Page 17 of A Taste Of Darkness

As I stepped back from Ares and looked at my brother-in-law, Kai wasn’t even looking at me but had his eyes on Tartarus. “You’re what? A five-minute walk away from the most dangerous club in Canada. What exactly did you think would happen?”

“Well, I certainly didn’t think I was going to get robbed on my first day.” My arms crossed over my chest at the same time as I could feel my throat clog up and tears trying to escape my eyes again. “Besides, I like the view.”

“What view?”

My eyes fell onto Milo’s club. I didn’t know, nor did I care, why Tartarus needed a twelve-story building; I wasn’t sure if every floor was accessible to every member. What I did know, however, was that ever since Milo opened Tartarus, surrounding buildings had been modernized. Offices close by didn’t look as boring anymore. Other shops used LEDs to stand out.

The entire street was colorful. Traffic lights were painted, though I guessed that was graffiti from people who thought red, green, blue, or even pink-colored traffic lights just looked better around here. Some pathways were also colored.

The sidewalk in front of my store was pink. The store next to mine had green exterior walls.

Like I said, it was so colorful here and I just loved it.

But the highlights were the times when the sun was gone and it got dark.

Tartarus lit up in pink. The huge sign on the top was so bright, it even managed to bring light into my store.

“It doesn’t matter,” I eventually answered. “I just like it here.”

The week after rebuilding shelves and cleaning up my boutique, I opened it back up again. I was confident that nothing bad would happen.

Sure, I had bad luck when it came to my initial opening day, but this Monday, I was convinced it would be a good day.

For the first half of the day, I had a total of five customers. Well, two, since three of those potential customers came walking in, checked the prices, and left again.

At exactly three pm, two men entered my boutique. They didn’t look around or figured they entered the wrong building, instead one of them walked up to the register and stared at me.

“Hi, can I help you?” I asked, already reaching a hand underneath the counter to press the panic button Kai had installed. I didn’t know what it did, but if I had to guess, it probably sent a signal to Kai to let him know I needed help.

I discovered the button this morning, so I didn’t get to ask Kai about it yet.

The guy didn’t reply, he just kept on looking at me. His eyes didn’t look too friendly, his lips were pulled into a frown, but I refused to judge people based on their expressions.

Suddenly, the other guy walked up to the register and laid a hand on the first one’s shoulder. “Do you sell shoes?” he asked in a heavy Italian accent.

Carefully, I shook my head. “No, but I can refer you to a great, independent boutique that does.” I knew a bunch of other designers, some more known than others, so it wasn’t a problem to hand out the names of other designers.

While I loved shoes, my talents lay in clothes and jewelry design. I couldn’t tell shoe brands apart if my life depended on it. Clothes, however… sometimes I could tell the designer by the material of the fabric.

“No,” the guy snapped. “You should sell shoes.”

“But I don’t.” My fingers now lingered right on the red button. “If you don’t plan on making any sort of purchases, I’d like to ask you to leave now.”

The guy nodded, and though I thought there was something furious in his eyes, he didn’t act on his anger. They both left shortly after, and once they were out the door, I could finally take a deep breath again.

In seconds, I hurried over to the entrance door and locked it. I planned to be open until eight, but after those guys, I was done for the day. I might’ve not had a lot of customers, and still hours ahead of me, but this was the best I could do for my first day.

Well, my second first day.

I was still shaky from last time, and I told myself I would close up the second something scared me. My safety came first, after all.

10

FIVE GUYS

Sterlie Adams

Earlier today, I moved back into my apartment after spending two weeks at my sister’s house. I thought, if I survived five days at my boutique, there was nothing to worry about living alone again.

---