Mysterious Benefactor

Eyeballs left. He took his angel buddies with him. On the way out, much like a certain poem, the Ophanim raged and raged against his dying light. "CRIME! THERE WILL BE BLOOD! CRIME!! YOUR BLOOD! CRIME!!!" It screamed and screamed until they heard him no more.

"Tsk," Natsumi had said. "What a butthole."

"Verily," the Ferrywoman replied.

---

"And he turned tail and ran..." Natsumi said with a shrug. Her arms were crossed. She shivered. It was a tad cold in Catherine's apartment for her to be wearing only a t-shirt. Natsumi glanced over envious of Catherine's snug sweater. She would ask her for one, but didn't want to become further indebted to her.

"So you do remember some of her poetry!" Catherine said.

Did she not get anything else from the story other than a bunch of rhymes? Natsumi shrugged to hide her shivering. "Eh, it was catchy!"

"She can really lay it on thick. And what happened after? Did she lay into you for being reckless? I want to hear that diss track."

Natsumi rolled her eyes. "Ahem! You were asking about the talisman thingie..."

"Oh right! I forgot because you went on for so long!" Natsumi narrowed her eyes trying to find a hint of malice in Catherine's facial expression, but there wasn't a trace of it. She had sat and listened to her entire story without making too many remarks nor losing interest. Nothing phased this lady.

Natsumi twisted her lips, a face she was making for herself. How cringe was that to relate that whole thing thought? It was a lot of TMI and she never liked to talk too much about herself, but somehow she spilled a whole tea kettle's worth because Catherine asked. Yet if there was anyone who could understand her experience it was her.

"So well," Natsumi said. "The old lady didn't give it to me. One of the Children gave me the staff." She took a deep breath. "I haven't met her yet, but the old lady says, she's an interested benefactor. In fact, Helena is her proxy here in the mortal realm."

Catherine adjusted her glasses and said, "Ooo! How Dickensian!"

"Dickensian?" Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" This felt like another thinly-veiled insult.

"You know!" Catherine raised her hands and became more animated as she spoke. "Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations! The Ferrywoman's like... Miss Havisham, and this mysterious benefactor's like... what was his name? Magwitch!" She snapped her fingers. "And you're like Pip, the urchin nobody cared for..." She smirked, smug about her clever literary joke, but the joke was on her, Natsumi had never read Great Expectations.

She cleared her throat and that brought Catherine back into the conversation.

Catherine chuckled to herself. "Anyway... you mentioned your benefactor was one of the children, like my goddess, Alamanthreca. We're more alike than you think." Catherine smiled.

"Are you really giving me the we're not that different after all speech?"

"Well, we're not in that respect!" Catherine said nodding her head along in self-agreement. This too felt like another small dig at Natsumi, but she let it slide. After all, she wasn't wrong, they did seem to have goddesses acting as beneficiaries and mentors. "Natsumi," Catherine said, the tone of her voice less joke-y sounding. "Thank you for telling me your story. I feel like we can work together."

Before Natsumi could respond Catherine's smartphone buzzed to life. An alarm sounded off and Natsumi happened to catch that it was 8 o'clock in the morning. How long had they been up? Every since they defeated upside-down head, Natsumi's concept of time had completely vanished.

"Oh!" Catherine said glancing at her phone. Natsumi gazed at the phone's lock screen. Displaying under the alarm button was a photo of Catherine with her arms hugging a girl from behind. The girl's eyes were obscured by the "snooze" button and the glare coming from the early morning sun obscured the rest of it. All Natsumi really made out was Catherine's joyful smile and her adoration for this girl. Natsumi leaned forward for a better look, but Catherine pulled her phone closer to herself.

"And I gotta get to work! And so you do urchin girl!" Catherine said.

Natsumi narrowed her eyes. "Urchin girl?" Oh right, there was still the matter of the dog, and now that they were over this, it would be time to figure out where this mutt ran off too.