Neither of us had said a word since leaving the salon. I was running too many scenarios in my head. What if Remington gave this adorable little speech about how excited they were to go get food with someone after Georgie moved out. Then, I ended up fumbling over my words, like I normally do. It would look as if I didn't want them to go. They would slump their shoulders and walk home. I couldn't make Remington sad! Mitzi would kick my ass, then I would kick my own!

"Tetsuo."

I jumped at my name being called. It was Remington. They pointed across at the walk sign giving pedestrians the right of way. "If we're goin' 'cross, we better hurry."

The countdown started. I could probably make it if I jogged. Remington had long enough legs to do big strides. But what if they didn’t make it in time? They tripped and hurt themselves, or worse! Panic set in, preventing me from moving.

Suddenly, there was laughter. I turned to Remington, who quickly clasped their hand up to their mouth. "Sorry. It's just... This crosswalk always gets the best of ya, huh?"

"No!" I whined more than I intended to.

A family was approaching. The parents held the hands of their child between them. We split apart to let them pass between us. I watched them go with a bit of sorrow in my heart. We used to go to the parade every Pumpkin Fest with Papa. It was his favorite, even when he got sick.

Something touched my back, which made me yelp. I quickly flung myself around to fight off any potential shadow monsters. It was Remington again. They had reached over to push the walk button.

"I'm going next time," they said as they straightened back up. "I'm hungry."

I frowned. This was getting ridiculous. Get out of your head, Tetsuo!

"Right. Sorry," I apologized.

Remington shrugged. "Oh, you're alright."

They eyed the crowd gathering around us. When the festival was going on, there wasn’t a moment when the corner didn’t have people at it.

"You don't have to go if ya don't want to. I know how Mitzi is, so I figured you were goin' along with it."

"I do want to go!" I stomped my foot.

This made Remington snort. They turned away, but their bouncing shoulders gave away their apparent amusement. "Alright. Alright!"

They gave me a big grin that caught my stomach with moths. I quickly shook them off. No! Not allowed.

I rubbed my hands anxiously as I checked the traffic light. It was still green. "Do you like going to the Pumpkin Fest then?"

"I don't mind it. Though, I haven't been since I moved here."

Suddenly, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to get to know Remington. Maybe I could find the missing link to make sense of all this weird magic happenstance going on.

"Why did you move here, of all places?" I asked.

Remington paused for a moment. "An opportunity came up, and I couldn’t refuse it.”

“Like, a job offer?”

“Naw.” Remington sighed heavily. “I was only eighteen at the time. Ain’t nobody lookin’ to hire a nobody from Kentucky.”

I frowned. I was starting to pick up that Remington didn’t have a lot of confidence in themself. If Papa hired them, then he saw something in Remington.

“How old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking.”

”Twenty seven."

"Nine years?!"

Everyone on the corner stopped talking to look at me. I covered my face to hide my embarrassment. Why, Tetsuo? Why do you have to shout whenever you’re excited?

The crosswalk sign clicked as it changed over to walk once more. I peeked over to Remington, who nudged their head in the direction of the festival. I nodded. We followed behind the crowd.

"How have we not met until now?" I asked, still in shock.

"I don't really get out much."

I did a little hop onto the sidewalk curve. With my hands on my hips, I proudly stood at the fact I didn't fall flat on my face. Remington indulged me with applause.

"Thank you. Thank you!" I cleared my throat to hide my laughter. "Calabaza isn’t that big of a place. We should have ran into each other at the store, at least."

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Remington shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve even babysat the twins once. Guess you weren’t home then."

I fumbled over my words before finally asking, "What?! When?"

"It was a while ago now.” They shook their head. “I needed the money for a bike, so Mr. Villa offered to let me watch the twins while your family went to some sports thing. Your sister and Estelle stopped me at the door to talk a bit before they left."

"That had to be me.” I grunted, trying to remember this interaction. It made my ears ring. “I was the only one in sports, and Estelle always went to my track meets.”

Suddenly, Remington leaned in to look at me. I was a bit taken aback. They smelled faintly of honey and warm. Like, the feeling you got on an Autumn day when the sun hits your face and a small breeze passes by. That smell of warm.

Finally, they pulled away with a nod. “Now that you mention it, it was you! I remember the moles on your face,” they said as they pointed to their own cheeks. “I think it's cute that all the Villas have ‘em."

I never thought of them as some mark of being a Villa. In spite of that, it was true that we all had at least one mole on our face. I had two. The one that matched Papa's was on the right side of my face. It sat right on top of my cheekbone. I had another under my left eye. That one was from Mama.

The ringing in my ears made me go back to trying to remember meeting Remington. Maybe something happened during the frequency jam at the plaza to scramble my memory? I don't think it could do that though. This whole thing made me realize how little I really knew about magic.

We’re now to the bridge. In the distance, the festival was in full swing. I still didn’t understand how they allowed those rides on the fairgrounds. They might be pretty, but they were dangerous in my opinion.

"It's weird our friends never introduced us either. We seem to know a lot of the same people. Estelle, Jaynee, Georgie, Mitzi... The chocolate guy at the café that I can never remember his name."

"Shinobu?"

I snapped my fingers then pointed. "Yes, that's it!"

"He's my friend and neighbor," they said nonchalantly. "We both run the games at the Guild House along with Arilynn."

"The new theater teacher."

"That's her.” Remington nodded. “Wow, you really do seem to know everyone. Well, except for me somehow."

"Exactly!"

They fold their arms. Remington eyed the glass factory ahead of us. The windows were custom-made by the first crew working under Jean. It gave the old building a lot of charm. It was one of the only places I haven’t been since I was a child.

"Did I tell ya your daddy got me a job at Vaughan Glass?"

I held my head as the ringing got louder. Then, I realized that anytime I did think about going there, this happened. Slowly, I turned to Remington. “Why did he get you another job?”

Remington grew very confused. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting that question. Uh, Mr. Villa said I didn’t belong in the kitchen.”

“Right, you said you were working there for about a year before the ghost interrupted us at the plaza.” I folded my arms, trying to ignore the constant ringing. “Did you ask Papa to help you get the job?”

“No. I hadn’t planned on leavin’,” they replied. “I mean, I get paid more now being a manager. That’s a recent thing though.”

Now I was the one confused. “This is the first I’ve heard of Papa forcing a new job on someone. Sure, he helped when asked, but…” I sighed. “You were hired by Jean then?”

Remington nodded with a smile, but I could see their demeanor sadden behind it. “Yeah. She was the best aggressively supportive grandma anyone could ask for. I miss her.”

"Me too," I frowned. "Did you know she was a witch?” Remington shook their head. I continued with, “She was Papa and Fernando’s mentor when it came to the Archive.”

They gave a small tilt of their head at this. “The library?”

“No, the organization of witches that protect souls in the Death Realm.”

I stopped to hold my head again. It was so loud. Taking a moment, however, was a mistake. I had forgotten how many others were around us. I stumbled as someone walked into me.

Luckily, Remington quickly pulled me to the side. I pressed myself up against them to avoid people. They used the guardrail on the side of the road to lean back as far as they could. Finally, there was a clearing. We both let out our held breaths.

"Is it a habit for ya to get lost in thought like that?"

“It's the ringing!" I looked off to the side. “That magically stopped?”

There wasn't a reply. I hesitated to look at Remington's face. Their eyes were wide in fear. I grimaced. "It's not Papa again, is it?"

"No. It's the other one."

"Great... I love that guy."

Remington's arms slowly dropped their hold on me. This allowed me to turn around to the shadow. It seemed to be curiously watching the crowd on the other side of the road. Well, until it turned to us in its twitchy movements.

It leaned in closer. My first instinct was to swat its face. The shade flinched back but not before I caught its nose. It reached up its long fingers to touch the spot confused.

"That's what you get!" I doubled down. "Stop scaring us like that and start communicating your needs. Geez."

There was a huff. I'm not sure if it was breathing or if that was a sigh. A response came, of course, in the form of a piercing scream. Both Remington and I had to cover our ears. I shut my eyes for good measure. I didn't want to see if I was going to be devoured for my actions.

As loud as the cry was, it quickly faded away into a small echo. I didn’t know what was worse. The scream or the ringing.

"Is it okay to open my eyes now?"

"It seems the coast is clear," Remington replied.

I looked for myself. The shadow indeed was gone. After a sigh of relief, I checked my hands to make sure my brain didn't melt out of my ears.

Suddenly, Remington gave me a little shove, which made me stumble back slightly. "Warn me next time you decide you're gonna hit some supernatural critter on the snoot. I'd like a head start haulin' ass!"

"I didn't know I was going to do it!" I tried saying in a low growl, but it came out more of a whine. I think my voice even cracked. There would never be a day where I was the cool hero person like in the movies, huh?

"Ooh wee!" Remington pushed themselves off the guardrail. "What a nightmare these few days have been."

"Nightmare," I repeated.

Remington looked over their shoulder. I didn't notice they had started walking again. I hurried to catch up. "You say somethin'?"

"The shadow kind of matches a soulless creature known as a Nightmare." I deeply frowned. "However, I only know of them being in the Death Realm in that form."

"Oh, yeah. I've heard about them before," Remington said.

I eyed them suspiciously. "How? Only witches know about them."

"In my dreams." I waited for Remington to go on with an explanation. Instead, they shrugged. "That's all I got. I ain't seen one or know much else. But it's still a start, right?"

"I guess..." I looked on to the line of cars waiting to park at the fairgrounds. If only one of the vehicles had Papa in them to finally give us some much needed answers.