Salem hadn’t given it much thought while choosing teams, but as he approached the staircase with Craig, he noticed that the steps were actually taller than the guinea pig, at least when he was on all four legs. If he were a cat, the jump would be no problem, but Salem wasn’t convinced that the rotund rodent could effectively ascend the staircase without help.
Of course, he couldn’t ask as much. That would be rude.
Craig wasn’t so worried about the stairs, since he’d had plenty of practice sneaking up and down them at his own home. What he was afraid of was the prospect of encountering one of these so called Greebles. Unlike cats and dogs, who were originally domesticated as human companions, guinea pigs were originally raised as livestock and didn’t become companion animals until a few hundred years ago. Most of Craig’s kind still holds a grudge about that, so guinea pigs were a rather late entry into the Pact of Pets, and Hunting doesn’t quite run in their blood like some of the other species involved.
With a dozen deft bounds and one final bounce, Craig ascended the steps with ease. Salem stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment, stunned by the skillful display, but Craig didn’t notice. He was busy trying to talk himself down: I have to help, he thought. I have to stay because Sarah needs me. I can’t leave because The Invocation binds me. Leaving now could doom this entire Hunt, my own life, and the possibly entire world. The humans need me.
Salem slinked upstairs and slowly nuzzled Craig, who was standing at the top of the landing, staring at a corner. Salem didn’t know how to read a guinea pig’s expressions, so he asked, “Did you find something in the corner? I don’t see anything.”
“Oh, no,” responded Craig, despondent. He shook his head, trying to snap out of his anxiety spiral. “Sorry, I’m just… I’m scared, Salem. You cats are trained for this Hunting stuff ever since you’re kittens. And dogs are taught starting as puppies. I didn’t even hear about The Pact until last year, and that was just in passing. I didn’t get the full story until last night, and now I’m trying to Hunt one of these horrible things?”
Salem rubbed his head against Craig affectionately. He wasn’t sure if Craig understood that he was trying to calm him down, but the motion always seemed to help Sarah feel better. “I know it’s a lot to ask from you, Craig,” Salem answered. “It’s a lot to ask from anyone. And you have no idea how much I appreciate you being here to help us. I don’t expect you to fight the Greeble – leave that to the rest of us. If something comes through the Gate, you can just run.”
“But… what if something goes wrong?” Craig squeaked. “What if you can’t defeat it?”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. We’ve got Cricket with us tonight. She’s Hunted hundreds of Greebles all over the city. I’m sure this is nothing she can’t handle.” Salem flicked his tail back and forth confidently, trying to appear as reassuring as possible.
Craig wasn’t entirely convinced, but he did feel better knowing he wasn’t expected to fight. He didn’t think he’d make much of a difference in battle anyway.
“Let’s start searching the rooms,” Salem suggested. “If you give yourself something to do, you’ll spend less time worrying.”
The two of them started with Sarah’s office. Craig’s usefulness immediately became apparent, as he was able to squeeze through small cracks and squeeze behind furniture much more easily than Salem was able to. They quickly established a system where Salem would check up high and Craig would search down low. Within minutes, they cleared the office with no indication of any Signs.
Next, they searched the bathroom, where Craig spotted something suspicious in a trash can: an unnatural-looking, tangled mass of thin material, wadded up like a nest and discarded. He pulled it out of the trash can and put it on the floor to examine it with the help of his feline friend. Salem recognized the object, though he wasn’t positive about it’s purpose. He explained that Sarah would sometimes leave one of these behind when she was grooming herself, speculating that it might be something akin to a hairball. Regardless, she’d been leaving them around the house for much longer than just the past week, so he didn’t think it was related to the current problem.
The last room upstairs was Sarah’s bedroom. Considering that they hadn’t seen any clues anywhere else, Salem was growing increasingly nervous about what they might find there. Once again, Craig took the low ground while Salem hopped up on the bed and started checking out the upper surfaces in the room. They searched for about a minute before Salem noticed that Craig had that same far off look in his eye as he did earlier, but instead of staring into a corner, he was standing in front of the nightstand, staring up.
Salem hopped down off the bed, causing Sarah to roll over. He froze, worried that he may have mistakenly awakened her, but after she finished adjusting her blankets, the deep breathing continued. He headbutted Craig and said, “Hey, what’s going on, buddy? Are you still nervous?”
Craig abruptly wrenched his body to the right and faced Salem, his eyes wide. “You mean… you don’t see it?”
Salem looked where Craig was looking, but all he saw was a vase full of flowers. “Oh, those things? Humans call those flowers. She got a vase of them on the day of her promotion. Apparently I’m ‘not allowed to eat them,’ but they just look sooo tasty. And she just lets them sit there! Not even snacking on them herself. Humans are so weird sometimes.”
“No, Salem, I know what flowers are!” Craig replied in his harshest whisper. “You’re telling me that you can’t see that glowing symbol on the front?”
Salem tilted his head, confused. “No? I mean, I see a symbol, but it’s not glowing. You mean the wonky star with the circle around it and the eyeball in the middle? Lots of little squiggles inside?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. And you can’t see the glow?”
“No. It looks like it’s just painted on.” Salem stared hard at it for a few seconds, waiting for the glow to reveal itself, but nothing appeared to him. “What do you think that means?”
Craig kept his eyes locked on Salem. It was difficult to ignore the dim, bluish-green light emanating from his right side, but he didn’t want to look back at it. He didn’t like the way it made him feel. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. It felt like… It almost felt like it was sucking me in when I looked at it. I wanted to say something, to tell you I’d found it, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even think until you pushed me and broke my line of vision.”
“Huh. Well I’m not sure what to make of that. It’s not one of The Signs listed in The Covenant, but it’s definitely suspicious. Let’s go downstairs and see if Cricket or Mittens have heard of anything like it.”
Craig scurried out of the room as fast as he could. Salem lingered a little longer and glanced back at the vase one last time before exiting the room, hoping to trick the light into revealing itself, but he just saw a normal vase. He took a final look at Sarah, crossed through the hallway, and descended the stairs.