“So you decided to work for those bastards again anyway?”

When Oliver came home later, Peridot complained at the dinner table. The two of them grew quite a bit in the past year. With the boy reaching about 155 cm and the girl still a bit taller at 160 cm. At least their skin was relatively clear thanks to the medicine bought from Klein next door. Unlike most of the teenagers around Verde that had horrible acne, lesions or rashes.

“I’ve saved up way too much ore and crystals now. We had to build a whole other shed just to store it all. I don’t want my yard to disappear and I can’t just stop Mining. It’s more than just a job to me.”

He snickered and looked at the pouting girl, “Besides, I’m not just living alone anymore.”

“Yeah, now you have a personal maid.” She glared at him, “How long are you going to keep sleeping with that creepy statue? Are you two getting married soon? Is she pregnant yet?”

Oliver rolled his eyes, “She’s not just a normal statue. I think she’s growing.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“She’s growing taller and looks older now. Her hair is also constantly growing, so I need to trim it down every now and then. It’s pretty annoying.”

“Ollie! Throw her out! Get rid of that demonic statue before she murders us all!”

“She’s not gonna murder anyone. She can barely even move or speak.”

“She can move and speak too?! Oliver! This is not okay!”

Peridot stood up and rushed upstairs. When she opened the door to the bedroom, she screamed and closed it again.

“What’s wrong? Did the Thief come back?!” Oliver quickly arrived behind her and opened the door with a pointy metal stick in his right hand, “What the hell are you yelling about?”

“She’s standing up! Oliver! This is not normal!”

The Stone Sister statue had changed quite a bit in terms of ‘sculptures’. Aside from growing taller, more mature and having long black hair down to her waist, the most important thing was that she stood by the window, looking outside. Those bright green eyes were glowing in the dimly lit room. She was also wearing a simple green dress on her gray stone body.

“She does that. What’s the big deal?” Oliver shrugged and dissipated the metal stick, walking over to the statue and complaining, “It just pisses me off that she’s growing faster than me!”

When the two of them stood next to each other, the poor white-haired boy was a whole head shorter than the statue. Even Peridot was half a head shorter.

“What pisses me off is how batshit crazy you are!”

“I’m not crazy!” Oliver retorted, “Lots of people have seen ghosts and heard voices in the mines! I’m just a really good Miner, so it’s normal for me to be more sensitive!”

“I’m not talking about ghosts, Ollie, I’m talking about this scary moving statue that is obviously some kind of Monster! Have you told Aunt Emy and Uncle Klein about this yet?!”

“Of course not! They’ll wanna get rid of her!”

“That would be the smart and sane thing to do, Ollie!”

“Stop… Yelling…”

“Aaaah~! She talked! Did you hear that?! She just said something!”

Peridot bolted out of the room, down the hallway and all the way down the stairs. Oliver snickered and shook his head, “Don’t worry, Jade. I’ll go make sure Peri doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“Oli… Ver…” By the time the stone girl turned her head to the side and finished speaking, all she saw was an empty door. Then the boy appeared in the doorway suddenly, as if he teleported. His green eyes left trails of light as he materialized in front of her face again.

“Ah?”

Jade was startled and took a step backwards, but the boy was already gone. Although she wanted to separate her wrists, her hands were still ‘bound’ together even after her ankles unfused. By the time she looked up again, what she saw was the white ceiling in the darkness, tinted by the green glow of her crystalline eyes in the darkness.

“Oliver, I’m not tired yet. Don’t put me to bed.”

She heard swirling chaotic noises everywhere. Sometimes they would slow down and sound like snoring, rain hitting the rooftop or the windows creaking from the wind. But usually it was all blended together. Alternating between really quiet and really loud, but far too fast for her to understand.

“Gmningjdhwsyr sleep last night? Igtgonow! See you ltr~!”

“Wait, Oliver! Wait…”

Jade reached out anxiously and realized that the boy was only an afterimage. She was also standing in the middle of the room with the warm sunlight shining on her face. With that warmth, it felt like her body was a lot less stiff and useless. So she was able to walk a few steps close to the window. It even seemed like the world slowed down to a normal pace for a few hours.

“No… I need to move!”

When the sun stopped shining on her body, she felt like her mind was getting fuzzy again. So she rushed towards the door and opened it, then made it half-way down the hallway before a screaming little girl blocked her path. Jade was startled, so she also screamed, but then the blonde girl disappeared when she blinked.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the sun shining in through the window at the end of the hallway and started walking quickly in that direction. Then she turned to the right and heard the sound of water running. In the upstairs of Oliver’s house, there were basically only his bedroom and a large bathroom on the right side from her position. On the left side used to be his parents’ bedroom… Now it was more like a big storage room, with a few secret spots for hiding gold and other ‘treasures’ he collected over the years.

“Oliver?”

“Aaaah! How did you get here?! Stay back!” Peridot came out with a green towel around her body and soaking wet hair.

“Don’t run!”

“Aaah!” When she saw those gray hands reaching out towards her, obviously the little girl didn’t stick around. She avoided the slow stone statue and rushed downstairs. Jade sighed and continued to enjoy the sunlight for a little while longer before it fell down behind the distant mountains. Then she walked back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed.

Oliver appeared at some point, but before she could react, he was already laying next to her and sleeping. When she watched him, it looked like he was breathing thousands of times per minute. As she blinked, the sun started shining in the window and hitting her face.

“Another day, already…” Jade blinked again and the boy was already gone. Back to work again. Sometimes he wouldn’t even come home at night. Or would start working in the middle of the night and come home in the middle of the day or the next day.

“I’m so hungry.”

“You’re hungry? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”