Chapter 5: A Job?

Mentally and physically exhausted, Maaike got out of the truck and walked into the eerily quiet town. She was startled as the truck driver zoomed off into the distance, leaving her to her own devices.

She walked toward the gas station at the edge of the town and peeked through the window of the old and dingy looking store.

She noticed movement in the store and quickly knocked on the door, noticing that the door was open she slipped in.

"Hello, is anyone her?" she asked, lowering her voice as it had echoed in the building. "I'm looking for a place to stay…. Do you have any information?" She jerked startled when the bell at the checkout rang out.

She slowly moved towards it, wondering if the store was ghost owned.

On the checkout table she saw an old brochure introducing the town, well a Ghost town. It didn't surprise her, supernatural creatures were introduced to most werewolves when they were little, however it didn't make it any less unnerving to be in one.

Flipping through the pages she came across a job advertisement.

'Need a job? Come to Nigh burn town's back alley at 1:30 AM to find one. The job comes with a single room apartment."

She wasn't sure what that meant, the sign in the front of the town read 'Bonanza and Custer'. She blinked to make sure she wasn't hallucinating before making up her mind to head to the meeting point.

It didn't matter if it was risky, but it seemed unlikely to her that extremely powerful Supernaturals would appear in a remote town like this one, besides she still had enough of her powers for one more run.

She walked through the aisles of the store, after putting the brochure into her backpack. She found a bag of potato chips and a Soda.

Dropping some money onto the checkout table, she slipped to a corner of the store and slid to the floor. Making herself comfortable, she ate her unhealthy lunch/breakfast, and soon continued her earlier disrupted nap.

The next time she woke up, it was already dark out. Looking at the digital clock in the store, the time read 23 hours 59 mins.

Hurrying to her feet and dusting off the crumbs on her body, she picked up her bag and hung it on her shoulders. On her way to the exit, she saw a person with long, dark greasy hair looking out the window behind the checkout desk.

Peeking over at the skinny figure, Mya lightly cleared her throat and asked, "Um, hello! Can you give me directions?" The person didn't reply but their hair slightly shook in reaction to her voice.

Deciding to take silence as consent, she continued, "I need to get to the back alley of a Nigh Burn town… Is that where we are? How do I get there?" It was silent for a while.

Before she could speak again, a shrivelled-up hand appeared on the counter, pushing a folded slip of paper to her. Cringing inwardly, she carefully took it from the store owner's hand, avoiding physical contact and quickly uttered a 'thank you' before leaving.

Drifting through the town, she noticed that it was considerably more lived in than before. Looking up at the town sign, it now read 'Welcome to Night Burn', quickly unfolding the piece of paper she got from the store owner, she found a map.

It was a map of Night Burn, it showed when all the stores opened, and the requirements for entrance. Her stomach growled, and she decided to find a place to eat proper food before going to the job place.

Looking through the map, she found a place that only required money for a customer and quickly headed there. The bell rang out as she stepped into the restaurant, breathing in the musty air, she walked up to the counter to look at the menu.

She ordered a grilled trout and fries before taking a seat. The employees looked normal, Mya wasn't sure if she should be relieved about that or not, they after all a part of town that appeared at night.

Her meal was soon served, and she dug in, the fish was well grilled and had a charry aromatic flavour. She enjoyed her fish and chip meal and paid when she was done taking a bottle of water.

She checked a clock again and saw that there was only thirty minutes left to get to the rendezvous. She hurriedly left her seat while studying the map, she figured out the directions to her destination and headed out.

Taking multiple turns, she approached a deep dark alley. Feeling nervous, she slowed down looking around for an escape route. Looking to the left and right, she saw a path that led back into the forest, she heard heavy footsteps fall and looked back ahead of her.

It was a young, harmless looking man, his hair was a blonde curly mess. He looked attractive and cute, in the shadows of the night, he was like a beacon of hope.

He walked over to Mya and smiled, "Hello! I'm Rion, are you looking for something?", she nodded and smiled back handing him the brochure, "I saw this ad for a job, it said to come here…" she trailed off. And he cocked his head with a gentle smile, gesturing for her to follow him.

Walking a short distance behind him, Mya's senses began to tingle, warning her of danger. While looking around carefully, they soon approached a log cabin pub.

She followed him to the back entrance and as soon as the door swung open, loud music blasted outside. Slipping inside quickly, she glanced around at the hectic pub. There were multiple supernaturals in there, shifters, cambions, a few lower witches and warlocks, and even a mage was sitting at the corner of the room.

Following Rion upstairs, Mya bumped into a silver eyed girl with a scar across her neck as though she was injured in an attempted marking. The girl hissed out glaring at her, before walking off.

Mya slipped and almost fell off the stairs when she was caught by a rugged looking bear-shifter, gripping her waist, he tried to pull her into his arms when he was stopped by Rion's glare.

Quickly lifting his hands off her in a sign of surrender, he backed away, and Mya could not hide the shudder of disgust and fear that ran through her body.

When they got upstairs, Rion stopped in front of the room and moved aside to let her go in. "Madeleine is waiting." He said and before she could reply, he was gone. Gulping nervously she opened the door a crack,

"Come in dearie." she heard a soothing voice slip out through the crack, and instinctively obeyed.

Realizing that she was already in the room, Mya's prudence returned to her. Carefully observing the woman in front of her, she left the door slightly open, "Don't be so tense dearie, you're here for the job, aren't you?" Madeleine said watching Mya's movements with a cat like gaze.

She was reclined on the cushion with a Hognose snake wrapped around her neck with its head resting on her wrist. It was just as relaxed as its owner, but the flash of intelligence in its eyes was proof that it was a familiar.

Mya nodded at the woman's question, carefully looking for something that would confirm of this woman was truly a witch, her eyes caught on a mark that appeared to be a wilted flower on Madeleine's collarbone.

Frowning, she couldn't help but feel terrified, unlike in the fairytale stories where there were good and bad witches, in Mya's world, witches were feared far more than demons.

They were extremely self-centred and very easily bored, from a young age they engaged in cannibalism, blood sacrifices, demon summoning and seances to form bonds with evil gods and spirits.

They were the epitome of the dark side, if one had to choose between offending an upper-demon and being in the immediate vicinity of a mid-level witch, they'd choose the former. Low level witches were like leeches, weak and useless, but anything above that was an independent and vicious woman.

Shaking with fear, much to the obvious delight of Madeleine, Mya began to shift toward the door when it suddenly slammed shut. She knew she was in for it when she watched the smile bloom across the witch's face.

"You can't leave dear Mya. You have some guests to entertain for me tonight you know!" giggling the witch tilted her head up slightly and let her lids fall close. It was going to be a fun show this time.