghosts, since I now have two, and who knows if others are hiding.”
Noble clucked his tongue. “Could be? But, to be honest, if it’s a regular occurrence, I’d find it hard to believe it was them, or that they would waste what is likely years of built-up strength just to close and lock a door.”
“I was afraid of that,” Ollie sighed. “It’s been going on every single day for the last seven years, so I suppose it’s likely not them.
Well, I, of course, can’t attest to Sunday, as I don’t do walk-arounds that day, but like, every time we open up, there is a locked door that wasn’t locked before. ”
As they reached the third floor, heading straight to the door that led to the stairway to his home, Ollie sighed. “Speaking of locked doors, would you mind holding this until we get inside?”
Without a word, Noble carefully took the gnome from the witch’s hold. He held on until they had gotten through both doors at the top, before giving it back.
“So, my gnome rooms are just back here, the doors are actually right next to each other. Though only one room is fully gnome,” Ollie explained as they headed down the hall from the kitchen.
Noble followed Ollie past the doors to his private library, which sat on the left wall.
And they ended up walking almost the full length of the very long hallway, before stopping in front of the last two doors to the right, which just so happened to be side by side, followed by an oddly-long, doorless stretch of hallway, covered by paintings, that ended in a dead end.
Opening the door for the man, on stepping inside, Ollie chimed with a giggle, “Tada!”
Noble only took a few steps in before stopping to stare, fearing he’d accidentally knock into something as Ollie flipped on the lights.
The room was large in size, with wooden walls, fake, unevenly-leveled grass covered the floor, along with small fake flowers and plants, creating an almost surreal miniature hilly garden of sorts.
Throughout the room, cobblestone paths wove over the small fake hills, and they all seemed to lead to the center, which held a small sitting area with a green plush leather couch and a wooden coffee table.
All around the paths, on the grass, were clusters of garden gnomes who appeared to be acting out little scenes, or snippets of life.
There had to be at least a hundred of them, yet despite that, the room still felt spacious.
After a moment of staring, Ollie asked, “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty fantastical,” he said with a smile. “Like a little fake private garden full of fun.”
“It’s exactly that!” Ollie beamed. As he worked on removing the paper from around the gnome, he explained, “It used to be a den, but I feel I get more use out of it this way.”
With the gnome in hand, after tossing the paper into a trash bin near the door, the man glanced around the space for a moment before hurrying to a specific area. Ollie carefully placed the gnome down near ones that appeared to be farming.
“Fits well,” he commented.
“It does. To the next room!”
Following Ollie out and into the next room, he eyed the displays that lit up when the man flipped the switch.
With wooden walls and floors, instead of the whole room being the display, this one had small display cases spaced throughout.
Each had a mini world inside, often nature-related, as they were full of small animal figurines.
That described most of the cases, except for the three large ones that lined the left wall. While they also showed off miniature worlds, the only figurines inside were gnomes.
“Are the gnomes in here newer?” Noble asked.
“Ah, everything is technically an antique, but you are right, most of these are newer than the ones in the other room, though a few are just as old. They are mainly here because they are small. Cute, aren’t they?!”
“Very cute,” he agreed, staring down at the man. And he wasn’t lying. Ollie was, in fact, adorable.
Flipping the lights off with a giggle, Ollie said, “Viewing done, let’s go check out the case file!”
Ollie set the folder aside on the table as he sagged a bit in his chair, staring blankly at the shelf that he knew held all books on ghosts in the secret library. “I feel this just further confirms that it likely was Marlow.”
And Ollie didn’t know how to feel about that. As quiet and kept to himself as Marlow could be, the man had always seemed…kind. Like, every interaction he’d had with the man had been positive. How had he missed that Marlow was capable of something like this?
Am I really that blind to the bad in the people around me? He gnawed on his bottom lip at the thought…
Noble clucked his tongue. “It confirms that the blood was cleaned up, since the police didn’t find any.
But then, we already knew the body had been moved, since she died there.
They listed him as a possible suspect, yet aside from some interviews, he was never charged.
The problem for me is that his alibi was his family…
” The man trailed off and started to stare at him a bit too intensely, before reaching out and prodding his hands apart.
He’d apparently been wringing them together hard enough for his skin to redden.
Not sure how to react, Ollie smiled hesitantly.
“Ollie, stop beating yourself up over not realizing what that man had done. You weren’t even born when it happened.
Not to mention that you didn’t even know about Irene’s death until recently.
Based on the notes, not even the police thought he did it.
You weren’t the only one fooled, and you have even less reason to doubt it, since you didn’t have a single clue as to who she was, or that someone related to the diner had died. ”
He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I just feel…stupid. Like, how couldn’t I have noticed? But then, I also didn’t notice that William was a serial killer, and had bad intentions when he invited me inside that night. Like, clearly, I’m not that smart.”
At least, not as smart as he once thought he was…
“Ollie!” Noble snapped harshly. “Don’t talk about yourself that way. You are not stupid.”
“But aren’t I? It was pretty stupid of me to go out and meet up with someone I didn’t know, to ask about a ghost. I feel someone smart would realize that was a bad idea.”
“Ollie, you aren’t stupid, you are just a bit…
na?ve. It’s not a bad thing, but it can be slightly detrimental when it comes to your safety.
You view the world in positives, which sometimes means you don’t see the evil out there.
It has nothing to do with your intelligence, and everything to do with you wanting to believe there is more of one than the other. ”
“I mean, I do know that bad things happen, and that there are evil, unredeemable people in the world, but…maybe I just forget sometimes that a lot of bad things like to hide behind a fake facade of good?”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look for the good in everyone. You just need to remember that you never know what’s hidden beneath that good.”
Ollie huffed. “Is it so wrong that I just don’t want to look at every person I meet or interact with, and automatically fall into the habit of thinking they must be lying or hiding something?! Just thinking about living like that feels exhausting.”
Noble knew for a fact that living like that was exhausting.
Mainly as that was how he’d lived his life for the last hundred and fifty years—though it was possible he had done so even before that.
But if it meant Ollie could continue living his life, viewing the people around him as good, he’d live the next hundred and fifty years the same way, just so the little witch didn’t have to.
“Ollie, Baby, just keep living as you have, okay? There is nothing wrong with wanting to see the good in people. All I ask is that you don’t do things alone, take a bit more precaution when it comes to your safety, and stop trying to beat yourself up over not knowing something.
You are mine, and I don’t like hearing you talk bad about yourself.
” Cupping the man’s face with one hand, he pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Understand?”
“Mm,” Ollie mumbled with a sniff.