Ghost Scarab

Chocolate Heaven

You get an extra long update today. I can definitively say this is the biggest update I have ever written. You have ada_meyers_ for that. In the last chapter, I replied to one of her comments saying Raven would be in the next chapter. I didn't want that to be a lie so I wanted to at least keep writing until Raven was introduced. I was kind of on a roll and that point and decided not to stop.

There are parts of this that are taken directly from the book and main sequence of events is pretty much the same but changes were made to account for personality differences.

Although I had lived in Charleston for over two years now, I sadly had spent very little time exploring the city. This left me at a bit of a loss to come up with a new location to try. In the end, I decided to head to the main library and check online for popular shopping destinations in the area.

For me, the library was a godsend. It was a place for me to go when I wasn't working and didn't want to go home just yet and I almost always had three or four books checked out from there at any given moment.

A very nice librarian there was able to help me put together a resume. I was able to go online and look for work. I also regularly checked Craigslist for odd jobs and was sometimes able to earn a little bit extra cash by doing yard work, or cleaning, or even walking someone's dogs. It was through Craigslist that I met Emily. She worked as a house cleaner and needed an extra set of hands for an especially large job that needed to be done quickly. When that especially demanding client decided to retain her services and have her come in to clean weekly Emily contacted me and asked if I would be interested in helping her once a week. I worked with her every Wednesday to clean one of the historic homes that were all over the place downtown.

It was just past 7:30 and the library didn't open until 9, so I had about an hour to kill before I headed over there. I found a nice tree to lean against and sat down. I reached into my knapsack and pulled out my journal and a pen.

I always kept the journal I was currently writing in with me at all times and the ones I was finished with were carefully hidden. This wasn't because I was worried about Mother or Marie reading them, I wrote in code using Korean lettering but English words, rather it was to keep them from destroying them. I leaned back against the tree and started writing, so much had happened and I needed to process it all.

Two hours later and I was at the library in front of one of their computers researching popular shopping destinations. I dismissed a number of places as being too high-end; my clothes weren't nice enough which meant I would stand out like a sore thumb. At last, I found a place that might work, Market Street. It was an old slave trading building that now housed an outdoor market. It was filled with vendor stalls, two-story shops, and even some apartments.

I killed some time at the library, I didn't want to get to the market too soon after they opened because nobody would be there. By the time the bus dropped me off in front of one of the hotels on that street it was just after 11.

There were quite a few vendors set up although as it was September and the very tail end of the tourist season there were only a smattering of people. I knew I should play it safe and just familiarize myself with the location today rather than try to make any pulls, however, the knowledge that I needed $600 by next Friday made me throw caution to the wind.

I wandered among the stalls pretending to examine the various trinkets that were for sale, while in reality, I was scanning the crowd for my first target. It wasn't long before I spotted someone, he was an older man, his white hair was wispy and he had sparkling blue eyes that made him seem kind. He looked like someone's grandpa.........I quickly veered away from that line of thinking knowing that if I continued there was no way I would be able to go through with it. I eased my conscious with the fact that he appeared to be wearing brand new clothes that were of high-quality.