What goes around- A flash fiction

The knock on the door made me freeze. The bar had closed up over an hour ago even though Reiner hadn’t kicked me out yet. The large man behind the door cast his gaze in my direction, an eyebrow raised enquiringly.

“Don’t look at me, I’m not expecting anyone.” I shrugged and went back to staring at me half empty glass. So I’m a pessimist.

“You never are Cole.” Reiner shook his head and let his cloth drop on to the bar as the knocking came again, more persistent this time. He was right. Trouble always found me and I was never expecting it. You’d think by now I would have learned. I refused to look up as the tumblers of the lock clicking into line. I pressed myself harder against the wooden backboard of the bench  wondering if I concentrated hard enough if I could actually blend into it; I’d seen weirder things.

“Finally.” A woman’s voice floated through the air and chilled me to the bone.

My eyes squeezed tightly shut reflexively. “Not her, please don’t tell me it’s Fate.”

“Cole,” Reiner’s tone held a wealth of warning.

“Tell her I’m not here,” I called back.

The clicking of heels seemed to herald my doom as the woman closed in on my location.

“Cole.”

“Did you lot stick a tracker in me or something? A bug in my pocket?” I put my glass down, the golden liquid threatening to flood over the rim.

“I won’t take that as a serious question. You know we see all.” She slid into the seat beside me.

“There’s a law against that,” I muttered.

“We have a job for you.” Her words silenced me instantly. Even Reiner paused at the bar.

“I’m an out of work teacher, thanks to your kind. Your sister especially. I seriously doubt you have need for me.”

“You should not have upset her,” the woman shrugged. I had only ever seen her from afar before. You didn’t get up close to the Fates if you had any sense. I had gotten up close to her older sister. Tells you all you need to know about my sense levels. Long story short, things had not gone as her sister wanted. I was lucky to still have my soul intact. “But my sister can be rather stubborn in certain matters.”

I raised an eyebrow but kept silent. If this was a trap, I wasn’t falling for it, my lips remained sealed.

“In fact, it would be best my older sister did not know about this task until it was completed.”

“Sounds like a real bad idea to me. Count me out.”

“Shame.” She stood up, smoothing her black dress as she did and stepped away from the booth. She looked like she was dressed for court more than this dive. Reiner caught my eye and frowned at me. He clearly thought I was being stupid. She was already at the bottom of the stairs to the front door. She had taken no rather easily. I really shouldn’t bite…

“Fine, why is it a shame.”

“Because, if you don’t fix this problem in the next forty-eight hours, my sister will be coming for your soul.”

Damn it.

This was written in response to a July writing prompt from https://puttingmyfeetinthedirt.com/2020/07/01/july-writing-prompts-2/