“I’m not going back.”
“There is nothing in there; you're just imagining things.”
“You know what? I’m not doing this anymore. I QUIT!”
Oliver watches the altercation as he arrives at the scrapyard. He approaches the elderly man who stands defeated in front of the junkyard entrance and asks him, “What was that about?”
The man looks at him with a hint of annoyance. “That was the third employee this month to quit on me, is what that was. They are convinced there is something in there, something that brushes past them or that they hear growling around them. Weaklings all of them the growling is just machinery and they just brushed their leg on some scrap i tell you.” oliver lets the man rant but to him it sounds like something more is at play here. the man calms down enough to ask oliver “so what can i help you with, need to dump something? Oliver gestures at the truck. “Yes, a fridge and a wheelbarrow, but if you want, I can take a look around. I have some experience with the anomalous.”
The elderly man looks at him with distrust but doesn't stop him and gestures for Oliver to enter.
Walking around the scrapyard, he can feel the anomaly. The man walking with him seems a little itchy but mostly fine. He follows the feeling; the almost electric tingle on his skull pulls him towards the administration building. The feeling is something a few of his family members can distinguis normal items from anomalies by sight they claim it looks like either heatwaves or a pulsing energy coming from the item, he however can feel where the items are as the tingle on his skull gets stronger and stronger the closer he gets to the anomalie and vanishes the moment he touches it, this is good for large anomalies but when you have to look through a drawer with hundreds of items in he will have to take it slow or risk having to start over again, while his way of detecting anomalies is uncommon he has some family and friends in the european anomalie hunter family with rare ways of detecting them two of his cousins can hear anomalies and claim its an annoying buzzing sound while his european friend can smell them and he wishes he couldn’t as most of the ones he has found smelled awful.
Oliver approaches the administration building and looks around. It is pulling him towards the back of the building. He goes to walk around the building and notices tracks coming from behind it. He looks at the junkyard owner and asks, ” Do you have a dog here?”
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The owner answers, “Not in some years. We had a guard dog once, but he was too nice and became the mascot.” he points at the sign above the administration building depicting a very happy pitbull.
Oliver runs his finger through the paw prints that have been left in the dirt and brings them up, revealing a slightly slimy translucent liquid. While he wipes it off on his pants, he asks the owner, “Do you still have some of his things, maybe a ball or a bed?” The owner tells Oliver, “his old doghouse is still behind the building. Why?”
Oliver goes behind the administration building, finding an old, fading dog house. As he approaches it, he hears the growling, but it's not directed at him but at a bird that sits on top of the fence. As Oliver shooed the bird away, the growling stopped. The owner behind him with a confused look. “So a growling pigeon scared away my workers? You can't be serious.”
Oliver places a hand on the doghouse, and the tingling stops. He turns to the owner and tells him “not quite, was there something your old dog hated.” the owner tries to figure it out and says “he hated birds.” with that, it clicked and Oliver pats the doghouse “Your dog may have died, but he still stayed with you. You might have stopped using a particularly loud machine, one that scared birds away.”
“So, you're telling me that my dog is haunting us? The owner asks with wide eyes.
Oliver answers, “It's not really haunting. he didn’t want to scare your workers away; he was protecting you from what he thought was a threat, the birds.”
“Alright then, now what? Do I tell my workers that it's alright to come back it was just my gost dog fighting birds.”
Oliver tells the owner “Well, you see, the doghouse is the thing that binds him to the place; the dog's soul inhabits the doghouse, so if you would let me, I could get rid of the side effect the one that is making you feel itchy, i also remember writing down the rune to turn invisible spirits visible.”
It seems to dawn on the owner that he could have his dog back. “Do it. I'll give you whatever you want, just please, I want to see him again.”
Oliver was going to do it to let him dump there for free, but he might as well get something more out of it. “Alright then, how about tomorrow you get some of your remaining workers and a large dumpster and help me remove the old furniture from my house. then you can bring your dog back when you return.” Oliver holds out his hand while offering the deal.
The owner doesn't hesitate, as Oliver only asks for help removing some furniture. He grabs Oliver's hand and nearly shouts, “Deal!”