It was meant to be a calm day. The store would be open just till midday due to the slow businesses on that month. It was the Bloody Moon month*, people usually don't buy flowers on that period. Not even his 'special customers' come to buy his 'exotic products'. Everyone was too busy buying scary costumes, ornaments to decorate their homes and alcohol for the ones who were too old to go after candy.
The plan was: closing the store at 12:30pm, go home, watch tv, maybe get high with his freshly purchased Wonderland Drops leaves, eat something he would only be able to do it while high, regret doing it and promise to never smoke this stuff again(a promise he breaks at least once every two months), take a shower and go to sleep.
It was a good plan, but when you run that kind of business you learn to expect anything. But for sure Gus wasn't expecting he had to drag an unconscious body through the stairs to his flat on the second floor.
Gus kicked the door that was slightly opened, since his hands were too busy holding the corpse on his back. His customer was taller than him so, even if he was skinny he still was as heavy as a potato sack. He tries to keep balance with the height on his shoulders as he passes through the door.
He goes to the living room and drops the body on his couch. He wipes the sweat from his forehead panting. After Gus catched his breath he could go back to what he was doing minutes after Keith passed out. Being in panic.
"Vulcan! Vulcan!" he shouts while looking around. A small golem, not bigger than a 2 year old child, comes running from the kitchen, his metal boots making thump noises on the wooden floor. Vulcan notices the body on the couch and looks at Gus, he couldn't see the golem's face, since he was wearing a helmet, with bull horns on each side, but his body language could be translated by 'what is going on?'
"I know, I'm just as confused as you" Gus replies to him. He knees next to the couch and places his ear on keith's chest to see if he was still alive. His heart was beating, but he was having trouble to breath.
Gus gets up and walks around the room. His hands gripping his long blue dreads, deadly worried. A ton of possibilities about what happened passing through his head. Maybe a spider bit him. He dealt with the spider infestation weeks ago but some could have survived, maybe hiding between the vines around the basement. He could have eaten one golden apple while he wasn't paying attention. It won't be the first time that a person inadvertently ate one, fooled by the shiny light the fruit produced. He was getting more nervous, the more time he wasted thinking about what happened more close this strange that Volt sended to him was from death.
He immediately stops, he knew what he should do.
"Vulcan! The phone" the small golem quicks grabs the telephone on the counter that separates the kitchen from the living room, he hands it to Gus that starts to digit a number. The only person who could solve this mess was the one who started.
A deep voice answered "You've reached Wizard Proxy, this is volt speaking, how can i help you?"
"Cut that shit out Volt" Gus cuts his rehearsed presentation "the guy you told to find me is dying on my couch. But I'm sure you probably knew that would happen."
"Good morning for you too Gus" Volt says on a calm tone "and yes, I was just helping him but now seeing clearly I regret this decision. Maybe you should let him die. I will help you later with the body."
Gus stay static, not believing what he just heard "I don't have time for jokes Volt!"
"I wish I was joking. Let him die, I will come to your place and help you hide the body.
"Volt I can't let him die! This is wrong! Besides, I was about to make some good business before he passed out"
"Trust me Gus, I wouldn't ask for you to do this if I wasn't serious. He will give you trouble in the future"
"Just… tell me what should I do to save him" Gus insists, he would deal with 'the trouble' later. Now he needs the money.
Volt sighs on the phone "I was expecting for you to ignore me but I still got hope. Take off his shirt, it will help him breath. Good luck." he hangs up.
"Wait, what? How that would he- hello?" Gus throws away the phone in frustration, vulcan grabs it before it hits the ground.
He sits on the couch on the right side of the one Keith was laid on, he couldn't just sit and watch the man die, even if what Volt said was true. No one deserves to die, no matter what terrible things they do or will do.
Maybe some people deserves it.
Maybe just one person.
'Take off his shirt, it will help him breath' volt's advice echoes on his head. He didn't knew how that would help, but he was to desperate so any advice is better than anything.
He gets up and goes to where keith is. He pulls him by his arms and struggles to make him sit, a hard task when the person is unconscious and keeps falling to the side like a ragdoll.
After a minute Gus manages to make him sit intact. With his head pending to the side, but still intact.
Taking off his jacket first weren't so hard. Since it was already opened, all Gus had to do was sliding it off from his arms. He places the purple jacket on the floor. 'Now the hard part' he thinks.
Gus grabs the shirt on his waist and lift it up, he stops it when the shirt is on Keith's neck and covering his face, he lifts his arms and slides his sleeves through each one. The bigger struggle was passing it through the neck, Gus sit on the man's lap and with both hands tries to pass the small collar on his costumer's big skull without suffocating him, but since he was not breathing anyway Gus saw no need to be gentle.
Finally, with a strong pull, he manages to take of the piece of cloth. He places it on the floor next to the jacket, without taking his eyes from the asleep man in front of him. Now looking closer, Keith sure was handsome. His long golden hair giving him an angelic appearance. His pale skin looked like made of silk. Gus was hypnotized by his face until something pulling his shirt from behind made him wake up from his trance. He turned around to see Vulcan with his arms crossed disapprovingly.
"what? I'm just seeing if I didn't hurt him by accident" he says. He turns back his attention to Keith and notices a golden chain around his neck, following the chain he saw a red medallion, with the picture of a dragon drafted on it, the medallion was hidden under his shirt, maybe to prevent to draw the attention of burglars. Gus get off his lap and lays him back on the couch, looking for any bite marks or any stain that could indicate he was poisoned.
His chest was clean, then he decides to check his back. "Give me a hand here Vulcan" the small gollen approaches the body and begins to turn him, then he immediately let go, dropping him back on the couch. The golem walks back.
Gus is confused "What's wrong? You saw something?" The golem nods furiously. Gus didn't remember a time where he saw him so scared. He feels a chill on his stomach. "Oh dear, it's so bad?" The golem nods once again, then he grabs one of his long sleeves and pulls him back, like if he was trying to keep Gus away from something. Something dangerous.
"Cut it out Vulcan! Let me see what's going on" he swings his arm and gets free from Vulcan's grip. He kneels and puts his hands under Keith's back and lifts it. It didn't took him so long to realize what made Vulcan so scared.
On his left shoulder was a inverted black pentagram, with the size of a closed fist. Gus knew that symbol. Everyone, actually. It's a popular one that can represents evil and it's usually linked to dark magic. Gus only knew two kind of people that would tattoo that thing on their skin: edgy teenagers, not Keith's case(well, he wasn't a teenager), and…
An idea clicked on his head, it was silly, but worth a try.
He turns to Vulcan "Turn the seal off".
Vulcan nods, denying. Gus insists "Trust me Vulcan, turn it off".
Vulcan stares at him for a few minutes. Then he join his hands, runes appears shining around his body. Gus could hear a low buzz, then nothing. Vulcan takes his hands aparts and nods at him. Gus answers by nodding back, he turns to keith. Moving his medallion of the way, he places his ear on his bare chest. He could hear his heart beating faster and his lungs slowly getting on track again, a smile of relief crossed Gus' face.
He leans back and takes a deep breath, his hypothesis was right, he saved his customer's life.
He turns to vulcan, smiling "It worked, he's fine"
'Not thanks to you, stupid hippie' a weak voice echoed on his head, too deep to be his own.
Gus looks around confused "uh..hello?". He spots Vulcan, that was also looking for the source of the voice.
'over here, idiot!' the voice slowly getting louder, like a roar. Gus notices the medallion was shining with a weak red light. He speaks at the object "It's you who are talking?"
'Yeah, it's me!' the medallion light got brighter 'you're lucky I can't get out of here or I would cut off those stupid play-doh hair of yours!'
Gus frowns at the object "Excuse me? Listen, I went through a lot of stuff today, I won't tolerate being offended by a fancy rock"
"You can't really blame him though" Keith says waking up, he grabs the medallion with one hand and rubs his forehead with the other, feeling like he were ran over by a truck "even more after you almost killed us."
"Hey! It's not my fault. How would I know you're a necromancer?"
Keith stops, he turns to Gus "How did you…" then he notices that his shirt was gone "Oh, I see. When I said I would pay anything for those mushrooms I was talking about money, but if you're looking for something else…"
Gus don't understand the commentary "uh, what do you m…" his face turns head when he realizes "I wasn't..! I- I was looking for…! I'm n-not that kind of…"
Keith gives a discreet smirk, he was amused by the embarrassed shopkeeper. He sits on the couch "Calm down, Gus, isn't? I was just joking. Anyway, now that I'm okay, let's get back to business, shall we?"
Gus recomposes himself, he gets up and looks at him with a serious gaze "Yeah, about that. I won't sell you anything until you say me for what you want the Golden Drops"
"Why so curious now?" Keith says while dressing himself
"What my customers do with my products it's not of my concern. But only because I know they won't do anything wrong or illegal. But you're a different story. Necromancers have a bad reputation on the magic world. So tell me why do you want the mushrooms, unless you want Vulcan to kick you out of here"
The small golem punches the palm of his own hand behind Gus.
Keith studies the man in front of him in silence.
'Just eat his mana and take the mushrooms. Let me take care of his toy!' Helios spoke on his mind
Keith grins 'No, maybe he could be useful' he answers mentally.
Keith gets up. He trembles a bit, still weak from whatever made him feel that way. "What if I show you?"
Gus raises one eyebrow.
"Come with me to my place, you can see what I'm going to do with them. Maybe you could get interested in it"
"No, thank you" Gus denies "I don't want to take part on whatever voodoo stuff you're into."
"What about a deal? I will show you what kind of 'voodoo' I'm doing. If you get interested, I will pay you with something more valuable than money. If not,I will just pay for them, leave the town and you will never see me again" he show him his hand "So? What do you say Mr. Grav?"
Gus looks at his hand. He feels Vulcan hugging his leg, a sign for him to not accept the offer.
'something more valuable than money' sounds tempting.
'He will give you trouble in the future.' Volt warning him once again on his mind.
He will only show him, it doesn't look so bad. It's not like Gus would agree in join in whatever crazy stuff he were into.
He reaches to shake his hand but stops in time "Something will happen when I shake your hand isn't? Some weird mark, like yours, will appear in my hand and I will sell my soul to you without knowing or something?"
That made Keith laughs, so hard that he had to keep himself from falling back on the couch. "No, no. I promise that won't happen" he calms himself "God that would be a very low blow. Even for me" he show his hand once again.
Gus sigh and shakes Keith's hand.