บท 18: 18. Consequences of helping.
Phoebe handed the man a card with her account number.
"Bank transfer or hard cash, i am good with both."
He looked at the card and then at her, surprised with how prepared she was and how cold she seemed. It was all business to her, even though she had just displayed the most amazing and unbelievable things he had ever seen, like the talking bird which had disappeared into a coin.
Still, he was very confused by all that he had heard and witnessed. If possible, he wanted her to sit down and explain everything slowly once more, very slowly.
"I need to understand this..."
The impatient teenager floated next to the man and cut him off. "Mr. are you trying to stiff us? If you don't give us our money then we will..."
"Connie, don't threaten the clients." Phoebe jumped in.
"I will pay."
The man cleared his throat and said. He got his own phone and immediately transferred one million.
"Pay for the tonics too mister." Connie reminded him.
Phoebe stopped him however.
"It's okay, you can consider it goodwill from me. I feel bad for your son. He encountered such misfortune at such a young age because someone was greedy for things that don't belong to them. I know what it's like."
She got one of the good luck bracelets from her bag and she tied it around the right hand of the boy who was staring at her in wonder. He had seen the bird going into the coin.
"What is that?" his mother was now wary of all bracelets.
"It's a charm to help him restore his good luck. I sell charms and talismans that ward off evil too. If you ever need one, visit our Black ghost cafe."
Phoebe let go go of the boys hand and she picked up her bag. She stood up and started walking in the direction of the door.
"Don't forget my instructions, start packing up and leave right now." she shouted to them from the doorway.
She walked slowly and found her way out of the house, walking into the night. The diamond mark indicated that she had twenty nine days to live.
"You have used so much energy. You keep forgetting that energy keeps you alive. Getting rid of stolen luck has not given you any energy, helping humans is not the same as helping ghosts."
The Saxon spirit harped on and on, complaining about the wasted energy and also encouraging her to go see David.
"One hug from David would give you so much energy." It reminded her.
Phoebe ate a protein candy bar and she sighed. It wasn't as if she could refuse to help the boy. She also had no plans of hugging David, not tonight anyway. What she needed was food, a hot shower and some sleep.
As for the unknown warlock that did the luck stealing ritual, he didn't even cross her mind. Perhaps he should have because in Magic city, soon after Phoebe broke the spell with her energy and burned all the things used in the spell, a certain warlock had suffered backlash, spitting up blood even.
Someone that had suffered like that was sure to come looking for the one that had caused them trouble.
**********************
It was 8:00 am in the morning but Phoebe felt exhausted right to her bones. A deep groan slipped through her lips as she turned to the other side of the bed.
"Good morning sunshine, Have you decided on going ahead with what you thought about yesterday?" A raspy voice interrupted Phoebe's dreams.
She was now well conversant with the Saxon spirit's voice. Even in her sleep she could easily identify it, after a whole year of seeing ghosts, she wasn't horrified by being woken up by ghost voices or weird noises anymore.
However today she wanted to sleep in because she slept late after helping the boy. If not that she had been paid a hefty sum of one million, she would be even more unhappy.
The Saxon spirit had been right in warning her not to take on such tasks often because since Phoebe had finished it she felt extremely weak, her face was pale and if she wasn't mistaken, when she looked at her frame in the mirror last night she had lost some weight in a few hours.
She let out a weary sigh and pulled the bed cover to her waist. Then she raised her hand and stared at the back of her hand. The numbers in the middle of the diamond shaped tattoo were the same.
"So does this mean that I lost energy that's equivalent to two months?" Phoebe asked the spirit which was now lying with her on the bed.
Nodding it's head, the Saxon spirit let her know that it was because humans and ghosts were different.
"Look at the bright side you made a good amount of money. I have told you before that when you gain something, you loose something in return."
Phoebe sat up straight and complained that she felt like she lost more than she gained.
"You need to connect me to more ghosts because I need to replenish the energy I lost."
The Saxon spirit said that it would do that as soon as Phoebe answered its question which she had ignored on purpose. It had been more like a middleman between Phoebe and the ghosts because it had sent a lot of ghost clients to the Cafe.
Phoebe who was genuinely confused asked the spirit what it was talking about.
"Yesterday you briefly thought about using David to irritate Ruth. I personally think that it's a brilliant idea....."
Before it could lay the idea on the table, Phoebe jumped out of bed and began to walk away from it. Her efforts were all in vain as it hovered over her, there was no running away from it.
"Not a chance, I don't want your relative in my life and I don't care what the consequences are, I will have to change my destiny if I have to."
The earnestness in her voice made it laugh as it stated that no one has ever avoided their destiny before.
"There is always a first time for everything." Phoebe stated stubbornly as she pulled out the grimoire from the safe because as usual she was going to write some spells in it, especially luck related spells.
Next time, she wanted to be better prepared if she run into such a case.
"Tell me everything you know about luck." she told the spirit.
She concentrated on that task until her stomach complained, demanding for food.
After she was done with breakfast, Phoebe prepared to leave for work. As she passed through the corridor, Phoebe stared at the next door and wondered why she hadn't met the occupant yet. She had been told by the property manager that the new land lord had moved into the apartment that was next to hers.
She shrugged and began to walk away but before she could enter the elevator, Phoebe remembered that she had forgotten herbs that were used in burning sage and a client had asked for a delivery of those particular herbs.
Since she hadn't gone far, Phoebe walked back to her apartment. Once inside, she walked to the table where the two medium sized boxes sat.
The table was close to the doors leading out to the big balcony. A white lace curtain hang from top to bottom.
Phoebe who had forgotten to open the curtains did so and on opening the balcony to allow fresh air into the house, she noticed movers bringing carrying in furniture into the apartment on the next block directly opposite hers.
She wondered who it was because only celebrities and extremely wealthy people lived on block D of the Cerene Apartments and judging by the quality of the furniture alone, whoever it was a money bag.
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