Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 10 - Awake. Barely.

— Are you awake yet?
— Toma, for fucks' sake, it's 6 AM. — Nex grumbled.
— … Yeah?
— This time of the day I’m not even a person.
— I thought you were on a dawn shift, sorry.

And off he went playing with a box of random parts and whatnot.
Next time, Nexialist was woken up around 9 by loud static noise.

— What did I just say?
— I dunno, that was a while ago.
— And what's with the noise?
— I played puzzles, and it makes noise when I touch it.
— Well, stop touching it. Didn't your friend tell you not to wake me up?
— Ah, Coyote's still asleep.
— … Ghosts sleep?
— Coyote does.

Surprisingly, that thought pulled Nex out of hibernation. Well, it was puzzling enough that he understood that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore.

— You can't wake him up, he doesn't feel anything, but he usually wakes up around 10. Quite a sleepyhead.
— … Lucky bastard. — Nex grumbled under his breath. Then, after thinking for a bit, decided. — I’ll go brew some coffee… Maybe you know what tea your mom likes?
— Cannabis and mint. I dunno why, smells like skunk cabbage to me, but adults are weird, I guess. I mean, my grandma has her tea without any sugar at all.
— Yikes. — Nexialist quietly snorted, sitting up on the couch – he didn’t remember collapsing onto it for sleep, but this exact situation happened to him so many times that he decided to stop questioning it. Also, that must have been good tea, if it didn’t need anything to taste good. — Alright. Then we’ll probably need to get that tea somewhere. I’m not facing anyone’s mom without bribes any time… — He thought for one more second, while rifling through his pockets and finding a small zip-locked bag with some greenery in one of them — Or I straight up could roll up some joints, I guess.
— Won’t that hurt?
— Nah. Not that kind of joints.
— Ah, I just thought that's what it means, because if you roll your ankle, it hurts.

Toma fiddled some more, and after a couple of short electrical sparks, the noise turned into… morning radio show?

— Just about what are you doing back there?
— You had a book lying under your desk, and it had pictures, and then it said pictures meant those thingies, and I tried to make one, and it does this.
— Gimme that book for a sec.

The book turned out to be “Electromechanics for Beginners”, edition 4, approved by the church of the Great Constructor for home use and teaching. And there it was on the floor, a rudimentary radio, held together by tape, wall putty, and what appeared to be an apple core from yesterday.

— Didn't it say to solder it?
— I'm not allowed to use hot things without an adult watching ever since I almost set a horse on fire.
— Hmph, fair enough. You don't seem to have a battery here.
— The ones I found on the floor didn't work, but it makes noise when I touch it with both hands.
…
— I didn't do something bad, did I?
— … No, I just… Didn't expect someone who had never seen a screen to learn how to make a radio in three hours. — Nex whistled quietly through the balaclava, still marvelling at the dendro-faecal architecture of the radio. — And a functional one at that, holy shit…

Kid stayed silent for a solid minute, starting to resemble a hamster somehow.

— Sir Nex, I know what a computer is. Mum lets me play with her sometimes. — He huffed.
The conversation moved to the kitchen.
— Oh, really? What does your mom play? — He said, hoping to get the kid into reciting the entirety of the card games available on pc, and have his coffee in peace.
— Usually those games where she runs around and shoots stuff, I think it's 2 or 3 games maybe? I think one is called “Quack”. She's very good at it. And also one where there are a lot of small things on the screen, and she talks to people a lot. It's pretty boring, usually she just walks around. I think she's hiding the interesting part from me, because when she and her friends have raids, I'm not allowed in, and she cusses a lot. I guess I'm not allowed in because she cusses a lot.
— Well, — Nex took a deep breath so as not to spill his fresh, albeit pretty shitty, coffee. The more he heard about Toma’s mother, the less he wanted to meet her. This woman scared him already. — Aren't you a colourful bunch?

A weird animalistic sound could be heard from the next room over, followed by a soft thud. After a couple of minutes, the toy appeared in the door frame. Nex’s fingers twitched, and he almost dropped the mug. For a moment, he even inhaled the coffee he was supposed to swallow, maybe to see if he turned into a mermespresso overnight. Aside from that? Everything was fine, he even managed to keep his tone somewhere in between casual and sarcastic, and his ass seated.

— I just love how your presence doesn't stop scaring me shitless every time I see you, even though I know you're somewhere here.
— Morning to you, too. How's the search?
— You don't pay me enough to stay up all night long.
— … It's morning for 4 hours already.
— … You early birds sure are insufferable. First off, morning is when you wake up. Secondly, get off my back, you just got up yourself.
— Morning is at 6.
— You're arguing like really old, really boring grannies. — Toma interviened.
— Your friend here lived around the 1940s, he is a really old granny.
— You just opened a can of worms, man.
— Wait, but my cousins lived here around that time too, and they aren't.
— Now lie in it.

Toma tried really hard to understand how time works for humans. Unfortunately for those present, he could only think aloud.

— Wait, what? — Nex blinked, his brain screeching to a halt as he froze with his mug in his hands. — Like… I know humans and witches age way differently, but… You can’t be older than fifteen, kid!
— I'm not? My cousins are older than I. Well, some of them. Aisha is still a baby. She bit me once.
— And how many cousins do you have?..
— With twice and thrice removed, 26.
— Mother- Ahem. — Nex promptly understood that the situation would only get weirder from here and pinched a bridge of his nose in a universal gesture of irritation, then sighed. — I’m so glad I was an only child… On an unrelated note, — Steering the conversation towards another topic seemed like the only thing to do to save himself from the contents of the proverbial can of worms. So Nex declared. — I’ll need to make a few more calls and probably arrange for a meeting with Tragač today. You are free to explore Nario meanwhile – just don’t end up in a situation like the one I got you out of.
— May I take a shot in the dark?
— Uhm. Sure.
— Is there still a pub on the outskirts called “The Blind Rat”?
— It's uptown, but yes. You're not going to take a child into a pub, are you?
— I can bet you my left arm that at least three Tragač are there right at this moment.
— Hm. — Coffee or sugar or something else was finally working, at least Nex started thinking. — Is it theirs, or just like, a favourite place?
— I remember them wanting to buy it. Don't remember how it ended, but they're not the kind to let go of what they want easily.
— Then let’s imagine they bought it. — Nexialist nodded to his thoughts. Wouldn’t be a surprise, since Neven lived a while ago, that some things happened in his absence. — Still, bad for business to come without warning.
— Well, throw your pigeons. I've been meaning to ask, who is your translucent friend?
— …Who are you talking about?
— The man who follows you most of the time. With rather gnarly wounds.
— Are your wounds “gnarly”? — Toma asked. He was learning a lot of new words recently.
— Mine are “numerous” and “uniform”.

Nex stiffened in place, slightly, his mostly hidden under the ski mask face frowned.

— Why don't you mind your own business with missing people?
— I would, but he specifically asked for me to acknowledge him when you fell asleep. I'm just following orders in a chronological manner.
— You're getting cosy. I wouldn't do that if I were you. — Nex’s tone became sharper. — You asked me before if I wanted a pound of crowns or a pound of lead. Both are good and valid options for a man who has nothing to lose. So either you keep your nose to yourself, or you get back your crowns and go bother someone else.
— Well, sorry, sir, an attempt has been made. — Coyote seemed to have ignored everything Nex said, staring somewhere above his head.

Nex closed his eyes, summoning his patience, sighing in frustration and resuming drinking his coffee.

Coyote continued talking to complete nothing, that apparently came closer.

— I am not well-versed in the ways of being undead, but have you tried possessing an object instead? The magic charge might be insufficient for a conversation with the living.
— Coyote, you are being super weird today. I can't see that either. Can imaginary friends have imaginary friends?
— Apparently, kid. — Nex noted dryly into the cup. — At least now I know that my hallucinations have hallucinations… Ah, fuck, give me three mins, be right back.

With that, he put his cup on the table, pulled the balaclava back over his face, and went out of the room.