Chapter Text
The cat's eyes gleamed from the shadowy black of his fur as he watched me. “I'm heading out, Sissel” I said to the cat. He blinked, once, and yawned before sprawling ever more languidly on the dirty yellow couch. He would follow if he wanted to and wouldn't if he didn't. That was the good thing about cats, they did what they wanted. I smiled at him and shrugged on my suit jacket, letting the red fabric slide onto my body the way it always did. It was comforting to have it on, as if it somehow connected me to the rest of the world. But of course, it didn't. They were alive, I was dead. I had no connection to any of them. Well, mostly none of them.
Connections, life, death... none of it mattered in the end. I had a night laying open before me, intricately planned. Every step of that plan gave me a purpose to work towards, a vengeance that thrummed inside of me like my long lost heartbeat. Thinking about my revenge, about what I would do and how I would do it, made me feel alive. Almost. I was just settling my right shoulder into my jacket when the phone screamed at me.
RING!
I stood still, listening. It was futile, I knew. The call was not for me. I looked, stupidly, at Sissel – the call wouldn't be for him either, obviously. He watched it, ears perked and eyes alert, but unafraid. Sissel was used to loud, sudden noises.
RING!
I adjusted my suit. It would probably stop after the second ring, once the caller knew they had the wrong number.
RING!
Third ring. The phone in my apartment rarely rung. It was hooked up mainly as a way for me to return home – to the droll little crypt Sissel and I called home anyway – quickly. A port for a ghost, and nothing more. A convenience used for something other it's intended purpose. What, then, was coming over the line?
RING!
It was probably a telemarketer. The phone did have a number, after all. The number was still listed. It could be called, and they somehow ended up with every number possible. Poor fools. They were alive and they used their lives for that?! It was pretty sad...
RING!
I put on my sunglasses and paused. I could just walk out of the door and let it ring, but I didn't. Six rings... someone was determined. They weren't calling me, of course, no one called the dead, but as the seventh ring began, I began to feel a strange sense of hope. I reached to pick it up right in the middle of its next ring.
“Hello?” I said. I wasn't sure what I'd find on the other end.
“Hello!” said the voice of a very young child – a girl, though its always hard to tell with kids. “Hello?!” Impatient little thing.
“Yes?” It would have been rude to leave her hanging, though I didn't know what to say. If she was a scammer wasting my time, at least she had a cute little voice.
“Are you Amilie's dad?”
Oh. “No, I'm not,” I said. My voice was flat, free of my disappointment. Of course, she hadn't been calling me. No one did. I didn't know why I had thought anything different. Hope is a funny thing, though – it sneaks up on you and makes sure you’re as disappointed as possible. “I think you have a wrong number.”
“Oh,” she said. I expected her to hang up - There was nothing else to expect. She would call her friend, this Amilie, and never touch my un-life again. “Well...” Her voice was thoughtful, in that way that children's voices get. I didn't know why she was still talking. “Who are you, then?”
“I don't know.” I said, before I really thought. It was a reasonable question, but why had she asked it.
“You don't know who you are?” the girl paused. “Everyone knows who they are!”
Did I? Did I really? “Well, who are you?”
“I'm not supposed to tell strangers my name!”
“Then I won't tell you mine.” I said, smiling. I really had no reason to be coy about my name. Heck, I could have just said 'I'm Sissel', and it would have told her nothing... and it wouldn't have been technically false.
“Why not?!”
“Well, you're a stranger.”
“Huh?”
“I don't know you.” I said, “That means you're a stranger.”
“Oh... oh! S... so, I can be a stranger too?” I supposed I'd just blown her mind with that revelation, not that there was probably much to blow. She only sounded like she was very young, just at that age when kids start acting smart.
“Sure.” I said, sitting down and settling in a little. I knew I should be out there, setting things into motion, but I... wasn't. I didn’t know why.
“But you're a grown up...? And I'm a kid?”
Sissel mewed and leapt onto my lap. “Just because I'm a grown up doesn't mean that I don't have to be careful of strangers!” I stroked my cat softly. Actually, that was true. In the shadows, you couldn't trust anyone, even if you didn't have a life for them to take. “It's a scary world out there, kid.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” What else could I say? Besides the obvious: “Well, goo...” I started.
“So, if I'm a stranger,” she interjected. A bold child, this one, and probably a handful for her parents.
Parents... The sadness, that old companion that I thought I'd left behind welled up in me again. If only we'd had the chance... She hadn't stopped talking. “Hmm?”
“If I'm a stranger, then are strangers actually not dangerous at all?”
“Uh.” I wasn't sure how to answer that. “Well, I mean... Some are, some aren't...”
“So why can't I be nice to a stranger?”
“You can if you want.”
“So, are they bad or good?!”
I wasn't qualified to have this conversation. “They're... You don't know until you meet them.”
“So, I should meet them!”
Good lord, was this a lawyer in the making? “Well, you don't know. That's why you shouldn't uh... you shouldn't meet them. Because you don't know if they are going to be good? Or bad?” I fumbled through my explanation. I was completely out of my depth here. And comfortable – as comfortable as the cat purring in my lap.
“That doesn't make sense,” she said flatly.
I was really out of my depth. “Look.” I said, “Weren't you calling a friend?”
“Mmhmm! Amilie! She's my best friend! Her daddy has an important job – just as important as my daddy's job, but in different ways, I guess. She's really pretty too, and...”
“Won't she be disappointed if you don't call her back?” I interrupted. I didn't want the call to end, but all the same, she hadn't been calling me.
“No, I didn't tell her I was going to call.”
“Even if she’s not expecting you, don't you think you should try calling her again?”
“Why?”
Why indeed. I didn't know. “Were you planning to do something with your friend Amilie?”
“Yes! I wanted to invite her to go to the Museum of Inventions on Saturday! I like machines and stuff!”
That sounded familiar. “Well, if you don't call her to invite her, she won't come.”
“Oh! Oh, right!” she said. It was sort of nice to hear the awe in her voice – as if I had done something more impressive than basic logic.
“Go call her.” I said, smiling.
“All right, mister!” she said, “I'll call her! Bye!” and with that, it was over.
I replaced the phone on its holder and stroked Sissel's chin. “Well, that was nice.” There was a warmth that lingered in my soul before gently fading away, something pleasant in the endless darkness.
Endless darkness...
Suddenly the night, with its plans and plots, seemed less appealing. “Let’s stay here a while, then.” They'd keep a night or two anyway.