NO!
No, no no no no no!
A guttural scream of horror ripped its way out of my throat.
I darted around like a hummingbird trying to rescue any falling items that I could, but my effort was futile. Every single shelf in my shop collapsed! Even as fast as I was, I only managed to catch a potted orchid and a small set of woven baskets.
I found myself surrounded by the ruined remains of my priceless collection of goodies. My heart cracked into two.
Frozen in shock, I was only stirred into motion when the sound of wood cracking began again, this time from above my head.Shit, the roof is coming down! Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!
I had a split second to act, and I barely made it outside before my world came crashing down around me.
I allowed myself to feel the soul-shattering panic and despair for only a few heartbeats before I sprinted into the town square as fast as my legs could carry me, headed towards the only folk I was sure could help.
I bypassed Kizzi’s, as she always took house calls and made deliveries at this time of day, and she would surely be on the far side of town. I ran past my other neighbors as well, because there was nothing they could do for me in this chaos. I needed the mayor’s help. He would know what to do.
Seconds later, I burst into the mayor’s office, red-faced and huffing.
“Mayor. Tommins. I need. Your help,” I puffed out between gasps of air. I really needed to start working out more, this was kind of embarrassing.
Mayor Tommins was a gryphon, and younger than I’d always expected mayors to be. He had been the mayor for as long as I could remember, but he never seemed to age a day. I had no idea how old he really was.
I was clearly interrupting his morning as he jerked his eyes up to look at me, startled, with his mouth hanging slightly open. His pointed teeth caught the light. It took him a moment to shake himself free of his stupor and register what I had said.
“Miss Elmwick, I can see you are rather flustered. What in the realms is going on?” he asked, setting down the parchment he was reading and rising to his feet.
“My shelves!” I heaved, slowly beginning to catch my breath. “They’ve collapsed! All of my trinkets are on the floor! I’ve been sabotaged! The whole place is coming down!”
Mayor Tommins didn’t seem as shocked by this information as he should have been. Why wasn’t he panicking? This was a travesty!
I was sweating buckets, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. My breaths wouldn’t slow. It took all of my will power to hold off the wave of panic that was threatening to rise and pull me under.
He took a moment to gather his thoughts before answering. “I’m sorry, Miss Elmwick. That is very unfortunate. I am afraid to say that you aren’t the only Moonvale resident havingproblems this morning. There has been a string of incidents over the past few days. It seems we have all been having… rather poor luck.”
Luck! This had nothing to do with luck. Sturdy oak shelves didn’t just collapse for no reason. Someone wasclearlyout to get me. “I need help! What can you do? Are any earth witches or builders available to come take a look? Everything I’ve got is in there. Everything!” I leaned on his desk as I began to feel lightheaded, nausea churning in my gut.
The mayor sighed deeply and slid his glasses off so he could drop his face into his hands. “I’ll add you to my list,” he mumbled between his fingers. “We’ll get someone out there as soon as we can. It might take some time. As I said, you aren’t the only one with a disaster right now.”
“Okay… okay. Yes, please, just send someone whenever you can.” I couldn’t hold back my wave of disappointment. I wanted to fix thisnow.
I stifled a huff of frustration, thanked Mayor Tommins, and left the office. I was proud of myself that I only stomped alittlebit. I wanted to throw a full-blown tantrum. My entire livelihood depended on my shop, and if I couldn’t keep selling trinkets and earning silvers, I was absolutely screwed.
My shop waseverything.
I had kept Fiella’s Finds afloat for five years, since my Ma had handed it off to me during my twentieth year, and I would be damned if I’d watch it crumble now. I had poured all my blood, sweat, and tears into that place.
I came from a long line of trinket sellers. I had learned from my Ma, and she had learned from her Ma before her. The business had passed through generations, but I had morphed it into something that was entirely my own. My project, my vision,my shop. Trinket selling was in my blood. It was my passion, my joy, my life’s mission.
Pa was a painter, but he had been by Ma’s side back when the shop had been called “Moonvale Novelties”, and they ran the business together. They had both retired and moved on to exploring the realms, but that didn’t mean I was going to let the shop crumble to dust now that they were long gone (current situation notwithstanding).
The walk back to my shop took much longer than my panicked sprint to Town Hall, but it still passed much too quickly. I wasn’t ready to face the damage behind the green-painted door. The tremors in my hands turned into full-blown quakes as I reached for the handle, dreading the closer look I would have to take at the damage.
At least most of the structure seemed to be remaining upright. The back corner had collapsed, but the remaining three were holding on by a thread.
Thank the gods for brick reinforcements.
Water pooled in my eyes and my throat constricted. My much-too-rapid breaths caused my vision to begin tunneling. Panic was slowly sinking its deadly claws into me, creeping under my skin and into my muscles. Crunching my bones.
