Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.28 - Homecoming

As Harmony had expected, Loren wasn’t really upset about waking up and finding that his parents had him brought home instead of to his apartment, although he was clearly a little agitated. It was the logical decision, given his state. He wouldn’t really be able to feed himself properly with his injury—not easily, at least—even when he’d gotten his energy back, so for the next few days it made sense for his parents to take care of him again. Knowing him as she did though, he was no doubt concerned that about Sara being alone for two nights in a row.

Personally, Harmony thought he was overreacting. She’d met other ghosts before—Steve’s relatives in his house were very nice, if a bit ‘racist old folks’, and a few of the ghosts in the places they’d fixed up and rented had been nice enough once they’d calmed down. They were always glad to chat whenever she’d come by to fix up leaks or any other maintenance.

Still, she wasn’t about to tell him his concern for Sara was silly. If he was actually warming up to the company of another person, it was something to be encouraged! She loved him, but the man seriously needed to get out and socialize more.

“Want me to stop by your place and see if Sara’s all right?” she said after they’d gotten him settled in his old room. It was the afternoon, and he was clearly still tired from the previous day’s ordeal despite the hours of sleep. “I’m going back tonight anyway to bring Aunt Ganda their bread while it’s still fresh, so I’ll be in the area.”

“Could you?” he said, looking relieved.

“Sure. It’s on my way anyway. I’ll see what I can prepare for her too. Maybe some instant noodles and cooking vene?” She titled her head thoughtfully. “I’ll ask her.”

“Thanks, Hari,” he said as lay back on the bed, closing his eyes.

“Don’t go to sleep, all right? You need a bath.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m literally immune to getting sick.”

“Yeah, well, we’re not. Who knows what nasty germs you picked up in that hospital?”

“You realize that if everyone who passed through a hospital got germs that lethal, the ones inside the hospital should be rights already be sick with those and dead, right?”

“Don’t try your logic with me. Bath, dude. You know your mom will make you.”

“Then I’ll wait until she brings it up.”

Harmony walked to the door of his room and yelled out, “Auntie, Loren doesn’t want to take a bath!”

“Loren, take a bath, you just came from a hospital!”

She didn’t need to see him to know he was rolling his eyes. “Traitor.”

“I’m going to make lasagna tonight.”

“…ugh, fine!”

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By the time she was finished putting the lasagna together—it had bacon, hotdogs, ham, ground up sausage, and mushrooms, which was admittedly far too much but it was for Loren and he liked all that stuff, so… fine—her own parents had come home, and had come over to see Loren was doing. They’d also brough lechon liempo, and while her mom and auntie both usually made sure everyone didn’t eat so much cholesterol, Loren literally had a doctor’s note that said he needed to put on weight for his health, and that weight needed to be fat.

Her older sister was out for the night, on a date with her girlfriend, but she’d sent a message wishing Loren well.

“Loren! You’re back!” Harmony heard her dad greet say as mom helped Auntie Marie put the lechon on a serving plate. “What happened to you?”

“Hey, Uncle Ralph. House that wasn’t listed as haunted was,” Loren said tiredly. “I got beat up.”

“Ralph, how long has Harmony been a Symbol?” Uncle Ben said.

“Oh, she finally told you?”

“She told us on the way from Galugod. Oh, here! We got you preserves and raisin bread!”

At dinner, Loren finally managed to be wide awake, happily eating away at the lasagna. “Oh, so good…” he sighed between bites. Only the fact he had only one arm to eat with was slowing him down.

“Definitely good,” Lily agreed, eating almost as much as her brother. “Uh, this is going to ruin my diet, but it’s so worth it… Big sis, you make the best lasagna! Bro, marry her already, because if you don’t I will!”

She and Loren exchanged a look and the two of them rolled their eyes. Yeah, no. The 72 hours they’d decided to try being boyfriend and girlfriend—as opposed to boy and girl who were friends—when they were both sixteen had been the most awkward four days of their lives. They’d been nervous, didn’t know how they should act around each other, attempts to ‘act normal’ had been weird, and holding hands… how had it been physically possible to feel they’d been holding hands wrong? Breaking up and deciding to pretend it had never happened had felt great. “You know why not, Lily.”

“You’re both older and more mature now, why not give it another shot?” her mom said.

“No, mom/Aunt Alice,” she and Loren both said firmly, shuddering simultaneously at the thought.

She saw their dads exchange looks and shrug, but thankfully let the subject lie instead of trying to nudge them into going of some kind of date again.

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Harmony left the house soon after dinner, carrying a bag of preserved and sweetened strawberry products in jars, peanut brittle, and loaves of raisin bread that unfortunately needed to be cut in half so they would fit. Given the hour, she decided to call a car instead of trying to commute, since if she was going to be waiting in traffic, it might as well be in something airconditioned where she wasn’t packed like a sardine in a can.

She went to Loren’s apartment first.

To her eyes, the building could be far worse. The façade and its relatively low height hinted at its age, and she had expected the elevator to be completely non-functional. Either the building manager was on the ball or someone who lived in the building had a lot of pull. Given the shit they’d put in Loren’s lease, she suspected the latter.

Harmony greeted Mang Alan, the security guard on duty that night, who smiled and waved her through even before she flashed Loren’s borrowed ID. Technically they weren’t supposed to do that, but she’d been by often enough—and more importantly talked to all the guards enough—that they knew her by face. Not very secure, but in this instance it was convenient.

The door didn’t open immediately when she approached it, not that she expected it to. Sara only seemed to do that for Loren, but that implied that she stayed near the door just watching for him to get back. Although… that meant the ghost could see her right now, didn’t it?

She decided not to test that and just knocked on the door. When it still didn’t open, she shrugged and pulled out the keys Loren had given her, unlocking the door and opening it. “Sara?” she called out, flicking on the lights. “It’s Harmony. Loren asked me to check up on you. Can I come in?”

There was a brief pause, and then the windchimes in the corner rang. Only then did Harmony step inside. As Loren has so recently shown, pissing off a ghost in their own home was a bad idea, and while she and Sara got along well—though there’d been some initial awkwardness after she’d apologized to Sara for basically invading the apartment in her Symbolized form to get Loren’s stuff back—it was best not to do anything impolite.

The apartment was clean, which was probably a product of Sara’s presence. Left to Loren’s own devices, every square inch of flat surface would have something on top of it, something that drove Auntie Marie nuts. Here, everything seemed properly stowed away, and the bed was even made. Yeah, Sara was definitely the one who did that. Either it was her way of contributing to the household, or it was just her way to keep from getting bored. The only thing that seemed out of place was a cellphone on the table. Unlike most cellphones, this was a plastic brick, with an actual 12-button numerical keypad under a monochrome lcd display. Sitting around the phone were the seven plamo that Loren had adopted, although their heads had turned to face her when she’d entered.

“Hey, boys,” she greeted as she checked Loren’s cold box first thing, finding it sufficiently chilly, although the little jar on the side filled with oil as a source of emergency imbuement was nearing empty. Inside was some meat and eggs from the supermarket, chocolate, and some drinks. No rice or already cooked food, thankfully. She started looking for more oil to refill it, since Loren wouldn’t be back to imbue it for a while. “Sorry Sara, let me just take care of this and I’ll tell you how Loren’s doing. Do you know where he keeps his ghost candles?” Harmony heard a container pop open, and glanced up to see the red and gold square tin with it’s led off, a candle being lifted out of it. The candle immediately dropped onto the table and started rolling towards the little candle holder. “Thanks!”

Refilling the oil in the jar, she looked around for matches or a lighter before she remembered this was Loren’s apartment, and he wouldn’t have either. Ugh, she should have thought ahead… “Never mind, we’ll use a pen and paper instead.” That, at least, Loren had. Well, he had. “So, Loren’s fine now. His arm is broken, and he needs lots of bed rest, but he’s fine. Unfortunately, he probably won’t be coming back for a while since he needs assistance right now. Not that you’re not helpful, but he’ll need someone to cook for him since he probably won’t be able to cook for himself, and the doctor said he shouldn’t use his magic for a while.”

The paused, but there was no movement or sound beyond the plamo turning to look towards her. The three plamo she’d adopted were in her room at her aunt and uncle’s, Unless Maddie had borrowed them as drawing models again. Hopefully she’d put Lucy, Marina and Anemone back where she’d found them. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Loren will be back as soon as he can. He was really worried about you.”

As if on cue, the phone began to ring, its vibrations making it slide along the table slightly. Immediately, two of the plamo stood up and placed their hands on it to hold it in place. The ringing cut of as an invisible force pressed the call accept button.

Harmony was too far away for the voice coming from the earpiece to be properly audible, but even small and scratchy she recognized Loren’s voice. She sat patiently as the listened to the small voice speaking and heard the soft, almost gentle whispers of Sara replying, the words just out of hearing. When minutes became half an hour, she quietly picked up her stuff, giving the cooler one last check before putting away the oil. “I’ll just be on my way home, okay, Sara?” she said.

There was no answer, windchimes or otherwise.

Shrugging, Harmony opened the door and turned off the lights, standing there for a second in case Sara was going to react. When nothing happened, she stepped out and locked the door behind her.

Bestie had this, it seemed. Good for him.

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After leaving the apartment, Harmony had a shorter commute back to her Aunt and Uncle’s house. When she arrived, everyone was still up, the couple sitting in front of the TV and watching the local news while Maddie did her homework—or was drawing, one or the other—in the kitchen.

“Hey, everyone,” she said a bit tiredly. There’d been far too much traveling that day, even if the longest stretch had been the most comfortable. “I’ve got souvenirs from Galugod.”

“Peanut brittle?” Maddie called from the kitchen.

“And raisin bread!”

“Yes!”

“Not tonight, it’s late,” Aunt Ganda said.

“Aw!”

“Tomorrow, Maddie. You have to watch your blood sugar.”

“I’m a Flame mage, we don’t need to watch our blood sugar! Tell her, dad!”

“They do in this house, young lady! Set a good example for your cousin!”

“You heard your mother, Maddie,” Uncle Tetsu said. “We’ll eat it tomorrow.”

A sigh. “Yes, dad…”

Harmony winced. Maybe she should cut down on her sugar. It seemed to be ruining the lives of everyone around her. Wasn’t she supposed to actually develop depression first before that happened?

“Ben and Ralph called,” Uncle Tetsu said, muting the TV as he turned towards her. “Loren broke his arm?”

“Yeah. He’s going to be taking the rest of the week off to recover,” she said. “The doctor says he’s also supposed to keep his use of magic to a minimum, since he also used up a lot of his stored bodyfat.” Harmony frowned as she realized something. “Although the doctor also said Loren needed to use magic on his arm to make it heal faster, otherwise it would take six weeks to heal.”

“They probably mean you should get treated in a hospital,” Uncle Tetsu said dismissively.

Harmony groaned. “Ugh, that’s not going to be good. I’m not sure our insurance covers that kind of treatment.”

She turned in time to see her uncle in the middle of rolling his eyes. “Well, of course not. You want something curative done with magic, you go to an albularyo, not a doctor. Most medical training doctors get is meant to be used with modern equipment and medicines, so the curriculum is meant for people without magic. You go to a doctor who doesn’t have magic, they’ll basically act like it doesn’t exist. It’s a travesty really, how albularyo aren’t really considered medical practitioners.”

Harmony raised an eyebrow. “So, do you know any?”

“No, of course not. I go to a doctor when I’m sick,” Uncle Tetsu said instantly.

She rolled her eyes as Aunt Ganda gave her husband a smack on his red bicep at the trawling. “Gee, thanks uncle, that’s really helpful.”

The oni laughed. “Ha, I’m just messing with you. Actually, Ben, Ralph and I were talking, and I suggested something to help our boy get back on his feet. At least, it should help with his arm a little. Ben told me he’s got a fancy plastic cast instead of a plastic one, but I think we can work with that. There’s something we used to do in the army when one of use Flame mages got sick or injured. It should work for our boy too.”

“What, really?” Harmony said. “I don’t remember anything like that.”

“Well, you wouldn’t. This isn’t the sort of thing you learn in basic training. Not unless something nasty happens to you and you’re a Flame mage, anyway.” Her uncle grinned at her. “When was the last time you had barbeque?”