Fuck.

I forced an innocent smile.

“No, I’m not too familiar with that street. What happened?”

“Well, about a week ago on my way home from the station, I decided to walk down the side road because it was a bit too crowded on the main street and I uh… I’m not quite sure how to explain this. I saw… something.”

“...What did you see?” I asked reluctantly, already mentally bracing myself for the answer.

“Don’t call me crazy, alright?”

“I won’t.”

“So when I was on that street, I saw this… uh... Blur? Smudge? I’m not quite sure how to describe it.”

He looks at me helplessly, as if to gauge whether I’m taking him seriously. I nod silently to encourage him to continue.

“When I saw it, time seemed to slow down around me… I couldn’t breathe right. It felt like my feet were in quicksand and I couldn’t move at all. Even though I couldn’t see it’s face, I could almost… feel that it had noticed me and as I became conscious of this it was suddenly right up in front of me. After that I think I must have fallen unconscious because I woke up on the asphalt a couple hours later.”

I cleared my throat and spoke carefully so as to not betray my own anxiety.

“While that certainly does sound harrowing… I cannot exorcise beings that are not bound to a specific location or item. It may just be a free wandering spirit that you happened to see. Your reaction to it does sound concerning, but I have a selection of talismans that can help you with this.”

I really really really don’t want to deal with this.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“The thing is, after I saw it… I couldn’t stop seeing it… I couldn’t stop feeling it…”

A cold sensation pricked down my spine and I bit the inside of my cheek to hold back a shiver.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I-I see it in my sleep, in my nightmares I can see its eyes watching me. Even though I couldn’t see its face clearly before, I’m certain that’s what it is… those beady, dragonfly-like eyes…”

He draws in a shaky breath.

“Even if I wake up the nightmare continues, I can’t move at all as I feel things crawling all over my skin. This goes on for an hour or two and then suddenly I can move again. I can feel it’s presence when I’m waiting for the train… On my way home from work, even if I walk through a busy area I catch glimpses of that smudge in the dark alleys. I-I can’t take it anymore… I feel like I’m going insane. Can you please… please help me? Money is no object here…”

He said this, growing increasingly distraught as he described his plight to me.

I don’t want to.

I just want to leave this alone and pretend like I never saw or heard anything.

My hesitance to answer must have betrayed my troubled thoughts, because the client quietly whispered with a trembling voice:

“Please.”

The salary-man looks as though he hadn’t slept since he saw the creature, his cheeks are hollow and his eyes weary. I notice that throughout recounting the story, he had held his left fist in his right hand. His nails have dug into the back of his hand to the point that it was drawing blood. At this point, I don’t think selling him an “anti-curse” talisman or some beads would do it for him, he would want to see some sort of ceremony with some “weight” in order to satisfy him. But the problem in this case is, no amount of fake ceremony can actually make the creature disappear nor can it actually help this man. Either way, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. If I reject him outright, it looks as though the man would genuinely have a psychotic break. If I accept, I still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and at worst it would severely damage my reputation as a clairvoyant. I need to buy myself time to figure this out.

I exhale wearily.

“Let me think about it.”

“Alright… Thank you.”

The salary-man smiles slightly, looking as though he expected this answer in the first place. He stood up to leave.

“Wait a moment.”

He stops.

“Take this with you. It should give you at least some sort of protection from the supernatural and help with your nightmares.”

I hand him a clear glass bead on a lanyard. Obviously it’s simply a glass bead I purchased in bulk that I attached a lanyard onto, but at the very least I can give him some peace of mind and pretend that I’ve tried something before I figure out how to get out of this.

“How much…?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.”

“Wow… thank you so much!”