He just blurted it out as if it were the most normal line of work in the world. Xal stared at him, eyes blank, trying to process what he heard.
Receiving no handshake from Xal, the stranger withdrew his hand, slid it into his pocket, took out a business card, and placed it in front of him before stepping back. He looked at the black card printed in lime green.
Kian Vaeloren - Healer
Healing Spirit Illnesses • Making Amulets • Guiding Spirits
15 Aruyen Street, Mekhsulal City, Sorya Province
Scan the QR for contact details and more
And there goes my luck.
Xal should have known this sudden job offer had been too good to be true. He had met either fucking lunatic, an escaped patient from an asylum, or worse, a conman.
Grunting with disappointment and anger as the loss of a job opportunity for the second time that day rose, he looked at him again. First conclusion being a mental patient, he started looking for any medical bracelets or tags on 'Kian,' hoping that was his real name, so that he could report him to the police or the hospital.
But he found nothing.
This fucker was trying to scam me!
As much as he held back from causing a scene in public, he hated being lied to. Hence, he planned to grab Kian by the collar and land a punch hard enough to knock out a few teeth.
Then walk away.
"Do I look like a fucking clown to you?" The legs of his chair scraped the cement loudly as he stood up and looked directly at Kian, closing the distance dangerously. He took a step back, hands held up with an imitation of surrender, shaking his head.
"You thought I was that EASY?" Xal took another step towards Kian.
He was supposed to punch him.
That was the plan.
He always followed the plans he made.
Fucking stupid purple highlights.
Instead, he fished out his phone, grabbed his belongings, and started walking away from the nut job who was trying to act all honest and innocent.
It was only 6 pm, but Xal was very bad at finding directions even with the Maps app. Hence, he always needed extra time to get lost before finding his way to the destination. He walked past Kian, throwing a glare of warning not to follow him.
"Ah… you don't believe me. Makes sense, you wouldn't believe unless you see," he heard Kian say, but ignored him, eyes glued to his phone. Again, he heard him speak.
"Lucky for you, I know just the trick."
One more word and I'm gonna punch him. Controlling his breathing, he focused on studying the direction to move past the cafe line to find the bus stop.
Suddenly, his vision was interrupted by a palm.
Out of reflex, he closed his eyes and shoved the hand off, but he felt fingertips brush the side of his temple near his right eye.
He turned back immediately, getting into a fighting stance as the jacket and the folder scattered on the floor.
Something had changed in vision.
It was too bright for some reason, and he could barely focus on Kian with all the floating ribbons around him that didn't exist before.
What the hell are those ribbons? They weren't there a second ago. Xal thought as he shook his head in disbelief.
His eyelids narrowed as his pupils shrank with effort to clear out what was bothering his vision. Rubbing his eyes roughly to get rid of whatever's causing this issue with his vision, he muttered, "What the fuck?"
He wasn't imagining the ribbons, now looking more similar to wires.
Not wires.
Threads?