Fragments of Ash Vol. 2 (Urban Fantasy)

End: Fly Me to the Moon

Lucille stood behind the counter of the Dead Battery. She was doing the same thing she did every time she worked the till. Absolutely nothing. It was a small electronics and mechanics shop, and she knew nothing about the trade, while she was thankful that Ciel had given her the job, she had no idea what most of the customers meant when they were talking to her. So she just stood there, surrounded by oil, metal, nuts and bolts, in a small and rather smelly shop. Like a flower in compost.

"A battery for the Tequila Rosa Mark 2 outside the shop, you got any?" grunted a large biker, he was probably addressing her. Was Tequila Rosa a type of bike? Or did her name his bike Tequila Rosa?

Lucille stared at him blankly,

"You got any or not?" said the man,

Lucille stared at him blankly,

"H-hey, quit that! Where's the guy who usually hangs here anyway?" the man twitched,

Lucille's ghostly stare was too much for him,

"Man forget it! I'm tryin' another store!" the guy hurriedly rushed out,

Lucille stared as he left. Why did that keep happening?

Ciel walked in, looking at the scared customer running off into the distance. He had a satchel around his shoulder carrying the standard radio equipment that he so often used to fiddle with.

"Tell me you weren't the reason he ran off Lucille..." he said,

Lucille stared at Ciel blankly,

"Don't give me that. It doesn't work on me," Ciel was visibly flustered though,

"He wanted a battery," she whispered, "I don't know."

"You should've shown him the catalogue Lucille, like I taught you?" of course that would require customer service skills. Of which she had none.

She was useless in the stock room too, her frail physique prevented her from lifting anything heavier than a gear or two, and she seemed to lose her composure around oil and dirt. Still, he couldn't just leave her out on the road, and Francoise seemed to be extremely fond of her. Oddly so.

Ciel noticed Lucille staring at his satchel,

"Oh this?" he shrugged, "an old toy I used to play with back in the day. Foolish dreams of capturing radio waves from the moon, stupid, really."

Lucille looked back at the counter,

"Yeah, I got some weird responses, crackling noises, but never anything clear. Either way it's a fool's errand, I'd never get anything out of it."

"You could contact Ada," said Lucille, her voice was monotone as always,

"Contact Ada? What do you mean?"

"Her soul is probably in purgatory, her body isn't dead, so she's probably just floating around up there. The seekers of the moon believe-"

"I know what the seekers of the moon believe. My mother was head priestess. I thought I told you that,"

"The seekers of the moon believe that when a person dies, their soul gets given to mother moon, who chooses an appropriate body for the soul to be reincarnated into."