by Andrew Peed
“Yeah, I’m in the market for a job,” Waylon said, walking up to the counter. He was tired and didn’t have the energy for beating around the bush.
“Many people look for jobs. Why did you stop in my store?” The man dropped the power supply onto the counter.
“I’ve been all over the city looking for tech work.” Waylon sighed. “I’m good. I’ve got a record a mile long that will show you what I’m capable of.”
“Then why has no one hired you?” the man asked.
“I pissed off a man named Mr. Hicks at my last job. I messed up one time, and he’s blacklisting me at every other firm in the city,” Waylon said as he crossed his arms.
The man leaned back and crossed his own arms over his chest as well. He looked at Waylon and didn’t say a word. Waylon thought he looked a little out of it, like he had been smoking something or drinking.
“Well?” Waylon said, putting his hands into his pockets.
“I like you, boy. You are honest. Come back to my office. We’ll have a chat,” the man said, lifting a section of the counter so that Waylon could cross into the back.
They walked through a small hallway into a back office. There were a dozen computer screens all running some kind of program. From the few glimpses that he saw, Waylon was sure that it was a skimming program. Was this old man stealing money?
“What is your name, boy?” the man asked, offering him a stiff wooden chair. He sat down in an old chair in front of the computers, grabbed up a bottle of vodka, and took a swig. He offered the bottle to Waylon, but he politely declined.
“Waylon.”
“Waylon, my name is Ivan. I’ve been running this computer store for many years. I take clients on the side and do their onsite IT work. But I’m getting too old to be doing the work. You take over the duties of the contracts, and I’ll keep twenty percent. The rest is yours.” Ivan leaned back in his chair and folded his fingers on his stomach.
“How many clients do you have?” Waylon asked. He was actually getting excited. The twenty percent was a little high, but he really wasn’t in a place to be complaining. Pay was pay.
“Right now, one, but I can get a couple of old customers back that I had to let go. They would be through the roof to be back with old Ivan,” he said and winked at Waylon before taking another swig of vodka.
“All right, can you give me any more details?” Waylon asked.
“It’s a hospital, on the poorer side of town. It’s a nightmare of a job, but they pay their bills. What say you? Do we have a deal?” Ivan asked and took another drink.
“I don’t know.” Waylon wasn’t sure he wanted to do contract work like this.
“Come on, boy, tell me yes or no. I want to go upstairs and go to bed. It’s time to close,” Ivan said, rolling his eyes. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back.
Waylon nodded. “I’ll do it.” If it meant that he wouldn’t have to work in fast food, Waylon would do just about anything in the IT world.
“Leave me your email. I’ll send you the details. Now, do me a favor and lock the door on your way out,” Ivan said and waved his hand. He stood up sharply from the chair.
Waylon found a scrap piece of paper on the desk and filled out his name, email, and phone number. He left the office with a little bit of a bounce in his step when he walked back to his car.
While driving home, Waylon found himself in a much better mood. He even found himself singing to music.
When he pulled into the driveway, Kaylie was sitting on the front porch in the old swing, rocking back and forth. Waylon suddenly remembered that he not yet given her a key to the house.
He didn’t pull the car into the garage. Instead he shut the engine off, jumped out of the car, and ran up the front porch stoop.
“I’m so sorry!” he said, shaking his head and unlocking the door. They both walked inside.
“It’s all right,” she said with a little bit of teeth chattering. He had no clue how long she had been sitting out there, and it was in the thirties.
“How long have you been waiting?” he asked. He walked over and flipped the switch for the gas fireplace to kick on. The flames sprung to life, and heat immediately began to pour out into the room.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Like two hours.” She walked over to the fire and started to warm her hands.
“I’ve got a key in the other room. I’m so sorry,” he said, darting away to get her key.
~//~
Kaylie could have easily gotten into the house, but she didn’t want to have to explain how she had pulled it off. On one hand, she would look like a crazy person, and on the other, she would look like a thief. Kaylie also did not want to break the trust of the house.
It was important that everything come out naturally.
Chapter 06: Broker or Broke
Kaylie could not sleep. New house, new bed, and her brain would not settle down. She had a spirit that needed to be turned in, and there were bills that needed to be paid with that cash. She had no clue what exactly was done with the glass orbs when she turned them over to the broker, but she didn’t need to in order to do her job.
Since she wasn’t getting any sleep, Kaylie climbed out of bed. She was beyond happy that the room that she was renting had its own bathroom and shower. After gathering a change of clothes, she stepped into a blissfully hot shower. The house had no shortage of hot water for her to use. Moonlight seeped into the bathroom as she dried off.
The undergarments that she picked out for the day were a pair of black panties and a matching bra. Her mother drilled it into her head that matching was important. Not that anyone is going to be seeing them, she thought, sighing to herself. On top of that, she picked out a pair of black leggings and a tight black T-shirt. Before she pulled a hoodie on to complete the outfit, she strapped the holsters for her daggers onto her back.
Leaving the bathroom, she turned to her enchanted bag. For twenty minutes, she dug down into the seemingly endless pocket, pulling out several bags of clothes that she stacked in the corner of the room. She told herself that she needed to take some time and do some laundry, but it could wait for the time being. It was Tomorrow Kaylie’s problem.
She wanted to do something nice for Waylon. He had opened up his home to her, and she didn’t even have the money yet to pay him. She decided that she would do something about the osueco that was following him around. There was a fairly simple potion that she could whip together. It wouldn’t get rid of Tome, but it would bind him to the house.
She just had to gather the ingredients. Grabbing her bag, she left the room to search the house. The list had only five items, and only one would be complicated.
The first item on the list was the easiest for her to get. She opened the front door and walked out into the yard. It took a few minutes, but she found a patch of loose dirt and trudged around, making sure that the dirt stuck to her shoes. She walked back inside, making sure to walk through the hall and into the kitchen. Waylon didn’t have anything that a normal potion maker would have in their kitchen, but luckily for Kaylie, she could improvise because of the nature of the potion.
She dug around in the cupboard and found coffee grounds and filters. Laying a filter out on the table, she took one of her shoes and sprinkled a little of the dirt in the middle of the filter. She took a few scoops from the coffee and poured them into the filter on top of the dirt.
Kaylie perked up her ears and listened. She closed her eyes and focused. The house was silent, but if she listened hard enough, she should be able to find Tome. It was imperative that she find him if the potion was going to work. Following the sounds of scratching through the house, she found herself outside of Waylon’s bedroom door. The wood was cold against her ear as she listened.
Tome was inside the room. She could hear him moving around. Moving as silently as she could—as she was sure that it wouldn’t bode well if Waylon caught her sneaking into his room on the first night—she turned the doorknob. She snuck inside
the room and could feel it in her bones that the house knew that she was not supposed to be there.
“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to help him,” she whispered under her breath. A floorboard creaked under her foot as she made her way toward where Tome was hiding. The little creature was perched just under the foot of Waylon’s bed.
Kaylie crept closer and closer. Tome was almost oblivious to her and would have stayed that way if the house had cooperated with her. Another floorboard creaked. Tome’s heads whipped around to look at Kaylie, the red eyes carving into her.
She held her finger up to her lips. If she wasn’t careful, the little guy would vanish into smoke and disappear. She pulled her bag off of her back and reached inside. Feeling around for a crystal that she could store energy in, she tried not to make any noise or sudden movements. Finally, she pulled out a piece of quartz. When she focused on it, she was able to will her magical energy to flow from within her body into the stone.
Blue energy flowed from her fingers and into the white stone. She could feel it draining on her. The stone started to pull on her energy, and she snapped her fingers shut to stop it from draining her completely. Left unchecked, it would have sucked out enough energy to make her pass out.
Tome’s eyes snapped to the stone. Kaylie couldn’t help but smile—he was taking the bait. She moved backward out of the bedroom. As she passed Waylon’s bathroom door, she noticed his toothbrush sitting on the sink. She snatched it and led Tome out of the room.
Tome followed her to the kitchen. Kaylie coaxed him up onto the table. She held the stone, keeping him interested. There was no real organization to the kitchen, so she had to do a blind search to find a pepper shaker. With a few shakes, she put a layer of the pepper in the palm of her hand.
She held her hand palm up and blew at Tome. A random gust of wind blew the pepper through the air and back into her face. She sneezed hard enough that she fell onto her butt on the ground. She shook her head and stood back up, filling her hand again with a small layer of pepper.
“He didn’t ask you permission, did he?” Kaylie asked the house.
She held out her hand and blew the pepper into Tome’s face. Tome coughed and sneezed. Some of the splash went into the coffee filter. Kaylie shook the stone. Tome’s faces followed it like a dog with a treat. She threw the glowing stone. The little creature jumped down from the table and chased after it.
She reached up, pulled one of her hairs out, and dropped it into the filter with everything else that she had collected. Carefully, she picked up the mixture and put it in the coffee maker. She brewed a normal-sized pot of coffee, leaning on the counter’s edge to wait for the machine to do its job.
Kaylie rested her head in her hands. She was tired, and she wanted to sleep, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to no matter how hard she tried. Once she finished the brew, she would head off into town to find a broker. She would get herself into the black, and she would start off this relationship the right way.
With a huge yawn, she watched as the last few drops fell into the glass pot. She pulled the pot out of the maker, and with Waylon’s toothbrush, she gave the coffee a good stir. A pink haze rose from the surface of the brown liquid.
She held the pot up to her nose and whiffed in the scent. It smelled like regular coffee. Just the smell of freshly brewed coffee made her feel warm inside. She returned the pot to the maker so that it would stay warm for Waylon. On the door of the fridge there was a notepad and marker. She wrote a quick note to Waylon and put it next to the coffeepot.
Kaylie found that getting around the city wasn’t very hard. Being a warlock, she could instantly travel anywhere if she knew where exactly she wanted to go. That was the problem. She didn’t know her way around the city, nor did she know where anything was that she needed to visit. Her only real option was to wander around the city, checking out all of the potential places that she had flagged during her internet search the night before.
The first four stores that she visited didn’t have a drop of legitimate magic at all. The fifth had magic, but it was not the magic that she was looking for, closer to magic that she wanted to avoid in order to keep from getting into trouble. No matter what she did, she was going to have to feel out where this place was located.
Kaylie walked down the sidewalk with a cup of hot coffee warming up her fingers. The day rushed away from her quickly, and the sun moved swiftly across the sky. Night came so early this time of year that it almost seemed unfair.
In the back of her mind, Kaylie suddenly got a feeling. The best way to describe the feeling would be to compare it to catching something moving in the corner of her eye. She turned her head with a snap when she felt magic. Strong magic.
As Kaylie approached the little shop, she did so with a great deal of caution. There was a chance that she could have stumbled on unlicensed magic instead of a broker, so she thought it was best to air on the side of caution. She did her very best to blend in with the crowd, which was easier in the winter. She wore her hoodie almost year-round. That was not how normal people dressed, or so she was told.
Unlicensed magic had become something of a problem, and it was complicated to explain. Anyone could do magic; that was not really a big deal. Like the potion that Kaylie had cooked up that morning for Waylon, no one would care. It was bigger stuff that got people in trouble. It was bigger stuff that got Kaylie in trouble. She was on a sort of magical probation that kept her under a close watch.
The shop’s front door pulsed with energy as she approached, only cementing the feeling in the back of her mind. It was a dead giveaway for someone like her, but a normal person would see nothing but a slightly out-of-place old door. Instead of the tall glass doors that all of the businesses surrounding it had, this was a giant wooden door that had seen some stuff, at least a hundred years. If Kaylie had to guess, the door was much older.
She reached out and touched the door handle. It was the style that had the latch you pushed down with your thumb before pulling the door open. It was super heavy, and when she touched the metal, she didn’t get any bad feelings. She had learned over the years to trust her feelings. They always tried to point her in the right direction.
There was no sign on the outside of the building that indicated the name or the address. When she walked inside, she instantly felt right at home. Musty old books as far as the eye could see. Bottles upon bottles of ingredients that probably looked like collectables to any normal person covered rows and rows of uneven shelves.
There were shelves of old magical items, some of which she even recognized. Behind the counter, halfway to the back of the store on the left side, was a very old woman. She wore thin-rimmed glasses that were secured around her neck with a chain and an old sweater. Her white hair was done up nicely on the top of her head. Kaylie’s figured the only way the hair was staying up was by the use of magic.
“This establishment only helps those who have a membership,” the woman croaked at Kaylie without looking up from the magical stones she was cataloging.
Kaylie smiled and wove her way through the store toward the counter. This was not out of the ordinary. Witches were very stingy, and they had sour tastes in their mouth when it came to mortals. They did not want to let go of what happened back in the day at Salem.
“And how does one get a membership?” Kaylie asked. “This is somewhere that I would love to do business.” Folding her hands behind her back, she watched the woman making her notations.
“I’m quite sure that you won’t meet the qualifications,” the old witch said, still not bothering to look up.
“You judge me too quickly, wise one,” Kaylie said. Witches loved to have their ego stroked.
Kaylie held out her hand. Formed from ice, a rose grew out of nothing until it was a foot long and hovered over her palm. The object rotated slightly like it was on display.
“I’m so sorry, my dear,” the woman said, her tone changing so drastically that it was a little jarring. “We just get so
many people here who can’t take a hint that we cannot help them. It doesn’t help that rumors got out that we are a place to shop for occult.” Whereas before she was a croaking old biddy, she had adopted a tone that you might hear from your grandmother.
“Completely understandable.” Kaylie smiled, waving her hands dismissively.
“So, what are you, dear? That wasn’t witch magic. Are you a warlock?” the woman asked.
“I am. I’m also a reaper,” Kaylie said, crossing her arms and leaning forward on the counter.
“You must be the girl replacing Grymm,” the witch said with a grin.
“Yes, ma’am. I don’t know anything about him, but they sent me to pick up the slack.” Kaylie shrugged.
“It’s more than just slack. Why that…” She looked around the room like she was looking for eavesdroppers. “…demon stole a month’s worth of souls when he left,” she said under her voice.
“Why would he do that?” Kaylie asked with a confused look. She had been a reaper for some years, but she had never heard of another reaper stealing souls.
“I don’t know,” the witch said, shaking her head.
“Well, that’s just weird,” Kaylie said, shrugging her shoulders.
“I suppose that you are here looking for the broker. I got word that someone new would be coming in, so I was keeping an eye out. My name is Clara, by the way.” The woman stepped down behind the counter. She rolled back the sleeve of her long shirt to show the glowing symbol that marked her as a broker. It was shaped like an inverted diamond with glowing streaks swirling up from the base to points extruding from the top.
Clara fixed her sleeve and walked toward the back of the store. “Follow me,” she said, motioning.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve already helped my first spirit,” Kaylie said, following her to the back of the store.
“Excellent! Excellent!” Clara said with a nod and a smile. They walked into a small kitchenette area that had a flight of stairs at the back that led into the second story.
