March 7th, 

I guess I'm just writing this to clear my head a little bit. It's been a weird few days. It started with possibly one of the worst train rides of my life. Well maybe not the worst but it was up there. I had got there around midday, just the avoid the morning and the afternoon rush. Used up a big wad of my cash too. 

Turns out it was packed. Some event on the edge of the city. I didn't really get to find out what it was about, since most of the time I was just trying not to bump into people. Some dude tried to be a little handsy after I came out of the bathroom but I'm lucky he just grabbed my shirt. The look on his face though was almost worse than the experience, honestly. It was so crowded I still had to sit down next to him.

As soon as I got off that fucking death trap of a train I just sat in a bathroom stall and panicked for a good half an hour. I did manage to charge my phone on the train though, which would be good if I had anyone to call. I probably could've called Captain, but it's annoying. I probably shouldn't, he had kids of his own.

Either way I didn't have enough time past that because a fucking arrow shot through the stall door and embedded itself in the wall. It didn't seem like it punctured anything, so I guessed it was just another one of the many weird things I have to deal with. It had something attached to it, some sort of piece of paper with CONTRACT written on it.

I had time to read through it, and honestly it sounded better than sleeping on the floor outside of Walmart again. I mean I still ended up having to do that, since once I'd signed it nothing weird happened. Kept the note, though, since I could use it for journal paper. Or art maybe. I should start drawing again.

March 8th,

The actual weird shit happened when I fell asleep. I usually get woken up by some worker shooing me off the bench, but instead I woke up in a bus. It kinda smelled like pork. It was nowhere near as packed as the train, which was good, but I immediately spotted two - no wait three - people in front of me. One of them was some sort of fancy, with like a blue suit on but his hair looked like it was full of lint. The other two were dressed as plumbers, though the one on the right was looking way less up there mentally than the first. And he wouldn't stop staring at me. It was so intense and then the suit guy turned around and started walking up to me and I knew I would not be able to get out that bus while it was moving and I really didn't wanna kill any of them. 

Thankfully the blue suit dude was nice. His name's Bryce Flannigan and he's a lawyer. 7th best in the country, according the plumber - Louie - though he didn't seem like he liked him pointing it out. The staring guy was actually pretty nice. Or neutral, I couldn't tell. He was also called Louie, so I think they're brothers. 

Oh yeah, the contract. We got off the pork bus and ended up in the Palo Alto School District. Apparently we were supposed to be guarding this rich admin's nephew, Shawn McGee. He was like my age, maybe a bit older. Didn't talk a lot, which I thought was fine. He was having a Halloween party in March though, but I guess that ended up being the least weird thing going on that day.

We got to the Halloween store and I bought a ghost costume. It was fucking expensive and I don't know why I did it but I didn't want to be the one without a costume. I kinda wish I was a ghost. Not to be dead but just so I wouldn't have to worry about people touching me. Bryce dressed up as a fish, LC as a pumpkin dude and LG as a plumber. A scary plumber, as he said.

We got to this party a bit later, and Shawn told us to kinda stay by the edges and not interrupt. I was fine with that. Mostly cause that's what I do at parties anyway. I mean what I would do if I got invited to any. I probably wouldn't go actually, nevermind. I checked out the upstairs which was thankfully empty, and found a bunch of black candles. A bit weird and witchy, but I guess at the time it seemed like that would be normal for a Halloween party. I spent the rest of the ten minutes before the party hiding in the bathroom.

The Louies and Bryce came up eventually to look, and LG found a bunch of those candles in the toilet. I didn't see them when I came in because obviously I didn't. It was weird, and kinda raised a few suspicions but we didn't really have much time to contemplate it before more people started arriving. It was all normal, people doing costumes and socialising as you'd expect. I went outside when I saw some people coming up the stairs to head into the bathroom.

A good idea, because I'm pretty sure they're a couple and I did not want to listen to them making out. There were people smoking outside, a guy dressed as Dracula and a girl dressed as Van Helsing. I mostly chilled out there until Shawn started counting down to midnight. More people were coming outside, so I headed back upstairs to chill outside the bathroom and panic a little bit. Bryce wanted to come up with me but I said I wanted to be alone. It was tempting though because he was dressed as a funny fish. 

As the countdown ended, it got really fucking weird. Everyone started turning into their costumes. Or at least that's what I found out happened. I turned into a ghost, which was honestly a huge relief. I couldn't touch anything, so for the brief window I was transformed it was like I was floating. Well I was floating but that was besides the point.

Oh yeah, and the couple in the bathroom were Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Not getting into how that couple's costume is a little weird, he'd turned into an actual werewolf. I got into the bathroom and told the girl to leave before managing to knock a cupboard over in front of the door to lock him in. It was honestly really cool to knock shit over, but I for sure floated aroind a bunch of his stuff just by floating past it.

After that I went outside to see Dracula and Van Helsing grappling on the floor. I used spooky ghost powers to knock Dracula away, who started getting enthralled by Louie G. Guess vampires like scary plumbers. Van Helsing thought I was a monster and tried to attack be, but it just passed though. Ghost. I was really disappointed to soon see that the spell wore off, falling and scuffing me knee a little bit. And now able to touch stuff. Great.

Bryce let me ride on his horse back. His horse was a little weird looking, but it seemed not to mind touching me through the saddle. It was a little bumpy not holding onto Bryce on the way back, but heading into the city on horseback was still fine. After telling him I could just go back to the parking lot to sleep, he convinced me to stay at his place on his couch. It was comfy. He's nice. He knows Captain too, at least for work, so maybe he could help us two get in touch.

Didn't kill anyone either, so that's always a plus. 

March 19th

I've been staying with Bryce ever since we met eachother at that party, for that contract we did together. It's been...fun, maybe? It's kind of nice having someone around, but I think he's gonna kick me out soon. I mean, I don't contribute to rent or anything, and I'm just eating all of his food. He says it's fine that I'm staying but I know he just feels sorry for me. He wouldn't if he knew who he was standing next to all the time. I hadn't told him about my thing for a good few days, and I would've kept it that way. 

He dumped me on one of his coworkers, a detective called Frazier O'Neal. He's going out for work, and I guess it's better than sitting in his house all day. Scratch that, it's not. Frazier's intense, but he took me out for burgers. I don't know if he's all there up there, but I guess that makes two of us. Oh, and when I say burgers I mean we must've gone through 4 or 5 in the span of 20 minutes, and I had to leave a few in my bag just because we got so many. I was pretty hungry, but he seemed to have a bottomless pit in his stomach. Saw some ants on him, but I like ants so that was fine.

After that we went to Central Park for the actual thing he was supposed to be doing for Bryce, some attack on a guy by trees. I thought it was crazy at first, but when Frazier fell out of a tree and it started moving it was proven right. Frazier managed to dodge them for long enough and then...turn into soup, and knock them out. I mean I shouldn't be surprised, in all honesty. After turning back, he handcuffed them and poured some gas all over them. A little mean if you ask me, but I'm not the detective. Apparently he's close to Captain, so if that's the company he keeps he might not be so...nevermind, not even gonna write that down.

After all of that, Frazier said he was hungry again so we went to get more burgers. Bryce and another guy appeared on Watercress (Bryce's horse), and disappeared with the trees. They came back a little later and the trees turned back to normal, but I still got to say hi. I mean they saw me and I couldn't exactly run away like Frazier did. 

The new guy was Dr Edward Graves...and he's pretty great. I accidentally touched him and almost shit myself but he WASN'T ACTUALLY BOTHERED BY IT! It was so crazy and I was really surprised and then I HUGGED him. Really embarrassing, humiliated myself most likely. But he's fine, no one died. I did have to tell them why I reacted so much, so I guess two more people know my secret now. I let Bryce feel it through clothing and instantly regretted it. He looked so disgusted I had to try not to cry and throw up. 

After that whole thing, thank god, we went over to Ed's house and he made some goatwater. It's some popular dish from his home country but it's really good! I think I made Bryce feel bad about his food though so that made me want to die. Ed gave me a check up, too. Apparently I'm not eating enough, which I guess I already knew. 

March 23rd

Hey again. This is gonna be a short one but I just had to tell someone so I'm telling the journal. Today's my birthday, so I guess I'm 16 now! A lot of stuff to deal with, and I don't feel much older, but that's all expected. I didn't tell Bryce, but I couldn't really since he lost a case yesterday so now he's...busy.

I left after I found him drinking in the bathroom. I know he's not Don. I know that. He's not gonna yell or throw anything or hit me. But it's still hard to shake, I think. I left after he did, so now I'm sitting in a parking lot crying. I feel fucking pathetic.

I ate the pasta Bryce left. 

Happy Birthday Cassie. 

March 24th

I was a mess last night, but I got home and Bryce seems to be doing okay. Came home and saw him half naked in the kitchen doing a puzzle with some other guy. Eli, I think his name was. When he came down in the morning he recorded a 'special' message for Bryce, and told me not to listen to it. I didn't. Bryce seemed sad this morning, but that could be the hangover.

I'm not gonna tell him about last night. Or the fact he missed by birthday at all. It's fine, I'm just overreacting. I didn't even tell him how old I am, come to think of it. If he asks I don't want to lie though. Would he feel bad? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't wanna risk it.