When Blare told me what she had seen from the Satellite docks, I was rendered speechless. I was feeling so many different emotions, I couldn’t even think of the words to use. So I didn’t use any. I was mostly silent for the rest of that day, and for the next few days to come.
During that time, I depended very heavily on Peal. Somehow, she managed to get a calculated probable area for where Knell’s body might have landed (if it had landed), as well as a ship to take us there. I was more grateful to her than I had ever been, but unfortunately I couldn’t show it. I was too numb to do anything but nod and go where she led me.
Nevertheless, I did eventually get tired of being shuffled around like an invalid. So when the time came to search that 50-mile radius for Knell’s remains, I found my voice again. Long-distance travel was my specialty, after all: I finally had the chance to do something to help Knell, and I took it. I set the schedule, I fought the demons, I retraced our steps with a flashlight every night while Blare and Peal slept.
My diligence paid off: four days into our search, I ended up being the one to find him. A thick splotch of colors was stuck to a rock on an ocean shore, about to be carried away by the tide. I scraped it up as quickly as I could. Peal compared it to the older samples of Knell’s body and declared a match. And just like that, it was over.
A month later, I was back in my lonely house.
I had woken up early, despite the fact that I didn’t have any work that day. But I found myself unable to get back to sleep, so I decided to get up and walk around.
Knell was in his corner, as usual. Recently, I had found a nice glass bottle to keep him in, rather than the plastic gallon jug I’d used to carry him home. It even had a red cap. I dusted it off with a cloth and carefully placed it back down on the floor.
Peal had assured me that he could be saved. It was one of the last things she’d said to me before she returned to the Satellite. But I’d hadn’t heard from her since, and I was beginning to lose hope.
Worse yet, I was beginning to get used to not having him around.
It made sense. I hadn’t actually seen him or spoken to him since the day he was taken, over 3 months ago. But I still felt guilty whenever I felt myself returning to “normal”. It felt like an insult to his memory, to be able to go on living as if he had never existed.
At noon, there was a knock at my door. I expected it to be Blare. During our 4-day search for Knell, I had taught her some of my demon-hunting techniques, and afterwards she’d decided to strike out on her own. But she still came by to visit from time to time, and to feed Knell a few drops of colors from her own body. I didn’t think it would make much difference, but she insisted that, if he was still in there somewhere, he needed the nourishment to stay alive.
I answered the door.
It was Peal.
“…I thought, since it’s been so long, I’d come to see you in person,” she said.
I stepped aside to let her in.
She glanced at Knell’s corner, then looked away. She sat down on my couch. “So…everything is finally over. On my end.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, sitting across from her.
“My former employer and supervisor, Toll 018-19/R01-05332, has been declared dead. Killed by a rogue test subject. No stored footage of his ‘experiments’ could be found, but based on the mess that was left in the zoology lab and a few eyewitness accounts, it was determined that his actions were unlawful and unauthorized, and that he was probably…deranged.
“Since he was my supervisor, the higher-ups graciously gave me some extra time to stay in my flat before I had to move out. That time ended yesterday.” She held her head in her hands. “So, if you could please marry me already and let me live in your house as is the custom, that would be great…”
I couldn’t help smiling. I’d almost forgotten about our ‘relationship’. “Peal, we don’t have to be married for you to live here. You can stay as long as you want. After everything you’ve done, I owe you at least that much.”
“Well, it was worth a shot.”
She stood up and stretched. “You’re as sweet as ever, Clarion, but I’m not actually homeless…I still have a place on the Home planet after all. But I was actually thinking about living in Colony E…”
“The permanent angel settlement? Do you really like Earth that much…?”
“Well, it’s about my skill. You know, the one you helped me figure out back then…I was thinking, what better way to use my talent than to teach angels who live with humans how to act like humans? Maybe they’ll even pay me for it!”
“Maybe.”
“In the meantime, I was hoping I could count on you for some cash…? I had to buy a lot of favors to help find Knell, and I’ve already sold most of the things I own. And if I do end up living in Colony E, I’ll have to start a vaccination treatment to help me adjust to the local microbes…I’ll be broke and sick for about 10 years…”
“Well, I’m not exactly rich, but what’s mine is yours. I suggest that you find some kind of job in the near future, however...”
“I will, I promise! Thanks for being so hospitable~.”
I looked away from her for a bit. So that’s how she’d gotten those calculations and that ship. At the drop of a hat, she’d sold her own belongings just to be able to bribe people into helping a little boy she barely knew, who might have been dead anyway.
I was surprisingly proud of her. She had come a long way from the scatterbrained angel I once knew, who just wanted to do “a moral thing”. At this point, she was better at ‘being human’ than most actual humans.
When I finally looked up at her again, she was staring intently at Knell’s corner. “Alright…I know I heard something that time,” she muttered.
“What did you hear?!”
“Knell is in that bottle, right? I felt like I heard someone tapping the glass.”
I darted over to the bottle, picked it up, and held it close to my ear.
I heard one tap, then two.
Hurriedly, I tore the cap off the bottle.
Nothing happened.
“If he really is ready to wake up, maybe he just needs a little help,” said Peal. “A familiar voice, or a sound…”
I suddenly knew what I had to do. I picked up Knell’s PC and turned it on.
Peal was so startled by the first track in Knell’s “Death Metal” playlist, she literally jumped. I tried not to laugh. It was probably the first time she had heard that kind of music before. If my plan worked, I was sure Knell would be happy to familiarize her with the genre very soon.
The colors oozed out of the bottle. I expected a slow transformation…however, about a minute into the song, he suddenly materialized all at once.
He fell over. He rubbed his head and looked around. Then he picked up the bottle. “Looks much better from the outside,” he said.
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