The Mad Frank's Dreams: Part 3 Street Trouble

#FanFic #TheApothecaryDiaries
#Wss366 Derelict

Neither the sun nor The Frank's hyperbolic ranting could explain the traffic on the street the next day. Flag had an uneasy feeling about the thugs who hung out on one corner and the #derelicts who chose that section of the street to pass out on.

Verdigris House would clean them out before opening for business. In the meantime, they smelled of trouble. She considered going to the brothel, but that would blow her cover, or leaving to get help, but what if something happened while she was gone? In the end, she stayed put, keeping watch.

Noon came, bringing the promise of the morning’s leftover rice or perhaps even a steamed bun, should a courtesan feel generous. The brothels were preparing for the workday to begin, and soon they would sweep the street of riffraff. Part of what she paid the street steward earned her the right to remain.

A figure wove in and out of the crowd, then darted down the alley next to Verdigris House that led to Maomao’s apothecary shop.

Flag stirred uneasily, then stood up when the drunkards rose suddenly in unison. Jinshi had been right to worry that a plot aimed at Maomao was afoot.

She had barely taken three steps when a hand landed on her shoulder. “My, my, isn’t the Flag Lady suddenly spry?”

She turned and grabbed the hand of a pale-haired foreigner. He screamed; his wrist now bent at an obscene angle.

At the edge of her vision, she saw Mao exit the alley with the stranger who had gone in.

The man’s companion reached up a sleeve. The blur of a sap was the last thing she saw before pain exploded in her head and darkness descended.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #ApothecaryDiaries #NMFic