The New World: Afterlife

Chapter 2

A few days had passed since the two became fiancés and Jim was back to doing what he normally did, selling paintings. He worked from home mostly in his own office that family members would wander into for no reason sometimes. There were some cats in the room with him, specifically the tall black oriental shorthair, who he named 'Dexter', and Turg's cat, Noisy. Noisy couldn't walk with his back legs so Jim built him a wheelchair of sorts so he could still move around. Noisy was also an orange and white cat who liked to make a lot of noise. He didn't mind the cats visiting him, they rarely caused chaos while the kids did. There were a lot of fragile things in that room, so he was trusting the cats to not break them. The kids have names but Jim calls them Knit Girl, Knit Boy and Knit Woman. While working Dexter started meowing at him, his meow was a lot deeper than most cats. Jim stopped to look down at him and asked "What do you want?"
Dexter did not respond, he only looked back up at Jim. Dexter was incapable of speaking human languages for he was a cat. He then meowed at Jim again as Jim asked him again "Is it dinner time?"
Dexter meowed again and Jim agreed, he was pretty much done for the day. He told Dexter "Alright, let's get you fed." 
Dexter and Noisy then waited for Jim by the door while he put away a few things. Once he was out and making his way down to the kitchen more cats started following him while meowing at him. He had his own little cat army that would follow him around, mainly when they wanted to be fed though. Jim thought about maybe training them, but he didn't feel like learning how to train cats, if such a thing was possible with former stray cats. There were seven of them that lived in the house and several more who lived outside. Eventually he made it to the kitchen, which was connected to the living room where Emilee and the kids were. While Jim was trying to feed the cats some of them started climbing up him, their claws kinda hurt. The kids laughed at him as Jim placed them back down on the floor while telling them "Quit climbing me, it hurts."
"To them you are just a living cat tower." Emilee said from across the room. She was sitting by the fireplace in her rocking chair with the kids all playing around her. Emilee was one of Jim's friends who became part of his found family, a former co-worker from his old job back when he still lived in that cursed town. She was a black woman with dark brown hair tied up in a bun and wore an oversized yellow wool sweater and dark grey sweatpants. She also had oval rim glasses like Jim's. Once Jim was done feeding the cats he went over to them and asked "Where's Turg? Normally by now he'd also be climbing on me."
"Oh, he went out with Grim and Default a few hours ago." Emilee replied as one of the kids started lightly punching Jim's leg. It was Xander, or Knit Boy as Jim would call him. They were triplets, but weren't identical. The triplets were mixed race with a lighter skin tone from their mother, except Xander for he was paler compared to them. They all had different hairstyles and clothing styles. Their real names were Jen, Xander and Theo. Jim kneeled down to be on his eye level and asked "What was that for?"
"I don't know." Xander replied before running back to the others. Jim remained knelt down as he responded to Emilee "Huh, normally Turg would've invited me, guess he wants to spend more time with Grim and Default."
"Might be looking for a ring for you, since your wedding is soon." Emilee mentioned. That was true, but it was three months from then. Jim then asked "What about Fang and his partner?"
"In their room still most likely." Emilee answered. Fang and Alison did like to disappear for hours, but Jim didn't mind, he would rather them play video games all day than go out causing trouble. Fang was his adopted teenaged son and Alison was his girlfriend who moved in with them. She was the daughter of Jim's previous enemy, Spencer Smithson. 
"So, long day?" Emilee asked Jim, attempting to start a conversation. 
"I guess, I do prefer working from here still. I hate dealing with the general population." Jim responded as Emilee said "If only they knew who you really are."
Some people knew, some people didn't. Sure, Smithson was a very cruel person but he did clear Jim's criminal record and Jim intended to keep it clear. Jim knew that Emilee was avoiding saying 'mass murderer' or 'serial killer' so the kids don't start telling other people. 
"What have you been up to all day?" Jim asked Emilee as she answered "Just been making sure the kids don't hurt themselves or each other."
"So you have been busy I see." Jim then said as the cats started making their way back over to him. All seven of them. Emilee laughed and told him "Y'know, I can always tell when you leave a room in this house because all the cats suddenly stop what they're doing to go to you." 
As the cats swarmed him Jim responded with "Yeah, never knew why they like me specifically. Cats have always liked me for some reason." 
"Maybe they can sense you are evil or something." Emilee suggested before then saying "Or maybe it's because you're the one who feeds them." 
"Likely the second one." Jim said as he tried to push away the cats, but they were determined to all be on him. It couldn't be because he was evil, Jim didn't consider himself to be evil anymore but maybe he still was deep down. Jim then laid down on the floor as the kids also started to swarm him and he just let it happen, he was defeated. Eventually they got off of him and Jim saw Turg staring down at him.
"Oh, hey Turg, I see you're back." Jim said as Turg lifted him back onto his feet for him. He then said "You didn't need to do that but okay."
"Turg have something for Jim." Turg told Jim as he gave him the 'wait here' hand signal before running off again. Jim saw that Grim and Default were now in the room too, Grim wasn't in human form however, they were appearing like a Reaper. The kids used to be afraid of them but not anymore. Default was an average white woman with brown hair that went down to her shoulders. Average height, weight, everything. She was neutral on everything and had no strong feelings toward anything or anyone. She wore a white dress shirt with dark coloured jeans too. Default went over to Jim and gave him an envelope that only had his address and name on it while telling him "This was in the mail for you."
As Jim took the envelope Turg returned and threw something at Jim, something large yet soft. Jim looked to see what it was, it was a giant blue and white shark plush. Jim picked it up as Grim told him "Turg kept insisting we get that for you."
Jim held it close with one arm, it was just over half the length of him. He loved it but didn't want to express it too much. He told Turg "Thanks for the shark, Turg."
While still pretty much cuddling the plush shark with one arm, Jim sat down on the couch and said to himself "Now I wonder who's sending me a letter these days." 
Turg sat down next to him but didn't say anything while Grim stood, or floated slightly off the ground more like, behind them. Jim opened the envelop and pulled out some kind of letter hand-written with ink. It read;
"Dear Mr. Jim Pickens,
I am writing to you on behalf of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle, Leehoimen, and his estate as you must already know he perished in that horrible windmill accident."
"Huh, you'd think I would've heard about that." Jim thought to himself as he read the letter.
"He has left to you his beloved country manor on one condition that you stay there for one entire week."
The letter then gave the address to the manor in some town called 'Fecktopia'. 
"What it say?" Turg asked as Jim finished reading it. 
"Apparently I've inherited a manor from a dead relative I didn't know existed." Jim answered as Emilee said "Doesn't sound real to me."
"Does it have a return address?" Grim asked Jim. There wasn't one at all, not even a signature from anyone, only the address to the manor and the mention of his alleged many-greats uncle, Leehoimen. Jim answered Grim with "No, just an address to this manor."
Jim then pulled out his phone to look up the address to see if it was a real place. It was a real place, it looked nice too and was in a town that was a 7 hour drive north of them. 
"This is a real place, but I'm still suspicious." Jim said as he then tried looking up this relative of his. Only things that came up were articles saying that he died, so that confirmed this relative's death. Though each one had a different date, which Jim thought was a bit weird. 
"Still sounds like a trap. Remember, there are people out there who want to see your name on a tombstone." Grim said as Jim responded "Yeah, I know." 
"It's most likely not worth your time." Emilee said in agreement with Grim. 
"Yeah, besides I'm too busy scamming dumb rich people online." Jim said in a rather joking manner. Grim asked him "You're doing what?"
"I managed to convince people that some dumb jpeg is worth thousands and that if they buy it, its value will increase and they can resell it. Idiots never figured out they can just save it for free and it has no value." Jim explained to Grim as everyone just looked at Jim in silence. 
"What? I never said I would stop being a scam artist. It's much easier to get away with." Jim then said to break the sudden silence. There was more silence before Jim said again "In my defence, if they were dumb enough to fall for this they were going to lose their money anyways." 
"Jim silly." Was Turg's only input as Emilee asked Jim "So, are you going to check out this manor or not?"
"No, I am not motivated to." Jim answered, though part of him really wanted to. He was enticed by receiving property for free, possibly. Maybe he would go check it out briefly and not stay for long just to see if it's a trick or not.