Diamonds in the Rough

9.

"You know, I do have other customers to attend to"

Leah looked around at the empty street, "doesn't seem like it"

The guy sighed, "Is this your first time here? what part of 'illegal dealing' don't you understand?"

Leah bit her lip, "I know what I want, I just don't know what that is"

His lips quirked, "Do you have a degree in communication by any chance?"

"No, why?"

"Never mind" the guy swung the door open, "just get in before you attract any unwanted attention"

Leah stepped in, her muddy boots leaving marks on the carpet. Not that she noticed, of course, she was too busy staring at the brightly coloured glass bottles that lined almost every inch of the room.

The guy, Shane, she thought he said his name was, gestured to the tiny couch, "take a seat and let's figure out what you need"

She did as he said, settling down carefully. He sat on the floor in front of her, studying her, "start from the beginning"

"I have a mission" she began, "but I don't know what it is"

"That sounds incredibly counterproductive"

She winced, "I don't know what happened, one minute I was driving my car to the grocery store and then next thing I remember is standing in front of your house"

He looked annoyed, "I don't live in this dump, I live in another dump about three miles away"

"I know I'm supposed to be here, but I can't remember for what"

"Okay does your head hurt, do you feel nauseous and are your ears ringing?"

"Yes" she said, "do you think I might have hit my head somewhere?"

He looked at her like she was crazy, "of course not, obviously someone hit you with a memory spell"

"A what?"

"A memory spell? Wipes out your memory?" he said it slowly like he was talking to a child which would have normally pissed her off but today she couldn't find it in herself to care.

"How did I end up here then?"

He shrugged, "memory spells can't erase instincts, you've probably been doing this for some time"

"Well then, do you recognise me?"

He cocked an eyebrow, "don't you think I would have led with that?"

"Right" she knew she was asking stupid questions but her head was pounding and she was confused and a bit freaked out and it was understandable that her brain wasn't working at full capacity.

She glanced around the room, "can any of these potions fix me?"

"Do you have any cash?"

"Uh" she emptied her pockets, "no"

He shrugged, "it's okay, we don't have a memory spell antidote anyway but now we do know one thing about you"

"What's that?"

"You are either a very irresponsible person or the thing you're here to buy doesn't require cash" he gave her a once over, "I'm going to go with the second option"

She leaned back against the sofa, "so what are we going to do now?"

"This isn't a 'we' problem, it's a 'you' problem"

She removed the watch from her wrist and handed it to him, "does this make it a 'we' problem?"

He took it and carefully examined it, "yeah okay, let's go"