When he was eight, his father drew the line. One of her moods had made her leave the house without unplugging the iron she had been using in the living room. It set the shirt she had been ironing ablaze and the fire spread slowly until it reached Fel’s father’s collection of expensive old whiskeys and other beverages. That was when the fire truly began to spread.

Fel had been left alone, upstairs. It was when he tried to put out the fire that he got burned. He also ended with a minor carbon dioxide poisoning due to not leaving right away.

Four years of her outbursts had been enough and this was the last straw.

Sometimes his father would explain that she hadn’t been like that. When she had lost her job, she had changed violently. From the start she had been very career-oriented, but his father had not noticed how much until that point.

She could not tolerate her place being opened for someone else. She demanded the status her job had given her.

And her family suffered because of it.

Years of psychological counselling taught him that no, his mother’s behaviour was not worthy of any excuse and yes, the fact that he had gotten a trauma from it was certainly enhancing his other, unrelated fear of heights. It also gave him a peace of mind that not ever seeing her again was alright and acceptable.

Anyway, Arianna was aware of the situation. She also did not ask a person who was twenty-six to call her ‘Mom’. Let alone someone with such a past.

Rather, she was happy to see that Fel accepted her within the limits of his capabilities.

To make sure that she would not misunderstand, he had also talked to her directly about it. He did think she was a great woman and he was happy that she was together with his father, it was simply her position as an official mother after their remarriage that was making him uncomfortable.

She was a very understanding woman. Fel felt relieved about it.

“Dad, I’m back”, Fel shouted into the small house. Because they had moved, this place was pure comfort. No memories of smoke and flickering flames or angry shrieks.

A grunt greeted him from the living room. Fel stopped by as he walked towards his room and waved towards the sofa.

His father was a grim old man with a lot of wrinkles - an aftereffect of his mother. He had been more relaxed before. Seeing his son, the man gave a nod and his expression lightened. “How is your Grandpa’s place?”

“Huge”, Fel sighed. “It’s a mansion. I’ll… go back there on Friday again. I think it might not be bad to stay there for a while.”

“How long is your vacation again?”, the man asked with a deep frown.

Waving his hand, Fel rolled his eyes. “The middle of next week. It’s fine! I have overtime. Half of this vacation is just me using up those hours.”

“Make sure to not waste them”, the man warned. As always, he was worried about his son possibly getting lazy.

“Yes, yes. Let me take a break once in a while.”

“Dad, Fell is probably going to need all of it to clean up that house. Don’t chase him away when he’s here for a day or two!” Nina chimed in from the side, protectively moving to stand next to him.

“I’d love a bit of rest”, Fel admitted, giving a soft wry smile. Nina took his shoulders and maneuvered him past the door and towards the kitchen.

“Get some food.”

“Actually, I was on the way to bring my stuff into my room.”

“Get some food first! It’s still warm now!”

… Won’t it be warm a minute later, too?

Helpless, Fel allowed himself to be dragged into the kitchen to eat a warm, home-cooked meal. It wasn’t as good as Urulu’s, but he liked it better nonetheless. There was something especially nice about a meal at home, no matter how good high-class cuisine might taste.

For a short time, the world was peaceful.

Relaxed and refreshed, he left the next day, his car driving towards his own place. On the way, he went grocery shopping and after thinking about it, took a second bag and filled it up with salty snacks.

Getting up the stairs to his little apartment, he stopped before an earlier door and pulled out his cellphone.

N0t even five minutes after sending the message, the door opened.

Hailey peered out of the gap before opening the door and glancing around. Fel gave her a smile and hurried inside before greeting her. “Morning. I’ve brought you some food.”

She glanced up at him, blinking her tired eyes awake.

Hailey was wrapped in a wearable blanket, with fluffy brown socks peeking out from underneath. Hair in a ponytail and fringe put up, she absolutely refused to open the door to anyone she did not know.

In this situation, ringing the doorbell would have her running, so he always wrote messages. She read those almost instantly.

“What did you bring?”, the small girl asked, impolitely reaching out and glancing into the bag. Her face did not change too much, but she looked happy. “I’ll get you the money.”

“Alright.” Fel knew her well enough that she did not like leaving debts. He took the money she brought and pocketed it.

She shuffled back into her living room and Fel followed her, having to hold back his laughter at her fortress of pillows and blankets on her sofa.

“I see you’re working”, he chuckled lowly, spotting her opened laptop and the notepad full of scribbles on the blankets. There was a glass full of soda on her table.

She made a sound in reply. “Yep. You’re on vacation, too? How was that place you visited?”

“My grandfather’s house”, he reminded her. “Maybe you can visit sometime?”

She gave him a look that asked if he was crazy. It was so incredulous, he might as well have asked if she was a zombie.

He burst out into laughter at the sight. “Alright, alright! Just a joke. Stay at home in your blankets.”

She humpfed.

Hailey did not like social stuff. She did not like sleeping outside of her home or generally being out. She hated having people around overnight. And most of all, she hated insects.

It was near impossible to convince her to go into a forest, let alone sleep in a place that probably had spiders and bugs and mosquitos.

All in all, she was like a shy housecat. You could interact with her once in a while and that was about it. She did get euphoric at times, which was interesting to watch, but most of the time she would prefer quietly sitting in her corners. Alone.

He knew her from school and had managed to keep up contact because they had both played similar games. She had been the one to inform him of the empty apartment next to hers. Frankly speaking, it was easier talking to her via chats - she could chat with you all day as long as you weren’t in the same apartment as she was.

“Give me some advice”, he said as he found an empty spot on the sofa. She crawled under her blankets, rolling herself up and looking at him with light-coloured eyes.

“What would you do if you could get something really suspicious, involving really suspicious people, but that you really want?”

“Call the police”, she bluntly responded, looking at him with a deadpan face.

His smile twitched. “If not convenient?”

“Is it dangerous? Illegal?”

“No.”

“Do you really want it?”

“Yes.”

“Buy it. Nothing worse than thinking back and realizing that you regret not having bought something just because of a stupid reason like, it’s too expensive or I don’t actually need it.” Her voice got muffled as she pushed her face into a small pillow. “Besides, no matter what you do, you can’t know whether the other option would have been more satisfying. On the long run of your life, decisions can never truly be rated as good or bad, since the butterfly effect is too large.”

Aah, there she went again. She really loved concepts like those.

“Translation: Get it?” Fel stole a cookie from her table and glanced at her notes. Nothing that made sense to him.

“If not dangerous or illegal. Really, don’t do illegal stuff. Is it cool?”

“It’s a house full of beings that walk through different worlds.”

She gave him a long stare. Fel stared back. Finally, she shrugged. “I don’t exactly believe that, but who knows. I certainly can’t say that my neighbours are 100% human. Bring me something interesting along if you can.”

“Wouldn’t you want to see it yourself?”, he asked in amusement.

She pulled a face and looked away in embarrassment. “... I don’t want to go out for that.”

Sometimes he thought that it was a miracle that there were events that could convince her to go outside in her free time, at all. And even then she looked annoyed to go until she was there.

“Hailey, how do you even survive as a social creature.”

“I’m happy being alone, thank you very much. Feel free to be social with me through our chats. That’s enough interactions.”

On that note, she looked back at him again. Fel got the hint. “Want me to leave?”

“...Work is being fun right now.”

“Alright. I’ll write to you later.”

She genuinely smiled at that. “Sure.”

With a small wave, Fel went outside by himself.