Sister Grimm

2 - Rita's Ridiculous Readings

Dr. Strange is a busy man, Nico. But I will try my best. xoxo -JEN

Nico stared down at her cell phone and sighed. How was she supposed to help this girl, if nobody was even taking her seriously? Especially if She-Hulk wasn't even able to help? Nico could already feel herself plotting some scheme to make this right, but she shakes the thought away. She isn't going to do this anymore. She wasn't a superhero. She was just a girl. A girl who runs away. Nico needed to listen to her own motto.

"Nicole, can you give me a hand?" an elderly voice sounded from across the counter.

Nico snapped to attention and quickly shoved her cell phone down into her apron.
Mrs. Rita stood in front of Nico with her hands on her hips. The boss lady herself. Rita's gypsy look really fit into the dark spectral hippie vibe the storefront was trying to pull off. Though her tolerance for Nico lately has been somewhat lacking. Nico could already tell by the look on Rita's face and that hands on her hips that she had been caught, but Nico smiled and walked around the counter to meet her.

"Yes, Mrs. Rita?" Nico chimed respectfully.

Rita turned her head toward the other end of the store, causing Nico to follow her gaze. A girl and her friends browsed the aisles of the store. Rita slowly turned back around to see Nico still beside her. "We have customers Nicole..."

"Of course," Nico chirped as she quickly stepped in line toward the young patrons. Anything to get Mrs. Rita off of her back.

Mrs. Rita had never asked any questions and paid Nico under the tables and for that she was thankful. Nico had been down on her luck before winding up on her doorstep. And while magic was something Nico was trying to get away from (though I am unsure if you would consider this shop magical) it was the only option she had. There was nobody else to help her. But Mrs. Rita was always there. With her long gray hair and flowy skirts.

Whether Mrs. Rita was the real deal or not, remained to be seen. Nico had never been allowed to be a part of any of the readings. Though she did recognize that Rita was prone to use a crystal ball at times if customers appeared unhappy with their fortunes. Surprisingly most customers left happy. Some even crying. Nico believed in magic, but she wasn't sure if this was it. She always wondered what her future might hold though and that was also the very reason she also refused to have a reading.

"Hello and welcome to Ritas Ridiculous Readings where no question is too ridiculous for Mrs. Rita. How can I help you today?," Nico politely asked the young girls browsing the tarot cards.

"Can Rita tell me who I will marry one day?" one young girl chimed. Her glasses already fogged up from the cool air of the shop.

Nico grinned, "Remember no question is too ridiculous."

The girls giggled, except for one girl dressed in black.

"I bet its not real," the goth girl said trying to get a reaction from her friends.

Nico smiled at the girl, "Well now that is ridiculous."

The girls continued to giggle, but the young goth girl didn't back down.

"See I know some magic and Mrs. Rita is old and her stuff is cheap and its not real," the young girl said through puckered lips and crossed arms. "I wanna see some real magic."

There was silence in the aisles of the shop as the girls waited to see what would happen. Nico hesitated for a minute before leaning in toward the girls and whispering under her breath. "You wanna see magic?"

A glimmer sparked in the young goth girl's eyes as she looked at Nico curiously.
 
"I can show you magic?" Nico stated quietly as the girls leaned closer in.
   
"Show us," one girl giggled quietly as the group waited patiently to see what Nico would do next.
   
Nico grounded her feet and held out her gloved hands in front of her all while closing her eyes in a very serious manner. Of course she had to pick at least once as she smirked and said the magic words, "Abra Kadabra!"
   
Suddenly out of nowhere a bouquet of roses burst out of Nico's hands and into thin air. The girls squealed and Nico laughed for  the first time in a long time. As the girls chattered and laughed, Nico passed them each a rose telling them that they still needed to come back and have their readings done by Mrs. Rita.
   
"That was a cheap trick," the goth girl said unamused.
   
Nico smiled and handed her a rose. "Well you'll never know, will you?"
   
The goth girl didnt smile back but instead starred past Nico with a look of fear in her face. Suddenly she realized the rest of the girls were looking quietly in the same direction. Nico had seen those looks before and quickly spun around to see what was wrong. There was a commotion happening back up at the front desk. From where Nico was she could almost instantly recognize a hold up. She could hear Rita's calm voice from the register, but the noise was getting louder. Nico needed to get up there.
   
Looking back at the girls, she lowered her voice and spoke directly to the goth girl, "Take your friends and go hide on the other side of the store."
   
Luckily the goth girl nodded and the group quietly moved in the opposite direction from the commotion at the front desk.
   
As Nico made her way quietly up the aisles of the magic shop, she slid her gloves off from her hands, so as to show the mechanical arm underneath. She wanted to be prepared for anything, since she didn't have the Staff of One. Maybe it would scare whoever was holding up the place. From her current position, she felt like she could make out a guy with a gun. At least it was only one person? She could deal with this quickly. Suddenly from somewhere beside her, Nico was smashed up against the aisle by a brute force that knocked the wind out of her.
   
From the floor, she lifted herself up on two hands to try and catch her breath.
   
"I'd stay down if I were you," the large thug threatened. His face was covered by a Kitsune mask as he cracked his knuckles.
   
Nico smiled at the bully as she whipped blood from the corner of her mouth, "Well there goes my quiet takedown."
   
The room shook as the words Nico has heard so many times before echoed  loudly through the shop in a voice that was unlike her own, "When blood is shed...Let The Staff of One emerge--"
   
The Staff of One emerged from Nico's chest causing the thug to stumble back toward the front door. The Staff always left Nico exhausted, but watching the fear in this large man's posture, really gave her the extra strength that she needed.
   
"I thought I told you to stay down!" the thug trembled as he whipped out a gun and pointed it in a disgruntled Nico's direction.
   
"I'm gonna stay right here," she chided with a grin, "but you can go UP UP AND AWAY!"
   
Nico watched as the man soared up through the roof of the shop. The ceiling burst open as his body was tossed out into the ocean that rested a few hundred feet from the shop's front doors. Nico smiled when she saw the splash far out in the glass front door, but before she could even sigh someone yelled at her from the register.
   
"Hey witch!" was all she heard before she saw the blast from the gun fire in her direction.
   
Nico lifted up her arm and the bullet stopped in mid air, inches away from her face.
   
She scowled, angry at almost being shot, and without asking Nico's feet levitated off of the ground, her hair and apron flapping around in the nonexistent breeze.
   
"You wanna see a witch. I'll show you a witch," Nico promised. "DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE."
   
Immediately the gun slide falls out and the bullets cascade in the floor as the mans pants fall down and he trips on the ground in an attempt to get out of the store with his life. Though he doesn't make it far as the floor soon gives way and the thugs begin to be sucked down into the bubbling wooden floor below them. Nico watches as the store spits out the other thugs outside in the street and slowly Nico descends back to the ground, Staff of One still in hand. Finally she sighs as a hand touches her shoulder and she flinches, witch arm at the ready.
   
Standing behind her are the young girls, with their goth girl leader starry eyed in front.
   
"Now that was magic," she grinned. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
   
Nico laughed awkwardly to herself, "When I learn how to use it myself, I will let you know."
   
Mrs. Rita walks around from behind the counter. A piece of long hair had fallen into her face as she came over to where the girls were standing with Nico.
   
"Girls I think it's time that you go home," Rita said sternly as she herded the girls toward the back door of the shop and locked it behind them.
   
Rita looked back at Nico. Her hair disheveled. A mechanical arm and the Staff of One in hand.
   
"I think it's time we finally talked," Rita stated.
   
And suddenly just like that, Nico went from feeling like a hero, to feeling like a young girl in trouble. With a frown, Nico nodded and she followed Mrs. Rita into the back of the shop with a heavy heart.