“It’s just one little gnome!” Ollie whined. Then his gaze frantically flicked between her, Noble, the elevators, and then back again, before he took off running down the back hall without another word.
“OLLIE, GET YOUR HOARDING ASS BACK HERE!”
Jahla just let out a long, exasperated sigh when she heard him cry out, “LANGUAGE,” from further down the hall.
On being abandoned, Noble stared at Ollie's retreating figure, baffled as his Baby fled rather quickly with the heavy ass gnome, before bursting out laughing.
“Don’t encourage his hoarding!” Jahla snapped.
“I mean, if he has room for it, I fail to see the issue?”
But then, Noble didn’t tend to collect things, so running out of room hadn’t really been a problem for him.
“UGH!” she hissed. “Just get away from me before I throw something!”
Smirking unapologetically, he held his free hand up in defense and hurried past.
Noble found Ollie near the doors of the back stairway looking embarrassed, his freckled face as red as can be, with the heavy wrapped gnome still clutched in his arms. He honestly hadattempted to convince Ollie to let him carry the gnome for him, but the witch had insisted. Noble had to say, despite the weight, the man didn’t seem to be struggling, not even when running away.
“Hi,” Ollie said sheepishly, before rushing to add, “I didn’t mean to leave you behind, but I figured she was less likely to yell at you than me…”
Noble snorted at that, before pulling open one side of the double doors and waving the man inside. “Come on, Baby. Let’s head up. You can show me your other gnomes, and we can get your new one settled with the rest. I am, of course, assuming the rooms are located in your apartment.”
“They are. As for placing it, I suppose that's the best thing we can do until I’m ready to sit down and coat it with a new sealant.” Ollie went through the opening and started up the stairs, before musing, “I mean, I could have used one of the rooms down here. There are a few storage rooms that I could have easily consolidated and whatnot, but like, I don’t want to risk anyone going in and breaking something. Especially, with doors randomly…” Ollie frowned as he trailed off.
“What is it?” he asked with a brow raised.
“The doors on floors two and three tend to close and lock themselves. I was just thinking that maybe it was the ghosts, since I now have two, and who knows if others are hiding.”
Noble clucked his tongue. “Could be? But, to be honest, if it’s a regular occurrence, I’d find it hard to believe it was them, or that they would waste what is likely years of built-up strength just to close and lock a door.”
“I was afraid of that,” Ollie sighed. “It’s been going on every single day for the last seven years, so I suppose it’s likely not them. Well, I, of course, can’t attest to Sunday, as I don’t do walk-arounds that day, but like, every time we open up, there is a locked door that wasn’t locked before.”
As they reached the third floor, heading straight to the door that led to the stairway to his home, Ollie sighed. “Speaking of locked doors, would you mind holding this until we get inside?”
Without a word, Noble carefully took the gnome from the witch’s hold. He held on until they had gotten through both doors at the top, before giving it back.
“So, my gnome rooms are just back here, the doors are actually right next to each other. Though only one room is fully gnome,” Ollie explained as they headed down the hall from the kitchen.
Noble followed Ollie past the doors to his private library, which sat on the left wall. And they ended up walking almost the full length of the very long hallway, before stopping in front of the last two doors to the right, which just so happened to be side by side, followed by an oddly-long, doorless stretch of hallway, covered by paintings, that ended in a dead end.
Opening the door for the man, on stepping inside, Ollie chimed with a giggle, “Tada!”
Noble only took a few steps in before stopping to stare, fearing he’d accidentally knock into something as Ollie flipped on the lights.
The room was large in size, with wooden walls, fake, unevenly-leveled grass covered the floor, along with small fake flowers and plants, creating an almost surreal miniature hilly garden of sorts. Throughout the room, cobblestone paths wove over the small fake hills, and they all seemed to lead to the center, which held a small sitting area with a green plush leather couch and a wooden coffee table. All around the paths, on the grass, were clusters of garden gnomes who appeared to be acting out little scenes, or snippets of life. There had to be at least a hundred of them, yet despite that, the room still felt spacious.
After a moment of staring, Ollie asked, “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty fantastical,” he said with a smile. “Like a little fake private garden full of fun.”
“It’s exactly that!” Ollie beamed. As he worked on removing the paper from around the gnome, he explained, “It used to be a den, but I feel I get more use out of it this way.”
With the gnome in hand, after tossing the paper into a trash bin near the door, the man glanced around the space for a moment before hurrying to a specific area. Ollie carefully placed the gnome down near ones that appeared to be farming.
“Fits well,” he commented.
“It does. To the next room!”
