Having a boogie on her shoulder at all times had been okay to begin with. Back in New York it hadn't been that big deal, Babs was manageable, but since Babs' broke her clock it had not been fun. She still wasn't sure what it was that had happened either.

She knew they were messing about in the van, but none of the monsters would fess up to how the clock broke. Which meant it was something that would make Angelica mad.

It didn't really matter what happened though. The clock was broken, Babs was not doing well now that it was broken, and it was up to Angelica to get it fixed.

Babs had been pretty co-dependent since the clock broke. Kevin said it was because she was upset, her clock was fractured, which meant she was fractured. It was an injury that they couldn't see, it was paining her greatly but she felt better when Angelica was with her.

And it was because of that that Angelica hadn't been too hard on the little boogie.

So Babs spent all her time with Angelica. Sitting on her shoulder squeaking and twittering away at all times. She didn't like getting wet, so shower time she'd sit on the shower caddy and just sing at her.

She even slept in Angelica's bed. Angelica would let her have her own pillow, gave her a kiss on her head goodnight and yet, every morning she woke up to a rats nest for hair. Why? Because Babs like to sleep in her hair. The second Angelica was asleep she'd crawl up off of that pillow and nest into her hair.

Waking up to a literal bird nest in her hair had not made for good mornings. It took hours to brush it all out. Sometimes it was so bad she'd have to hop into that shower and cover her head in conditioner.

She had been busy that week. Busy unpacking, busy exploring her new house.

With Babs on her shoulder and Kyle by herself she had examined each and every room. Everything looked good still, all of the outlets and plumbing in each room worked, she would be good to open up a bed and breakfast or hotel type business literally tomorrow.

First, however, she'd have to apply for a licence, but still, she could do it.

Then she explored the outside.

The field had wheat growing in it. These tall regal golden stalks that swayed in the wind. The barn was empty except for some rusted farm equipment that she didn't recognize. There were trunks filled with old moth eaten clothes that probably belonged to one of the families that used to own the property, moldy cardboard boxes filled with soaps, towels and other hotel amenities. The soaps had all melted together into one huge clump and the towels looked like they had actual mold on them. She had thought it was the pattern at first and had been wrong.

There were some individually packaged things that she might be able to salvage, but she'd have to see.

There was rotted hay in the stalls that didn't have boxes. Basically she was surprise the rot in the wood hadn't taken the whole thing down.

She hadn't gone into the maze though.

She had started, she had gone to the entrance, but then Babs, who had been on her shoulder at the time, had a freak out and Teddy showed up and told her not to go in there.

Teddy wouldn't answer her questions about the maze, none of her monsters would either, but she could tell they were all uncomfortable with it. So she was guessing that something was in it, something that scared the others. So she wasn't in any rush to meet it.

But after five days of a very clingy boogie, Angelica was at her wits end. She needed Babs to be better so that meant getting her clock fixed ASAP.

On a day when she had gone grocery shopping, Babs had pointed out a pawnshop that advertised watch repair in the window. She wondered if that extended to clocks.

She had tried calling the pawnshop but no one ever answered and the voicemail box was full. She couldn't imagine a pawnshop in a small town such as this one would be that busy to warrant never picking up the phone, but, then again, she probably shouldn't be so judgy.

So that morning, she got herself up early, spent an hour detangling her hair, and then made her way to the pawnshop.

She figured there would be a line, or at least a group of people waiting by the door, but no. There wasn't.

There wasn't even a crowd inside.

The shop was as dingy as she remembered it. Dust particles were floating through the narrow sunbeams making in through the grimy windows. She thought if the lights were on it might look better, but nope. Lights on and everything the place looked like a seedy joint where criminals came to pawn off stolen goods.

There were two rows of jewelry cases filled with all sorts of things that weren't jewelry and the walls were lined with big ticket numbers. Like lamps and guitars and power tools.

At the back was a barred window, where a portly man with what was obviously a toupee was sitting. His face was round, his nose was red, to be honest he kind of looked like Santa, if Santa had a brown toupee and wore cheap tweed suits.

He smiled warmly at her as she walked towards him his eyes narrowing in greedily on the clock in her hands.

"Oh, not sure how much I can give you for a broken clock..."

On her shoulder Babs' claws dug into her skin through her shirt and a low rumbling growl came out of her.

"It's not for sale," Angelica said quickly. "I was just wondering if you could repair it. I'm not sure if you do that here..."

"You're the new girl, right?" the man asked and Angelica deflated. Was he really going to ignore her question? "The one up at Culverton House? The one who found the bodies?"

"Yeah that's me," she said gruffly, realizing that that was probably going to be her identifier all the way up until something weirder happened. And she couldn't say that it wouldn't happen, she was surrounded by monsters, something weirder was bound to happen. "Now about the clock..."

"What was it like?" he asked, his beady eyes glinting with excitement. "I've always wanted to go in, but... well... I'm a rational man, would rather not die as it were. But the bodies... what where they like? Where they all dry? Or were they sticky?"

Like she fucking went around touching each one to determine the texture.

"They were mummified if that's what you're asking."

This had been her existence for the last week. If she dared to leave the house for any reason, people stared. And not in the, "Oh that's the new girl in town" kinda way, in the "There goes the freak" kind of way.

The amount of people who whispered around her, just loud enough for her to know they were whispering about her, was about as high as the amount of people who asked her about the bodies she found, or if she sensed anything else in the house. Which was altogether too high of a number.

He opened his mouth to ask another question and Angelica quickly moved to cut him off. "I'd rather not talk about it anymore. Now, about the clock..."

"Oh, how rude of me," he said stopping her. "My name is Cooper Davroe, this is my shop..."

"Great, the clock?" she said a little more insistently. She showed it to him again. "I saw your sign for watch repair and I was wondering if you could fix this. I know it's not a watch, but I don't know who else to ask."

Davroe took out his jeweller's loupe and used it to examine the clock.

"It's still ticking, it just needs new glass," she said. "Is that something you can do?"

"Hmmm 1945, Westclox... all original parts. And it still works, amazing," he said and then cleared his throat. "You sure you don't want to pawn it?"

"I'm positive," Angelica said. "I just want the glass fixed."

Though judging by his reaction her clock was clearly worth money. That would probably be problematic in the future, someone might think of stealing it.

Maybe she should look into some kind of insurance in case her monster's totems or soul pieces were stolen. No, that wouldn't get them back though, she'd just get money for them if they were taken.

Actually what would happen if one of the totems or soul pieces were stolen? Would the monster or ghost have to go with them? It'd be pretty easy to get them and their stuff back if that were the case. Only problem was, without Angelica there to run interference, there was no telling what could happen if some robbers got a hold of this stuff.

He continued to look it over, to the extent that Angelica started to feel uncomfortable.

"Yes, I can definitely fix it. It'll cost you though."

Not surprising. "How much?"

"Probably about 200-250," he said. "Depending on how long it takes me to take it apart and put it back together again."

Angelica sighed. She tried to make it sound like she was annoyed, so he wouldn't think to drive up the price, but honestly, she was relieved. That was a lot less then she was expecting to pay.

"Deal. When can I come get it?"

"I want to say three days, but I'll call you when it's ready."

Angelica nodded, she wrote down her information, got the pawn ticket to prove it was her item when she came back and then she went to leave.

She was a little worried that Babs would stay with the clock but she never left her shoulder. That meant she'd have a clingy boogie for a little while longer, but she could at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As she walked by the door she felt the air shift. She felt Babs tense on her shoulder, her sharp little claws digging into her skin again.

She paused and to her left a guitar started playing. What a weird hallucination for Babs to pull at that moment.

The song was Summer of '69 she'd recognize the chords anywhere, but it wasn't the kind of song Babs liked.

On her shoulder Babs hissed and Angelica sighed. This must have been because she was angry that the clock was being left behind.

"Don't worry, it won't be long, I promise. Three days we'll come back and it'll be good as new."

Babsdowngraded to just growling, and Angelica left the shop without a secondthought. Only thinking that she would be happy to get back to her house andaway from the townsfolk's stares.