Mara rolled her eyes. “Already? I thought we just paid last months’.”
Natalie dropped the papers on the scratched wooden table. “We did, but we were two weeks late.”
Mara ran a hand through her long black hair. “How did my mom keep on top of all this? The shop seems busy enough, but the bills barely get paid.”
Natalie picked lint off her oversized sweatshirt. “It is, but your mom’s medical bills ate up the savings. She had just paid for your dad’s funeral when she got sick. We are close to catching up. We will be on track in a couple of months.”
Mara rubbed her forehead. Natalie loved the occult store. It wouldn’t be fair to her best friend to sell the shop that had been in her family for generations. “They accepted me into art school, but I have no way to pay for tuition and cover the bills, unless I sell the shop.”
Natalie’s eyes went wide. “I will work for free until we cover your schooling. I know how much you want to go. Your mother loved this store, and with our apartment above the shop, we could never afford rent if we sold it.”
Mara put her head in her hands, with her elbows on the table. “That isn’t fair to you. I hate this. I don’t want to sell, but I want to go to school. Why is life so complicated?”
Natalie stood up, grabbing the kettle off the avocado-colored counter-top. “Let’s make some tea before we open. I grabbed some muffins from the bakery while you were in the shower.”
Mara pushed the letter away. It slid across the table to mix with the stack of bills. “I just ate an omelet. Sweets are the last thing I need, but I’ll have one, anyway.”
Natalie plugged in the kettle, fiddling with the worn cord until it lit up. “You are too hard on yourself. You have curves for days. I’m like a stick woman.”
Mara stood up and grabbed a multi-colored crocheted blanket from the couch, pulling it around her. “Please, you eat like an elephant and barely weigh a hundred pounds. If you weren’t my best friend, I would hate you.”
Natalie grabbed two cups out of the brown panel cupboards. “Liar, you don’t hate anyone.”
Mara picked up an envelope with their bank logo on it. She flicked it across the table. It circled in the air in a lazy pirouette before it landed on the floor. “I have a pretty fair hatred for our bank manager.”
“Erik is annoying, but he is only doing his job. I will call him later and tell him we will have a payment next week.”
She pulled the blanket tighter around her. “Will we?”
Natalie poured the water into a gray ceramic teapot. Steam waffled in the air, scenting the room with sweet berries. “No idea, but I can hope. Let’s focus on something positive. What are we doing for your birthday?”
Mara’s head fell back. She stared at the brown stain on the cream ceiling. “Pretending I have my life together?”
“Seriously,” Natalie said, pouring the berry tea into the cups.
Mara took the tea Natalie offered her, then sat back at the table, inhaling the soothing smell. “I’m turning twenty-three. It’s a lot less exciting than when I hit drinking age.”
Natalie took a sip of her tea. “Nonsense. You just got accepted into an advanced art school you’ve been trying to attend for three years. We should celebrate.”
Mara clicked the mail icon on her laptop. “Let me think about it. I will check...”
Natalie grabbed a magazine behind Mara’s chair.
“Holy shit,” Mara said.
Natalie pointed at the unfamiliar logo of a black dragon. “What is that?”
“It’s an email from Dark Art Galleries. They liked the sample portfolio I sent them. They’re willing to look at my work.”
Natalie sat down. “If you could sell a few pieces, then you could keep the store and take the classes you want.”
Mara grabbed the phone. “I will set it up right now.”
Mara stood in front of her easel, grabbing a brush from the holder. The canvas was white with rolling green hills and a castle in the distance. The smell of turpentine sifted in the air. “I am undecided if I should paint something new for the gallery curator. This piece isn’t coming along as I hoped, I should have finished it by now.”
Natalie ran her hand along the edge of the canvas. The feather-light touch was reverent in nature. “Everything you create is amazing. You got this.”
Mara mixed some paint. “Thanks. This last year has been rough. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Natalie kissed her cheek, then grabbed the shop keys off of the green counter. “Forget to pay the bills.” She winked. “I’m heading down to open the doors. Come down when you’re finished.”
Mara nodded, turning to the canvas. The dragon formed in her mind, reminding her of the sculpture in the shop. She dipped her brush into the color palette and made a few strokes of orange and yellow, mixing the colors together to make liquid amber flames.
The brush dropped from her hand, bouncing on the floor, as the colors shimmered and sparkled with light. She blinked her eyes. “Jesus, Natalie, what was in that tea.” She picked up the brush and headed to the bathroom. She grabbed some headache medicine from the cabinet, only to pause as her face in the mirror, distorted. The cream bathroom walls and the shower curtain with blue seahorses were visible. Only her reflection wavered until her eyes turned white.
The face in the mirror cleared. It was her, yet it was not. The gray robe billowed in a foreign wind, the style from a forgotten era. Her features were older, with differences in her bone structure. As far as daydreams went. This was an odd one.
The reflection darkened before revealing the interior of a large
