The next day Vaggie and Charlie were still thinking of what to do about Storm's situation, until Charlie thought of a solution.
"Ground's keeper?" Vaggie asks taking a sip of her coffee.
"Its perfect Storm can stay here, and we have extra help around the hotel," Charlie smiles.
Vaggie's pajamas were a long-sleeved purple top with a pair of black shorts while Charlie wore a red tank top with matching red and white dolphin fin shorts, it's a little after nine, everyone should be getting up soon.
"What do you think?" Charlie asks.
"It's worth a shot," Vaggie says.
The two of them walked upstairs to Storm's room, Charlie gently knocked on his door. It took a few seconds for him to answer, he greeted them with a sleepy glance and messy hair.
He yawns, "Morning."
"Morning Storm, me and Vaggie have been talking and we've wanted to ask you something," Charlie says.
"Can I wake up first?" He asks rubbing his eyes.
"Sure thing," Charlie says.
A few minutes later Storm comes into the kitchen with Fat Nuggets and January in tow,
"So, what did you guys want to ask me?"
"Well, we were thinking, would you be interested in a grounds keeper position here at the Happy Hotel?" Charlie asks.
"Sounds good, but I don't know if I'm a handy man," Storm says.
"That's okay, you don't need experience it's just something to help us out," Charlie says.
"Well in that case, sure I'm in," Storm says.
"Yay!" Charlie cheers.
"Hey, do you guys know if Angel Dust keeps any food for Fat Nuggets laying around anywhere?" He asks.
"I think it's below the sink," Charlie says.
He bent down and found a large food gallon container of 'Cheerios' that red, 'Fat Nuggets breakfast', he also found a food and water bowl which were pink and had the piglet's name scribbled on them.
"Fat Nuggets, breakfast!" Storm called as he poured some cereal and water in his dishes.
Once Fat Nuggets was satisfied, he went to give January her breakfast. He washed her baby bottle and filled it with milk.
"January milky!" He called.
Once she heard those famous words, she happily ran to his side and stared at him with hungry eyes. He picked her up and took a seat at the table.
"Awwww, so cute!" Charlie cooed.
He chuckled, "Would you like to feed her?"
Charlie nodded excitedly, "I'd love to!"
He gently handed the baby snow leopard to the princess,
"Do I just feed her like you would a baby?" Charlie asks.
He nods, "Pretty much, oh and after words make sure you burp her, or else she'll get sick."
Her heart melted, "Okay."
She held January in her right arm while she used to her left hand to bottle feed her, when her little paws gripped the bottle, Charlie nearly died from the cuteness.
"Awww, I can't even," She cooed.
Vaggie couldn't help but smile, "So this is why she's been nibbling on boobs."
He chuckled, "Yeah I found her in a box, and she tried to nurse me, I don't know how long it's been since she's had mama's milk, but it's probably been a while."
"If she's constantly trying to bite everyone, she must be teething as well," Vaggie suggests.
"That too," Storm agrees.
Once January stopped sucking, Charlie placed her over her left shoulder and gently patted her ice crystal back. She patted until a small burp was heard,
Charlie giggled, "Is that yummy for your tummy?"
"So cute!" Nifty coos.
They turned to see, Nifty, Husk and Alastor awake and enjoying the little show displayed in front of them. Nifty's nightwear consisted of a pink satin short sleeved night gown, while Alastor wore a simple red silk pajamas with black slippers and Husk on the other hand didn't wear anything other then his bow tie and hat.
"Morning," Storm greeted.
"Good morning my boy, how did you sleep?" Alastor asks.
He bit his lip, should he tell them about his weird dream from last night?
"Is something wrong?" Alastor asks.
"I'm fine," He lied.
Charlie notices his unsure expression, "Are you sure, did something happen?"
He decided to give in, nothing would get better if he bit his blue tongue,
"Well, I had this weird dream,"
"What was it like?" Charlie asks as she puts January down.
"I was in this house, everything looked so familiar it's like I've been there before, and I saw this photo album of this Korean family, and they had a daughter that looked just like me," Storm explains.
"Is this little girl you?" Vaggie asks.
He shrugs, "I don't know but funny enough that isn't even the weirdest part."
"What's the weirdest part?" Charlie asks.
"I saw them coming home from something, and the girl looked really sad, and I felt her sadness, it was like we were the same person," He explains.
This is interesting, from what Storm's saying, it sounds like he's gaining a childhood memory, and sadly not a good one.
"Why's the little girl sad?" Nifty asks.
"From what I could understand, it must've been some kind of test or something, and the parents seemed like assholes about it, they were grilling her whether or not she answered the questions, or got distracted," he says.
"By any chance instead of a dream, could it be a memory your receiving?" Alastor asks.
Before Storm could answer a loud growling noise came from his stomach,
Charlie giggled, "Sounds like someone's hungry."
He blushed, "Sorry."
"Who wants waffles!?" Charlie smiled.
Alastor chuckles, "No thank you darling, I'll stick to coffee."
"If you say so," Charlie says getting up to make breakfast.
"So, Storm, in addition to my question do you think your so called dream is actually a memory?" Alastor asks.
"I don't know, maybe, or maybe it's my brain waves fucking with me," Storm suggests.
Through Alastor's smile, he felt a little sorry for him, which is rare, but Storm's in such a state of denial it's pathetic, the radio demon couldn't help but feel some sort of sympathy for him.
"That poor frozen boy, one of these days he's going to have to learn the hard way,"
After breakfast and once Storm got dressed, that's when work finally starts. Charlie led him outside to the yard shed. There were lots to pick, ranging from a lawn mower to an axe, the options were endless.
"So, what would you like me to do first?" Storm asks.
Charlie pulls out a sheet of paper from her pocket,
"Here's a list of chores, if you get them done, that'd be great but if not, that's okay too. If you don't know how to work some of the tools, there's an instruction manual on the top shelf."
He glanced up and saw a large red and black book, that must be it,
"Okay thanks Charlie."
"If you need any help just let me know," she says heading back inside.
"Sure thing," he says.
He walks into the shed and looks around to see what he should do,
"Okay, now what?"
He looks at the chore list and at the top it says, 'Mow the lawn,'
"Cool,"
He gets the lawn mower and reads the manual, it looks easy to start up, he pulled the lever a few times and the sound of a loud purr startles him.
"Alright let's do this thing," He grins.
Twenty minutes later Storm's arms were sore and frozen sweat beaded down his body, but at least the lawns finished. He took out the list from his pocket, with a satisfied grin, he ripped the chore off the list.
"What's next?"
He stopped his train of thought when he heard sniffles, he glanced over to the back door and saw Sara, the same little girl from his dream. She wore a pink t-shirt with a cheetah head on the front and a matching pair of pink cheetah print pajama pants, and she looked too be crying, her hair was messy, her eyes were blood shot, and her face was stained with tears. She also looked to be holding a blue stuffed animal of some sort but judging by her expression something terrible must've happened to it.
Storm felt his frozen heart break at the sight, he carefully approached her and crouched down to her level. He smiled as sweetly as he could,
"Hey there, are you okay?"
She held up her blue plushie, "Pup-Pup broke, can you fix them?"
Just as she said those words, he felt another lump form in his throat and tears in the making. He once again felt the same sadness she felt, just like in his dream.
"What happen to Pup-Pup?" He asked.
"Daddy broke them, I didn't pass the test!" She sobbed.
His silver eyes turned misty, what test was she talking about and why did he feel like he knew it? He blinked repeatedly regaining a bit of his sight,
"Don't worry it's just a test, it doesn't matter," He soothed.
The little girl sobbed harder, "No, it was my one chance to make my appa and my eomma happy!"
She wrapped his arms around him for a hug, crack, his frozen heart broke into a million ice shards, his cheeks were streaked with ice cold tears. He hugged her back, he didn't care if he looked strange hugging a random child, but is she really a random child?
"Storm!" Nifty's voice rang.
He looked up and wiped away his frozen tears, "Oh hey, Nifty, what's up?"
She stood there holding January like a baby, and it looks like she's trying to nurse the one-eyed demon for milk, great another victim.
"Well, I'm trying to dust shelves and your fur-baby has been trying to bite me for milk," She states while trying to cover her chest.
He gave a soft chuckle,
"Sorry, been putting her on the bottle so she'll stop,"
"Why are you on the ground?" She asks.
He blinked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"You look like your hugging air," Nifty joked.
"You can't see her?" He asks.
"See who, there's no one there," she says.
Why can't Nifty see her, but Storm can? Is Sara the little girl, a ghost?
He stood up and took January in his arms,
"It must be all the lawn mowing that's messing with my head," he says.
"Were you crying?" She asks noticing his tear-stained face.
He blushes while wiping his face, "It's just allergies is all."
These were casual lies, but how's Storm going to explain to Nifty that he's seeing the little girl from his dream? It's better to tell small white lies then a large confusing truth.
"Are you sure your okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine," He lies.
"Okay then," Nifty says going back inside.
He glanced down to check on the little girl, but she's gone, Storm's left with so many questions with hopes of some type of answers.
"Did you see her January?" He asks.
The snow leopard kitten stared at him with a confused look, he expected that.
"Never mind," He mused.
When he stepped inside to start on his indoor chores, he found Fat Nuggets sitting on the lobby couch bored, looks like the piglet could use a friend.
"Hey buddy, mind if January joins you?"
He placed January on the couch to which she licks his head lovingly, and in return Fat Nuggets smiles.
He smiles, "I guess you miss Angel huh?"
If Fat Nuggets could talk, he'd say 'yeah I do, I wish he'd leave Valentino,'
"Hey, don't worry, I'm still here and January's not going anywhere,"
He then noticed something brown and flat sticking out from behind the check in desk,
"That's weird, I didn't see that when I arrived,"
He got a closer look, and it was a large stack of boxes, he grinned, this gave him an idea.
"Hey guys, I've got something for ya,"
Once the snow leopard cub and the piglet caught sight of the endless supplies of boxes, their little eyes lit up.
"Will this tide you over for a while?"
Just like little kids on Christmas morning, they dived head-first into their presents eager to play with them.
He laughed, "I'll take that as a yes."
Now that the four-legged babies are occupied, Storm could do his work without any trouble, for now at least.
End of chapter 14; It seems that a ghost of Storm's former self is trying to tell him something, what could it be?