“Quite the opponent,” I teased when she huffed, finally giving up trying to tie the vest on.
“Tell me about it.” She tossed a few locs out of her face, looking out at the water for the first time since she sat down. “Holy…”
The trees hugged the shore, soft greens and oranges appeared nearly melted from the low light and dew of the morning. Nothing but the soft hum of insects and occasional chirps of birds kept us company. Alpine was quiet, but this was another level of stillness.
“Beautiful, right?”
Octavia’s round eyes somehow got bigger. She glanced back at Jacob’s house. The heavy fog erased it. “Have you thought of the possibility of this whole town being haunted? Like a curse or something?”
“We should talk about something fun.”
“Is the paranormal not fun to you?” Octavia studied me for a beat. “No, really? What’s more fun for you, being at those conventions or in the field? You’re definitely not one of those people who hate their job; I have yet to see you annoyed at getting to work. But maybe you’re good at hiding it. I’m sure stage life benefits a lot from acting skills. Have you ever done theater? You seem like you would have been a theater kid. That’s not derogatory; the theater kids were usually nice to me.”
I swallowed a laugh. This woman could yap and always had a million and one questions and theories. “This wassupposed to be a non-work-related hobby, so I’d prefer if we talked about non-work things.”
Octavia’s shoulders lifted and fell as she released a heavy sigh. A few dragonflies buzzed around, fluttering above the water. I continued to row, trying to give her the floor and a chance to flex her nearly nonexistent conversation skills.
“I have the most fun when I get to see people.” I rested the paddles on the edge of the boat. Water dripped from their edges into the dark lake. The sun tried to pierce through the fog, but it was fought off. I couldn’t see much around us anymore, only a vague outline of trees that looked like the shadows of giants waiting for us to get close enough to touch.
“See people?”
“Once we set everything right and they realize they can return to their normal lives,” I explained. “Typically, when we give an all clear, we spend a couple of extra days on site—just to be sure we didn’t miss anything. I get to see people live in their world. Worry about mundane stuff like restocking the fridge or getting their engine checked. That’s the fun part for me, seeing people exist. Enjoying life’s calm.”
Octavia was quiet for a moment, considering before she finally said, “So, you’re a voyeur?”
I laughed, and her eyes danced, pleased.
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I shrugged and tucked my hands under my thighs. It was colder out on the water. We drifted slowly, making a slight circle in the middle of the lake. Besides a few dark outlines of fish underneath the surface, it was almost as if we were alone in the world.
“It’s just…something I never got growing up,” I confessed with a shrug. “The mundane. Sometimes it was even stranger than the paranormal. Sometimes I considered maybe “normal” life was the weird thing.”
Octavia tilted her head to the side as she studied me. “Do you resent it? Not having a normal childhood?”
I tossed the question around in my brain, feeling its delicate edges and how it pressed against my precarious relationship with hunting.
“Sometimes,” I said the word in a whisper because it felt like a betrayal. Or maybe a curse. As if when I confessed this, everything I had would be taken away. I didn’t know what I wanted, but it wasn’t exactly that. “Sometimes I wonder how it’d be to have school yearbooks. How it’d feel to grow up on the same block with the same people and watch everything change slowly while nothing changed at all.”
Octavia hummed in agreement.
“But that’s life. You take one path, and the other disappears. It’s what makes things tragic and worth it.”
“That’s a mature way to see it.” Octavia smiled, impressed.
I laughed. “Are you surprised?”
“No, not really…” She shrugged. “I guess I’m still trying to figure out your game.”
“Think you’re close?” I teased.
“Almost,” she whispered.
“And is that fun for you? The figuring out people from the outside?”
“Not at all.” She shook her head. “It’s just what I’m used to doing. I don’t enjoy watching, though.”
“You’d prefer joining in?” I teased.
“I do. Or did.” Octavia picked at a callous on her palm. “I didn’t use to be very observant as a kid. I was very trusting, which was cause for concern for my parents, of course.”
