Chapter 74: [Act 2] Chapter 4: Return to Scamming

Making sure everything was ready, I pepped up for the day ahead. Ty finally made his way to bed, and had begun snoring not too long after. My keys were fastly secured in my jacket pocket, and I took a deep breath. Opening the door, I stepped out into the windy streets. 

As soon as I stepped onto the porch and closed the door, the wind tossed my hair and clothes around as if it believed my personal belongings didn’t actually belong to me. The wind worked its way under my skirt and tickled the base of my tail, making my spine tingle. I couldn’t wait for the day that I could safely let my tail swing free. That day won’t appear until years passing, so I just had to get used to it.

The sky was a bleak gray. The wind powered by a chill air that failed to give up blew through the streets. A black truck passed by, only adding to the wind. Autumn has fallen upon Juxten, and soon after that will be winter. Once winter comes, I’d have been in Juxten for nearly half a year. Progress came by steadily, and I already have a group of people accepting me for who I was. I couldn’t let that be the end of my version of a coup. 

I began walking. As much as I would like to speed up and get to work quickly, all that would do is potentially expose myself to a few lucky people. Then those lucky people would ruin my whole life.

I walked for around four to five minutes, making it all the way to Miranda’s store. Strangely enough, Miranda’s car wasn’t the only one parked in the lot. The same black truck that I saw pass me a few minutes ago parked itself right next to her car. Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about it. However, the store had yet to open, so why would someone be in there already? 

Making sure there weren’t any cars passing by, I walked across the street. Once I made it to the store, I opened the door, only to hear Miranda speaking to someone. 

“What do you mean by that?” Miranda asked.

In front of the counter was a man wearing the blackest clothing imaginable, broken up by a few colorful stains. On his face was a beard that looked like a kid was given access to a needle and thread, then haphazardly stitched hair into his chin. On the man’s head was a weird-looking hat whose name left my brain. 

“I’ve been hearing it from some of my other clients. They were visited by a few officers. I can’t keep this going and get myself into even more trouble.” 

The man looked as if he were constantly on edge. The pupils of his eyes darted back and forth, as if he were constantly looking for an issue to bring up so he could leave. His eyes fell on me, and he straightened himself, pulling his hat down so it was harder for me to see his eyes. 

“I’ll do you a favor. Pay me at least double, and I’ll keep supplying you.” He placed a large paper bag down beside the counter. I hadn’t even noticed he had a bag until I saw it moving. 

Keeping his eyes down, he passed by me and rushed out the door. The backdoor opened and Lai appeared with a coloring book in her hand. Meanwhile, Miranda laid her head in her hands and slouched over the counter. I approached the counter, while looking out the door as the black truck sped off.

“Who was that?” I asked.

Miranda groaned and lifted her head. She grabbed the bag by the counter and began looking through the contents. I noticed that the contents in the bag were several paintings of various sizes. 

“He was one of my suppliers. I told you about him, right?” 

I nodded my head, remembering that time she talked about that man. I didn’t know who he was, but if he was a friend, or at least an acquaintance, of Miranda’s, then he had to be at least somewhat trustworthy.

“Was he threatening you or anything?” 

Miranda shook her head while pulling out one of the paintings. It was just a jumbled mess of colors which was probably not worth what it was bought, and it sure as hell isn’t worth what she’s about to sell it for either. 

“No, he isn’t. It’s just-” Miranda exhaled deeply as if the whole situation was stressing her out. “Lately, a lot of my providers are dropping out. I usually get these knacks from auctions, on the internet, and sometimes I league myself with someone who makes the content that I sell. 

“You know my business practice, and it turns out, this is one of the states where my way of enacting that business is heavily looked down upon.” 

Interesting way to say that overpricing an item so people can buy them just to brag to their friends, and most of the time outright scamming them turned out to be illegal. I wasn’t that surprised that the cops had caught on, but at some point I’d need to find potential new jobs if it keeps getting worse.

“Not only are my providers dropping out, but the murders are scaring people. There’s been less and less people leaving their homes lately, which means I’m not getting customers and auctions are becoming less prevalent. That leads me with the last option of getting stuff from the internet, and more than half the time the products break upon taking them out of their protection. 

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“So I have to pay more to keep my providers, and there aren’t that many customers left. Not only that, but Karina hasn’t woken up yet.” 

Tears fell from Miranda’s eyes, and she wiped them away once she felt them hit her cheek. In the whole month since Karina had been admitted to the hospital, she still had yet to wake up. The kidnapper abused her head the most out of anywhere else. She fell into a deep coma from all the abuse, but her brain activity was still on the highly active side, signaling that she could wake up any moment. 

However, what’ll happen once she wakes up? I had a few ideas, like maybe she’ll lose a lot of brain functionality. I could only imagine the moment she’d wake up, only to hear her forget even how to speak. I’ve read a few books like that back at my home, but I never once thought I’d be a participant of those same concerns. 

Lai looked up from her coloring book and turned her attention to the crying adult next to her. She patted Miranda on her back, but Lai still refused to turn her frown upside down. Miranda looked at the kid, then wiped away the rest of her tears.

“Whatever. I can’t let this get me down. Work’s about to start.”

I nodded and walked behind the counter. Prepared for the day ahead of me, I put on my serious face. 

“Hey, Harmony.” Miranda spoke up. “Want to head with me to Zihao’s bar after this?” 

I was hesitant to accept her proposal, but that face she gave me was one that I could hardly refuse. In the end, I gave in to her invitation and nodded my head.

“Sure, why not?”

Miranda thanked me, and we carried about the rest of the day as if it were normal. The day, however, couldn’t be farther from normal. 

***

“I’m not fucking gay!”

I screamed, waking up while throwing the covers off me. It fell to the ground, landing in a pile. I groaned as a massive headache suddenly spiked out of nowhere. I rubbed my head between my hands before climbing out of bed. Before I left the room, I looked at my computer.

Because I stayed up so late that night, my hands feel like they’re killing me, and I almost thought a giant monster was trying to burst out of my head. I escaped my room and headed into the bathroom. As soon as I stepped in there, I turned on the sink faucet and doused my face with cold water. It only made my head hurt worst, but at least I woke myself up.

Needing to get rid of the headache, I opened up the medicine cabinet and scoured through the contents. Night meds, wake meds, shaving utensils, and hygiene tools were the only things left in there. I found a bottle of aspirin, and I grabbed the bottle right away. The lightness of the bottle and the lack of noise sent shivers down my spine, but the worst possible thing that could happen shouldn’t be the case. Right?

Well, I opened the bottle, and found zilch. Nothing. Nothing at all. My only pain reliever had vanished, and I never realized it. 

Groaning, I knew what I needed to do to relieve my pain. I had to leave my house, walk for half an hour or longer to the nearest pharmacy, and purchase aspirin there. I cursed the world for these unfortunate circumstances as I got ready to head out. 

Before I walked outside, I made sure that I had my wallet, that I changed into fresh clothes, and that I brought my lack of personality with me so I could be on my way. I opened the door and was immediately greeted by a barrage of wind that blew my hair in every which way. I wasn’t going to let something as weak as wind deter me, however, so I stepped outside and attempted to shut the door. Once I tried shutting my door, I figured out wind was actually a stronger foe than I previously expected. It took all my strength to get my door shut.

When it finally clicked shut, I looked up at the sky, wondering what was with the weirdly strong wind. Gray clouds covered the entire stretch of the seeable sky, turning an otherwise would be bright morning to a second evening. I was half-expecting for it to start pouring down rain out of nowhere.

I walked down my porch stairs, fighting against the wind and praying that it wouldn’t start raining soon. I didn’t have an umbrella or car to protect myself from the onslaught of water, so all the power I had was luck. When I stepped off the porch, I came into contact with a very familiar figure. 

Clad in a ragged cloak, boots on both feet with and a limp on her left foot, was Talia Marigold.

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