isaysimplewords | (Eventually) OOM: bird song

Bela walks down the stairs, smiling when she sees Cal.

"Hey," she says, going over to him. "It's good to see you."

Cal looks up from the feather and smiles himself, getting up to greet Bela with a kiss.

"Hey," he says. "How've you been?"

She slides her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tight.

"Okay. Hiding out here for a little while."

He wraps his arms around her.

"How's it going back home?" he asks quietly, even though the answer is plain as day just from looking at her.

"Oh. I think you know already."

She kisses him again and then sits down at his table, her smile firmly in place.

"How are things with you?"

In other words, tell her happier news than hers.

How much time does she have left? She won't even tell him anymore. That's the kind of bad sign that puts a sick hollow in his stomach.

He's been stepping carefully, knowing she wants to win on her terms, that she's the expert, that she has every right to do this her way. But he told X once, what seems like a long time ago, that there was a point at which he would stop worrying about Bela's feelings at the expense of worrying about her survival.

That point is now.

"I think," he says slowly as he sits down, "that you should start considering other options."

"I managed to get my hands on the Colt. I presented it to a demon who was supposed to be able to get me out of my deal. I got the runaround. The details changed. Now they want more."

She shrugs. "I've run out of ideas."

"Leave."

Maybe it's just because Cal has changed worlds himself, but it seems so obvious to him.

"Different worlds have different afterlives. I can't see any reason why they'd be able to touch you if you just got out."

"I think-"

She sighs. "If I knew a place to go, for sure, then... I think I'm to the point of giving it all up."

Cal looks genuinely surprised. He can't help it.

"Come back to my world," he says. "You spend enough time there. We don't - well, we had that one demon, and . . . fairies, I guess? But it's dead. It's nothing like your world."

"Right, but that's just it, Cal. It's not my world. I still need some time to think about it, because I don't- I've never given up easily."

She looks up at him. "But you wouldn't mind? I wouldn't crowd you."

"Of course I wouldn't mind." The choice between possibly being crowded by Bela and knowing she's spending eternity in hell is an obvious one. He smiles briefly to reassure her, then looks more serious again.

"Just don't take more time than you have."

"It's fine so long as I don't go back to my world. Time still isn't going by when I'm here, and I brought my cat with me last time."

Along with a great deal of jewelry, loose jewels, and a stack of gold bullion.

"So I'm all right as far as that goes."

Cal smiles again, more sincere this time.

"Good," he says. "I know you're not stupid, I just . . ." He pauses, looking for the right words. "Bad situations screw up people's priorities sometimes."

That's something he certainly knows a little about.

"It's a matter of pride at this point."

Her smile is crooked. "I have plenty of it, and yeah. Bad situations, priorities, pride... it's hard to see the forest through the trees. In hell."

"Well, if it comes down to it, I'm sure X will help me kidnap you."

He's smiling a bit, too, because it's a joke, except for the part where it isn't.

"You're funny," she says, glancing over at him suspiciously.

Nah, he'd never be serious about something like that. She'll make up her own mind.

Cal grins innocently at her over his coffee mug.

Then he picks up the little feather he'd put down when he got up to greet her.

"What do you think of that?" he asks.

"You found a feather?"

"It's from a bird at the shelter," Cal says. "It's - weird. The shelter's only designed for dogs and cats. We don't have the space or the equipment to take care of any other kinds of animals. People bring them in sometimes, but we have a list of shelters that do take care of other animals, so we'll send people there. If they have time or they don't feel like making the extra trip or whatever, Elaine can usually find a way to keep the animal maybe overnight and take it herself the next day. She's really particular about it. She doesn't like to have them in an environment that's not suited for them any longer than they have to be.

"Except we've had this bird for a couple of weeks now. She keeps it in her office, it never makes a sound that I've heard, and I've been in a couple of times to check on it and I'm pretty sure she's never changed the newspaper lining the cage."

He shakes his head. "No one else is really saying anything about it - I guess she does this sometimes? I don't know, most of the others have been there for years, I'm still kinda the new guy, so I haven't asked about it much. But it's just weird. Anyone else, I'd call it neglect, but I know how Elaine is with animals. I've never seen anyone so protective of them. It's why I started working there, because I knew she wouldn't let me do anything until she was sure I wouldn't fuck it up. It just doesn't make any sense. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but . . ."

But Cal knows that his new world has possible explanations that his old world didn't, and his instincts have been tugging at him insistently for days.

"Maybe she likes birds. Or this bird in particular. Does she stay there late? It might be she waits until she's on her own time to do the care and feeding."

"She does, yeah," Cal says. "But the newspaper's had the same picture on top for - at least a week now, since I first noticed it. And it's still clean. I mean, I don't know anything about birds, maybe they're really clean."

He shakes his head a little.

"I know there's a rational explanation for everything I'm saying, I didn't even really start thinking about it until a few days ago. I could just be making it all up. But - it bugs me."

He holds the feather closer. "Does this look real to you?" It's a genuine question. He can't tell. All he knows about feathers is that the quills are hollow. He would have asked Alex what she thought of the last one, but he hadn't realized then that there was anything to ask.

She holds out her hand to take the feather.

"Hmm. No, they're not that clean. Not by a long shot."

She examines the feather closely. It looks real, but there's something not quite right about it.

"Could it be robotic? Something designed to look real?"

"Maybe," Cal says. "I haven't gotten close enough to look. It gets jumpy when I get too close to the cage."

He shrugs.

"And if it's good enough, it'd probably fool me even if I had it right in my hands."

"Is the tech that advanced, though? I hadn't noticed huge differences when I've been visiting."

She turns the feather over, looking at the underside.

"I'd say there's something that's not what it seems. If your instincts are kicking in, then there's something to it. That's been my experience, at least."

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