Ugly

Later on, I decided to call Sebastian. I was determined to find out what happened to Niko.

Niko was sitting on my shoulder as I was calling. I waited for Sebastian to pick up. The phone kept ringing until-

"Hello?" A husky voice.

"Hello. This is Janice Miller and I wanted to tell you that we've found Niko Marcell. He requested that I call his family and friends to tell them that he is alive and well-"

"What-!?"

"But so far I have no information from him if he will answer phone calls-"

"Let me talk to him, now!"

"Excuse me, sir."

"Please let me talk to him, ma'am."

"I will see to him. He is very tired right now and it is uncertain whether or not he will comply."

I put the phone down, giving Niko a grin, and stalled for a moment before putting the phone up to Niko's snout.

"Hello...?" Niko asked, pretending to sound tired.

I put the phone on speakerphone. Sebastian cried, "What-what, where have you been!?"

"I don't even know, Sebastian..." Niko said. "I can't remember... What happened, do you know?"

"God, Niko..." Sebastian breathed. "It was... six months ago. I-I..." Then his tone changed to in a more serious, but harsher, way, "Come over to my house. Now."

Niko looked at me, bug-eyed. "Um, I don't know if I can."

"Where are you? I'll come to you." Sebastian sounded almost demanding.

"I don't know.. I'm in some sort of room..."

"Find out. Go look around." He sounded angrier. This wasn't going according to plan.

"Um, Sebastian, can you tell me what happened though? I really don't remember anything, and-"

"Niko, seriously, where the hell are you. Go find out, now. Or get over to my house." I almost flinched with the way he sounded.

"Um-um, uh-"

"NIKO! Get your act together!"

I hung up. Niko looked at me, scared, and I looked at him back, just as scared.

"This isn't how he usually acts." Niko said.

"What do we do then?" I asked.

"Well, we didn't get the information we wanted..." Niko thought aloud, but then-

Ring! Ring!

I answered.

"Niko, get out of there and to my house, now. If you don't, then I'll come find you. I'll trace this phone call. Get out, now."

Click.

Suddenly I felt very cold inside.

Niko looked at me, I looked at him, and I knew somehow that we unconsciously concluded that we were going over there.

---

I told my mom I was going to the library. Mom almost didn't let me go, since it was late, but since there was still light, she let it slide.

I hid Niko in my sweatshirt pocket and then took him out as we were in the car. I also managed to sneak my camera out with me too. Luckily it wasn't a bulky digital camera, and just a little one, so I could hide that in my pocket as well.

"Do I look alright?" I asked Niko. I was wearing all black, to be less noticeable. It wasn't something I really liked to wear. I felt like an emo kid.

"I actually can't tell." Niko said. "A rat's vision sucks. You're super blurry and I've never really known what you look like."

"Oh."

"But you know what's weird? I can see ultraviolet stuff. It's pretty neat."

"Okay, that's weird."

"Yeah."

I started up the car.

"You know, I'm actually not supposed to drive people around yet." I said, chuckling.

"Oh well. I'm a rat, I think the cop will let it slide." Niko crawled up on the dashboard. "By the way, Sebatian lives at 3--- R---- Road."

"So... that's like, by the grocery store?"

"I think so."

I pulled out and started down the street. Niko's tail swished as he tried to balance. I said, "Okay, so we're just going to take pictures, right? We're not going in."

"Exactly." NIko replied. "He leaves his windows open anyway. If he saw me as a rat, he'd freak. I just want to know if he has some creepy occult crap in there. His parents work late, and they probably won't be there too."

"I feel like a stalker."

"I guess we ARE stalkers."

I swallowed.

Then Niko had a change of heart. "Sophie, you don't have to go through with this if you don't want to. You're the one that'll get in trouble, not me. I'm not even worth it, okay?"

"Niko, shuddup. You ARE worth it." I huffed. "And besides, I have a reason to do this too. I don't want some intelligent rat in my house just pretending to be a rat, because for one, it's creepy, and two, it's pretty inhumane. If I were turned into a rat, I'd want to be changed back into a human."

".... Thank you."

"No prob."

We drove on a while. Niko looked out the window. We passed a small forested park, and then down to the suburbs. They were pretty small, average, houses. Eventually we got into a busier part of town, where small restaurants made business and people milled around, smoking on the corners and conversing.

Then, Niko asked, "What happened to your dad? Er, I mean, it's none of my business, but I've never seen him around, and bleh, never mind..."

"No, it's okay." I said. "He left when I was like, five, I think, so I don't remember much. I really don't know why, my mom won't talk about it."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's fine. He's probably in a better place."

Niko was quiet for a moment. Then, "My real dad left when I was about that age too. He turned out to be gay and left my mom. I could never forgive him for betraying and lying to us like that. Then my mom remarried this super nice guy, who also was wealthy, and pulled us out of our financial problems. I mean, just because he had a lot of money wasn't the reason she married him. He is just a nice person and I really like him."

"That's good then. But I'm sorry your real dad left." I grimaced, feeling a pang in my heart. "At least you have a good one now."

"Yeah, it's all good now." Niko groomed himself self-consciously. Later, he stopped and added, "Sorry for bringing that up."

"No, it's okay. I'm glad I could actually get that out to someone." I was telling the truth.

"Okay."

I stopped at the intersection by the grocery store, then looked for the street and turned there. I scanned the houses for the number. My palms began to sweat and my heart began to pound.

"Niko, we're almost there."

"Okay. If I can remember, his house is brown and has a hedge in the yard that kind of looks like a snowman."

I almost burst out laughing, out of hysteria rather than the silly shrubbery. I swallowed the giggles, trying to hold myself together, and gripped the steering wheel, focusing on the houses. Then I came to a large brown one with a poorly trimmed hedge that vaguely looked like a snowman.

I drove past it.

I swore under my breath, trying to calm myself down, and parked on the side of the road at the end of the block. Niko stole an inquiring look at me. I managed out, "We're here. A block away."

"I think we would be pretty bad stalkers to pull up in his driveway anyway." Niko laughed weakly.

I glanced back. There were two cars parked there.

"Are you sure his parents aren't home?"

Niko nodded. "Yeah. Are there cars there?"

"Two. A black truck and a blue... uh, old car, I don't know cars, so I couldn't tell you what it was..." I squinted at the vehicles. The blue one was probably made around the sixties.

Niko's nose twitched.

"What, ARE they home?"

"No... hm. The black truck is Sebastian's. But James was working on restoring a blue Thunderbird, so I..." Niko scratched his head. "Never mind, let's just go."

Niko jumped off the dash and burrowed into my pocket.

I took a deep breath, and exited the car.

"Sophie, I'm sorry for all this trouble." Niko said.

"I'm sorry for calling you ugly."

Niko didn't expect that. "Er, it's okay."

"No, I really am sorry. I was really unhappy about my life and you were the one thing I could take it out on. I don't like being poor or having no dad." I grimaced.

"Look, it's fine."

"Not really. I really can be a mean, stuck-up person."

"I guess we all have those times. But I forgive you."

"Thank you, Niko."

Niko patted my hand in my pocket.

I went up to the door, staying away from the windows. I said, "Okay, where is Sebastian's room?"

"It's... hm, I think it's at the side of the house, uh, probably the first one you come to."

I wandered around the building. There was a small window covered with blinds, but another, slightly bigger one after it that was wide open. I ducked and nearly squealed when I saw a person inside. Luckily he wasn't looking at me. I guess it was the second window.

"Whoa, Sophie!" Niko hissed.

"Shh...!"

I sank against the wall, about a meter away from the window. If the person were to look out, he'd surely see me.

I waited for a few long seconds to collect myself.

Then I heard talking:

"So are we going to tell Phil that's Niko's back?" It was that same sweet voice that I heard on the phone. James.

"Heck no. Phil would piss himself. He's already been a complete wuss about Niko's 'disappearance'." This was Sebastian's husky voice. "We're just going to get rid of Niko again."

"Well, I figured that. You called me sounding like a psychopath..." James muttered. He then said something else, but I couldn't hear it, his voice was too low.

"James is here." Niko whispered.

"I can't hear what they're saying anymore." I said in a hushed voice. After a while of wavering between moving and not moving, I inched closer to the window until I was right under it.

"-we're not going to do that." Sebastian's voice was abruptly audible. "Turning him into a rat was stupid, he changed back anyhow. Did the potion label say how he would turn back?"

"I don't remember."

"it doesn't matter anyway. We're just gonna wait 'till here's here."

James's voice seemed to hesitate. "What are we going to do then?"

"Knock him out, tie him up, drive him into the middle of nowhere, and dump him off."

Niko squeaked in shock.

"Uh, Sebastian? That's hm, illegal.

"Shut up, James. The bastard deserves it. Do you remember all the crap he did to you?"

"Yeah." James sounded a little pained, but then he countered, "But it's been so long, he's been a rat forever. Don't you think he got what he deserved already?"

"No. James, do you remember when he told your girlfriend you were cheating on her? And she believed it? And broke up with you?" Sebastian was angry.

"Yeah-"

"Do you remember when he replaced your football jersey your sister's pink panda shirt?"

"Of course-"

"Do you remember when he borrowed your iPod and 'dropped it down the stairs'?"

"But that could have really been an accident-"

Sebastian cut him off. "Do you remember how mad he made you? Do you?"

James was silent.

"He's done so many other things that make you and others mad, why not get payback?"

James was silent.

"Look, James, do you know what he did to me? He told my parents that I was doing drugs. I was put through therapy for weeks and my entire room was torn apart. I was grounded from everything. I was kicked off the soccer team. My girlfriend broke up with me. My life was ruined."

James was silent.

"In my defense," Niko whispered, "He WAS doing drugs. Some freaky hallucinogens that made him 'talk to spirits' or something. It scared me and I was worried about him. But all the other stuff he said, I did do."

"We've got to call the police." I murmured.

"James, Niko will probably be here soon. I'll grab some rope, help me find it."

I heard some rustling around, and Niko said, "Quick! Take a picture!"

Adrenaline pulsing, I sneaked a look in the window. The two boys weren't facing me. I jolted out my camera and snapped a picture as they took out some rope. I quickly regretted it.

They turned.

I forgot to turn off the flash.