I felt quite awkward standing alone in the middle of the foreign room. One second I walked in, and the next second I was helping increase sales. My mind couldn't drop the subject of the strange old woman. She seemed the type that would need help crossing a road, or shovelling her driveway, but boy was I wrong. In reality, she was as fit as a fiddle. I sighed as I walked to the corner of the room and plopped down on the chair. It did look quite comfortable from afar, but I don't recommend sitting on it, because it would be considered a pain in the... Buttocks. I fiddled with the strange paperweight on the counter. it was made of stone. It had various carvings on it. Some weird letters of a different language. There was a potion stand on the corner of the table. In it there were three different potions. Green ones which helped detect a lie amongst phrases, red ones which helped figure out if anything was artificial, (probably Orums in this case) and blue ones which helped enhance sp- my thoughts were cut off when the door creaked open. I stood up. The first thought which popped into my mind was that it would be the old lady. "Wanted to teach me the basics firs-" I was cut off by myself. It wasn't her. I quickly composed myself. "Umm... How may I help you?" I asked mostly questioning myself at my way of greeting the customer. It was a boy. He looked around my age. "I need a vanish potion" he said. "Umm... Okay" I said. I felt embarrassed as I didn't know where it even was. I mentally scolded myself for not looking around at the potions. I looked around the shelves and it looked as if I was a customer myself. "Umm... Are you sure this is your shop?" He asked suspiciously. Something in his voice scared me. As if he was threatening me. It gave the impression that he only wanted officials around and not amateurs. "It's not my shop, I'm a helper" I said. His expression darkened. "You are a darkling right?" He asked. "Yes, of course." I said without missing a heartbeat. Somehow my mind wasn't exactly keen on trusting this stranger. His posture recovered into a casual position. A cheeky look alpeared on his face. "I'm guessing you have no idea how to run a shop?" He smirked. I cross my arms. "As if you have any idea where the potion is yourself" I spit back. He reached out for the shelf next to him and grabbed a potion all the while still looking at me. 'Show off' I mumbled. "Well, I guess you could help yourself. That would be..." I quickly walked to the counter and picked up a notepad which had all the prices of potions written on it. My eyes skid down the list and reached 'vanish potion' "that would be seven orums-" I looked up to see him gone. I ran out of the shop to see him running away. "Hey! Thief!" I shouted and chased after him, but he was too fast. I stood helplessly as I watched the last of his stupid black hair vanish as he went out of sight. "I stamped my foot on the ground in frustration. I looked around to see no one actually noticed the little thief. I turned and walked into the shop.
"Handled that well?" The old hag asked. Guess whose back. She was really getting on my nerves now. "I don't assume you could chase after him?" I asked rather rudely. My breath wasn't steady and my palms were clammy. She pointed at the blue vial on the counter. "That's a speed potion. Meant for catching thieves like him" she said matter of factly. "You could have told me earlier-oh yes, you vanished without saying a word" I said crossing my arms. "Young lady, to be a lightling or a darkling, you must know about certain potions. Especially the most common ones. Have you been living under a rock?" This lady is too sassy for her age. "You can blame my limited knowledge about potions on my mom. She doesn't encourage it." I said grumpily. "That is bad parenting" she said as she went back to sitting on her chair. "Tell me about it" I muttered under my breath. "Well, you are of no use to me now. Come along tomorrow at the same time. And don't even think about dismissing yourself." She said strictly. I'm not going to lie, she really does scare me. "In that case I'll need an aura potion" I said. She waddled to one of the shelves and pulled out a vial, the purple liquid glistened in it. She handed it over to me and I hid the vial in my skirt pocket before walking out of the shop.
Finally, my cottage came into sight. It was midnight, and the potion was wearing off quickly. I ran to my door and tried the handle mentally hoping that it wouldn't be locked. To my fortune, it creaked open slowly and I stepped in. The house was quiet. The only sound that could be heard was of the crickets which probably lived behind our door. I slowly tiptoed into my room. My room had two beds, one for me, and one for my brother. He was 14 years old. The beds were both pushed against the wall and were kept at a distance. We had a small table at the other end of the room, and that was pretty much it. We weren't rich, but we weren't poor either. Ron was fast asleep. His brown hair was scattered over his eyes making me doubt whether he was really asleep or was acting. I decided against the juvenile thought as I saw the uniform rising and setting of his chest. I crawled into my bed and settled under the covers, and wondered how I would escape the next night with my mom around. It was going to be very tough. But that old lady scared me. And I wasn't going to go against her words..