Chapter 1: Aftershock

The story starts the setting

With dreadful movements, a mark of betrayal, and overall defeat, the man hesitantly left the room. A force drove her to say every word. Maddening as this event was, it was over and, timely enough, she went back to completing the chores she had started before her the urgency of customer had come before her. Like a storm of desperateness, a wildly looking man, with a goofy face to match the rest of his gangly, body came in. He was tall and thin, just like a stereotype in a way.

            Amusement filled her thoughts, now as she gracefully went back to her daily tasks. She had always done them with great agility; for not only were these something she had done her entire life, but it seemed that she found a small bit of pleasure in performing the chores.

            Though, she often wondered about it while doing her chores, especially after reading a fortune magic was, in her belief, a driving force of its own, filled with amazement, wonder, and much curiosity. But, was it real? It was a question to be answered by someone who actually cared about the answer. Sarah hardly cared whether it was fictional or not. She just usually figured the idea itself was fun, built into the thoughts of the pure.

The horrendous fortune she had just given to her latest victim somewhat made her feel uneasy, but only for a short time. If she had not believed in true magic, how was she able to come up with such a dreadful tale to bestow onto an unsuspecting man, who already seemed so hurt, and so weak.

Unknown wonders were zipping through her mind now. Does every one experience these wonders, after they had their fortunes told by her? But, could there be anyone who possessed true magical abilities? Certainly she would not be one of the lucky few. Yet, only another question she pondered.

As she tidied up, she put her items of magic, especially her cards, carefully back to their rightful places. These objects project an aura of majestic proportions that appealed to her, even more as she looked upon them once again.

Her heart always seemed to ease around these items. Mostly because of the memories kept within them, but also because of the magical presence they brought to the environment surrounding her.

It was just about noon when she finished off the last of her chores; finishing with feeding her bird, Jax. Jax was a red, orange, and blue parrot who, in an unfortunate flying accident, had only one wing. Sarah had saved him from an animal shelter a few years back.

Besides the missing appendage, he was healthy and stunningly beautiful. She had felt poor for the bird and tried to understand the terrible pain the bird faced; for she, too, had a missing appendage of her own. She was missing her pinky finger from the left hand.

            A genetic doing, she was told by the doctors. Apparently, neither of her parents had pinky finger, nor any generation before her. And odd ordeal, but nothing more; for she could do anything she desired, as a normal human. Why would a missing finger have any reason to create problems in any part of her life? If anything, it helped her in her line of work.     

            Who doesn’t yearn for a mysterious fortune teller to unveil the unknown? As a smirk ran across her face, she remembered the time she once told a drunk that she had lost her finger to the next world trying to fend off demonic wolves.

            It would be the highlight of her day, to tell such wild stories to the gullible, and easily deceived, “mortals”. A chuckle came from her as now she was just enjoying all of her fun tricks she preformed on her unsuspecting customers.

            Sarah Moreau, official fortune teller. Everything about her was great additions to her magical look. She was black-haired, one eye blue, and the other brown. Yet, another genetic disorder from her medically challenged family. Her uncommon last name, which was actually quite abundant in France, was hard to pronounce to most.

            She was, in a way, plain in her body shape, and look; 5’9” and 145 pounds. She wasn’t ugly by any means, but she, being so humble, did not think of herself to be gorgeous either.

She would have rather thought that her splendid and graceful personality was the key to her being once engaged to a handsome man when she was a freshman in college.

Though with a great personality, you would've thought she would have been able to keep her fiancé, Roger. They had split up only two years ago dew to multiple arguments concerning her stability in the, latest economically failing, job market.

Even over their fights, they were able to have compassion for one another, and make sweet love together, occasionally. She remembered those sweet times their eyes meet, like a bow coming together with a violin.

The memorable times made her sleepy; sleepy enough that she thought to put her head down and nap on the couch. It was only four, but her eye lids grew heavy, and heavier.

Author's Note

any errors or suggestions are perfect!