Meet me at Midnight

Chapter 4: December

Almost immediately Noa was looking for all the Christmas decorations. She quickly realized that I don't have many. It took me forever to get her to bed, I had to promise to let her shop for decorations online. We did but it still wasn't enough for her. Richmond promised to send her over some fir and holly boughs, we had fun hanging them up. My parents were a hit they had talked nonstop about Christmas trying to figure out what to get her, all the attention was exactly what she needed, that and the fact that they stop by daily. Then there is my sister, honestly with how my sister was behaving at Thanksgiving it wouldn't surprise me if she announces she's pregnant just to get the attention back on her.

On December first a new package arrived from the Secret Admirer. Along with several letters marked anonymous that were clearly from someone who hated me. I tucked them away after reading the letters. Today I pulled them out, once again I found myself thinking about opening the box but i still couldn't so I tucked it all to the side and turned to Noa "do you want to go get a tree?"

      She had been racing around the apartment all morning with a case of the zoomies. When I asked her she screeched to a halt and looked up at me. Her cute kitten eyes blinked for a moment before she changed "do we have to cut it down?"

      "No, we can get one in a pot and plant it outside somewhere after the holidays." She danced with glee. "Okay," I laughed at how adorable her excitement was "why don't we go to the nursery and pick one out. I believe there was a nursery on the list Kent and Richmond gave me." I pulled the list out of the drawer and looked at it. "Yep, here it is... they will even deliver."

She ran and got her coat on, when we left I expected someone on staff to ask about Noa seeing as that this was the first time she was in human form outside the apartment but they all smiled and reacted like they had been waiting to see her true form. It made me feel safe knowing that they all knew about the community. They knew what to watch out for and if I had any questions I knew I had several options to get the answers. This reminded me to ask them later about the anonymous letters.

When we exited the building Noa was nervously excited, I was cautious. I looked around trying to spot anything unusual then my eyes shot right over to her. There she was... Karen, glaring at someone not even realizing I was there. I almost felt sorry for the poor man at the newsstand that was facing her wrath. Until she dug around in her purse and he blinked changing his eyes to reptile eyes and revealed his forked tongue. His face said he was debating eating her.

       Honestly I wonder how many people have wanted to eat her or at least bite her, hang her upside down by her toenails and let her drip dry slowly until she caves in and confesses all her sins. One guess where I heard that one, if you were thinking Kent, you're wrong that was Noa's idea. According to Hadley werecats are great at torture. They won't kill you but they will make you beg for death then not give it to you.

Noa noticed her and I could see the ideas working their way around her twisted little mind so I quickly ushered her into the taxi that the doorman had stopped "Native Gardens, it's just down the road several dozen blocks."

"I know it well, are you an old family friend of theirs?" The driver looked like he was fishing for something.

"No, but they come highly recommended by my friends Kent and Richmond." I was wondering what he was fishing for but didn't want to ask.

"Richmond Everett," Noa smiled "he owns Fenris Farms outside the city."

"Ah, yes I thought you might be with how quickly you were trying to get away from that Hunter." He laughed "For the record the phrase old family friend is code for our community... just be careful how you respond in case it's an honest question." He smiled at me "My name's Sturgeon, I'm from the Indian."