The chime of a text message coming through his phone made Taylor groan as he rolled over. When it didn't beep again, he felt himself beginning to fall asleep again as he nuzzled into soft, cool blankets. He'd gone to Adoni's apartment after the fun they'd had the previous day. Of course, he'd offered to just get a hotel for a short while until he could figure out how he wanted to deal with his situation, but Adon mentioned that he had a spare furnished room and didn't mind him hanging around for a bit.

Thank you, god.

He stretched out a bit, but his mind awoke a little more when his toes brushed against something that felt like clothing.

Is Adon in here, too?

The guy had his own room, so it made no sense for him to sleep in the same bed with him, or at least stand at the foot of it. When his phone chimed again, Taylor sighed and tugged the pillow up and over his head.

Probably just work.

He definitely needed to at least go in later to do some paperwork. It was probably just one of his workers panicking about how he hadn't been in in the past few days. His phone chimed again, but he ignored it.

Then again.

Then again.

Then again.

Jerking upright abruptly, Taylor snatched it from the blanket next to him as he squeezed his eyes shut to yawn. When he blinked them open to finally glance down at the screen, his mouth opened slightly as he read the message he was being spammed with.

The fish.

The fish.

The fish.

He quickly unlocked the device and frowned at the ten messages there. When he opened them, no phone number or name came up. Both normally-filled areas showed completely blank.

How the heck can he text me? This is ridiculous.

After glaring around the room, Taylor clenched his jaw and looked back down at his phone.

"You are just going to kill me if I go back there to deal with that thing. I know that you can feed it. Just take care of it yourself," he said as he got up and headed for the small attached bathroom.

Adon had lent him a set of clothing to change into, so he figured that he'd just take a shower to wake himself up, then see if his host was awake. The shower was pretty small, but he was more than happy with the hot water and pressure from it.

All of the stress from the previous week began to wash away as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He would have stayed that way forever if something tiny hadn't bumped into his toes.

Curious, he opened his eyes and looked down, expecting an old piece of hard soap or something along those lines.

What the...?

Kneeling down, Taylor reached toward the drain and picked up several tiny little objects. It took him a moment before he realized what they were... and who must have put them there.

And those are definitely not my toes.

Shivers wracked his hot body as he fought to not move. Everything in him wanted to run, but at the same time, he couldn't even make himself take a decent breath. The faint chiming of his phone caught his attention as the text message notification pinged nonstop in the other room.

"You... just want me to go check on the fish?"

His phone went silent and a faded bloody hand appeared in front of him as the person before him leaned down.

"A-ah, r-right," he whispered as he very carefully picked up each fish bone, then set them in Caleb's palm. "I can go check on him before I go to work, but what about your brother? Won't he just attack me when I get inside?"

Thankfully, Caleb hadn't shown much aggression yet, but his brother was literally armed with a weapon he audibly swung quite often. He definitely didn't want to have to dodge and run for his life just to take care of the little fish he'd bought.

Lifting a hand, he ran it through his wet hair, then slowly stood. He had kind of expected Caleb to disappear after his request had been acknowledged, but when he straightened, the young man was still there, staring at him with lifeless eyes.

My phone isn't going off anymore and I gave him his fish's bones back. I also agreed to come back, so why stay?

He was honestly shocked that Caleb could be so far away from where his own body was, too, but then again, he didn't know much about wraiths to begin with.

Heck, I doubt many people know much about wraiths in general.

"Hey, can you talk?"

He wasn't sure why he asked the question. The guy probably would have talked to him earlier if he still had the ability to do so. Taylor tilted his head slightly to one side, then watched as Caleb mirrored his movement.

When he just stayed like that, Taylor pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes as he really looked at the guy standing in front of him.

He's actually getting wet from the bits of spray that my body isn't blocking. So he has a physical form, but can also disappear at any moment. He's also a little bit see-through this time.

It was confusing as heck to try and put any kind of pieces together when it came to Caleb or Nicolai.

"Um... would you, uh, like to take a shower? It feels pretty good," he said as he slowly and carefully stepped around Caleb.

The guy finally blinked once, the action taking the entire time it took Taylor to move to the back of the small shower. He expected Caleb to turn in order to follow his movement, but the young man actually remained standing there, now partially beneath the hot spray of water.

Is he enjoying it, or probably just not registering what's going on?

Right as he opened his mouth to question him again, Caleb disappeared.

"I... guess that answers my question."

When he didn't reappear Taylor finished up with his shower, then got changed and walked out of the room to see Adon sitting on the sofa in the living room. Having heard him, the man looked over his shoulder, then nodded toward the kitchen.

"I made some breakfast. Help yourself if you're hungry."

Taylor thanked him and hurried to the kitchen, suddenly aware that he was starving.

"What did Caleb want?" Adon asked out of nowhere, making Taylor pause as he was scooping the remaining portion of eggs onto a plate.

Setting down the fork, Taylor looked over his shoulder at Adon, confused.

"He came to my room, first. I felt like I was being watched and woke up, but he just walked around for a few minutes, then vanished out the door. Since he wasn't acting violent at all, I just followed him out the door and saw him again right before he vanished into the guest room you were using. When I just heard your phone go off constantly, I figured that he was trying to communicate with you, and since I didn't hear you yelling or sounding distressed, I didn't want to possibly agitate him by bursting into the room," Adon said, making Taylor look back down at the eggs and frown.

So he'd already been in Adon's room, but hadn't tried to message his phone at all? He'd been looking specifically for me to take care of that fish?

It made sense, but it still seemed a bit odd.

"He wasn't fully formed, either. I could partially see through him," Adon mentioned, getting a nod from Taylor as he took the remaining two pieces of toast from the toaster and added a little bit of butter, then jelly, before joining Adon on the couch.

"Yeah, he wasn't quite as solid looking as he had been while at the house. What was even more odd, though, was that he'd brought the fish bones from the house with him," Taylor said before he took a bite of food.

Adon rubbed the back of his neck with a hand as he sighed.

"Actually, I brought those, unintentionally. I found them in my pocket after you went to bed last night. I left them on the counter..."

Taylor slowly swallowed his current bite of toast as a shiver ran down his spine.

"Do you think, maybe, that's how he got here?"

Adon was just opening his mouth to reply when he seemed to notice something on the counter and got up, then walked over to it. Curious, Taylor followed him, only to slow his steps when he realized what the other man had seen. Adon's fingers were brushing against a tiny set of familiar fish bones.

"I think that's exactly how he got here," he said before turning his attention to Taylor.

"What did he want you to do, by the way? I assume he was contacting you for something, and I doubt he would have left without getting some sort of answer."

Taylor nodded as he walked over to where he'd left his shoes by the door, double-checking that his wallet was in his back pants pocket and keys were on the belt loop as he went.

"He wants me to go take care of the fish I'd bought. I'm not sure why he doesn't just do it himself, but if that's all he wants from me, I don't see a reason not to go do it... as long as he can keep his brother from coming after me."

Adon looked skeptical, but didn't hesitate to grab his keys and switch off all the lights. He was just heading for the door to follow Taylor out when he stopped abruptly and turned back around. He jogged over to the corner of the counter and carefully scooped the fish bones into his hand, then put them in his from left pocket.

"Good idea. Let's just bring him back," Taylor said as they locked up and headed for Adon's car.

He hopped into the back out of habit since he used taxis and Uber quite a lot before buying his own car. Thankfully, Adon didn't seem to mind and didn't mention the habit as the man put his seat-belt on, then began pulling them out of the parking spot.

An abrupt metallic click snapped Taylor's attention down to his own seat-belt, where it was fastened into its holder.

I... didn't put that on yet.

Yet it was draped over his chest and settled into place.

Looking up, he noticed Caleb sitting in the far seat, staring at him with a slightly-odd head tilt. It wasn't a huge car considering the inside space so it was perfectly plausible that he'd buckled his seat-belt.

But why?

Caleb looked out the window as a faint drizzle began to pat against the windshield and the roof of the car. His form drifted around a bit as they drove, sometimes being closer, sometimes being all the way up against the window.

Probably distracted.

His face never really showed any kind of expression, so it was hard to tell what he was thinking, if he even was.

Well, at least he thinks about the fish. So there has to be something functioning in his head for that... or at least memories about his previous pet to fuel his actions.

That was more logical than anything else he could think of, so Taylor decided to go with the idea for the time being. He did his best not to bother the wraith as it disappeared and reappeared during their car ride. Caleb even appeared in the front seat a few times, though he never stayed up there long before returning to the back.

They were just nearing the house, a few short blocks away, when Caleb materialized in the middle seat, quite close to Taylor. If it wasn't raining so hard at the time he might have been a little more nervous about the dead man beside him, but Adon was struggling to see clearly, even with his sunglasses on, and Taylor definitely couldn't see much through the torrential downpour. He'd also slowed down quite a bit, even though the road's speed limit was around forty-five miles per hour.

I swear we're just about there, but I can't even see the street signs clearly.

Adon was just pulling over to the side of the road to wait for the worst of the rain to pass when something caught Taylor's attention in the rear-view mirror. It was just a brief flash of color he saw in the heavy rain for only a brief moment, but that was the moment that mattered.

"Incoming!"

They were being hit less than a second after he'd finished warning Adon. Without even thinking he reached over and wrapped his arms around Caleb as he yelled, holding the wraith to his chest since he hadn't been wearing a seat-belt. The hit itself jerked the car badly and Taylor felt his seat-belt strain hard against his chest as the airbags deployed, but as everything settled and the distant sound of a muffled ambulance siren met his ringing ears, he still felt a light weight against his body and in his lap.

"You... okay?" he rasped, not really directing the question to either person there.

Adon groaned, but then thankfully Taylor heard his door being opened. A minute later and his own was being jerked a few times, then finally creaked open. At that moment the weight in his arms disappearing.

"Are you alright?" Adon asked as he carefully got Taylor's seat-belt off for him, then gently helped him from the car.

He thought that he'd replied, but when he saw flashing lights everywhere and realized he was lying on his back with Adon and a paramedic hovering over him, he realized that he was honestly having trouble staying awake as the rain belted down on them.

I have to go take care of the fish. I told him I would...

He tried to stay awake for a little longer, but his mind had other ideas. Before he was even in the ambulance, he was unconscious.