"I'm never going to get used to how small this place is," Jacob complained to himself as he walked down the road from his house to the main road which went through town.

After spending a whole day really scrounging around the house, Jacob was sure they had grabbed anything Eve could want which his parents wouldn't notice. The issue now were the few things she wanted that he either didn't have, or couldn't take without his parents noticing.

It didn't help she'd demanded a curtain to use as a door for her cave. How he was supposed to find a curtain, he had no clue.

And speaking of, where was he supposed to find a crate either? Eve wanted one to turn into a makeshift bed, which he guessed was a good idea. She had the blankets, all she really needed was a place to put them on top of.

So now he was walking the town of Oakwood, looking for both a curtain and a large enough crate someone had just left out in the trash.

He let out a sigh as he passed by a house with its garbage out front. He paused mid-step as his eye caught sight of a gray cloth curtain, the exact kind he was looking for.

"Now how do I get it?" He asked himself, ignoring the footsteps approaching him.

"Jacob, is that you?"

He jumped in place and snapped his head toward Ellie and Ryan, who were looking at him with mild concern.

"Oh, hey, guys," he tried his best to act naturally. He had met the two other kids a few times since the day they had come to his house. Nothing major, just a few talks lasting a few minutes. He hadn't had time for much else with everything going on with Eve. "What's up?"

"Why are you looking at Mrs. Moore's garbage?" Ellie asked as she glanced over to the trash. Jacob followed her eyes and came up with an explanation off the top of his head.

"I wanted to use that gray window curtain for a project of mine," he said, saying the technical truth. "But I don't exactly want to just take it, so I'm kind of stuck."

"Oh, don't worry about that," she walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, an older woman emerged from the house and gave her a kindly smile.

"Why hello there Ellie how are you today?" the older woman glanced up and noticed Jacob and Ryan. "And how are your friends? The one on the right looks new."

"I'm fine, Mrs. Moore," she told her. "The new kid is Jacob Thistle. He's new in town, his family moved into the old Makenzie house."

The old woman let out a sigh at those last three words.

"Dreadful business, that was. Still, I have to say, he doesn't look like the kind of person I would have expected to live in such a dreadful place."

"We only learned about what happened after we moved in," he added helpfully.

"I see," Mrs. Moore said. "I imagine it must have been quite the surprise."

"It was, I was there when his Dad found out," she added. "Oh, and before we forget, do you mind if he takes that gray curtain over there?"

Mrs. Moore followed Ellie's finger until she saw the curtain in question. She let out a laugh as she saw what it was Jacob wanted.

"Sure, I was throwing it out anyway. Not even sure why I had it to begin with," the older woman said with a laugh. "You say hi to your mother for me, okay?"

"Can do," she replied before walking back to the pair. She gave the two a smug smile as the door closed behind her. "And done."

"Thanks, Ellie," Jacob told the girl as he grabbed the curtain. One object down, one to go.

"Don't worry about it," she said with a bold confidence. "So, you looking for anything else, or is that everything?"

"Well, now that you mention it," Jacob wondered if he could get this lucky twice in one day, "you wouldn't happen to know where I can find a large, flat crate anywhere, would you?"

Ellie blinked, a bashful smile growing on her face as she turned a bit red.

"Oh, no. I don't know where you could find anything like that," she admitted to his disappointment. He figured it was what he got for relying on wishful thinking.

"I think I have something like that," Ryan cut in before the conversation could go on. The two other kids turned to him, motioning him to go on. "It's back at my house. We were just going to throw it away, so I guess you can have it."

And that was how the three of them found themselves standing around a flat wooden crate placed outside Ryan's house.

"So how are we going to do this?" Ellie asked at the large wooden object in front of them. "Jacob, you want to try to…"

"Sure," he said, trying to sound as causal as he could despite his worry. "Let me just…"

He knelt and grabbed both sides of the crate, trying to lift it with his knees. He grunted as the crate slowly rose from the ground, his arms trembling as the crate started to wobble.

"You okay there?" Ryan asked as he got a bit closer to him.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yeah," he managed to squeak out. "I'm… fine. Just… great."

Instead of saying anything else, Ryan grabbed the other end of the crate and helped Jacob steady it. Despite himself, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as the pressure lessened on his arms and legs.

"Let's take this over to your house," Ryan told Jacob as the pair started walking.

"With the two of you working together like this, you'll be done in no time," Ellie stood off to the side proudly.

Ryan and Jacob looked at each other for a second, then at Ellie, and then back to each other. A silent pact was made between the two boys.

"Why do I have to help?" Ellie demanded as she helped move the crate a few minutes later.

"Because we needed the help," Jacob put it simply.

"They say helping others is a sign of a good friend," Ryan added, sounding to Jacob like he was quoting someone. Based off the way Ellie sneered at the words, he had a feeling he knew who said those words first.

"I can't believe you two," She huffed, sounding like her lungs were on fire.

"Less talking, more moving," Jacob grunted back. "Almost there."

"You kids need some help with that?"

The three of them stopped in place, finally noticing the man who had come up to them. He was pretty tall, with shoulder-length dusty-blond hair and a handsome face hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. However, the most eye-catching thing about him was his outfit, a black suit in during a mid-summer day.

Without even trying to, Jacob had found the guy in the suit looking for Eve.

"Sure, some help would be great," Ellie said, taking any chance to lessen the load on her arms.

"Alright, just move over a bit…" he got close and took the crate with both arms, lifting it without any trouble. "Where are you three taking this anyway?"

"Back to my house," Jacob rushed, speaking just a bit too quickly for it to sound normal. Ellie and Ryan both gave him an odd look which sent a trail of cold sweat running down his neck. "It's for a project of mine."

"Sounds like fun," he said as the three started leading him towards their goal. "What kind of project?"

"Yeah, now that I think about it, you never actually said what it was," Ellie added as Jacob's eyes went from the man in the suit, then to Ryan, and then back to Ellie.

"It's…" he tried to think of anything. "A surprise."

Was it a good explanation? No. But it was the best he had at the moment.

"That's it?" Ellie questioned, looking far from happy. "You made me help carry that thing for a surprise?"

"I'd do it again," he pointed at her, falling back on sass to distract himself from the guy in the suit. The same guy who was trying his best to look professional and not laugh.

"You guys are too much," he said as they reached Jacobs's house. He glanced over at the three as they came to a stop. "This the place?"

"Yeah, this is it," Ellie said cheerfully as the man in the suit set the crate on the ground. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," he said to the kids as the smile on his face faded slightly. "By the way, none of you kids have seen anything… weird these last couple of months, have you?"

"Weird, what do you mean?" She said with a gleam in her eye.

"Anything you can think of," he refused to clarify.

"No, I don't think so," she looked back at Ryan and Jacob, who both shook their heads at her.

Jacob, with maybe a bit too much fervor.

"What kind of thing are you looking for?" Ellie asked the man in the suit, either ignoring or not noticing Jacob's odd reaction.

"Oh, not much," he rubbed his thumb with his finger. "A rare animal escaped from a lab in the city and fled this way. It's nothing dangerous, but we still want to get ahold of it." He put the smile back on. "So if any of you kids see a weird animal in the woods, call the local cops and they'll contact me right away, okay?"

Jacob fought back a gulp as his heart started hammering.

"And who are you?" Ellie asked, the curiosity dripping from her voice. "It'd be hard to call the police and just say 'call the guy in the suit'."

He laughed before digging into his pocket.

"I guess you have a point about that," He said before taking out a badge. "Name's Richter Kennedy," He showed a badge with his name on it above the logo of something called 'D.O.S.P'.

"What's DOSP?" Jacob asked, his brain trying to think of a government agency with that name.

"Department of Strange Phenomena," he quickly explained. "Don't worry if you've never heard of it, it's pretty new. So new we're not even really sure what we do yet."

Jacob felt himself die at the sound of the words 'strange phenomena'. There weren't a lot of words you could use to describe Eve, but those two would be on the list.

"Sounds like fun," Ellie said before a sudden ringing came from Richter's pocket. He quickly stuffed the badge back into his jacket before fishing his phone out.

"This is Kennedy," he answered as the three kids heard someone franticly saying something on the other end of the line. He narrowed his eyes. "Understood," he said before hanging up and putting the phone away. "I'd love to stay and chat, but duty calls."

"Stay safe," Ellie said as the agent walked away in a bit of a hurry.

The three waited until the man was completely gone before turning to each other.

"Well that was weird," she put plainly.

"I wonder what kind of animal it is?" Ryan wondered. "If they're telling everyone, then I don't think it would be dangerous."

"You have a point," Ellie added before glancing over to the direction Agent Kennedy walked away in. "Still, wasn't expecting it to be DOSP of all things."

"You've heard of them?" Jacob asked, wanting to know more about the group apparently looking for Eve.

"A little bit," Ellie admitted. "Dad was talking about them a few months ago when they got made. He was complaining about it being 'government waste' or something and then I ignored him."

"Well 'government waste' or not, they're here and looking for something," Ryan brought up to Jacob's displeasure.

"Yeah, I hope they find whatever it is sooner rather than later," Ellie added before glaring at Jacob. "And I hope you show us what the 'surprise' is sooner rather than later."

"I'll be working on it," he said before bidding them goodbye and moving the crate into his backyard.

"I sure hope she likes it," he looked at the big crate in the middle of his backyard.

A few hours later, Eve was rolling around on a blanket-covered crate on the cave's floor.

"Well, I guess you like it," he said as she glanced upwards at him before looking away.

Instead of playing along, Jacob sat on a wooden stool they had gotten for the cave. "So I have some bad news."

Eve stopped looking away and shuffled around so she was facing him while still lying down the crate, her belly on the blankets.

"So the guy in the suit you saw was from the government," he told her, and then explained everything he had learned about Agent Richter Kennedy. By the time he was done, Eve was staring blankly into the distance.

"So now the question becomes, what are we going to do?" he leaned back onto the smooth cave walls. "I guess our best move is to just try to hide until the guy goes away."

She growled, clearly not liking the plan. Jacob glanced at the pen and paper set next to Eve's tails, expecting them to spring to life and write him up a different plan.

But no, they stayed still.

"I don't like it either," he added as he reached into his backpack. "I know it won't make up for everything, but I figured it might get your mind off some stuff."

She watched as he took a cardboard box from the bag and laid it between them.

"I brought a board game for us to play," her eyes widened, and her tails rose in excitement. "I see you like the idea."

Eve gave him a nod before shuffling to the side so her tails had access to the board and pieces he was taking out and setting up.

"Okay, so this is how the game works." She watched him carefully as he started pointing to different parts of the board and explaining what they did.

She moved her tail forward, grabbing one of her pieces as the game began.