The New Kid on the Block

Posted on Wed Sep 28th, 2022 @ 4:13am by Andrea Carter

Mission: Prequel - Or How We Met
Location: The Pages of Time bookstore

Andy sighed as she stared at herself in the mirror, water dripping from her face, trying to ignore the incessant hunger gnawing at her soul. Even though she had only just woken up, she still felt tired, a bone-deep weariness that kept urging her to return to her slumber. But she couldn't, she had far too much to do today. Splashing water on her face once more to finally clear the sleep from her eyes, she then groped for the hand towel and dried her face before leaving the bathroom and returning to her bedroom to dress. Khaki cargos and a black t-shirt that proudly stated 'It's just a fletch wound' completed her look, but that meant now she must start her day, er... night, and that meant breakfast.

Andy shuddered.

Entering her office, she spied the row of cages along the wall; she really didn't want to do this...

"Alright, who's it gonna be today?" She murmured to herself as she approached the cages, then flipping up the lid of a cage, she reached in and grabbed a big, fat rat. "Sorry buddy, guess today is not your day," she said apologetically, then took the squirming creature to the kitchen.

The kitchen was still a mess of half unpacked boxes, but she had enough setup that she was able to work quickly and efficiently. The coffee maker had been set up to automatically brew each morning, so the delightful scent of dark roast greeted Andy as she entered. Slicing the neck of the rat, she drained the blood into a mug, then tossed the body into the trash. She topped off her mug with coffee, then mixed up a bowl of grits to put into the microwave, to which she added salt, pepper, and cheese. She cleared a space at her small kitchen table, which was barely big enough to accommodate two people as it was, and sat down with her breakfast. Again she shuddered, then dug in.

Though she didn't need to eat, habit mostly compelled her to take spoon after spoon of cheesy grits into her mouth, but each mouthful was a struggle to swallow. Likewise, so was the coffee, just for a different reason, but eventually she managed to choke everything down, then she cleaned her dishes and left them to dry on a towel. She grabbed her heavy work boots and sat down on her dingy couch to don and lace the boots. Time to get to work. She shrugged on a gray cardigan that had been lying across the back of the couch, then grabbed her keys and headed out the door. Descending a set of dark, narrow steps, she encountered another door that yielded to one of the keys on her keyring, revealing another office, a business office. Passing through this room and another door, she entered the back of the large storefront, cluttered with boxes and bookshelves. The Pages of Time would soon be a store for used books and antique restorations, but for now it was still a mess, although to be fair the shelves had only been delivered yesterday and she’d had to risk dawn to get them all moved in.

Raising her hand, Andy focused on one of the bookshelves and tried to will it to rise. The shelf wiggled and shuddered, but remained firmly in place. Shit, still no magic! Striding up to the shelf and pushing it to where she wanted to go, she resigned herself to doing this the old-fashioned way; this was going to be a long day…