AfterLife

Chapter 17: Deal

    I woke up to moonlight streaming through one of the holes in the wall to my left. I sat up and stretched; most of the soreness was gone, but some of it remained. It felt like I had just been through a really hard workout. I looked over to where Void was sleeping. Well, where he should be sleeping. I sighed, he was always wandering off. Just as I thought this however he came back through the wall next to me.
“Where did you go?”
“Just out. Killed a person.”
“You should’ve waited for me first. Also, wait, you killed someone?”
“A, yes. B, you’ve been asleep for like 2 days now, I wasn’t gonna wait that long.”
“Wait, WHAT?!”
“I mean, I’m not surprised. You looked even more dead than you already are by the time we got here.”
“We have to go get the stuff from the grimy old dude!”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What if he didn’t get it?”
“Than He’s gonna have a lot more than just Ravens to worry about.”
“You’ve gotten a lot better at controlling that.”
“Well I figured it could be useful later on so I spent a while figuring out how to do it.”
“Well the sun will be rising soon so we should head out.”
“Yeah…”
    The moon had fullen risen when started our way down to where our dealer was. We thankfully didn’t run into any trouble.
“Oh yeah, Void, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“Why did it take you so long to get back? Did you stop, wander off, or what?”
“O-oh well uh, th-that.”
Voids face turned bright red. What did he have to be embarrassed about?
“I um… j-j-just stopped to think about something. I think better in the fresh air.”
“O… kay?” 
The conversation ended there. Void looked extremely uncomfortable, and I wondered why. What wasn’t he telling me? It wasn’t long before we reached the thin alleyway that lead to where our vendor was located. I jumped down from the building we were on and went through to the area where the “house” was. I walked down the path and stopped. I could hear voices inside, and I knew one of them wasn’t the old man.
“Well I can get ya one but ya gotta gimme something first”
An agitated voice of what sounded like a man responded.
“Well what the fuck do you want then! Hurry up and tell me so I can get out of here! Who knows what would happen if I got caught!”
“The lense of yer camera there.”
“I can’t give you that! It’ll look really suspicious if suddenly my camera lense went missing.”
“Well then I can’t get ya what ya need.” 
“Then why shouldn’t I just catch you right here and now.”
“Well for one thing you’ll neva get yer little ghostie. For another, I’m a useless wisp so you’d get nothin’ out of me in battle either.”
“Tch. Fine. Take the dumb lense. I’m warning you if I get caught I’m revealing your little operation here. I’ll be back in a week for the Vortex.”
I whipped my head around and looked at Void. We made eye contact and I knew he had heard them too. I heard footsteps heading quickly to the door in front of us. Grabbing Void, I shoved him through a nearby wall then whipped around and headed towards the porch just as the man stepped out of the building. He was wearing dark blue cloak and had a lensless camera in his hand. He saw me and grabbed his camera, then realized it had no lense and put back down.
“What are you doing here, bitch?”
“Same reason as you most likely.”
I responded, keeping myself from losing my cool and just stabbing him through the throat. He glared at me and walked quickly off the porch, down the path and through the wall. The fact he could fit in the small alleyway and still move was a miracle. Though, from how slowly he was moving, he could just barely fit. I sped back to the wall I shoved Void through and, struggling, went through it. I ended up in a pitch black room. Not being able to see anything in here I whispered hoping Void would respond.
“Void? Are you in here?”
“Yes. What the heck was that for?”
“Sorry, but if he saw you and figured out what you were that wouldn’t be the best situation.”
“Fine, but next time warn me before you shove me through a wall. Also, I don’t think he would even be able to tell I’m a Vortex just by seeing me. Now, which way is the way out?”
“The wall is this way.”
“I can’t see a thing. Where is ‘this way’?”
“I’m gonna try to find you, so don’t move.”
“Hold on, I’m going to just walk forward and hope for the best.”
“That is a very bad idea.”
Getting no response I assumed he had gone through a wall anyway. I walked backward through the wall behind me and into the unkept yard. Void was waiting for me on the path. I walked towards him.
“You know, you’re really lucky you didn’t walk through the wrong wall into some crowded room.”
“I know, but if you tried to find me you’d probably just end up getting lost too.”
“You have a point.”
On the path, I walked up to what was left of the house’s porch. I went through the closed ‘door’. By this point it was just 2 rotting slabs of wood.
“Back already? Wanna change the… oh, it’s you.”
“Yes, it’s me. Do you have what I asked for?”
“Yeh, yeh. I got yer stuff ya bitch.”
Void glared at the wisp. I could care less by this point. May as well get used to the term now, since it was clear that lots of people like to use it to describe me. He walked to a floorboard in the corner of the room, reached through it, and yanked out a stack of papers. He threw it on the ground in front of me. I picked it up and looked through it. He did a surprisingly good job. It contained the Raven’s names, description, occupation, their bond spirit, and where they stayed in the building.
“Since you did so well I’ll give you something.”
“What are yer gonna give me? Money?”
“An easy way in. The far left back of the building is the least guarded, if you go through the window that’s the fourth from the end of the wall, the room should be empty, it’s a good spot for an easy entrance.”
“Not very useful pay.”
“Be thankful you got anything. I have a map too so you should be happy. Void, could you hold these for a second?”
I held the papers up to Void and he took them. I went through my pockets and found the paper I had drawn the map on. I tossed it to the old man then turned around to leave.
“What did you call him?”
I turned around.
“His name, what else?”
“Why’s he called that?”
“Cause it’s his name. I don’t see why I should tell you his life story.”
The old man stared at Void.
“What are you called anyway?”
“I could care less what you call me lassie, but most call me Abe.”
“Well, Abe, if I ever need more of these I’m coming back.”
Abe simply scowled at me. I turned around and took the papers from Void and we went outside.
“Do you think he figured out?”
“Figured out what?”
“That I’m a Vortex.”
“Shhh! Say that loud and he might. I don’t think he did. I’d be impressed if anyone figured that out from your name alone, let alone that dumb old fart.”
“Yeah, I guess so…”
We went through the alleyway and started to head back.