Into That Wild Blue Yonder

2. Got Tabs to Pay

Colm stirred slowly beneath thin sheets as the sun shone through his window and straight onto his closed eyes, the light piercing through his eyelids to force him awake. As he often did upon returning from the tavern, he forgot to close his curtains for the morning sunrise. It didn't matter either way, though. Once he was up, he was up, and he might as well face the day.

Colm rinsed his face to wash away the groggy feeling of a mild hangover and stretched a bit to get his body ready for another day, then poured himself a bowl of cereal. He wondered if he should consider a table and chair so he wouldn't have to stand at the counter to eat, but dismissed the thought. He was doing fine as he was, so it seemed like a waste of time to go to the store for furniture.

After finishing breakfast, Colm caught a glimpse of a white piece of paper at the base of his door just past the crack. He suspected he knew what it was, but he always read it just in case after the time he forgot to pay his rent to the landlady. He wouldn't make that mistake twice.

"Colm," he read aloud. "Got a job for you. Come in today." He set the paper on the counter with a grunt of acknowledgement. "Alright."

Colm tossed on his usual outfit that made up about his entire wardrobe. Boots and cargo pants made for practical wear in case he needed to get to work, while his long-sleeve black shirt kept him stealthy in the dark when he normally worked. It served to hide his scars and half-sleeve tattoo from anyone that may need to identify him later, as well. People might feel suspicious if they saw his magic ink, unmarred by several scars running over it on his upper arm. Either that, or from the unique symbols of the monastery's coded language.

He peeked outside to see who was around and found no other residents still on his floor. It was late enough in the morning that few of the other residents were in the building at all to see him leaving. Only the cleaning crew sometimes saw him. They all nodded to him as he left, which he typically returned with a wave of his hand as he took off out the side door.

Colm took less time walking down the street during the day when there were so many more people around. Unlike the night, most of the people who disliked him had their wits about them now, and he did his best to stay away from them when they were cognizant. It just wasn't worth the trouble.

Colm passed through Starcloud's section of town and into a dingier, dirtier area dominated by taller buildings and dark alleys. Truth be told, Colm actually felt more at ease in the sketchier part of town because he knew exactly who would shank him for a silver. If anyone approached him at all, they probably weren't looking for regular conversation. Though that fact may still have had more to do with Colm than the area itself.

Colm arrived at the office building and craned his neck to stare up the side. Scaffolding stretched all the way up its side as it had since his first time there, as if it would be under renovation forever. He never bothered to find out why, so long as it stayed there as it had for years. His employer didn't want Colm going into the building's lower floors, so climbing was his best option.

He climbed up with ease, hopping from one level to the next, pulling himself up and over each level smoothly and skillfully like in his training days. Colm figured his boss wanted him climbing up so that if he ever fell, the man could fire him for inability to perform. It would be easy enough to just hire a new guy.

Like the countless climbs he already made, Colm made it to the ninth floor atop the building with ease and knocked three times on the window. When no answer came, he sat impatiently and knocked again after a few minutes. Again, no answer.

"Jerry?" Colm called in.

"Ah, Colm, come in!"

Colm pulled the window open and slid into a dim, candlelit office space with a single desk at the end of the room. Trinkets and baubles of all sorts lined the walls to either side. Colm recognized many of them as he walked past and glanced around to see if there were any new ones. He always checked to see if Jerry was hiring someone else for his odd jobs, but it always seemed that he didn't have any other retrieval guys working for him.