The Houdini Bookshop

Chapter 1: Houdini

A/N: Gosh. A major epic fail story written by me.

Edit: Heya! This is 2016 PumpkinPau! This was my first story published here!  I decided to edit it and tweak it a little (I'm gonna add some minor things to the story).

***

"She cheated on you with that guy."

"I'm so disappointed in you."

"This'll help you forget! Blaze it up brother!"

Random lines from the past fee days echoed inside Pierre's mind. He rubbed the temples of his aching head before getting up from his bed. It's been a day now that he's sober, last week was the worst week of his life. His parents had cut him off and his long-time girlfriend slept with some guy. He felt as if he was going to get crazy.

"Open up you freeloading wino!" Amanda, the landlady angrily called from outside.

Pierre was not in the mood to deal with her today. He wished he had another whole bottle of vodka so he wouldn't hear her endless screaming and instead, fall back to sleep.

"Dios Mio! I swear I will blast this door down if you don't open up this instant!" the landlady threatened but the boy didn't care, it wasn't his building and he's only a tenant—he won't even give a damn if she blast the whole building down.

In the end even if he didn't want to, the boy had no choice but to open the door to shut Amanda up. Pierre lazily walked up to his front door, his body felt like a huge boulder was loaded onto his back. Slowly, he turned the doorknob and let the door creak open. The angry landlady stood outside the hall looking like she was about to explode. Amanda had her arms tucked together, her brows intensely furrowed and her lips curled into an angry frown. "When will you pay up?" she asked, obviously irritated.

"Tomorrow I'll find a job and I promise to pay up as soon as my first salary comes in which is by the end of the month... probably." Pierre said.

"Oh right and when I return here at the end of the month or tomorrow you will still be in your bed, sulking about your stupid lost love! Just because it's summer means you can be lazy!" she scoffed.

Pierre wanted to punch the woman but he kept his cool and simply took in all the insults and sass Amanda threw at him. He didn't want to add another problem in his list of current ones. When Amanda was done scolding him, Pierre turned his back and shut the door before he completely lost his cool.

It was Friday noon and Pierre had finally gone out of his apartment to search for a part-time job he can take. With only a few change in his pocket he walked along the block of tall buildings and apartments turned commercial spaces.

"Oh man, I don't think I can do this."

The anxious boy walked under the sun hoping that he can land a job even for only a day so he could pay a little for his apartment rent. The heat was unbearable and it stung his skin, he has a car but he didn't have any gas left in the tank and the remaining money inside his pocket was not enough to fill even a liter.

"Spare change please..." a homeless old man begged on the side of the road as Pierre walked by.

The boy reached for a quarter inside his pocket and dropped it inside the can of the homeless man. "You need this more than I do." Pierre told the old man and then went on.

"Young man," the homeless called out to Pierre. "Take a turn at the third street from here, look for a small store with books displayed on the window and there you will find what you seek." the old man said.