Scorpio just stood there unsure of what to do. What was he doing here? Should she wake him?
She looked back down at the thing in the glass box, somehow it looked as if it was looking from her to the old man. She squinted a the thing and took a small step towards the old man. The thing tapped twice on the glass with its right front leg.
She paused. Has it really done that? She took another small step towards the man and once again the thing raised its right front leg and tapped it on the glass, louder this time.
Suddenly the thing span to face away from Scorpio, she followed its gaze to a clock high on the wall, she quickly looked back to the thing. Surely not, she thought, and turned her attention back to the clock. It was twenty seconds until six o'clock in the morning.
The thing started bobbing its body in time with the ticking of the clock.
It hit six o'clock exactly and the thing turned towards Scorpio, bared its fangs and gave a shriek.
The old man gave a start, sniffing and snorting and grumbling he heaved himself onto his feet the blanket falling to the floor. He stepped over it and shuffled over to the glass box. He coughed, “thank you, mate.” He flicked a switch and something fell into the box, a small, still rat like creature.
Then the man turned, looked Scorpio directly in the eye, sniggered and shuffled out the room. Scorpio didn't know what to do, she opened her mouth and then shut it. She looked back to the thing, it seemed to shrug at her, stooped, picked up its rat like creature and scampered back through the hole in the wall. Scorpio crouched to try and see where the tunnel in the wall went, then ducked out of the room after the old man. She found the thing, with its treat, in a different glass box in the bedroom. The old man was nowhere to be seen. She peeped through to the main room and found the old man sat on one of the two chairs. He was looking over his shoulder at her. Scorpio looked to the glass boxes and noticed that one of the things had a rat like thing in its fangs.
She sat down, was that thing the same one? What was it, his pet or something?
“That,” the old man croaked, “is Monty. He's kind of my accomplice.”
Scorpio opened her mouth to answer the man but then once again closed it.
“I assume you have a lot of questions.” The old man continued reaching under the table for something. Scorpio instantly went for her pistol, she had left her backpack and weapon in the cramped hallway. The man brought his hand back up and put the newspaper, flat out on the table. He opened to the second page. He looked up and raised his bushy eyebrows at Scorpio, “I assumed you would have question.”
Scorpio opened her mouth for the third time. “I... who... what... you keep?” Scorpio was lost.
The old man chuckled, “If you want the five w's then I'll tell you.” He licked his fore finger and flipped over the page, scouring the pages from top to bottom his eyes only inches from the paper. “Who: his name is Monty, I am...” his eyes glazed over, “oh, what was it again? Andrew? I think it was Andrew. What: this is my house, that is an arachnid and I am a human. Where: that's a little more complicated, I'm home, and you're not.”
Scorpio rolled her eyes, “no shit.”
“No one has visited me in forty odd years. This moon is my home, no else lives here.” He squinted a little at Scorpio. “No one. As for when, I have no idea, I have no way of keeping track of the date, only the time.”
The man twisted his head a little and examined Scorpio, then gave up and went back to reading his newspaper, flipping the page.
Scorpio looked away and back to the man, “is that it?”
