Everything seems to be different as Albert woke up the next morning. The world looked odd. The sunlight filtering in through the blinds wasn’t the right color and Albert immediately felt like he was being watched. Both of these problems were the result of Albert falling asleep with the glasses on. The magical—though no one had ever used the word magic to describe them, so that was conjecture for Albert—glass lens tinted the sunlight green in an eerie way that he hadn’t noticed before, and beyond the obscured window Albert could just barely make out the gleam of a spectral feline eye.

After correcting a new slight bend in one of the arms of the glasses, Albert did his best to proceed through his morning as normal. Though, with each room Albert entered, he could feel the eyes of Pincushion following him. The only room he was safe in was the bathroom, which didn’t have a window. He was still hesitant to go there, however, as it would mean he would either have to endure an awkward conversation with his mother about why he was bringing his backpack into the bathroom or leave the backpack behind and risk his mother looking through it. Normally the latter situation wouldn’t be an issue, his mother had a good track record of respecting his privacy, but she was worried now and for good reason. Albert just couldn’t let her know that.

For good measure, though, Albert tucked his backpack into a corner at the foot of his bead and draped a blanket partially over it. It wasn’t exactly hidden, but it blended in extremely well and naturally. And when he returned, after an incredibly quick shower and wash up, Albert returned to find it exactly as he had left it. Which was a pleasant surprise. It didn’t fully alleviate his anxiety about his mother snooping through his things, but it did calm him down to know that just this once he’d been able to avoid discovery.

His mother actually seemed to be behaving normally. She had made herself a simple breakfast and was idly tidying the apartment while she watched tv in the background. She didn’t seem particularly chatty, but she rarely was in the mornings. And that was fine. Albert knew that most mornings, on school days at least, if she had gotten up early it was just to remind Albert that she was there. He had a strong feeling she fell asleep on the couch as soon as he left for school.

So, with barely a goodbye, Albert made his way out of the apartment. He was very tempted to skip a bit of walking by using his quill to get to the alleyway, but the short amount of time it would save wasn’t worth the pain. He massaged his shoulder as he thought about it. It still stung from the night before, almost exactly like the kind pain you get from a hypodermic needle that a vaccine comes in. Having a backpack strapped over his should made it a little worse too, so Albert spent the entire walk to school hoping that Amy would show up randomly and offer to drive him the rest of the way.

And the pain wasn’t the only thing bothering him. He could hear Pincushion trotting along behind him the whole way. It was less ominous now that he knew what the sound was, but it was still unsettling. The occasional mew or skitter of claws on concrete startled Albert every time. It was one more thing that he wished Amy would show up and fix for him. But she never appeared.

In fact, Albert was almost afraid she’d abandoned him all together. She was probably still in the area, but there was no reason for her to be attending his school anymore. Maybe to save face and help him with a cover story, but that seemed even more unlikely. But every class, she was sitting there quietly minding her own business like she was more of an auditor than a student. The only time she’d looked his direction was during the first class of the day, when he’d sat down in his desk. She had glanced over at him, then at his feet—where Pincushion undoubtedly was—and then back to her own notebook. It wasn’t until third period, when Albert was scheduled to be at his internship, that she acknowledged him. And even then it was only a brief statement as she passed in him the hall.

“Don’t forget, you have work to do. Better head over there.”

Albert had almost taken the quill out in the hallways and left on the spot, but the second he had to scramble through his backpack he thought better of it. Someone would probably notice him vanish into thin air. It hadn’t occurred to him before that disappearing suddenly could be just as hazardous for someone to witness as appearing at a destination. With that in mind, Albert had to find somewhere where no one would see him vanish. He opted for a bathroom stall. He didn’t lock it of course, that would be rude. But no one used the bathrooms at school anyway, not the way they were supposed to be used at least.

With a fresh pain in his left shoulder, Albert found himself behind the debt collection office. Everything seemed quiet, but then he saw Amy waiting for him, leaning against the back of the building with her arms crossed.

“You really need to be quicker about that.”

“I can’t just ignore the pain like you, okay? I have to work myself up to it every time.” Albert defended himself, but he knew he sounded like he was whining.

“Whatever, Hope’s practically frantic waiting for you to show up for your first big day.”

Albert didn’t like the sound of that. “Frantic? Like excited, or obsessed?”

“You tell me. You’re the one that had dinner with that psycho.” Amy snorted. “And I honestly can’t tell how it went based on her behavior. She either really likes you or really hates you, not that there’s much in-between with her to begin with.”

“I’m not sure either.” Albert said with a frown. “I don’t really want her to like me or hate me. I really would prefer neutral.”

“Sadly, you don’t get a say in the matter.”

Amy pushed herself all the way on to her feet and gestured for Albert to follow her to the front of the building. Graham was waiting in pretty much the same spot he had been in the night before, right next to the front door, and as soon as he saw Albert he gave a him a subtle upwards nod. It wasn’t clear what the nod meant, but it seemed to be some sort of agreement. Albert tried to return the gesture just it case it was called for.

“You ready kid?” Graham asked casually. He sounded as care free as he had been the night before.

“Yeah. Well, no. But I will be.”

“Right, well. Boss lady wants us in her office to brief us on our little list of assignments today.”

“Stay strong, old man.” Amy scoffed as she exchanged some kind of odd handshake with Graham, bumping the bottom of her fist against the bottom of his like they were stabbing each other.

Without further conversation, Amy exchanged places with Graham like they were trading a watchmans post at the front of the building. Albert realized that they probably were. It was entirely likely that someone would do something stupid to a debt collection office if there wasn’t some kind of physical deterrent.

Inside the office, there were the same people behind desks that had been there before. The only one that Albert knew was Millie, but she wasn’t making eye contact as he followed Graham over to Hope’s office. Now that the shock of his presence had faded somewhat, no one seemed to care that he was there at all. Albert was grateful for the lack of staring eyes, but nervous that it might indicate a lack of desire to help him with literally anything.

Graham knocked once, but then proceeded to open Hope’s office door without any consideration for a reply. Albert was mortified for a moment by the reckless behavior towards Hope, but no one else was reaction. Not even Hope. She just nodded as they stepped into her office and waited for the two to take seats across from her desk.

The office had been put back together much the same way it had been prior to Hope’s attempts to furnish it for a meal the night before. There were trances that things had moved and hints of the way they had been situated for dinner. But If Albert hadn’t been looking for them he might not have noticed different placement of the paintings on the walls and the rearrangement of several of the expensive looking knickknacks that adorned Hope’s desk.

“Excited for you first day of work as an honest to goodness arbitrator?” Hope’s smile was fake and full of venom; she was just waiting to put him down, Albert could feel it.

“I think it’s going to suck, but I’m here.”

“Same.” Graham grunted.

“Pleasant. I hope you don’t carry that attitude into any arbitrations or other business dealings while you—” Hope stopped mid sentence as her eyes caught hold of something. “What is that?”

“What’s what?” Albert looked around the room, but couldn’t see anything out of place. But then he heard the patter of tiny paws land on Hope’s desk and his eyes doubled in size out of fear.

“Oh… that. Right, well. It’s been following me. Since last night actually. I’m not entirely sure how to get rid—”

“Oh my gosh it’s adorable!” Hope squealed. “I’ve never seen such an expressive little cat spirit before. And such a strange aura too.”

Hope held out her hands to the invisible cat and after a moment it looked like she was pantomiming petting it. Rather than be left in the dark, Albert fished out the glasses and put them on so he could see what was really happening. And what was really happening was both horrifying and strangely cute to witness.

Pincushion had trotted across the desk within petting range of Hope, and the woman that Albert never expected to show an ounce of humanity was scritching its chin as casually as if she were petting an actual normal house cat. Albert even heard it purring before he put the glasses on, but with them on he saw the full display of affection clearly. Far more clearly than he really wanted, as the cat’s rear end was aimed squarely in his direction the entire time.

“And what’s you’re little collar say? Kılçık?”

“It means fish bone. But I’m pretty sure her name is Pincushion.” Albert corrected.

The second he said the cat’s name, she turned back to Albert and sat down as though she had been instructed to sit and she was carrying out orders. Hope looked a little let down that the cat spirit had abandoned her, but she didn’t seem interested in making a big deal out of it.

“Ah, right. Turkish. Interesting. And it just followed you home? That’s so strange. Well, enjoy it while it lasts, I doubt she’ll be around much longer. Animal spirits don’t tend to linger for more than a day or two at most unless there’s some special circumstance.”

Albert wanted to ask so badly what those special circumstance might have been, but he knew it was a trap. Just like the night before, Hope wasn’t done trying to get him invested in her somehow. She probably wanted to build up a rapport by answering his questions, but only the ones she led him towards. It was a subtle kind of manipulation, but not something that Albert didn’t expect. Though he had let his guard down somewhat when he realized that Pincushion had somehow followed him from school to the office.

“Sure.” Albert nodded slowly. “But, about the tasks you have for us?”

“Of course.” Hope offered another fake toothy grin. “I want you two to scout out a neighborhood for us. We’re looking for where we want to move our operation in the next two months or so, and we’re vetting candidate areas to see if they’re already in a contractor’s territory or not.”

“Alright.” Graham spoke up. “That shouldn’t be too bad. And I assume take advantage of any opportunities as we can?”

“Naturally. If you see a wandering spirit, don’t just let it get away.”

“How are we supposed to tell if another contractor is in the area?” Albert asked. It seemed a logical question, though it was probably obvious to them. Even if they played it off as foolish, it would still give Albert some of the warning signs he could look out for if he ever got his freedom back and wanted to avoid living somewhere where he might lose it again.

Hope cleared her through in a condescending display that sounded like it was stifling a chuckle, before offering her guidance. “There are a few telltale signs. The first is a near absence of wandering spirits, including animal spirits. The second is traces of a sudden uptick in criminal activity, commonly vandalism, armed robbery, theft, and truancy.”

Albert looked over to Graham to confirm, and his nod seemed to be doing just that. “A dead giveaway is if someone offers us a contract.”

The non-joke from the older man immediately brought doubt into Albert’s mind if he was actually in good hands.

“You look like you think he’s joking, Albert, but that’s a legitimate strategy.” Hope said with a nod of her own. “If you stumble into a contractor’s den, or if you go looking for one, it’s entirely possible they’ll offer you a deal for no real reason. And it’s more likely if you don’t look like the kind of person that’s supposed to be there.”

“What area will we be looking at, exactly, and will we need someone to transport us there?” Graham asked.

Albert hadn’t even thought to ask, but it made sense. He only had two destinations, well three if he counted Graham himself, where he could go with his quill. And if this new area was far enough away, it wouldn’t make sense to get there any other way.

“It’s a borough not too incredibly far from here. But I think you’ll probably have a landing point close by. I’ll text you a street address. I want you to scout out a five mile radius to start. If you don’t find any trace of anything, you can come back early.”

“And what if we do?” Albert swallowed hard at the thought of what he might end up having to do.

“Take care of it yourselves, if you can. And if you can’t… well, Graham will be fine at least."