Noelle pulled her brown jacket forward to wrap it around the black cat, shielding it from the rain. The air held the lingering scent of dampened soil. Upon reaching the college dorm room building, Noelle reached into her right pocket to retrieve a red card.

Noelle held the card up to the small scanner at the entrance door. A green beam shot out of the scanner, tracing over the card she held. The door let out a loud, resounding beep to let her know the code on her card was accepted. It was then the large glass doors of the building pulled apart from each other, and the familiar scent of lavender greeted her nose.

As Noelle entered the building, a memory rushed through her mind of the time when she first entered the building after being accepted into WC College, also known as Willow Creek College, The overpowering scent of lavender lurking around the building's lobby tended to make her sick to her stomach. Even now, Noelle still couldn’t get past the scent, even though she had probably smelled it way over a hundred times.

“Almost there,” Noelle quietly whispered to herself as her eyes darted over to the elevator.

Before she stepped closer to the elevator, she leaned forward and turned her head to the right and left to ensure no one was heading her direction from the long hallways. Once she realized no one was around except herself, she quietly scurried toward the elevator.

Once inside, she pressed the third-floor button before loudly sighing.

“I was worried about getting caught, but I think I’ll be able to sneak you in without any problems,” Noelle said softly as she looked down at the cat she held in her arms.

Once Noelle finally arrived in front of her and Juliana’s dorm room, she hastily opened the door before walking inside and then closed the door behind her.

Noelle let out a small sigh of relief. Her shoulders lowered to a more relaxed state when she was in the security of their dorm room, away from anyone who could see her.

“You’re late; I was getting worried something happened to you in the rain…” Juliana started before she saw Noelle jolt forward.

“Why are you acting like that?” Juliana asked in a serious tone as she noticed Noelle's form stiffening.

“Acting like what?” Noelle asked innocently before turning around to face her cousin.

When Noelle turned around, Juliana’s eyes drifted downward toward Noelle’s stomach, which was extended outward through her hoodie. Just as Noelle was about to open her mouth to make up an excuse, a loud purr broke the silence of the room.

“You brought a cat in here? You know pets aren’t allowed,” Juliana pointed out as she crossed her arms.

Noelle let out a small sigh. She unzipped her hoodie to reveal the black cat she had been carrying around the dorm building to sneak into their room.

“Come on, Juliana. I couldn’t leave the poor thing in the rain. Besides, it was totally abandoned, and I always wanted a pet. I promise I’ll take good care of it. Please, Juliana, just let this slide just this once?” Noelle said in the cutest voice she could muster.

“Fine!” Juliana said with a loud sigh. “But, if we get caught, you’re taking the full blame for it. Also, get some sleep, since you have class early in the morning.”

“You’re the best, Juliana,” Noelle said with a smile that matched her cousin’s.

After Noelle changed into her pajamas and treated the cat’s injuries, she buried herself under the white blankets. Since she didn’t have a cat bed, she placed the cat on her bed to sleep next to her.

“I’m afraid that I won’t be able to stick around too long in the morning, but you can accompany me when I go to the gate after my class is over. Would you like that?” Noelle asked in a soft, hushed tone as she looked at the cat curled up next to her.

She reached forward to rub the cat’s head gently, which led to her being rewarded with a soft purr. Noelle let out a soft giggle when the cat moved closer to lick the tip of her nose gently.

“I guess I’ll take that as a yes,” Noelle said with a happy smile before her eyes grew heavy with exhaustion. She closed her eyes, and within a matter of seconds, she was dragged into a deep slumber.

Eventually, the sun crawled out from its hiding place and burned brightly in the sky. Juliana was lying on her side, a bit of drool coming out of her mouth and spilling onto her pillow. Her eyes slowly opened when she heard the sound of Noelle’s voice, which dragged her out of her slumber.

“Why are you being so noisy this morning? Also, why are you even up this early?” Juliana whined as she propped herself up into a sitting position on her bed. She reached up to brush back a few blonde locks from her face.

“You won’t believe it, Juliana. I was able to use a couple of spells, and look!” Noelle said excitedly as she held the black cat from yesterday in her arms. The cat had a nice black collar with moons carved into the band. The front of the collar had a round, gold charm with black writing that spelled out the name Lucky.

“You made him a collar and decided to call him Lucky?” Juliana asked as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes.

“Well, of course, because it must have been luck that I found him to begin with, so I think it’s the perfect name for him,” Noelle said. Her lips curved up into a big smile while her eyes practically sparkled with happiness.

“Lucky, huh? I guess your luck ran out since you’re about to be late for class,” Juliana said with a playful grin as she raised her hand to point at the time on the clock that hung above the front door in their dorm room.

“Shoot, you’re right. Here, watch my cat,” Noelle said quickly. She carefully placed the cat on Juliana’s bed and ran to the door. When she bolted out of the room, she nearly stumbled to the ground, which caused Juliana to chuckle softly.

During the lecture about the history of Willow Creek, Noelle would occasionally glance up at the clock in the front of the classroom and count down the minutes until she could leave. She had never really cared about this class, because nothing about Willow Creek's history ever interested her.

The history of Willow Creek known by everyone never even touched on the subjects of anything supernatural, almost as if a savage beast didn’t appear to steal the souls of innocent victims who crossed its path at night. It wasn’t long before she nibbled on the end of her pencil while she looked down at the book that held the history of Willow Creek on her desk.

She was quickly thrown out of her thoughts when the sound of a bell chiming grabbed her attention. Her eyes widened when it dawned on her that nothing in this classroom could make that sound. Her eyes quickly flickered to the left, where someone had placed their black-gloved hand on her desk.

He leaned forward, putting all of his weight into the hand on her desk. “Wow~ Someone’s really dedicated, but if you ask me, the history isn’t all that interesting,” the guy whispered in a low tone into her ear.

Noelle jolted forward, hearing a voice so close to her ear. She grimaced when she heard the girl in the middle of the classroom start to chuckle.

“Oh look, the freak is hearing voices again,” the girl said mockingly while laughing to herself. Three other girls joined in on the laughter before the teacher at the front of the classroom told them to settle down.

The girl who had called Noelle a freak was named Addison. She had beautiful blonde hair paired with chestnut brown eyes. Addison was quite popular around the college for having a so-called pleasant personality.

But, for some reason, Addison had hated Noelle since the first day Noelle arrived at the college. Noelle could never put her finger on the reasoning behind Addison's hatred.

Noelle quietly shook it off before getting comfortable in her seat again. But her mind started to wander away from the information in her history book. Just a moment ago, a guy was talking to her, but now he was nowhere to be found.

Noelle started to wonder if he was a spirit. Anyone possessing magical abilities, like the Brimwick family and Celestica family, could see spirits, and Noelle would see them from time to time. But if that was the case, why had that spirit suddenly decided to talk to her? None of the spirits ever spoke or even acknowledged her as this one had.

After class, Noelle’s mind was still occupied by the strange occurrence that had happened during her history lesson. She decided not to explain the situation to Juliana. She didn't want to worry her cousin over a silly spirit appearance.

Noelle planned to return to their dorm room to retrieve her cat. She was dying to show the cat what the gate looked like since it wasn't every day she got to show anyone anything about that part of her life. Noelle softly clenched her arm after remembering Addison calling her a freak like she usually did.

Noelle looked forward to finally having some company inside the gate while she monitored spirits. Just the thought put her mind a little more at ease.

After all, being the Gatekeeper was quite a lonely job.

“I know this isn’t much, and in fact, this house isn’t all that exciting, but it's nice to have some company here for once,” Noelle said with a big smile as she spoke to the cat, which let out a soft purr.

Noelle opened up the door to walk inside the gate. After she was inside, she wandered over to her desk and gently placed the cat down. She then sat in the chair in front of her desk to read more about spells and write down information about the spirits crossing through the gate.

She struggled to stay focused on her spell book as her mind went back to what had happened during that history lecture.

“What could he have wanted?” she mumbled quietly to herself as her thoughts started to consume her. Then, she noticed movement in the corner of her eye, which caused her to turn her head to see what it was.

At that moment, she saw a blue mist start to form around her black cat. The cat rose to its feet from its curled-up position. Her mouth hung open in disbelief when the cat gracefully did a backflip right before her very eyes.

It started morphing into something, causing the blue mist to grow in size. After a couple of seconds, the blue mist began to clear up, and her eyes widened when she heard the familiar sound of a bell chiming.

“I’m shocked. I didn’t think I would be on your mind all day,” the guy said, as the corners of his lips stretched up to form a grin.

He tilted his head in amusement. Upon doing so, the silver bell attached to the long silver earring he wore chimed again as his head moved.

“Wha…you’re…that….” Noelle stammered for a moment since she was too shocked by what she had just seen.

“Are you telling me you were the cat this whole time?!” she shouted as a small blush dusted her cheeks when a thought dawned on her. She had petted and cuddled that cat more times than she could count, and didn’t it even lick the tip of her nose yesterday?

The guy’s mischievous grin grew wider after he heard her comment. There was a hint of mischievousness in his eyes. “Guilty as charged, but it was only a matter of time before you found out, Miss Gatekeeper,” he said with a charming tone while he shrugged his shoulders softly.

“What am I even doing right now? I shouldn’t even be talking to you. Look, you’ve had your fun. Now you can get going,” Noelle said with a serious tone while crossing her arms before she looked away from him.

But she quickly turned her head to look at him when she heard the chiming of the bell get louder and louder as he got closer. Her cheeks turned a deep red when her eyes directly met with his abnormally blue eyes, which were like sapphire gemstones.

His hand gently rested against her desk while he closed in on her a bit. When he saw her blushing, he couldn’t help but playfully smile at her.

“Don’t you think it's cruel of you to treat your pet cat so badly? Look, I used a bit of magic to make sure the collar you made for me didn’t break,” he grinned before reaching up to push the charm that spelled out “Lucky” with his pointer finger t so it would jingle.

“But you aren’t some cat. In fact, you’re a spirit who tricked me into thinking you were one,” she said while trying to sound angry as she glared at him. He had a hard time taking her seriously since she was amusingly still blushing and talking to him despite claiming that she shouldn’t.

“Not true; I can transform into a cat, so it counts. Besides, you can still pet and cuddle me whenever you want to. All you have to do is reach out and touch me. Pretty easy, right?” he said quite flirtatiously wearing a grin. There was evident amusement in his eyes when she blushed even harder at his comment.

Noelle would be lying if she said her mind wasn’t racing a mile a minute, and it wasn’t just his flirty commentary; this entire thing was weighing on her mind.

Why couldn’t things have just stayed simple? They just had to be complicated.

“I was being serious about you leaving. As the Gatekeeper, I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now or even be close to you,” Noelle said as she repeated what she had said previously.

“As the Gatekeeper, I thought you would be a little more curious about reaching out to touch a spirit that wasn’t a result of passing through the gate. Also, it really wasn’t my intention to trick you at all, Miss Gatekeeper,” he said honestly while still wearing a playful grin.

Noelle blinked a couple of times, hoping all of this was just some sort of weird dream, but she frowned when she realized that he was still there. But he wasn’t wrong; she was curious since every time a spirit passed through her, she felt an uncomfortable icy chill pass through her body.

She wondered if it would feel the same if she directly touched a spirit that hadn’t passed through the gate. Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of her, and with hesitation, she slowly extended her hand out toward him before halting.

“I can’t believe I almost fell for another one of your dirty tricks---“ but she paused mid-sentence when he took hold of her hand and placed it against his cheek. Her eyes widened in surprise when she felt the warmth of his skin against her hand.

He tilted his head forward slightly, causing his raven hair to fall into his face. He wore a mischievous grin. “See? No tricks, Miss Gatekeeper,” he said in a quite flirty tone.

Of course, Noelle wanted company at the gate since she was mostly lonely whenever she monitored the spirits.

But this wasn’t what she’d had in mind.