Chapter 8: The Dead's Black Market

 

The old woman observed for a moment and then relaxed. She nodded.

"I don't feel negative aura from her. Is she new?"

Lucas nodded. "Yes, just a few weeks old."

Hey, I'm here, you can just ask me directly you know.

But I just stood there like a behaved young lady.

"What do you have to trade?"

Lucas glanced at me. I fished out the candy from my pocket.

The old woman gasped.

"Oh my!" The old woman sat on her seat straight. This gasp made all the grannies lazing around look at our direction.

I shuddered. Oh, now, we got the attention of all the ghosts.

"This is a bit expensive. Good job! You can enter the market," the old woman said and handed us ten tokens. The token was like the ones that were used for gambling.

Where did they get this?

"Thank you, Madam. You are always reliable," Lucas said with a handsome smile.

The old woman giggled once more. "If you are willing to serve me before you run out of time, I will give you more privileges."

Lucas stood up and chuckled. "Thank you for the offer, Madam. We will see you in the future."

The old woman sighed. She really wanted to rope in the handsome and charming Lucas.

"Off you go."

The employee with a cracked head stood up. "Please follow me."

She led us out of the salon. Then without warning, she climbed at the railings and suddenly jumped down.

What the!

They were on the third floor. The employee was nowhere on the first floor. Where was she? I know she would not die by jumping from the third floor because she was dead already.

But I could not see her.

Lucas climbed on the railings as well.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" I shouted.

"Didn’t you hear what she said? She said let's follow her." After saying that, he jumped. 

I watched in horror as his body fell from the third floor. I know he would not turn into a bloody pulp, but it was still scary. Then his body suddenly disappeared when he hit the first floor.

Huh?

I rubbed my eyes to check again. Lucas and the employee were nowhere to be found.

Where were they? Should I really just jump? But I would not be reduced to nothingness, right?

After arguing with myself that it would not cause me harm, I slowly climbed up the railings.

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it—

Then I jumped.

"Kyahhh!!" I screamed aloud. When the floor was about to hit me, I put my hands on my face.

Everything could be broken but not my face!

Thud.

But I did not feel pain when I hit the ground.

"What took you so long?" Lucas' voice with a hint of obvious irritation sounded above me.

I parted my hands.

Lucas and the employee’s faces were above me.

I stood up and said with teary eyes, "You guys are okay!" I was really scared back then.

Lucas just looked at me like I was a madwoman. The employee tilted her head, wondering why a scary ghost like me was so easily scared.

"Excuse me, I have new batches of dresses and it only costs one token each." A man in his thirties suddenly approached us. I almost screamed in shock when I saw that there was a knife on his stomach.

"Gorge, this customers wants to trade information," the employee said to the man.

"Oh Is that so? If you needed a change of clothes, you just come to my booth," Gorge said cheerfully. I tried not to glance down at his bleeding stomach.

"T-thank you," I said, a bit stuttering.

Gorge just nodded and greeted Lucas.

"Long time no see. Lucas. Do you have something interesting to trade?"

Lucas shook his head. "Nah, not now."

Gorge just waved at us and bid goodbye.

When the man who introduced himself as Groge walked away, I finally had time to check our surroundings.

 We are not on the first floor.

I think we are in the basement. But there was no car here. In front of me was a whole different world. 

Ghosts, with different bloody outfits were busying themselves on rows of booths that lined up inside the basement. It was like a night market.

I looked up at the ceiling, the lights were a bit different. I have a feeling I can touch them like the booths that were displayed.

Lucas explained this place for me. 

"This was a collapsed basement that killed the Madam above with her friends and the employee , so this place was their territory. With the passage of time, Madam who was originally a businesswoman when she was alive wanted to continue her business here. So she made a Black Market for ghosts. "

"Everything can be traded here, as long as it is available here and you have enough token to trade for it." The employee added.

Oh..so even the dead can have a black market..that was so..unexpected.

We continued to walk amidst the crowd of ghosts.

Every booth had different products. Some were jewelries, watches, dress, clothes, and any miscellaneous items. 

I looked around not only at the booths but at the ghosts that surrounded us.

This was my first time seeing a place crowded with ghosts only. They were like normal living humans who busied themselves in living their daily lives. Maybe the only difference was that the ghosts here looked hideous and scary at first glance.

They were just...like what they were before they died. They continued living in another sense.

"The information booth was on the last row. You can look around. I need to return to my boss," the employee said before she left us.

Lucas walked in front. I followed after him closely. I was still scared, even though they were not demons. To be honest, I have not met a demon but looking at the ghostly crowd was scary enough.

"Hey girl! Wanna have a new look for your nails? We have three varieties."

"!!!" I was shocked at the stylist that popped up in front of me. There was a fork on his left eye.

"Uhm... No thanks." I immediately stuck close to Lucas.

Lucas glanced at me. "There's nothing to be scared about, their appearance might look scary but they are not demons that will lure you to sell your soul to them." 

I was stunned. We could sell our souls to demons? I was about to ask more questions when Lucas suddenly pointed at the booth in front of us. "That's it. Come on."

I looked at the front. There were two huge bodyguards in a black suit bleeding from a gun shot wound on their heads standing in front of a huge black tent.

Lucas was about to enter but one of them stopped him.

Lucas turned to me. "Give them one token."

One token for the entrance fee? That was expensive. The dress that Mr. Gorge offered to me was just one token. How much would the information be?

Begrudgingly, I fished out one token.