A One Way Ticket To A Place Where All The Demons Go

The woman carefully checked both ends of the street before stepping on it. In her dark wool coat with a hood over her head, no one could recognise her, yet her paranoia was bigger than her common sense – that's why she was waiting last twenty minutes in an alley full of garbage cabs before all the people who were roaming around disappeared somewhere.

She needed no witnesses.

She hurried, walking near the corner of the street, her heels clipping on the asphalt. How silly she felt for dressing up for this occasion. Why did she that? Her cheeks turned pink as she tried to walk in straight line, a mission she failed miserably. Another perk of having no witnesses was that no one could see how she was seconds away from faltering in high heeled shoes she bought only three days ago in the moment of recklessness for this occasion and hasn't worn them ever since… Which was unfortunate since those shoes were the very first high heeled shoes she ever wore, and therefore she didn't know how to walk in them.

Why she spent so much time dressing up for this?

Augusta exhaled with relief when she stopped in front of rusty metallic doors that looked so unwelcoming she often felt the urge to turn around, walk away and never come back.

She pulled her hood down, revealing pale face sprinkled with freckles with high cheekbones, pouty pink lips that looked bit too large for her face, slightly crocked nose and bunch of messy unevenly chopped hair. Augusta raised her chin, pushed her shoulders back and hoped her legs won't get wobbly in the next few minutes. The first impression is always crucial. Even if this was the seventh time she came here to see him this month.

Is there such a thing like seventh first impression?

Regardless of the answer, she knocked. Three fast knocks, two slow ones, and two fast ones again.

He should be here. He always was.

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"Your life is miserable" Echo found talking with himself can sometimes really help with stress. It's not like he could talk with anyone else.
"You are a pathetic little girl because you let woman hurt you. And because of what? That blondie" with that words he put ingredients in the cauldron, little to much so it was nothing new when everything explodes followed with lilac and red light. Great, even fire is girlish now.

He went upstairs because his lab was in the basement, and when he finally changed his clothes and decided to rest for a little bit, Echo heard irritating knocking on the front door.
Probably someone miserable wanting drugs. He was thinking about an idea to just ignore knocking but then he remember that these pathetic people are the source of his money, at least extra money.

So he stood up and opened the door without trying to hide his annoyance because of that unexpected guest.
"You? Again?" Echo raised his eyebrows when saw Augusta, the girl who become his regular customer.
She needed drugs so often that he was sure that he was seeing her more than his friends.
"You need new supplies already? What are you doing, bathing in that damn potion?" he asked before he finally remembered that he should let her in. She was probably on the edge of dead in that stupidly high heels.

"Come in, I'm not sure if I have that what you need. Maybe you will need to wait for me to make it."

"Wow, Sheridan. Don't act so welcoming." Augusta's cheeks became even redder when Echo finally opened the door, but his sudden outburst made her wish she didn't stop by. Unfortunately, that was never an option, she ran out of her potion and she was desperate for a refill. The potion was the only thing that could successfully stop her condition and make her feel like an ordinary person. Normal.

She walked inside, following him and closed the door behind her, squealing when they creaked. Every time she'd come here she'd start wondering why does he keep this place so unprotected. Based on the walls full of bottles and old cabinets with other ingredients she could easily see him getting robbed, yet ever since the first time when she mentioned it when he rudely asked her was she the first Trelawney who didn't lie about her seer abilities, she decided to never bring that up again. It was never her problem, to begin with.

"I can wait. That's not a problem." Augusta spotted a rusty chair, walked towards it and sat. Although the chair wasn't the most comfortable one it was still better than standing. Being comfortable wasn't the reason she was here, after all. "Is your blue haired friend around?" Aggy asked curiously. She saw the blue haired woman a couple of times. She wasn't sure if she works there since she never saw her making a potion or anything else, but she sure knew her way around here. "What was her name? I can't remember." Truth to be told, she never knew her name, she was just noisy about her. Was she another regular, like herself, or was she something more?

Echo frowned but at the same, he didn't feel guilty at all. He was probably rude to Augusta and the fact was that she wasn't quilty for his own problems but he just didn't care enough to try with nice behavior. He never did.
And the funny thing was the knowledge that she would always come back, no matter how bad he was toward her because she needed him. She needed him to feel normal or whatever was the reason why she was using the potion to control her power but for Echo, she was nothing that customer. And maybe the little guinea pig, seeing her with side effects always helped him to update potions to make them better.

"Sure. Whatever. Make yourself comfortable. But not too much, I don't like when people are a busybody around my supplies." He looked at her with the serious look and then went to make the bloody potion for her. He had everything what he needed so it would take only about 15 minutes. And then that freak named "I see stuff, I know everything" would get out of his house.
Echo ignored her words with steel determination. That wasn't her fuc*ing bussines. Even if she was in his house, sitting in the chair Katrien brough there, he didn't need to talk with her.
She was paying him for the potions, not for little chatting during the process.

Once when the potion was ready he came back to the room where she was still sitting. He wondered how she was walking without breaking her leg in that hilarious shoes. Maybe that kind of shoes was sexy, but he wasn't able to think about the reason why she would wear those while coming to him. It was just stupid.
"Okay, there it is. And that girl is my bussines partner, but it's not like that is any of your bussines." He looked at Augusta with serious look and gave her a little bottle with dark blue liquid.

"Is that it? Do you need anything else?" He asked with exceptation and sat on his chouch.
"If you don't need anything else, leave me the money and then get out. I'm sure you can find the door by yourself" He couldn't but not to ask himself if she would even pay this time. It wouldn't be the first time that she was coming without even the coin in her pocket.