(First: https://redd.it/o8vgiw Previous: https://redd.it/10jlqak)

Sundays are my days off. All of my other jobs I’ve had often didn’t have a set schedule. I just went in when they needed me, or picked up shifts when I could. Having a guaranteed day off a week was pretty nice. Most days I wasn’t requested to deliver mail on Saturdays either.

I’d been going over my finances trying to get them in order. I’ve wanted to move for a while now but simply couldn’t afford it. I’ve been sending my father some money and he finally started to be getting somewhere paying off the house I grew up in. He worked in a factory for most of his life which did a number on his body. His company treated him well but he was off work for a decent part of the year. He was still trying to pay off a big house reno a contractor messed up years ago. I think it happened shortly after my mother left. I don’t remember much from then. I think he wanted to remove any memories of her but couldn’t bear to leave the house. So, he gutted most of it. The workers he hired either did a poor job making all the work needing to be redone, or just disappeared with the payments. It was a nightmare that financially haunted him for years.

Sunny quickly picked up on how I treated money. I only bought off-label food brands and all my clothing had a hole or two in the fabric. He’s been a great help by finding good sales and getting us a second-hand chest freezer for cheap. He only worked four hours a day. That gave him lots of time to do food prep and repair some of my older clothing I refused to toss because I saw them as still good. He'd offered to give me his pay but I refused. He earned it and should spend it the way he wants.

He'd been doing good in the sorting room, but I’ve noticed Sunny started to act a bit stressed out after work. I didn’t want to pester him but I didn’t want him to be upset over something we might be able to fix. I finally was able to gently pry out what was bothering him on my day off.

“A new co-worker in the sorting room asked if we could go out. But... it was a pretty suggestive request. He accepted my refusal and has been treating me decently afterward.” Sunny admitted.

I felt my face get hot. I knew he was putting what happened in nicer terms not to upset me. Someone saw Sunny as a creature just to sleep with and made the suggestion. I wanted to punch someone in the face but forced myself to calm down. It wouldn’t be good for him if I got upset.

“Sunny, do we need to talk to someone about this?” I asked wondering if this might be serious enough for an HR sit-down. Did we even have an HR department?

Sunny shook his head, a little embarrassed.

“It was an understandable request. And he’s been respectful. In fact, I think he’s forgotten about the whole suggestion after a few days of working together. I’m just... a little upset over how that’s going to be with new people. They’ll always see my species first. I think pretty much everyone will see me as a person after we start talking but... It’s disappointing that I’ll always start off as... something I’m not in other’s eyes.”

I chewed on my lip hard enough to draw a little bit of blood. There wasn’t an easy fix to this sort of thing. I didn’t want Sunny to go through this, but I couldn’t change the culture he came from overnight either. I wasn’t really experienced enough to deal with his worried either

“Do you think you should talk to a counsellor? I mean. There are supernatural ones, right? I bet this isn’t the only worry you have. Getting a normal job is a big adjustment. I just don’t want you to let these worries simmer until they boil over.” I suggested.

Sunny quickly shook his head. He fiddled and tugged at his hair. A habit he only did when he was stressed.

“It’s not that bad. I don’t think I’ll need to talk to someone. I mean, nothing has ever happened to me.” He said, voice thin.

“Sunny...” I started gently unsure of how to say this. “A lot of stuff has happened to you. It’s ok to have bad feelings over all of it. And I don’t think therapy should be put off until things get bad. It's preventative maintenance, you know? You should go talk to someone before things break.”

I hoped I wasn’t being too forceful, or commenting on something I didn’t understand. Sunny stood considering my words as he twisted his transparent hair.

“Are you talking to someone?” He asked finally.

“Why would I need to?” I asked honestly confused.

My answer made Sunny laugh. It was pretty rare he did so. I wanted to be embarrassed but was just happy he cheered up a little. After he was done laughing, I clued in I really should take my own advice. I did have a lot of terrible things happen to me, but I had the support of my co-workers while they happened. Sunny didn’t have anyone when he was bought and sold. He was around good people now but still had a lot of things to work through.

Sunny agreed to go to a counsellor which also made me happy. Since I didn’t know how to find one, we called up Max.

“Oh! I know of one. She’s really good. I’ve been to her after Belizas recommended her. I think they dated for a bit.” Max said after he heard us out.

I stood holding my phone dumbfounded. Why would Max need therapy of any kind? He really wasn’t the type. Unable to help myself, the question slipped out. I mentally kicked myself and Max took a second to answer.

“Toby, you cut your arm off for me. That was traumatizing...”

Now I felt bad. That was a lot to unpack later. Max cheered up quickly and changed the subject. He would give Sunny the details he needed and then told me I was requested for a job. A different department needed some packages delivered and needed some workers. It was my day off but I accepted the request. I did need some more funds after all. I wonder if Sunny's consulting was covered by work.

I thanked Max and hung up. Sunny looked much better after our talk. He promised me a nice dinner when I got home and I hurried off to work unaware of what kind of shift I was walking into.

The Zero room I stepped into felt different. It looked the same but the carpet was a slightly lighter shade of cream. A girl I didn’t recognize sat at the table of neatly organized packages. She was painting her nails when I came in and didn’t look up from her task.

I stared at her a bit stunned for a few moments. I did work with Max so I should be used to seeing animal ears on a person. I just never expected to see, well, a cat girl. A cat girl with bright pink eyes and pink hair.

“You Toby?” She finally asked looking over.

She flashed a set of white sharp teeth. She honestly sounded the same way anyone would expect a cat girl's voice should be. I forced my feet forwards wondering if I could handle this interaction. It was hard enough not to pet Max’s head. Her ears were very tempting. I just wanted one little pat.

“We have a job for you. Where you’re going is on a different timeline-”

She paused and let out a sound with a sudden jolt that made me jump a little. I knew that sound and never thought I would hear a person say it.

“Did... you just go uwu?”I slowly asked.

She looked up at me with a face that made it clear I just said the wrong thing.

“Do you think all cat girls go uwu?” She said, cute voice on edge.

She let me sweat for a few seconds. I thought I stepped on a landmine. Finally, she smiled and waved off the exchange.

“I’m just fucking with you. I sneezed. Anyway, I need you to look over these forms and sign them. The job we need you to go on is going to be set at a different time than your world is currently on. It gets confusing so read the sheets carefully.” She said and her voice changed drastically.

When she first spoke, she sounded overly cute as if she was trying too hard. Now her voice was pretty boyish. I wondered how many other people she messed with by using a different voice. I flipped through the forms trying to understand them. The concept was pretty complicated. I only recently found out there were other worlds out there but never fully understood what that meant. Max lived in a different world than where I came from. He never really talked about what it was like there, but I assumed his home was pretty different than the Earth I knew. Apparently, there were a few thousand other Earths with only minor differences. If I went to one, I might not know I wasn’t in my original world unless I heard something like World War Two didn’t happen, or something along those lines.

It hurt my head trying to think how many other versions of myself might be out there. I wanted to ask Max about that concept but chickened out. It seems as if the other world I needed to go to that day was almost the same as my own. I tried to understand the whole timeline part of the forms.

My Earth and the one I would be delivering mail to were pretty similar besides the fact the other one was a bit ahead time-wise. A spell would be placed on me the moment I signed the forms. Since there were creatures that went between timelines, I would be forbidden to mention something that hadn’t happened to them yet.

I still felt pretty confused about it. But I trusted there was a chance I didn’t need to worry about the finer details. I signed the sheets where needed and handed them back to the receptionist thanking her. My partner for the day walked in giving the room a gloomy air. I got distracted by him instead of trying to figure out the mind-bending information I’d just been given.

He was very tall and thin. Straight black hair hung midway down his back and mostly over his face. His skin was pale and dark eyes sunken. He looked out of place in the blue and green uniforms. I held out my hand for him to shake as a greeting but he didn’t take it.

“You shouldn’t touch someone like me...” He grumbled in a voice so low I barely heard him.

The words sounded more like low confidence than a threat. I glanced over at the receptionist who shrugged.

“This is Alty. He's just in a bad mood. He gets like this sometimes. He’s a vampire so be careful around him.” She half warned.

I looked back at Alty, thinking he didn’t appear strong enough to win in a fight with a wet paper bag. Still, I’ve never met a real vampire before so I shouldn’t underestimate them. We were given two large bags to deliver. Each bag full of wrapped boxes and items. Just before we left, we got called back to take a massive teddy bear along as well. The receptionist said the delivery request just came in. I awkwardly held the bear making it hard to see. She told us we might be going back and forth all day to this one address because there was a good chance of more packages coming in shortly. It made me wonder over the entire thing. I noticed my partner for the day was getting bored so we left to hopefully get the job done in good time.

We arrived in a very small town that stood near a large forest. Since Alty had a human appearance, the locals could see him. We needed some directions to a cabin to deliver the mail and everyone was happy to help. It took us about an hour to walk down the dirt road to where we needed to drop off our deliveries.

Alty hadn’t really spoken much the entire time. The cabin had two floors and looked pretty nice. A small garden had been planted out front and some children's toys littered the lawn. We didn’t make it up the front wooden steps when a man came out of the front door, face creased in worry. He looked around my age and was fairly normal. I doubted I could pick him out from a crowd. large glasses slide down his face that he quickly pushed up.

“We’re here to deliver some packages.” I said wondering what got him so frantic.

“You can put them on the porch for now. Did you two see a little boy when you walked over? He looks about five.” He asked, his head scanning the empty yard.

We quickly put down our items. I got so concerned over his question that I completely forgot to ask him to sign the delivery forms. We hadn’t seen a child and when I told him that he started to look around faster. He slipped his phone out of his pocket to send some texts, which I assumed to be of anyone he knew to see if someone picked up the boy without him knowing.

“I was getting dinner ready and realized the cabin sounded too quiet. It’s only been under an hour but the last time Casper disappeared we lost him for six hours because he climbed a tree unable to get down. I hoped you came across him on the road.” The man explained, not caring he was oversharing.

Now, this worried me. A five-year-old boy could get in all sorts of trouble near the woods. I glanced up at Alty who already knew what I was thinking. He let out a long sigh, his gaze off to the side.

“I can try to sniff him out. Vampires are good at smelling sources of blood. We can look for a few minutes.” He mumbled almost to himself.

The man’s face lit up. He looked relieved he had extra eyes looking for his son. I’m sure the boy just was hiding somewhere safe giggling and waiting to be found. We got a description of what he looked like and was wearing that day. I knew we should have been working but finding a lost boy was more important.

“There goes my monthly time bonus.” Atly mumbled mostly to himself.

I didn’t know we got a bonus for finishing a job on time. Then again, I worked with Max. We often played around a bit too much after each job. I should make sure we cut down on that before we got fired. Alty started to look around and directed us to the woods. The father said he was going to stay back at the cabin and do one more search. Then he wanted to check by the lake. We agreed to meet back in an hour if we hadn’t found anything yet.

“Don’t blame me if we don’t find anything. I’m not very useful. I’ve done a lot of stupid crap in the past, so...” Alty said over his shoulder to me the moment we walked into the woods.

For some reason, the forest gave me the creeps. I noticed some odd tracks I couldn’t place on the dirt and some deep fresh-cut marks on the trees going deeper into the woods. I wondered if I should have brought that up before we walked right into the odd forest. I shook off those thoughts to answer Alty.

“You’re helping to look for a lost boy. I don’t think some past mistakes should change that fact. As long as you’re trying to better yourself, what you’ve done in the past shouldn't affect your future. Unless it’s murder...” I trailed off realizing I was talking to a vampire.

“Yeah... It was a little bit of murder...” He said, head forwards and tired voice low.

My mouth tightened into a frown. It was always murder with these creatures. I’ve come across monsters that hurt others just by living, some did it by choice, and others just needed to eat. I still didn’t know how I felt about all of it. I loved Max regardless of what he’s done in the past. Could I be friends with Alty if I knew he killed someone? We walked in silence for a while without much of any signs of the lost boy.

“You seem like a nice person. Can I talk to you about something for a while?” Alty asked not making eye contact with me.

I wasn’t expecting that but didn’t mind.

“Ok, shoot.” I told him.

It took him another few minutes to gather himself to talk. I thought I heard an odd rustling noise a moment before his voice distracted me.

“When I was younger, I didn't like myself. It was a mixture of a bad family environment and bad friends. I was raised to see humans as food, nothing else. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized humans had the same level of intelligence I did. You may find that impossible. My family kept a farm of comatose humans we drained blood from. I’m positive I killed a few. It was only after I saw one awake, I knew what we’d been doing...” He said in an even tone.

I chewed on my lip wondering what I could say to him. I wondered if it was possible for some creatures to live without harming humans, and if they couldn’t, did they deserve to live? I think most people would say no, they shouldn’t. I might have agreed at some point. But then I met people like Alty who regretted what they’d done and treated people with respect despite their past actions.

“I went off the deep end then. I got into drugs. Magic drugs are pretty hardcore. I just wanted to forget who I was, but I turned into a worst person trying to avoid myself. By some miracle, I got sober and got away from my family and this job helped. But this job hires pretty much anyone who can work.”

We hadn’t seen any signs of the lost child as we walked. Alty suddenly stopped walking and I hoped he found something I wasn’t aware of. His gaze met mine through his long black hair causing my body to freeze. A chill went down my back as I ignored the warning bells to start running. I wanted to trust my partner so I didn’t move when he took a step toward me.

“Do you really think looking for a lost child erases everything I’ve done? That this single action makes me into a better person? I think you’re too stupid for your own good. To start with, you entered into a forest alone with a nasty vampire.”

I really should have gotten a head start on running. By the time I’d backed away, Atly was already on the move. He lunged forwards, fangs out ready to sink into my flesh. He tackled me onto the ground, his body over top of my own. Thank God for the uniforms. His mouth snapped but I blocked his teeth with my protected forearm. We struggled for a few minutes. He made attempts to pull down my jacket collar without any luck. I kicked trying to get him away. His hair blocked my vision and I wasn’t able to look around for a way to escape. At least he wasn’t as strong as other monsters I’ve come across. My hand landed on a decent-sized rock I almost used on his head. Instead, I got my feet in a good position and kicked him off of me.

He rolled off, hissing. We both sat breathing heavy for a few seconds.

“Cut it out, you dork!” I snapped at him.

His face dropped from the monstrous expression to a confused one. Recently I’ve been trying to change my harsh my language in case Max heard something he shouldn’t. I really didn’t want him to learn a new word from me. But that made me slip up and say the wrong thing to bring the tone down.

“I stand by what I said! If you’re trying to better yourself, you can become a better person. So, what if you made mistakes? Everyone has! You should be proud you got sober instead of thinking you’re a bad person for getting addicted in the first place!”

I don’t think anyone ever said something like that to him before. He wasn’t sure how to react. Alty stared at me through his long black hair trying to process the situation. After a few tense moments between us, he stood up brushing the dirt from his uniform.

“I won’t eat you right now. Virgin blood gets me too riled up. I’ll wait until you take care of that problem.” He said head turned.

I tossed a clump of dirt at him as a response. He quickly brushed that off and waited for me to stand back up.

“I can smell the kid over there. Let’s hurry up and get him and leave.”

My partner started to leave me behind. I tried to catch up losing to his long legs. At least we were able to find the lost boy without too many issues. I realized I'd gotten spoiled with Max and Rufus. I bet other co-workers would have been very tempted to do the same thing Alty just did. I didn’t hold it against them though.

We pushed through a thick bramble of berry bushes to stumble out into a clearing. To my relief. I saw Casper unharmed. Two buckets of berries sat next to him as his tiny hands expertly snatched up more berries from the bushes. I called out to him worried a stranger in the woods might scare him. He looked up, face bright. He honestly reminded me of Max a little bit. We could have just told him his parents were worried and got him back home. It should have been that easy. It’s never that easy.

“Now, what tasty snacks do we have here?”

The voice came from above us along with a groaning of wood. I looked up into the branches, my heart full of dread. I know I’ve seen a lot of terrifying monsters on my job and yet I still got scared as hell seeing a new one.

The monster was long. The body was almost like a centipede boy but instead of insect legs, the shiny black body was lined with arms. At least a few hundred along the over ten-foot-long creature. It easily crawled through the branches so gracefully it barely made a sound. The face looked human with a wide smile that turned the eyes to slits.

“We’re here for the kid!” Alty called up, saying our reason for being here.

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. The monster’s smile grew. My body moved to duck behind a tree before my mind caught up. In a blur, the thing came down on us. It took a hold of Casper in one hand and set him a bit of a way away as his other arms came down on Atly so hard it forced him against a tree. I felt the force of the blow from where I stood. Once the child was at a safe distance, they both got into a fight with movements so fast I couldn’t keep up.

My co-worker put up a good fight. But he was against too many hands. He knew he was losing. Black wings came from his back as he made an attempt to get to a better position to fight. The monster snatched him out of midair by the ankle and slammed him on the ground hard. The uniforms protected most of our bodies but not our heads. Alty got knocked senseless. The creature quickly turned its attention back to me.

I made a smart move to dive into a bush of thorns. My face getting scratched but the rest of me was somewhat protected. My heart beat out of my chest as all those hands came down to tear at the bushes. The creature let out sounds of annoyance from the small cuts on his hands. I kept moving further into the bushes as those hands tore away my cover.

I soon ran out of the bushes making me flee behind a tree again. To my shock, the creature took a hold of the tree and pulled it right out of the ground. The roots came up under my feet. I fell, unable to stay standing on the lifted ground. The tree was tossed aside leaving nothing between myself and this force of nature. I stared up into the face of death convinced this was it. I braced myself for all those hands coming down on my body, making quick work of my limbs.

A second before that happened, my rescuer came out of nowhere. All of a sudden, a man wearing a suit appeared. In a flash, he jumped up above the creature and brought down his foot in such a powerful kick the force of it caused a shockwave to shake the trees around us. The monster’s face slammed to the ground and the man leapt off to the side. Once he knew the creature wasn't getting up right away, he came over to check on me.

“Are you alright? Did Hans hurt you?” He asked, holding out a hand to help me stand again.

I’ve seen people with white hair, and albinos but I’ve never seen anyone so void of color. His eyes were pure white along with the rest of him. His appearance should be off-putting but I was glad to see him. I took his hand to stand up, legs shaking from what happened.

The monster lifted its head, face bruised and in a scowl. If I squinted, I could see similar facial features between the two.

“How rude to kick your only older brother like that.” He spat, clearly annoyed the man got in the way of a meal.

Brothers? Really? From all the weird stuff I’ve seen, I should be able to accept that. But these two were too different for that to be true.

“You were going to eat a mailman! You know they’re off limits!” The man hissed back.

“How am I supposed to know who they are?” The creature said trying to play innocent.

“They have uniforms on!”

Never mind. These two were brothers. With some help we got Alty back up, his brain was a bit rattled but otherwise fine. Casper came running over and jumped into the man’s arms who gladly took him. Apparently, this man was also his father which made sense as to why the creature had him in the first place.

Soon the man we met at the cabin came rushing into the scene. At his heels was a creature that looks similar to Hans. About the size of a small dog with raccoon features. It was fat as hell and I didn’t know how it ran. The man took Casper from his husband making a fuss over the boy. He had been so worried and I was glad everything worked out fine in the end. Just a few scraps and new fears on our end.

“Hans! I’ve told you a hundred times I need to know if you’re going off with Casper! I was scared to death!” The man scolded.

It was amusing to see this unassuming person take down a creature that could eat him in one bite. I looked between them wanting to know what caused all this.

“I left a note under the cookie container before we left. Casper wanted to go berry picking and you were both too busy so I filled in. It’s the job of the best uncle to cover activities like this.” He defended himself almost insulted

“What note?” The man asked.

No doubt he looked through the entire cabin at least a dozen times. If there was a note, he would have found it. But it didn’t seem like the monster was lying. A loud garbled coughing sound made us all look down at the pudgy creature. The thing hacked for a few seconds until he coughed out an empty plastic cookie container with a soggy piece of paper sticking to it. That solved that small mystery. The creature turned heel and left before it could get in trouble for causing such a mess.

“I never want to work with you again.” Alty said towards me.

I didn’t blame him for that. We all headed back to the cabin exhausted but glad everything turned out alright. There was a lot of appreciation from both parents and apologies that we were forced to deal with Hans. I didn’t know how they managed to stay sane with him being in their family.

“I’m glad that monster was your brother. I really thought he was going to eat us.” I commented after we got back to the cabin. My heart hadn’t slowed down yet.

“Oh, he would have still eaten you even if he knew you guys were trying to help look for Casper.” The main in the suit who introduced himself as Tooley admitted.

That wasn’t comforting in the slightest. I needed to remind myself to never take a job delivering to them if I could help it. I felt bad for dragging my co-worker into this, even if he tried to eat me. It would be nice to have one job where I nearly didn’t die on.

“Why are you two here though? I'm glad you helped out and everything but I don’t remember ordering any sort of mail.” Tooley commented.

We both shrugged. We never checked who the packages were sent by. In fact, I rarely found out why the mail was being delivered. This bothered me because I’ve seen a few odd boxes I’ve really wanted to know the reason behind them.

“Casper’s first birthday is coming up. I bet the packages are gifts for him.” Hans added in helpfully from the woods.

He wasn’t allowed to get any closer to the traumatized mailmen after what he’d done. That information sank in and if Tooley could get paler, he did. He quickly rushed into the cabin saying he needed to make some phone calls. I was clued in he had a very big family. If they all sent gifts, the cabin would be buried under them.

Hans did say Casper wasn’t even one yet, but he looked much older. If he wasn’t human that made sense. I could tell Alty was a bit salty after what happened. But we both got over it when Casper came over to ask to give us hugs as a thank-you for delivering his presents. He was a very good kid that even broke through my co-worker's gloomy personality.

We left to go back to the office dirty and worn out from what should have been an easy job. At least I think I made some friends. But also had some new nightmare fuel for when I tried to sleep that night.

Since we got back late, the receptionist was just getting done her shift. She was glad that we made it back alive. If we didn’t, she would have needed to stay and fill out some paperwork. After we reported what happened she wrote down some notes and got up from behind the table. To my utter shock, she pulled off her uniform shirt, and in another second her skirt dropped. She wore a tank top and a pair of very tiny glittery shorts under her uniform.

“There is a big party with our department tonight. I was worried I might be late. Do you want to come along?” She offered as she fixed her bright pink hair.

On cue, the door to the Zero room opened. Another cute cat girl peeked inside, her hair light pink. She waved at us and I hear voices coming from the doorway. Outside was a gaggle of girls, all with cute tails and ears and different hair colors. I assumed they were all the other receptionists that got off at the same time. I noticed some cat boys as well that blended into the crowd of girls. Each one of them dressed ready for a party. I needed to pull my eyes away from the blinding hair colors and glittering outfits.

“You... want us to go partying with you?” I asked, sweat starting at the base of my neck.

“I was mostly talking to you, but the vampire could come as well. We find humans are great to hook up with after a party. They treat our kind pretty well.” She commented not embarrassed over what she just offered.

My heart would not stop beating and my face flushed. She just offered me to hook up with possibly more than one really cute girl that night. A few of them encouraged the offer from the doorway making my head swim. My phone buzzed in my pocket. On reflex, I checked the message. Sunny was asking when I might be home. He was making his special garlic bread and it would be done in ten minutes.

Garlic bread or a literal harem of cat girls. The answer was pretty obvious.

“I need to get home. But you should take Alty with you. He’s a good guy if you just boost his confidence a little.” I replied.

The vampire looked over at me, shock clear on his face. The receptionist didn’t give him a chance to refuse. She took him by the arm to drag him towards the door. He mouthed a silent thank you as they walked away. I bet a lot of people would be mad at me for refusing the offer. But they’ve never tried Sunny’s garlic bread and it did not taste the same after it got cold. It needed to be fresh from the oven.

“Call us! The offer still stands at a different time!” She called back and dragged Alty into the hoard. For once, he looked pretty happy.

I waved at them oddly feeling alright with my choice. I headed home finding after such a rough delivery job that a good meal really helped take care of any lingering regrets.