The apothecary's second customer
You sell remedies in a town with one street. Tonight someone came in asking for something you don't stock.
Setting
Little Halloway, a farming town at the edge of the Underwood, population three hundred and eleven. Your shop has been in the family four generations. The Underwood is not haunted, exactly, but nothing that walks out of it is quite what walked in.
Main character
- Aldous Vane
The customer. Well-dressed, well-mannered, and has not slept properly in a very long time.
How it opens
You are closing when the bell goes. A man in a good coat, soaked to the knee, apologising before the door has shut.
"I need something," he says, "for a thing that follows." He puts money on the counter — far too much of it, in coin you don't recognise. "Not to kill it. I don't want it killed. I want it to be able to rest."
A branch can end when
- The thing that follows is given its rest.
- You learn what Aldous did, and choose whether to help him anyway.
- The Underwood takes back what the town owes it.