Page 56 of Stalked By Shadows

I curled up beside him, careful of the coffee and wrapped my arms around him for a minute. “I’m not going anywhere. Even if we are nothing but friends. I’m building a new life here and would very much like for you to be a part of it.”

His expression said he didn’t believe me. It made me a little angry. Had all his friends left him because of the disappearance? I knew he and Tim had broken up, but it sounded like they still had some sort of friendship. And he had Lukas and Sky now, yet he kept them at a distance too.

“You don’t even know me,” he said.

“No, but I’d like to. I think you’re cute and quirky. I enjoy your snark when you let it out. I’m fascinated by your crafting skills, and I’m a bit of a cosplay nerd myself even if I’m out of practice. Lifelong friendships have started with less.”

“Do you want to just be friends?”

I thought about that for a minute. “I want whatever we will be to progress naturally. Yes, I’m physically attracted to you, but I think we need to move at a pace that works for both of us. I’ve been out of the world for a while. Never had a real relationship before. I’d like to get to know you better and see if maybe we can find something more than a one-off. Unless you don’t want that?”

Micah frowned at me looking confused. “I don’t know what I want.”

“Fair enough. But you know you don’t have to pretend to be into me if you aren’t. Maybe you have a thing for Lukas. And that’s okay. We look alike, but don’t have much in common. I would be a bad substitute for him.”

“I don’t want Lukas.”

I stroked Micah’s cheek, finding the sleepiness in his face adorable. “Okay. Rest,” I told him, giving him another kiss on the brow and running my hands through his soft hair. “Snuggle with Jet for a bit, let me get food, and worry about everything else later. Okay?”

“Okay,” he finally agreed.

I made my way out into the garden. Nothing was moved. The gnomes were still upright, and no tracks. There was no sign of anything near the door. It made me angry that something kept tormenting him. My research had given me ideas, all legends and conjecture, but I had to start somewhere.

Thankfully Lukas had the day off since:Cops get breaks too. And was there at the gate with his rarely used car. I needed supplies and a way to get the stuff to Micah’s. It was okay if it was all a flight of fantasy, and nothing worked. I would keep trying. That was the point of being human, after all, trying.

* * *

Lukas helped me carry all my stuff to Micah’s place, when we arrived after ten a.m. I had a huge bag of breakfast food for the three of us, and supplies which I spread out on the open floor of Micah’s living room. He was awake, and dressed, but sitting on the couch crocheting something when we came in.

“Hey, Micah,” Lukas said setting down a container of quick cement and two-gallon jugs of water which we’d had blessed by a priest. It was crazy how many people Lukas knew, and calling on a priest this early in the morning had been a trip. The man had shrugged and agreed with Lukas’s request to bless the water like it was something he did every day. And maybe he did. It was the most haunted city in the USA after all. Or at least I thought it should be.

I spread out a drop cloth to keep the mess to a minimum and handed Micah his breakfast. He put the crochet aside and opened the container, looking at the food with a bit of wariness.

“There’s eggs and sausage in the other container too if you want something less sweet,” I told him, pointing to my breakfast. I could eat either or drink more coffee and not be bothered.

Micah put both containers on the couch beside him to pick at them while I worked on mixing cement with holy water, salt, and crystals and pressing the mix into a mold. It was one of the big perks of living in a town of musicians and artisans, finding a place where I could buy multiple cat shaped molds had been easy. In fact, the set I had picked was the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ set of cats. I also had a set of sleeping cats in different positions. The idea was to ward off the thing in the dark or maybe make it so relaxed and sleepy it left us alone.

Lukas ate his breakfast of eggs and pancakes while watching me mix. He’d chosen some of the colors of the crystals we’d picked up. Stuff crushed and made for decoration in grout, expensive, but he hadn’t protested the cost. Nor had he told me the idea was stupid. He had in fact been willing to fund my entire monster buster kit for Micah’s yard without question.

Jet parked himself on the edge of the drop cloth and watched as though he worried the cement cats were taking his place. After a few minutes Lukas closed up his container and pulled Jet into his lap. The cat curled up like it was his favorite place to be, tail flicking lazily and eyes closed as Lukas petted him.

The first batch of cats came out a little rough. Chipped in some spots, uneven, and not pressed perfectly into the mold, but that was okay. The second batch worked fine. I had to move fast because the stuff dried so quickly, but soon I had half a dozen of the little critters sitting on the cloth beside us. Micah had found his way down to the floor as well, mixing up colors of the ground crystals and water for me while I pressed the mix into the molds. Each set sparkled with the crystals, looking a little bit color-streaked with the white I’d chosen as the base. My goal was to fill his garden with the cats. A mix of legends meant to keep the supernatural at bay with salt, holy water, particular crystals, and cats. The glitter I’d thrown in there for a bit of pop.

Lukas had also picked up another set of gnomes as the shop with the molds was the same one where he normally bought his lawn decorations. These two gnomes were warrior gnomes, dressed for battle, in old armor and wielding swords like they were there to protect the garden. I planned to put them one on each side of the door with cats lining the path around them.

Lukas kept looking at his phone. He must have been texting Sky because she showed up after eleven with an arm full of boxes she claimed were fairy guardians to hang in the trees. Micah sat on the little bench under the tree watching the three of us decide where stuff would go. He sat in silence, crocheting, face filled with confusion, but not protesting.

Tim and Brad arrived before noon with a set of boxes as well. Theirs was one of those doorbell camera things, which Tim installed in minutes and linked to all of our phones. He added camera angles to view each area of the house and garden, five in total, which pulled up in tiny little screens on our phone or full-sized on Micah’s computer.

Brad and Sky chatted as they hung dozens of little crystal ‘fairies’ from the giant willow tree, making it cast rainbows when the sun hit it. The fairies doubled as hummingbird feeders and would have to be refilled on occasion, but the wind through the giant tree made them dance and sing.

From what I overheard of their conversation, Lukas had told Sky that Micah had a rough night because I’d told him, and Sky had told Brad who had told Tim. It was a bit like a confusing game of telephone.

Lukas went over the specs of the security system with Tim and I sat down beside Micah, worried about his silence. “Is this okay?” I asked him waving at the yard and all the changes.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure it will help.” He sucked in a deep breath. “It’s hard to hope anymore. It shouldn’t bother me so much. It’s just noise.”

I took his hand in mine and squeezed it gently. He’d been tormented by the noise for a long time. I suspected it would eventually drive anyone a little crazy. Would any of this help? None of us knew. I think what mattered more in that moment was that we were all willing to try.