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Merchant Days Chapter 04 - An Unnecessary Purchase
🕑 Added 2025-11-05 12:57:12 +0000 UTCJessica Jones lived in New York. She hated New York. Every single day she lived here, which was pretty much her whole life, served to convince her that this city had it out for her. She could find something new to hate about this city every new day she lived in it.
So why hasn't she moved out? Well… the damned city won’t let her— that was her justified excuse and she kept with it.
She deserved a medal for living through the weird shit that seems to happen to only this city. Not only was the city weird, the people in it were weird too.
Queens, Hell’s Kitchen, Brooklyn — if New York was cursed then these three places were literally sinking into hell. Mutants, aliens, demons, witches and warlocks, even the damned ninja turtles could be found just by strolling through these places at night.
She cursed under her breath as she walked through Queens under the light drizzle that came out of nowhere. She was spooking a trail, or at least looking for a trail and seeing if she could spook it.
“Damn this rain.” She cursed again as the rain fell harder. There was not supposed to be any drizzle for at least three days, but no, this damned city liked living by its own rules.
She’d spent the last five hours chasing smoke, when the sun was still out in the sky, and just when she decided to call it off and call it a night, she just so happened to see a face of interest and had to continue the whole tailing thing only for the rain to start falling and made her lose her mark.
“Got you, rat.” She smirked as she caught sight of exactly what she needed to break this case. Being a private investigator was a dirty business but it was a career that apparently had high returns in the dirty muck that New York was.
She brought her camera to her face to collect some evidence, only to freeze when she saw that her battery was dead. “Goddammit!”
‘No problem,’ she told herself and used her phone to take the pictures instead, only to end up frowning harder when she saw the results. She got the pictures, but it wasn’t exactly as clear as her camera. Of course you could make out the people in them, but a group of lawyers could dismiss it with ease since it wasn’t in HD quality.
Still, she took the pictures. Better this than nothing at all.
She could try and get closer but there weren’t any obstacles for her to hide behind for her to get a clearer picture. There were no electronic stores or minimarts nearby, so there was nowhere she could get a quick replacement for her battery.
“I know I checked it before I left.” Well her memory wasn’t really clear on if she did or not, but she had been in this business for quite some time for it to be routine at this point.
She would be caught if she went any further than this, and the pictures she got were hardly what one would call ‘concrete evidence’.
She could call it a night and come back tomorrow to test her luck, or she could double back a few blocks to see if she could see where to get new batteries.
Her choice was obvious.
“I hate this damned city.” She’d said this a million times and meant it every time. The rain didn’t make it any better.
She was supposed to be curled up on her couch right now if only her stupid mark had used the day for illicit business. It would have saved them both a lot of time.
“Where are the stupid stores?” She asked frustratingly as all she saw were restaurants, food stands and a laundry mart. “I could’ve sworn I saw a minimart somewhere around here.”
She turned right around a corner, but nope, no store. She was about to retrace her steps and take another road when she saw a boy coming from an alley with his bag hanging down his shoulders, his gaze down and awkward.
Her deduction said high school student, probably just got some weed and was clearly trying too hard to look normal. She didn’t care about any of that as she grabbed him, almost smirking as she saw him stiffen and turn pale.
“Relax, I’m not gonna bust you for weed.” She said before he could stammer out a word, “is there any store around this damned neighborhood?”
“Huh? Wha—”
“A store, where I can get some batteries.” She said impatiently.
“Um, just behind Freddie’s, to the right. They close very early, so I don’t know. It’s either that or the junk store nearby.” He said as he adjusted his bag. “It’s either that or near the subway.”
She was already picking pace before he finished his sentence, following his directions as she passed Freddie’s, a small diner, and saw the store. It was a discreet thing, tucked into the side of the building, and very easy to miss.
“Wait, wait, I just need some batteries.” She shouted as she saw someone at the door flipping the open sign.
“Sorry, already flipped the sign.” The dude shrugged helplessly as if that explained anything.
“C’mon man, I just need some batteries. I got cash.” She pleaded, but the guy just shook his head.
“Sorry, no can do. Already flipped the sign, store policy.” He said and locked the door.
“This fucker..” She bit her lips as her temper bubbled. She could go back to the subway and return, but there was a tiny chance that her mark would still be there when she got back.
She looked around and at the end of the line, she saw it. The junk store the kid talked about, because that’s what the place was literally called.
There’s no way she could get a camera battery at a junk store, but then again this was New York. Having no other choice, especially since the rain started falling even harder, she ran over to the store and almost sighed in relief when she saw the open sign.
The door at the bell rang as she step in, “Oh thank God.” She couldn’t help but say when she felt how warm the inside of the store was.
The store was perhaps one of the most chaotically arranged spaces she’d ever seen. Different things you’d see in different stores were laid everywhere with no rhyme or rhythm. A steering wheel was placed next to an empty frame, and next to that was an overgrown pot of some weird plant, and next to it were window panes, a whole stack of them.
“Can I help you find something?” She turned around to see a guy at the register.
“Yeah, batteries. You got any?” She threw him the batteries and he caught it, not even looking annoyed at her.
“Sure.” He shrugged and reached under the to bring out a pack of batteries, almost making her fist pump the air. It was painful to note that this was the best thing that had happened to her today.
She paid for two, and turned to leave—
“Come on!” The heavy rain turned into a full downpour and lightning started flashing. Her mark— who was she kidding? The bastard was probably gone by now.
She scowled at the thought. She was drenched, hungry, bought two new batteries, lost her mark after six long hours of fruitless investigation, and all she had to show for it was a gallery of sketchy photos.
“I sell umbrellas if you’re in a hurry.” She heard the guy behind the counter say.
She looked at him angrily and saw him pointing at a rack that held umbrellas, poles, and freaking swords in it.
“What the fuck do you even sell, dude?” She asked, clearly exasperated as the anger bled out at the sight of the ridiculousness she was looking at.
“A little bit of this and a little bit of that. I buy and sell junk and stuff, and everything in between.”
She ignored the name pun and walked towards the rack and curiously picked up a sword and pulled it from its sheath, half expecting a prop or a rusted blade.
“And this qualifies as junk?” She raised a brow at him. She didn’t know about swords but this one looked way too clean, way too sharp and way too real to be called junk.
“Stuff.” The guy replied easily. Well, he clearly got jokes, she’d give him that.
She looked at the window and saw the torrent of rain beating at it, along with the flashes in the sky. Yeah, this was a bust.
She sighed and put back the sword.
“Hey, um…”
“Isaac,” he supplied.
“Isaac,” she started, “mind if I wait out the rain in here?”
He shrugged. “Feel free to browse while you’re at it.” She snorted.
Well, it would be boring and awkward to just stand in the middle of the store, so she took his suggestion and just checked out what he had.
Why not just buy an umbrella and go home? Well, she was still salty for having to buy batteries she ended up not using.
As she walked around, in one particular corner of the store, she saw one of those pharaoh sarcophagus things, looking all old and golden.
“You buy shit like this and sell them?” She asked curiously.
“Mostly from other people. If they want to part with it, they’ll find a fair buyer in me. As long as it’s authentic.”
She snorted, and jerked a finger at the golden coffin. “You think this is authentic?”
Surprisingly, Isaac nodded, not a trace of joke on his face. “I assure you, everything I buy and sell are authentic make. Junk or not. Even if it’s broken, as long as it’s real, I’ll buy it off you for a fair price.”
“Yeah, right. Save the con lines, I’m not stupid enough to fall for that. Well, this is New York, so I guess there’s no end of fools who’ll believe you.” She won’t give him smack about it, but there was no way that was real. The sword might be real, but if the sarcophagus was real then it’d belong in a museum or some rich collector’s trophy room, not in a pawnshop.
Off to the side of the fancy coffin, on the wall, she saw an admittedly cool huge sword that had a sick skull guard with two small horns, along with a ribcage that held the rest of the blade.
“What the fuck?” She suddenly felt goosebumps on her body as she neared the blade.
She ran her finger over the edge of the blade and flinched hard in shock as she stumbled back. She looked at her finger, at the very thin but deep cut, in disbelief.
She wasn’t invulnerable by any stretch of the word, far from it, but grazing a blade with her finger was not something that would hurt her, unless with some force behind it. She looked at the blade, and to her horror, saw her blood being absorbed into it, until the blade was back to its pristine look.
Instantly, she marched towards the counter where Isaac stood and demanded sharply.
“What the hell was that?”
Isaac tilted his head in confusion. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“That blade, the one with the skull.” She pointed, her anger and panic rising.
Isaac looked at the blade and gained a look of understanding. “Oh, that’s Rebellion. It’s a Sparda Family heirloom. Quite the demonic blade, that one.”
“Demonic?” She looked confused for a moment, because demonic was clearly what that thing looked and felt like. “That thing gave me a cut just from touching it.” She wasn’t a particularly hysterical person, but this one was justified.
Isaac frowned at that. “I’m sorry, I should have warned you. It’s quite a sharp blade.”
She lost it for a moment and shouted at the damned clerk. “It drank my blood!”
She looked at him incredulously and he simply nodded his head and answered, “It does that too.”
