Free Web NovelChapter 75: Ghost at Home (2)
Locky was a mutant.
Kestrel didn’t know how Locky came to live in her house.
After her parents passed away, Kestrel was sent to live in the Tower, leaving the home empty. The staff had left, leaving the big yard vacant and locked.
Only when she came of age was Kestrel allowed to leave the Tower and return home.
When she first entered the house, she found the gate rusty and covered with wild grass. The main building, five stories high, and the smaller buildings were in the darkness, looking like a haunted house. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
But once inside, she found it wasn’t as dusty or spiderweb-filled as she had imagined. Instead, many corners seemed to have been cleaned regularly, leaving subtle signs of life.
Kestrel, alone with her luggage, walked through the dark house, exploring each room.
Having left when she was very young and greatly shocked, she no longer remembered her childhood here.
She walked along the long hallway, with only the echo of her footsteps, the sides of the hallway lined with dark rooms. The house was eerily quiet, empty of people, living things, sounds, and even a sense of life. Kestrel couldn’t find any of her memories here.
Her classmates all had homes, yet Kestrel’s memories of her own home were blurry. That day, she felt like she was coming home for the first time.
She was excited – the empty building and the barren yard were her "home," the home she had been picturing in the Tower for many years.
This place had long hallways, a winding staircase, her parents’ master bedroom, a study, a gym, a movie room, and a loft for a little girl. Pictures hung on the walls, photos of a smiling young couple and a small girl, making Kestrel feel strange.
Oddly, the main rooms in the house were strangely clean—no one had moved the furniture, and the tables, chairs, and picture frames on the walls had been wiped, making everything neat as if the owners hadn’t been gone long.
Kestrel walked through the dark rooms, one floor after another, finally seeing disturbed clothes and signs of life in the servants’ building.
"Come out." Kestrel stood at the bottom of a staircase.
The house was big, and the yard was wide, but her senses reached everywhere, quickly finding the "ghost" hidden in the building.
"Leave." Kestrel stood in the darkness, her voice cold.
A young girl’s head timidly peeked out from the shadows under the stairs.
"I’m sorry." She was biting her handkerchief, her eyes welling up with tears. "Don’t be mad, I’ll come out now."
Locky was a mutant, with the upper body of a human girl and the lower half supported by countless insect-like legs. She couldn’t remember where she came from, only vaguely recalling her earliest days living in the Polluted Zone in a daze.
One day, a band of alphas barged into the Polluted Zone and took Locky, who had no ability to fight, from the polluted area. They gifted her to a rich man named Gorden, who liked collecting mutants.
She lived in a large eco-tank in Gorden’s basement, her days spent waiting for him to feed her. She was told to learn human language and copy human behavior inside the tank. Only when she pleased Mr. Gorden with her progress would she receive a little bit of food, hardly enough to fill her belly.
One day, due to a stroke of luck, Locky got away from the restricting eco-tank. She jumped over walls, yards, streets, and gardens, even hiding in sewers. Her journey was scary and crazy, causing many to shout and chase her. However, she was lucky enough to find a safe spot in an abandoned yard, where those chasing her lost her track.
The yard was calm and quiet, free from mistreatment and stress. Locky was happy there. By watching and copying the behaviors of humans nearby, she managed to survive for many years. Because of this, she was thankful to the owner of the yard.
Locky did her best to keep the yard clean and tried not to break anything, hoping the owner wouldn’t be too mad if he came back one day. She hoped to stay there for a long time.
However, she knew this was just a dream. She was a mutant, and humans hated mutants. When they saw them, people either shouted or attacked. It was hard for her to live out in the open.
Eventually, the owner of the house, Kestrel, came back. That night, Kestrel’s powerful psychic incarnation left Locky with nowhere to hide.
"Come out," Kestrel demanded, standing without any emotion at the staircase, dressed in a white dress with a backpack, her eyes cold in the darkness.
Locky thought she was in big trouble. She might get hit, cut open, or even cooked. She slowly came out from the shadows, biting her handkerchief and crying, trying her best to hide her scary legs under her skirt.
But there was no point in hiding from Kestrel, whose psychic incarnation was extremely strong, strong enough to see everything and find her easily. It was even strong enough to suppress Locky to the point where she wanted to curl up and not even try to run.
The serious Kestrel looked at Locky for a while before pulling back her scattered psychic incarnation. "Did you clean the house?" Kestrel asked.
With tears running down her face, Locky nodded while biting her handkerchief.
"What do you eat while living here?" asked Kestrel.
"Fruits from the trees in the yard, and... " Locky nervously twisted her thin fingers, "I sometimes take a little from the neighbors and cook it."
"Do you know how to cook?"
"Yes, a little." frёeωebɳovel.com
"Alright, I will bring back food from now on, and you will cook it."
And that was how Kestrel solved the problem - no kicking out, no mistreatment, or beating. She let Locky keep living in the house as before.
Kestrel said she was weird too and didn’t mind living with a mutant. All she wanted from Locky was for her to take care of the meals and some basic cleaning of the main rooms.
From that point, Locky’s worried heart finally relaxed. She no longer had to hide or live in fear. Instead, she lived officially in the courtyard she loved so much, serving as a maid. Her only concern was sometimes frightening the gardener who came to care for the yard or the cleaning lady who came to deal with the garbage. However, Kestrel never blamed her for it. Locky was very happy. She liked Kestrel a lot and hoped she could make Kestrel’s life as happy as hers.
Kestrel, enjoying warm toast at the dinner table, also had some troubles. She wasn’t sure what to prepare for having guests over. "It would be nice to have someone to ask," she thought. Then, she opened her opticomputer.
The opticomputer was a costly communication device, only accessible to those who could afford it or those who managed to get one from the Polluted Zone. Not everyone had one.
On Kestrel’s opticomputer, only a few contacts were added. She scrolled through the list of names - Roy, Parfit, Ren, Nicole, and others, thinking about who to ask for advice. After some thought, she chose a name she considered a good friend. The profile picture for the name was a tiny orca.
