Noelle sat in a chair in front of the wooden desk in her dorm room. She nibbled on the end of her pencil, looking at some information on the left side of her English book. Her eyes darted every so often to the right to glance over what she needed to focus on when reviewing the information in the book.

“The work just keeps piling up, and I’m not even halfway through with it,” Noelle groaned loudly, breaking the quiet silence the room offered.

She dropped a new pile of books onto her desk from her brown bag, which had a golden clasp in the front and was leaning against the right wooden leg of the table.

With a slight whine, she slumped forward to place her face onto the brown wooden desk.

“What? Is the Gatekeeper work really that bad, or is it just the college work?” Juliana asked, with curiosity lacing every word that left her mouth.

Juliana's voice stayed at a consistent volume as she approached Noelle’s desk, where Noelle was slumped over from the sheer exhaustion from all the work she had to deal with.

Once Juliana was standing next to Noelle, she reached forward to soothingly rub the back of Noelle’s head in an attempt to comfort her.

Even with Juliana's small gesture of comfort, Noelle didn’t bother to lift her head. She stayed with her face pressed into her book, her dark brown hair sprawling all over the desk like some sort of monster.

Noelle and Juliana were cousins, and the two had been sharing a dorm room since Noelle had first arrived at the college, which Juliana had already been attending for one year.

Unlike Noelle, Juliana didn’t have to worry about monitoring spirits from the spirit world. Juliana could instead solely focus on her college work without any interruptions.

As far as Noelle was concerned, Juliana was living a mostly normal life, a life that Noelle wanted but could never hope of ever reaching since her sole purpose at the moment was being the best Gatekeeper she could be and making the Celestica family proud.

“Both!” Noelle whined weakly as she slowly lifted her face from her desk, causing her messy dark brown locks to fall into her face. “I’m barely managing to get them accomplished! You’re lucky you can just live mostly normal without having to worry about some random spirit trying to cause havoc, which it never does!” Noelle turned her head to look over at Juliana, who was looking forward, peering over Noelle’s shoulder to see the types of books that she’d been reading on her desk.

Without saying another word, Juliana reached forward to place her pointer finger directly in the center of Noelle’s forehead, causing Noelle to blink at the contact.

“You know all that worrying is going to give you wrinkles. Just relax a little and stop worrying so much,” Juliana said with a playfulness lacing her words while her lips curled up into a smile.

Upon hearing Juliana’s words, Noelle pressed her lips together to form a pout. Her light green eyes flashed with a hint of disbelief that her cousin could really ask her to relax when she had so much to do.

“Easy for you to say! You don’t have anywhere near the amount of work I have to do,” Noelle said before resting her cheek against her open palm while her elbow rested against the desk. A gloomy expression consumed her face.

“Maybe I don’t,” Juliana mentioned before she reached forward to push back a couple of dark brown strands of hair that had gathered in front of Noelle’s face. “But just remember that you’re doing an amazing job, and if I were in your shoes, I don’t think I could have the same level of dedication you do. You’re killing it.” Juliana had a beaming, happy smile that had the power to light up an entire room.

A soft chuckle left Noelle’s lips. “Yeah, if it doesn’t kill me first, that is.”

But after a couple of seconds, Noelle felt the corners of her lips curl up into a smile. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Juliana's happy smiles were infectious to the point that it was hard to resist smiling herself.

“Alright, you win. You did end up raising my spirits. Thanks, Juliana,” Noelle said softly while a happy smile formed on her lips to match Juliana’s.

“I really should be going to monitor the gate; I wouldn’t wanna be late,” Noelle said as she scooted backward in her chair. Noelle stood up swiftly and then looked toward Juliana when she saw her cousin pouting at her from the corner of her eyes.

“Aww, leaving so soon? It feels like you just got here,” Juliana said in a soft, whiny tone. Juliana knew more than anyone that Noelle couldn’t waste any more time and had to go to the gate immediately.

“I guess you do have to go, and I promise not to touch any of your stuff while you're gone,” she said with a sly smile that implied she most definitely would end up messing around with Noelle’s stuff since Noelle wouldn't be around to keep an eye on her.

“Hey! No fair! Also, don’t even think about eating any of my candy,” Noelle whined at her cousin before opening the tall wooden door to their dorm room.

Noelle playfully rolled her eyes when she got a half-sincere head nod from Juliana, but she really wasn’t all that surprised after having spent three years as Juliana's roommate.

Noelle left the building and shivered when an icy breeze ran by, gently picking up her hair. She hated days like these. She wasn’t a fan of the cold…or maybe days like these reminded her of the job she hated the most, which was being the Gatekeeper.

She softly shook her head. Gotta stay focused, Noelle. Don’t let your thoughts wander off, she quickly thought to herself as she hurriedly made her way to the gate deep inside the forest.

The house was supposed to be the bridge between the human world and the spirit world. Still, the idea always seemed like a stretch for her, considering the gate looked rather ordinary for being so important.

“I’m home!” Noelle shouted as she opened the door to the house, which didn't have another single soul in it.

Noelle tended to say this to cure her boredom and loneliness, since the only person inside the gate was herself. It wasn’t like monitoring spirits was entertaining, since all the spirits that were allowed to enter the gate and pass through were all good. So, there wasn’t a single chance they would do something terrible, which meant that Noelle was mostly left alone in her thoughts or reading more information inside another book.

The gate was a decently-sized house placed deep within the forest. In the middle was a large rectangular table with a glass surface currently covered with scattered books illuminated by a silver desk lamp.

The room's walls were adorned with tall bookcases holding various spell books. The entrance and exit doors of the house were parallel to each other to represent the fact that the house was the bridge between both worlds.

With a sigh, Noelle used every fiber of her very being to force her body forward to the desk in the room. She needed to read the book on the desk to polish her Gatekeeper skills and monitor the spirits passing through the gate.

But, just as she placed her hand on the chair to push it out, a sound from the exit door of the house caught her attention, causing her to turn her head while her eyes darted toward the direction from which the sound had originated.

A teenage girl with long, blonde hair passed through the exit door as if it didn’t exist. The girl continued taking small steps forward, her gaze unwavering as she headed toward Noelle as if not seeing her at all.

Before long, the girl passed through Noelle, causing a slight shiver to run up her spine and extend to the rest of her body. The girl continued walking forward before she passed through the entrance door, and just like that,completely vanished into thin air.

“Man, I hate it when they do that. Couldn’t they just not pass through me?” Noelle whined quietly before sitting at her desk.

It was a regular occurrence for her, unfortunately. Every time a spirit passed through the gate, it also meant the spirit had to pass through Noelle, which always sent a small shiver up her spine. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

Noelle stayed in the gate until the moon swallowed the sun and the stars scattered across the sky. Unfortunately, when she stepped outside the gate, she was met with a bitter cold gust of wind that sank into her very being. But that wasn’t the worst part.

There wasn’t a single star in sight, and instead, all that was visible were gray clouds filling the sky, keeping the stars as their hostages.

Noelle flinched when she felt a small droplet of cool water drip upon her nose. You gotta be kidding me. Seriously, just my luck, she mentally complained to herself.

She had no other choice but to walk through the rainstorm to reach her dorm. Just as she started to hurry toward the shortest route to the dorm building, the rainfall decided to turn heavy, which caused a small, annoyed sigh to leave her lips.

She tried to move as quickly as possible through the gloomy, dampened streets, wrapping her arms around herself to provide some sort of warmth to her shaking figure. Her clothing stuck to her skin, and the rain continued to chill her.

But as soon as she started to walk by an alleyway, something small moved in the corner of her eye, grabbing her attention.

When she looked to see what it was, she saw a small, black furball that slowly started to get bigger as it moved toward her. For some reason, she couldn’t figure out what it was.

Upon walking closer, Noelle soon realized it was a small black cat that had become completely drenched by the rain, much like herself, and the poor thing was shivering. The cat moved closer, almost as if begging for help. It seemed to have taken shelter in a cardboard box already soaked from the rain.

A small gasp left Noelle’s lips when she noticed the blood smears staining the entrance of the box. When her eyes shifted toward the cat, she realized where the blood had come from. The cat appeared to have a small gash on the back of its leg from which small amounts of blood were spilling out.

“You poor thing,” Noelle said softly as she walked closer and knelt before the cat.

“Hey there, little guy. You shouldn’t be in the rain, but don’t you worry. I’m going to take you somewhere you can warm up. Oh, and even better, I’ll be able to treat your injury,” Noelle said, her lips curving up into a happy smile before she reached forward to gently pet the cat's head.

But as soon as her hand came into contact with the cat’s fur, it shrank into itself in fear, then abruptly sank its canines harshly into Noelle's pointer finger to the point of drawing blood. A hiss of pain emitted from Noelle's throat, and she nearly retracted her hand.

But once the cat realized that no harm was coming, it seemed every muscle in its body relaxed, and it was at that moment that the cat finally released Noelle’s finger. It gently licked off the blood it had drawn, almost as if it were apologizing.

Without hesitation, the cat softly brushed its cheek against Noelle’s hand, letting out a gentle purr that caused its body to vibrate.

“I guess you aren’t used to kindness. Or maybe you’re just cautious. Now, I’m starting to feel silly talking to a cat,” Noelle said softly before she reached forward to gently scoop up the feline in her arms. With that, she continued on her path toward the college dorm building.