Fine Lines

Chapter One

The dusty old shop was full of different concoctions and vials which went hand-in-hand with several shelves of flower ringlets and pendants. Though the rotting frame of the shop seemed to sink into the ground, the foundation underfoot and above were fairly stable. The wooden floor boards were only layered with dust and maggot holes along with a mildew infested ceiling... so maybe it wasn't so stable...
The front was basic and wooden. It looked either dull and unkempt or untouched and uninhabited depending on if it was day or night. The odd spot of colour came from the broken sign that swung back and forth in the June and July storms:

Madame Ida's Voodoo Hoodoo magic store.

The colour came from the sugar style skull that smiled at customers in its worn out black, red and lime coloured tones.
All in all the shop was an antique and to the visible eye was very much a worthless store. However, I knew more...

My name is Alva Winters and due to lack of money and having no home, I currently steal. I know I'm in denial but I swear, if not given these circumstances that I may or may not have gotten myself into, I would not be raiding peoples shops.
Anyhow! My innocence is not of relevance at this moment in time. The door entrance was very much open though there was no source of light inside the shop; only a black void of nothingness. Apart from the specks of dust, racing each other to the ground.

Stepping through the door at first wasn't that much of a deal until i found myself carelessly walking forward. I managed to knock over a wooden stool which, in turn, caused a very crippled looking woman to come out of the shadows. Her haggered face was illuminated by candle light.

"Damn it!" I found myself jumping from the creaky floorboards in fright and very skillfully landed in an untidy, standing position.

"Decided you'd come into my humble shop and raid it, thief?" She raised one ink, black eyebrow quizzically.

"I am but a charming trickster that merely borrows things that others do not need!" I nervously grinned as I tried to walk backwards to the front door.

"No, you are an annoying thief who thinks they can come into my shop!" A glow was ignited in the woman's dark, twilight eyes and as I was backing my way to the entrance i bumped into a wall...where the bloody door should've been.

"Hahahaha, don't hurt me!" My smile faltered as I became frightened and confused in trying to find the entrance. Whereon god's green earth was it?!

"No." The old woman sat slowly into the wooden rocking chair that was in the center of the room. It was secretively placed next to the cabinet with various of bottled seeds and leaves. It almost looked like stain glass windows which contrasted her unmoving dark eyes. She seemed to have calmed and settle, compared to her previous demonic snarl.
Talk about bipolar menopause hormones...
"While theft is wrong, i understand that you have to and, if given the chance, would probably rather not-"

"It's funny you should say that-" I started in a hurried nervous tone and had mistakenly interrupted the woman.

"SILENCE!" I gulped as the old woman shouted, "Now, back to me, i understand that this lifestyle is not your choice. But as a guardian I still have to teach you a lesson. And I think I know how..." A grin, though wrinkled and rather grotesque, formed it's way on the tight leather skin of the old woman; unsettling and yet, oddly, warm. If leather face had his own bakery, this is the exact smile he'd have (no offence to her, she was definitely a lot more beautiful).

"As long as it's not death!" I smiled, brightly, though my cobalt blue eyes held a degree of begging. She sure was bipolar, and how did this antique woman know that though thievery keeps me in shape; mcdonnald's or kfc was probably a more honorable career path in my eyes? And where is that bloody door?!

99 problems and I can't answer one.

The woman began to hunch over as she rose from the rotten rocking chair.

"Tomorrow, you will face a new world, and a new day that you will have never imagined." She slowly arched her back so she was finally upright....as upright as an old lady of her many years could be.

"Yeah, sounds good!" I grinned enthusiastically yet with fear of thinking that this 'punishment' was way too easy and not harsh. An entrance was what I really needed at the moment, that and a mind reader to know what the woman in front of me had in store.
Hahaha in store and I was literally in a store!
Okay maybe not the time for punny jokes Alva...

"Come to this shop at 6:30 AM tomorrow and I will talk to you about punishments." She walked, well, more like hobbled over to me and shook my hand with her cold ones. A dead tight grip. She looked me in the eyes, "I am Ida and please, come again."
She let go with a cunning smile and turned to disappear into the black void; candlelight and haggard old lady no longer in sight.

In a daze of confusion and worry I turned to find myself facing the closed door of the entrance: a splinter of wood digging its way into my cheek became of the proximity.
In a hurry of horror and disbelief, I flung open the door and ran down the streets of New Orleans.