Chapter 52
Ollie eyed the insurance form on his desk that Elias must have sneakily placed there, knowing he had no intention of filling out.
It was just another attempt by his Assistant Director to get the insurance to pay for the already finished repairs.
But one couldn’t exactly file a claim without having all those pesky official reports to back it up.
Not to mention, it was a bad idea since a dead body had been involved. Not that he could tell Elias that… Ollie didn’t know where Mikael’s body had gone, only that Red had gotten rid of it ‘somehow’.
But none of it really mattered at the moment, as he wasn’t thinking about insurance, or fires, or dead bodies in relation to himself—Ollie was thinking about Noble. About what he now knew, and even about the witch hunter’s injuries, which he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about at all.
Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, both angry and devastated, as self-hatred filtered into his heart when he, once again, came to the same conclusion.
Despite all he knew—knowing Noble had taken that final step, knowing he had killed who knew how many of his kind, knowing that there were undoubtedly many more horrors he hadn’t witnessed—Ollie still… missed him.
Tomorrow was Sunday again, marking a week since he’d last seen him. He’d had a week to think over every single thing that had happened, and Ollie still loved him!
He still wished he was there. Wished he knew how the man was, and whether he was still hurt, even though every little nick and scratch Ollie had gotten was already gone.
He wished the man was holding him, and that he didn’t feel so lost and alone at night.
Ollie wished he felt safe again, because he didn’t without Noble.
Instead, every night he woke from each horrifying nightmare, feeling utterly alone and helpless!
What was worse, without Noble there, all the thoughts and feelings he’d managed to push away, after what happened with Mikael, had come roaring back.
Ollie pressed his face to his desk as his tears broke free, only to jerk back up when Annabel suddenly spoke. “Ollie…”
He stared at her silently before slowly asking, “Did you know too?”
Ollie should have asked sooner. He’d had plenty of time to, yet the reality was, he had avoided talking whenever he could throughout the week.
Ollie hadn’t wanted to explain what was going on to those who didn’t know, and he didn’t want to talk to those who knew or were directly involved yet.
So, he hadn’t. Though, he supposed, the only person who knew, outside of those directly involved, had been Annabel.
The ghost sighed. “Not at first. But then, it can be hard for me to fully sense things as a ghost, and even more so as just a fragment of one. Though, I did realize…when he rescued you. Despite how injured that hunter was, Noble likely wouldn’t have won if he was just human.”
“Do all witches…who die the way you did, end up the way you are? Fragments?”
“Not always, it depends on the witch hunter who did it. I will say it is rare for witches to become ghosts, but one of the ways we can with certainty is through dying by ritual…by a hunter’s ascension.
But there is a way to stop it, I believe, though most hunters don’t.
I imagine, for them, it’s just another way to punish and torture us. ”
Ollie sniffled, tears still trailing down his cheeks as he softly rasped, “I miss him, and I shouldn’t. He still sends me texts reminding me to eat…even though I haven’t responded.”
She smiled gently. “It’s okay that you do.”
“No! It’s not. I should be instantly turned off by all of it. I should be angry, I should be disgusted, and I should hate him! I saw…likely just a fraction of what he had done. I saw it!”
Annabel frowned, and her form seemed to become slightly more see-through at his words. “You saw it?”
“I-it was…dark. I touched the stone wall, and they just—” Ollie whimpered, “—kept coming! Even when the lights turned on, they didn’t stop! I should HATE him!”
“But you don’t.”
“I don’t,” he sobbed. “I don’t… I just wish he was here—ah… Do you resent me for that?”
She laughed softly, her eyes seeming slightly sad as they gazed at him. “Why would I?”
“Because they killed you!”
“They also killed your parents, and probably those before them.”
Ollie opened his mouth to respond, but faltered. “Y-you don’t think…Noble…”
“No,” she said quickly. “I don’t think he killed your parents, or your grandparents.
I was floating around here for a while, and I don’t think he realized you were a witch at all until recently.
Not when I think back to how he first acted around you.
If he had killed your parents, he would have known already. ”
“Then why?! Why me?! Why did he approach me? Or rather, why did he stay?! Do you… Do you think he planned to kill me eventually?”
“No, Ollie, I don’t.”
“Then—”
“You never let me explain why I let Noble near you,” Red stated as he padded into the room, the door to his office opening and closing on its own.
Red held himself still, as Ollie looked down at him for a moment, before saying, “To be fair, I never let you tell me anything in regards to Noble. But, fine…tell me.”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t think I should be the one to tell you the whole reason. Noble would be the best person for that. But I will say…I allowed him to be near you because I knew he wouldn’t hurt you.” Red winced and added, “At least, not physically…”
Mentally…both he and Noble had managed to fuck that up.
“How are you so sure?”
“There were things I found out, things he said, not to mention the dopey way he looked at you… I was sure. I still am. Even though all of us managed to hurt you, I know for certain that he never intended, or wanted, to cause you pain.
“As for what I found out, and already knew, I really think it would be best coming directly from him.”
Ollie took a stuttering breath. “I…I need to think. I just need to figure out what I want, or what I'm going to do before…letting him come here again. Because I just don’t know what I even can do. Or what I’m supposed to do.”
“Just do whatever you want to do, Ollie. I’ll support whatever choice you make,” Red promised, even though he personally wanted Noble to stay. The knowledge, always on his mind, that the witch hunter had been the only one able to reach Ollie when he’d been lost to a rage that wasn’t fully his.
His head was throbbing from both overthinking and crying, as Ollie walked into his kitchen, and stared blankly for a moment.
His mind kept returning to two of his current problems—Noble and…
Jahla. Yes, he missed Noble, and he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do in regards to him, but he missed Jahla as well…
and the situation with her was different.
She was… Dammit, she was his best friend! She was. He knew she was, even though he doubted it sometimes, but if Ollie really thought about those feelings, he knew they were just his own insecurities sneaking free. She was his best friend, and he wanted to fix things.
To be honest, Ollie should have known about Noble sooner.
The signs had been there, and he had denied every single one of them, but he had, in fact, recognized them.
There had been so many moments when he had noticed things were off, far more than Jahla could have ever possibly witnessed with the limited time she spent around Noble.
While he didn’t know how she had found out, the fact still remained, he should have known long before her.
And knowing Jahla as he did, he already knew why she hadn’t said anything.
The reason was pretty simple…Jahla knew him too well.
She had known he didn’t want to know, and she tended to not push the truth when it came to things he was actively denying, especially if she knew it would hurt him.
She would always wait until he was ready, or until she thought it wouldn’t hurt as badly.
Jahla just didn’t get the chance this time, as Ollie ended up finding out on his own.
Sighing, he turned into the hall off the kitchen, but froze when his gaze caught a flash of transparent white near the floor. Ollie remained there only for a moment before taking off down the hall toward the private library, with hope in his heart for the first time in days.
“Pumpkin!?” he cried out as his foot caught on the edge of the opening to the secret library, and he fell to his knees just past the door. Ollie ignored the pain and looked up almost desperately, only to stare on in shock.
Dozens of small, semi-transparent kittens in various shades of black and white tumbled and ran around, playing.
Not a single one of them was Pumpkin, he knew that for sure, but as he stared at them, with tears filling his eyes, Red’s words from days ago came back to him: ‘Cherish the moments’.
And he would, with each and every one of them…
even if he was now going to seriously investigate the area around his woods, since that was the only place he could think of as to where they could have all possibly come from.