"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Forty-Eight: Late Night Gigs And Phone Chats
(MADMAX, Pt. 5)
***
"Now, that is another hundred dollars."
The woman with teased hair scowled as she coughed up the hundred dollars, Aunt Aco smiling victoriously as she gave the money to Rowan, who added them to the other hundred her aunt had gotten out of the mark in the cash box. Once the money had been given up, Aunt Aco leaned forward, eyes trained on the crystal ball as she said in a mystical voice, "Your daughter... she will get good grades. She will graduate."
"And? Will she get into college?" the woman asked, leaning forward, hands gripping her purse, sweat beading on her forehead.
Aunt Aco looked at the woman and said, "For that, I must consult the mists of time further in my crystal ball. That is another hundred dollars."
The woman's anxious expression twisted into a scowl as she stood up. "That's what you said last time. I'm not going to be cheated out of all my money."
Aunt Aco's lips quirked into a smirk. "Maybe. But if you want to know for certain your daughter's future... I'm the best chance you have."
The woman hesitated, features twisting before she reluctantly sat down, grabbing another hundred out while scowling.
Glee lit up Aunt Aco's face as she took the money and handed it to Rowan, the teen also thrilled the woman was so easy to con, especially given how rich she obviously was.
The rich ones are always the most gullible ones, Rowan thought as she put away their newly three hundred dollars, adding it to the other cash her aunt had gotten in the box from earlier marks; with all of this, they might be able to not only pay for their bills and groceries this week, but she could pocket her own earnings and buy things she liked. Same with Alistair. And given how her aunt was always so worried about money and them being poor, this money was going to be treasured and spent wisely.
As her aunt looked into her crystal ball and began to see a fake future for the mark's daughter, she gave Rowan a look. Rowan nodded, and a second later something was knocked over in the trailer past her aunt's workstation, while the lights flickered overhead.
The woman jumped, asking in a frightened voice, "What was that?!"
"Oh, just the spirits," her aunt answered airily as Rowan discreetly wiped the blood from her nose, the sleeves of her jacket hiding her glowing veins as the brilliant blue faded away.
The woman looked unsettled, but she seemed convinced something paranormal was happening—if only she really knew—listening as her aunt read the future shown to her.
"I see your daughter going into college. I see... her graduating, and her finding love. I see her being happily married with three kids and staying at home taking care of them," her aunt said in a mysterious voice, and Rowan could see the distaste in her aunt's eyes of having to tell this type of future. It wasn't a bad future, but it was future most women had for decades, especially when Aunt Aco constantly told Rowan that she should always try to be independent and screw what society expected of women. But this was the future the woman wanted for her daughter, and Aco always tried to give the future the mark always wanted to hear.
