𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 • anthony lockwood

24. sense of normality

chapter twenty-four,
sense of normality.

THERE IS SOMETHING SO THERAPEUTIC ABOUT THE IDEAL SENSE OF NORMALITY. For a brief moment in time, when there's no evidence of the supernatural world around them and the bustling agents are out of sight. When the only worry on Sophie's mind is if the shade of green she got was the right colour for the dress she picked, she could pretend that this is the life she should've had. For a brief moment in time, Sophie could be a teenage girl and not just some agent who's risking her life most nights to make a living.

But that facade can only last so long when the cold sense of reality is around every corner. Though in reality when Sophie passes the all too familiar Rotwell team walking along the street on their route back home, she shouldn't be as shocked as she was when she noticed that the huddle of teens seemed smaller than usual. Lucy must have noticed it too since she did an obvious double take at the young agent straggling behind her team without her usual partner by her side. 

"Oh God," Lucy mumbled distastefully, her eyes that were previously following the young girl flicked up, narrowing harshly on an approaching figure. Sophie didn't need to turn around to know who it was, the obnoxious voice alone was enough.

"Do you ladies need a hand with those?" Quill Kipps' voice boomed over the quiet street. 

Sophie could feel her shoulders immediately tense up at the sound before she turned around with a sigh. But when she did her eyes skimmed right past the cocky grin on Kipps' face and instead landed on the boy standing sheepishly a few feet away from him. For someone so tall, the way he stood made him look so small. His curly brown hair was a frizzy mess on his head and his anxious eyes were skimming the area around them frantically.

Sophie gestured her head in his direction. "New agent?" The boy in question didn't acknowledge Sophie's query but then again he was standing far away enough to be out of earshot.

"Ah. My shadow?" Kipps' eyes lit up and his grin seemed to grow impossibly wider. "Just teaching him the ropes. He transferred agencies and now he refuses to leave my side."

"He looks," Lucy paused, staring at the agent who was clad out in a freshly ironed Fittes uniform that looked like it hadn't been worn a day in his life. To Sophie, he looked in and around her age but the way he held himself made him appear so much younger than she originally thought. "Lost?"

"It's his first day back on fieldwork," Kipps explained and Sophie wasn't sure if she imagined it but his tone sounded almost gentler. "Surely you two must remember what that's like?" In all honestly she didn't. Sophie's first day was so long ago, she didn't even remember being scared although she must've done. 

She remembered being more nervous about spending the day around the two boys rather than going on their first case together. The three of them just sort of fell into sync that night despite her being a complete stranger in their eyes. Sure the Rawbones they faced wasn't exactly the strongest one she ever had to deal with but it also wasn't exactly the 'smooth sailing type-one'  Lockwood initially thought he picked for her first job as an official member at Lockwood and Co.

And sure Sophie felt a bit jumpy and paranoid during it, granted it wasn't that long since the incident but not once did the boys make her feel like she wasn't allowed to be on edge. Sophie did feel a bit awkward at first from George's blunt comments here and there but that was just George being George and of course, she felt like she was being babied by Lockwood's worrying glances and frequent check-ins but in time Sophie realised it was more to do with Lockwood just being himself than it was with him being anxious about her sensitivity.

But they worked as a team and she felt safe. Not much has changed since.

The blond boy in front of them shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I didn't come over to chat about poor Kit over there."