First week of the month was always a little bit hectic. It was that time of the month where the bills were handled. Not that she would complain too much; now that she had a handle on things, paying bills and making sure her stocks and larders were full was anything more than routine tedium. A pleasant tedium, one she was in control of.
A quick check over morning coffee of her balances and accounts was made, transferring and moving funds around to the one she used strictly for bills. With breakfast out of the way, a shower was taken, the beast stirring into existence about halfway through.
It made a particularly uncharacteristic whining fuss about how it was more interested in hunting that day instead of doing such mundane human things as making sure the utilities were still running and the mail was got from the post-office box. It did this for the last half of the shower and dressing afterward. She managed to get it quieted enough to think straight in time to swirl the long-coat over her shoulders and leave, reminding it that this was also a food-run. It seemed pleased with the answer, or as seemingly pleased as a famine spirit could be.
Making sure the house was locked up, she made her way to the car in the garage, leaving the yard slowly to avoid hitting any of her eight-legged tree-dwellers should they decide to cross the driveway. Once she was a fair way from the house, she sped to a fair pace to take the winding path down to the main road and into town. Finding a parking space anywhere was a chore, but it gave her a chance to smoke one of her cloves before having to enter anywhere public.
After a few circles around downtown, a spot finally opened. It wasn’t open for long. She sat a moment in silence after shutting the engine off, finishing the cigarette before getting out to start the day proper.
First stop was the city building. She liked having water where she was, and electricity was a part of making a living. She couldn’t get work done, after all, if her computer wouldn’t turn on and power wasn’t fed into the modem. The line was of average size for a Monday at the beginning of the month. In only so many words, the beast was not happy with it. And its antsy self being stuck amid another crowd of people it was not allowed to torment or eat [or preferably both] reflected in its host. Most of the wait was spent fidgeting in some way. A tapping leg, a twirl of a pen in slender fingers, the occasional throaty noise of idle. It was only too happy to see the end and immediately rescinded its idling control to allow a smooth transaction between its host and the cashier on the other side of the glass.
With basic utilities paid off and receipt in-hand to add to her taxes folders at home, she was off again, this time to handle the cable bill. Internet and the landline phone were attached to it, so she reminded the beast when it threw a right angry little fit and attempted briefly to wrest control from her. Without those two, work could not be had, she explained internally for the seemingly millionth time. Without work, money was not received for her to spend on food.
Money is necessary for that trail mix and those snack cakes you like so much.
Her repeated explanation received a grumbling huff, and she noted with some sad amusement that this was a broken record every month. A routine that would seem almost empty if it ever changed. Contrary to even her own belief, she was growing sort of fond of that parasitic monstrosity.
Thankfully, the cable company’s payment lines were fairly small. She recounted with a small inward chuckle that it was likely because everyone was still stuck in city utilities. it wasn’t hard to guess, considering that the town of Gravity Falls was one such size where everyone knew everyone else after a while and the only new faces were the summer tourists.
With cable handled, there was a small stop at the one mobile provider in town to pay for her cell phone before she moved from there and slightly diagonally down the street toward the post office. It was an older building, one of the original ones, and she hated it with a seething passion. It never seemed to be active at any time of the day and it always felt like there was someone or something watching from those empty corridors.
One last stop here and we’ll go food shopping, she told the beast, receiving an accepting noise for it.
It was already early afternoon, much of the beginning of the day spent in the city building, that of which she was happy was behind her. There were a few murmurs here and there, but slight abuse of the beast’s hearing abilities allowed her to listen in just enough to hear the latest gossip about a lady who lived down the street from the pair whispering. She left it be, ascending the stairs and entering the post office.
As usual, it felt like another dimension, walking through those doors. There was no line for the package counters, the light sconces along the walls were flickering both at the counter and down where the boxes were. The sound of the antique sorting machinery in the back could be heard rumbling along, permeating the space with no voices or steps or really much of anything besides the machinery. She wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the building ran itself.
She turned toward the post office boxes, counting down the halls as she went and ignoring that awful feeling she knew was likely a residual instinct created by the humming in the floor and walls. Ah. Here was her turn off... Down the short hall toward the banks of mailboxes at the end, pulling her keys out to retrieve the one to her box.
A grumble from the beast, more of a warning than a complaint, unintentionally set her on edge. Though its caution was not unfounded. The post office felt ... more unsettling today than it usually did...
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