"You're an odd little oddball Oliver, ain't ya?"
"Is that an actual phrase?"
"But of course, it is. Tell me, just who are ya?"
That ticked me off. "I'm Oliver Wolfe."
"But you aren't, are ya? I'd say you're more like an Atatürk."
"What?"
"That's right. Let me go ahead and tell you about myself."
He did his usual, annoying grin, before looking serious.
"I'm an oddity specialist, I work for the Vatican Church, and up until ten or so years ago, I was based in Jerusalem, and India. I worked as a student of a funny Asian guy with blonde hair and a Hawaiian shirt. Then the Vatican called me back home, to England. What they told me, was multiple mythical legends was located here, and there was something up with this town. It's different…"
Then he pointed at my stomach.
"…One of those so called mythical legends, was the ancient Metis God. Of course, there were others. Actually, there's a lot of funny stuff here, Vampires, Japanese Goryō, Amphisbaena, and Sirens. Well that's just a handful, but you do know what they are right?"
"Vampires are vampires, but no… I don't know the rest…"
Although Amphisbaena were Greek lore, snakes, I believe.
"Fair enough. Listen kid. The people best at getting oddities near them, are oddities themselves." Then he pointed at me, again. It was quite irritating. "You're an oddity yourself."
"Huh!?"
"Yeah, a demi-human. You ain't no normal kid. I have an idea as to what's up with you, but if you've really been chosen by a God, I have no reason to go against Divine Judgement. Instead, how about you help me deal with these apparitions?"
"Why should I?"
"These things have been in this city for way too long. We had to go all the way to make a new Church to control the spread of these evil things, but if we can't exorcise or deal with them faster than they grow, then this town will be in the middle of a Supernatural war. If I was you, I'd want to help this place. Or maybe not, what do I know."
The weight of the situation made me feel sick. I felt horrible. I hadn't had anything other than some bad tea at Rosemary's house, my stomach was empty, I felt nauseous and ill, I was tired and desperately wanted to crawl to bed, I had gone through the most traumatic experience of my life and I was freezing.
"Fine, what do I do?"
"Sit tight and wait for 'em to come to you kid. And when you come across them, do let me know. Also I personally know one or two cases so I'll let us make a good ol' investigation club and we'll solve 'em.
"Die. Also just that!?" I was taken aback, I imagined he'd want me to do errands or what-not, but to just wait for oddities to come to me sounds odd. "Is it really that easy?"
"Ay Ay, it is."
"So, you're a human, and you can't do it? And also, why'd I never know I'm not human?"
"Yep. And you're a pretty human oddity, or a pretty petty oddity, if I say so. It's not like you can't go out in the sun, or whatnot. And besides, oddities have been around you forever. What did I tell you about Gods?"
"They're always there…?"
"Ay Ay, same thing applies here."
"Do oddities just mean anything not human?"
"You think rabbits are oddities? Not really. Oddities are things out of this world. They can be Rabbits, but just like the Rabbit of Fortune, or the Rabbit of Poverty, they can affect the world around them. Got't?"
"Rabbit of…? Nevermind, I won't bother asking."
"Good lad, anyways do you know how to turn off your eye colour?"
Huh? Was it still shining?
"No…"
"I would give it a cool name, like the Eye of God, or something. That sounds cool, ain't it?"
"Do you know about it?"
"I can guess things pretty well."
"That sounds fishy."
He sniggered, I wasn't going to get anywhere with him, so I got his permission to leave, and after a never-ending day, I went home. I still had lot of questions to ask. But he told me to visit him later in the week.
And now for the epilogue, or maybe the punchline.
The next day, my sister punched my head into my pillow. "Why are you still sleeping!? It's half past nine." My sister does randomly attack me in the mornings, but today was fully justified, School starts at half past eight, and I had woken up an hour late.
"-!"
"Where were you yesterday, Oli? Have you become an alcoholic again?"
"Watch that pesky mouth of yours, it might just get you killed."
I got out of bed, and faced her, I felt a bit off, as if something was wrong.
"Eeeeek!"
"Huh?"
"You look so scary today."
She backed up, in horror to prove her point. I looked in the mirror and I saw what she meant. I looked like a dead person, I felt just fine, but my face didn't look the same. My bed hair made my hair go more wavy, giving me a more friendly appearance, I thought my hair looked a bit like Gintoki from Gintama. But I realised she wasn't speaking about that; she probably meant the massive hole in my dad's suit. I wondered how I'd explain that.
"Are you going to ask, Audrey?" I casually said, to my creeped out little sister.
"You got that right!"
"Well..." I decided to tell her an unbelievable truth instead of a believable lie. "Last night, I was killed by a God, resurrected by another God, and then beat the shit out of the first God, all for a person I don't even know well."
"Understandable." Her face suddenly turned casual, with not one hint of sarcasm.
Did she actually believe me!?
"Well anyways, you might want to get to school or people will think that you're turning me into a delinquent."
"Why would that be?"
"Because we both went to school late!"
"Um... how do I say this..."
I won't.
I got to school by break, where as always, the girl known as Rosemary was sitting on her own at the end of the cafeteria. As things should be.
And I sat on a seat overlooking her, with Isabelle.
"Tell me Isabelle... how did everything happen?"
"Extremely vague today, aren't you?"
"...can you see Rosemary?"
"Of course I can." She gave an innocent smile.
"So I have an idea about some stuff, but I want to sort out a few details."
"Uh huh, go for it."
"When you said that you believed me, I suddenly became able to see her."
"That's right."
"How does that work?"
"It's a cliche, but I believe it had to do with enough people recognising her as a being, leading her to be visible. But tell me, how did you see her and not me?"
I knew exactly why, but...
"...I don't really know. Maybe because I never forgot about her."
"Why?"
"-Uhm... I have a crush on her...?" I don't think Isabelle saw the question mark in my answer, but that was something even I didn't know. I guess it had something to do with God's Eye, but as far as proper explanations go, I couldn't give one. Sorry Isabelle.
"Oh that is logical, I guess. What did you two do yesterday anyways?"
"We prayed to a God, and the kind God gave her..." Wait what happened again?
"...Her existence back?" Isabelle inquired.
"Yeah... basically that."
"How fascinating."
If you say so Isabelle.
If you say so.