“Where have you been?”

  Hours later when I pull open the front door of the Manor, Wrath is in the foyer glaring at me. He even has Pox in his little box on a table nearby so that both of them can glare at me. Though Pox doesn’t so much glare at me as look up at Wrath and try to mimic his pose.

  “Working in the stock room,” I yawn, heading for the drawing room and laying down on the first flat surface I find. I stretch out on one of the couches, yawning and closing my eyes.

  After the door opened, the hijinks were over and whatever it was let me leave the store. Ghastly was still outside, and he waited with me until the Rlyft driver returned to pick me up and take me back home. We agreed to meet again in a couple of days to continue the investigation.

  “What?”

  “I took a shift at Maulie’s.It went about as you would expect.”

  I’m far too tired to enjoy the stunned silence, but it gives me at least thirty seconds to start to drift off before Wrath manages, “You got a job?”

  It certainly feels like I have a job.Wandering the aisles, not doing anything really productive, feeling like I had no idea what was going on.That was basically a job.Oh, and the disembodied voice from somewhere above me trying to make me feel bad about myself.That’s like a boss, right?

  “Of course not,” I say behind a yawn. “After therapy, I went back to the maul and met up with Grandpa Ghastly. I did a tour of the store, trying to figure out what was going on. The ghost, or whatever it was, made another appearance and tried to mess with me.”

  There’s another long silence and then Wrath says in a tone that is full of, well, wrath. “Why would you go there by yourself?What’s going on with you?”

  “I don’t know. I had a weird session with Doctor Malphas and I don’t know, I just wanted to do something productive.”

  Wrath sighs heavily.“You’re not supposed to go out without me.You know better than that.What would your mother say?”

  I open my eyes at that. “Excuse me?” Why is he bringing up my mother?

  “The deal is that we go everywhere together.”

  “That’s weird.And codependent.”

  “I’m your guardian demon.Emphasis on guardian.”

  This is new and weird. Wrath is always a bit codependent but now this is like…straight up bodyguard talk. “What is going on with you?”

  “With me? What is going on with you? You go to class without me, fine. That happens, not very often, but it happens. But then therapy and to the maul by yourself? What happened to hating to go out in public? And how’d you even get there?”

  “I took a Rlyft.”

  Wrath gasps in something akin to moral outrage. “You said you hated riding with Rlyft.”

  I wave him off and continue laying on the couch with my eyes closed, eventually falling asleep. When I wake up the room is toasty warm, which is actually nice, and Wrath is nowhere to be seen. It feels as though there’s a fire burning but the fireplace is empty. The Manor must have made the room cozy for once. The Manor acting nice is also a cause for suspicion.

  It’s nearly dark outside and as I head towards the front of the house, I see Nico across the street, dragging what look to be giant tree limbs towards the curb. Instead of heading upstairs, where I can hear 90s pop music blasting, I open the front door and head out into the twilight.

  There’s an ominous moon in the sky, dark orange in hue, waxing towards completion. It makes the sky look cheery in some way, and I find myself smiling as I walk down the paving and across the street.

  “You come to help with the excavation?” Nico asks, dragging the branches the last bit of the way to the curb. He wipes a gloved hand across his forehead, and I see the sweat on his skin everywhere else.

  “Is it really that bad? Are there trees in your conservatory, really?” Morecroft Manor had a conservatory, but most of the things in it were just in various states of death. Not a lot of overgrowth when everything is just aged branches still somehow standing.

  He looks sourly at all the refuse.It’s a significant pile, and suggests he’s probably spent most of the day hauling it to the street.Limbs and ferns and wicked looking thorned branches all piled on top of one another.There’s at least a dozen different varieties and that’s just what I can see amongst the top layer.

  “You sure you don’t want to call a landscaper to help with the removal?”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “You know a landscaper in Hollow Hills that will take my calls once they know I’m calling about Wakefield Estate?” Nico asks, some of his expression lightening as he gives me a smirk.“I can’t imagine they answer your calls any more than mine.”

  That… was a good point.But I also am pathologically afraid of calling people for help, even if I’m willing to pay them for it.So it’s never been in my nature to call a contractor for something that I can do.The few times where it’s had to happen, there’s always a distant relation around to make the call for me, or arrange the service.Uncle Doom always pops in just before something critical needs repair, like the roof or one of the containment circles.

  “I’m sure it’s not that bad,” I offer, though we both know I’m lying through my teeth.Nico laughs, though, and nods as though my joke was hilarious.

  He finishes arranging the detritus and for a second, we both stare at the work. The amount of limbs he’s carted out could fill at least a ballroom, it seems like. Within the mound of garbage there are limbs that look like actual human body parts, though I know that’s a trick of the light rather than actual bodies. There had been nothing alive in Wakefield Estate for at least a few decades, and to Nico’s point, I couldn’t see anyone offering him to help.

  “How’s your grandmother settling in.”

  “She’s doing quite fine, thank you,” a feminine voice carries over to us as the woman slinks through the darkness behind Nico and into the light. She’s only slightly shorter than me, which still puts her several inches shy of Nico. Dressed in a black skirt and blazer, she looks like a woman suited for a boardroom and not a haunted mansion.

  Nico’s posture stiffens slightly, and I’m curious about the reaction. But he doesn’t meet my eyes, though his tone is as light and casual as ever. “Grandmother, this is Theo, the next door neighbor. He saw,” Theo gestures towards the pile of trimmings.

  “He saw you trying to excavate the conservatory,” his grandmother says with a tight quirk of her lips. She smiles in my direction, nodding slightly. One thing I notice is that she’s supposed to be Nico’s grandmother, but she certainly doesn’t look the age. I would be hard pressed to say she was my mother’s age, but there’s something in her eyes that says she’s seen more than her fair share of the world. There’s an agelessness to her that I can’t quite explain.

  Maybe she is his grandmother after all. Maybe she just takes excellent care of herself.

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” I say automatically after a moment, reaching out to offer my hand.That’s what people do in this situation, right?

  She glances down at my hand and the thin smile grows wider. Again, just a bit. As though this is a woman who does nothing by full measures. Everything weighed out, released just as precisely as she desires. “Very lovely to meet you, Theo.” She clasps her hand in mind, and it’s cool and calm. A thick ring encircles one of her fingers, and it feels hot against my skin for only a moment before her hand retreats.

  “My grandmother is coming in as a new professor at HHU,” Nico offers.“She won’t be taking any classes this semester, obviously, but she’ll be working with her department on…” he waves a hand dismissively, “some kind of project.”

  “A reorganization,” his grandmother says, looking up at him.“The university hired me as the new chair of the Residual Studies department.”

  “Oh,” I respond brightly. “That’s so great. I know they’ve been looking for a new chair for a really long time.” And then just as quickly as I share that, I snap my mouth shut. If she asks why the last chair is not in office anymore, I’m not sure what to tell her. Normally people leave a job, find another job, pass away, or retire. What happened to Professor Grady was… never able to be confirmed.

  Residual Studies is one of the more popular majors at HHU.While there are the usual business students, psychology and English majors; Residual Studies is a growing field that lands somewhere between the Anthropology department, Sociology, and Religious Studies.

  “The effect we leave on our homes after we’re gone is such an interesting topic,” the woman says.She’s oddly warm, which does not entirely mesh with the version of her that Nico has implied before.I expected a cold and demanding grandparent, but she’s more the cultured tea and cookies kind.“You can call me Lin.Or Professor Song, if you feel more comfortable with that.”

  Nico looks between us, a light frown on his face mirroring the crease in his forehead. It’s like he’s not entirely sure what he’s looking at. I’m not sure what the issue is, his grandmother is entirely a delight.

  Unless he thinks I’m the one being embarrassing.Oh god, that’s it, isn’t it?

  “Professor Song,” I chirp, hearing my voice go up an octave in nerves.

  Now the frown on Nico’s face goes both ways.He clears his throat.“Yes, well, I still have a lot to do to help my grandmother settle in at the house.”

  “I’m staying at a delightful bed and breakfast in town,” Professor Song confides in me.“They say the house was built on a mysterious graveyard that was already here when the town was first settled.”She says as if it’s the most quaint fact about the charming, picturesque town of Hollow Hills.“How delightful.”

  “Oh, the Eternal Repose house,” I nod.“You’re right between the university and downtown.That’s a perfect neighborhood, you’re walking distance to all the shops downtown, and you could walk to work if you wanted.”

  “Exactly my rational as well.” She glances at her grandson. “It was truly wonderful meeting you, Theo. We will have to do this more another time. I’m afraid I must get back to the room. Nico.” She nods towards the Jeep.

  “Of course,” he says quickly.“No problem, grandmother.”He glances at me, wipes his hands on the back of his jeans.“I’ve got to drop her off and then I’ve got another batch of stuff to drag out here.”

  He makes an awkward half wave and then leads his grandmother to the car. I head back up to the house as they drive off. Wrath waits for me in the doorway.

  “Don’t trust her,” he says quietly.

  I glance back where he’s looking.The car is nearly gone, just the distant red lights of the brakes in the distance as they descend down into town.

  “I don’t think I do,” I say carefully. Otherwise, the idea that I had a pleasant encounter with a family member of a friend is too much of a reason for panic. No, maybe it’s the fact that she’s an outsider. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s obviously intelligent. Or the fact that she’s heading the Residual Studies department. Or all of the above.

  “I’m starting to think you might have been right about Nico.”I turn to face the demon.“They’re here intentionally.”

  He crosses his arms in front of him, claws restlessly tapping against his forearms.“That’s a significant shift from what you thought at the beginning.”

  “That was when it was just Nico.The grandmother is trouble.”

  Wrath sighs in relief.“I’m so happy you’re starting to see things my way.”