E·EXCHANGE

It's five months into 2012, so it's probably about time I posted something, eh?

Rough idea I came up with way too late at night. Maybe a story, maybe not. It's something~ 

***

The building sat on the corner of Powers and 21st. It was a small, squat thing, one storey with tinted windows. The sign above the door proclaimed E·EXCHANGE in bold red. The X was missing a half—it looked like a "less than" sign from math class.

Matt ducked through the doorway, the door's bell jangling as it snapped shut behind him. A woman in a grey suit sat behind a desk in the front; behind her stretched a hallway with curtained booths on either side.

"Buying or selling?" she asked.

He stepped closer and coughed. "Uh, selling."

She started typing into her computer. "Name?"

"Matt Johnson."

The keys clattered. She paused and looked up at him, somehow peering down her nose through rimless glasses. He figured she was about 23, maybe just out of college, working here before she found something better. She studied what he knew were rings under his eyes before turning back to the computer screen. "One unit."

"Wait!"

She looked up sharply, and Matt winced at how loudly that had come out. Her finger hovered over the number pad.

"Two, please." One would barely cover food, and there was the rent—

She hit a key. "Two units. Booth four, please."

A red number hung above each booth, swinging on wires from the dirty ceiling. He pushed open the grey curtain and sat in one of the chairs.

He waited.

The first buyer was a girl in her late teens. Choppy haircut, brown with pink tips. Heavy backpack that thudded when she slung it onto the floor next to her seat.  A student, probably come from an all-nighter. Tonight would be another one, no doubt.

She slumped into the chair and without glancing at him started hooking up her fingertips to the machine Matt had been avoiding acknowledging for the past ten minutes. A metal box with only one button, it stood on spindly legs bolted to the floor. Cables with tiny electrodes, or sensors, or something, streamed out of a hole. Five red wires for him, five blue wires for her.

The girl was finally looking at him. No, staring, impatient. He started and grabbed the red wires, sticking their ends onto the fingers of his right hand.

He'd only just attached the last one when she smacked the button with the palm of her hand. Matt's head fell back as the energy drained from him. It was over in seconds, but by the time he'd managed to raise his head again the chair across from him was empty.

Matt didn't bother removing the wires. He told himself it was because it was faster to just leave them on for the next buyer, but really he wasn't sure if he could move his arm.

The Energy Exchange Guidelines always said to eat something between units and never sell when you're tired, but the exchanges stopped giving out free snacks years ago. And if he'd had food—Matt smiled, a twitch of his mouth—well, he wouldn't be here.

He drifted a while, not bothering to check his watch.