Behind the Curtain

An "Inciting Incident" i guess you could say.

It was a quiet night in Worcester when i would fuck up my life irreversibly with but one decision. Well, it was already fucked but you get my point. After my previous experiences dealing with fears a few nights ago, i had wanted to just get some coin in my pocket and get as far away from that town as possible. Hence my current location: A street corner.

I shifted the vial of frog tears used to brew some not so nice crook stomach inducing potions to the side so i could fit a small silver chained necklace with a ruby in the center on the table. It just so happened to have a few Bad Luck charms on it, but i wasn't gonna tell anyone that. The thing might just fetch me a pretty penny from a non-Behind The Curtain folk. Business here had been slow as many here but it felt safer then that fucking village so i had stayed. I was planning on moving back toward Whales soon anyway.

Sitting back in my camping chair, i spotted my next customers. A family of touristy looking Americans who had probably gotten stuck here if their obsessive amount of luggage was anything to go by. As they drew within earshot i called out, my "immaculate" smile beamed at the family of five.

"The finest non-normal wares from here to Paris and back, all at a low price for you to purchase. And if you buy something i might be able to direct you to a spot to sleep for the night"  All of them turned with interest at my words. Tourists definitely. The group, from what i could tell, consisted of one overweight balding man who I'd mistaken as a beach ball for a second. What i assumed to be his wife, who looked more like a horse and Pinocchio had sex, then fed their unfortunate child nothing but horse defecation if her teeth where to be asked. Behind them, walked three children, one teenager, unfortunate enough to be cursed with his mothers nose which he was trying to hide in his phone, a small girl which looked like she had just had a mental crisis at age 10 and one seven year old, blonde haired, Boris Johnson looking eggshell eater.

The "woman" whispered in her husbands ear and he replied with a shrug and something along the lines of: "It'll be fine dear. Plus its not like we know our way around the place" The man then broke from the group and waddled over to me, head held high "What'er we have here?"

What does it look like? "Anything and everything that can't be sold on the UK's open or black market. Though i assure you sir, all you see is, in fact, legal to own" well, then again, laws were perspective things based on who was in charge and why they wanted to feel like they even had any sense of control over what amounted to a constantly angry mob. Then again mobs wer-

"-ey! Hey! How much for the necklace for my wife?" the man was holding up the silver chained pendent I'd just placed on the table, i smiled. Time to sell.

"80" i said.

"80!" the mans face was painted with disbelief at my price. Just as i predicted.

"I had to go through a wild goose chase with a flock of angry Ka-Seagulls for that!" bloody four armed scaly bastards those Kafas were.

"Uh huh. Seagulls" It seems the man didn't buy my story.

"Yep. Finders keepers" i chimed back, smiling.

"Oh please Berny! Does it matter where he got it? It looks so pretty!" begged the woman to the man, or Berny i guess. Seems the rest of the family had caught up with the him.

"Yes and I am not spending that much on a necklace that's probably gonna break in the morning" Berny replied. OH! You call me unreliable sir?

"I don't sell cheap knockoffs unless the knockoff is better then the original! And I'll have you know, that was bought from a proper jewellery store before the owner lost it." Poor fella. Was so distraught at losing it only a few hours he'd bought it. Hadn't even known it was in my pocket. "But if you can't cough up the cash for it, which there is no shame in admitting good sir, i could cut ya a deal. If you give me something of significant interest to me I'll slash the price down to 30"

 I, Jackson Cornway, was always on the lookout for new and interesting stuff to add to my collection. And something from America was even better. You see, even if you Non-Behind The Curtain folk don't recognize it, magic seeps through the curtains all the time. They aren't as air tight as the Watchmen would have us think. A lot of stuff has something, whether it be a spell, charm or curse, on it. It was there, you just didn't see it. So their was a high likely hood that one of the five Americans had something that would catch my fancy in exchange for the necklace. I just hoped that they wouldn't find me like Mr. Thandeldin and his thug had after they learned how much of an asshole everyone back here was.

Apparently, the look on the face of the lady and my gaslighting was enough to get the man to play along. Just as I'd intended.

"Okay" the man said begrudgingly "What ya after?"

"Just show and I'll tell" Behind the Curtain code for: i have no fucking clue. I might try to steal something tho.

As it turned out, most of what the family had was of no worth to me. Though i managed to get the teen to buy a wrist chain while his father was rummaging through one of their bags. That man was dedicated to getting this necklace it seemed. A shame it had several minor curses on it. But eventually something caught my attention.

It was a simple golden band in the shape of a ring. But it was off feeling. Not like a charm or residual spell, but the thing itself seemed off. Not like just a ring.

"How 'bout this?" The man asked, holding it up

"I'll take it off your mitts" i replied, it was definitely not a normal ring, and, well, theirs a reason that the curtain isn't see through. And it would be a right pain in my ass if someone opened it for the crowd to see. Fucking nosy bastards.

"So its 30 for the necklace, right?"

"Correct" the Beach-Ball-Yankee was surprisingly fast with his German sausages for fingers and took the necklace in return for the ring and 30 pounds. A fair trade in my personal opinion.....huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuah! You know, I've made many uncertain decisions in my short life. But, even now with the benefit of hindsight, I still can't decide if taking that ring was a good one or not. I don't know if that was the right choice.