1

Alf grinned as he pushed open the whorehouse door into the damp London night. Good pay for an easy job had brought him and Reg enough to splash out on a night of it, and he was feeling fine.

Then a blinding flash whited everything out, at the same time that Alf’s head erupted in excruciating pain.

Then flailing, then falling, falling.

Then for a moment, nothing.

And a moment later, he found himself standing in a gray fog, though there’d been no fog when he stepped out of the whorehouse. He stared straight into the eyes of his mate, good old Reg, who’d been a few steps behind him.

When had he turned? What had hit him?

Reg held a lead cosh in his right hand, and stared down at the street at his feet.

Wut? Was we. . . .

Reflexively, he stared down too—?and saw his own body lying face down in the dirt in front of the whorehouse door, with Reg between the body and the temporarily empty street. Two and two added up toReg just bashed me ’ead in. . . .

Bloody ’Ell!

And at just that moment, when he was torn between blind rage and shock, he felt something he’d never felt before: a cold chill, agraveyard chill, and a strong, almost irresistible pull at his back, as if something had just gaped open behind him and was about to suck him in.

Instinct did the rest. So instead of flying at Reg in a fury, he leapt forward, into the street, into the path of a slow-?moving, transparent cart, which did not so much as pause for him as it passed right through him. Or he passed through it. . . .

That wasn’t what had his attention, as he whirled to see what had been behind him. It was a gaping, swirling hole where the whorehouse door had been, behind where he had been standing, a bottomless hole that drank in what little light there was and let none escape.

That was when he realized, somewhere in his head too deep for thoughts, that he wasn’t just hurt, he wasdead, that his “mate” Reg had just murdered him, and that the hole would have sucked him down to Hell if he hadn’t jumped out of its reach. Why it couldn’t do sonow, he had no idea, but he didn’t intend to stick around long enough to find out. As Reg stuffed the cosh in his back pocket and bent down to start rifling through Alf’s clothes for valuables, Alf turned and ran.

Through the pub on the other side of the street. Without opening the door.

The moving shadows, the transparent figures bellied up to the bar paid him no heed as he sprinted straight across the pub floor and out into the “area” in the back. And straight through the privy. He stopped just short of the next building, not because he was winded—?he wasn’t—?but because shock stopped him.

Everything past the pub wall was lost in the shadows and fog, but he still felt that hole to Hell out there. Waiting. Waiting for him to accept his fate and let it take him.

“Ye keep on waitin’!” he shouted, his voice curiously thin and reedy, scarcely more than a whistle. He looked down at himself. He looked exactly as he remembered himself when he’d left the whore’s room and come down to wait for Reg. Moleskin trousers, bracers, threadbare shirt, battered tweed jacket, boots badly in need of resoling. But . . . faded, what little color there had been all drained away, leaving everything in shades of gray. Just like everything around him. And other than emotion . . . he didn’t feel anything. Not tired. Not in pain. Not hungry, though he’d been famished a moment before, and about to suggest to Reg that they get a meal at the pub. He wasn’t cold or hot, and he couldn’t smell a thing, and he knew the “area” back here reeked of shit and urine. And he could see through everything except himself.

Instinct, which had served him well until Reg betrayed him, told him that his smartest move was to stay still and quiet until he had a better lay of the land. So wait he did, as pub patrons came and used the privy or just pissed against the nearest wall. And he never felt a moment of fatigue, for what might have been minutes, or might have been hours, until that cold, dark tugging at his insides . . . stopped.

Cautiously, he stepped through the pub wall, feeling something like resistance this time as he forced his way through it. It was—?well, he wasn’t sure what it was like, only that he didn’t much like the feeling, but it was better than waiting for another drunk to come out here to piss and open the door. Through the passage he went, then passed with a shiver right through all the blokes crowded up against the bar, then caught a bit of luck and got through the front door along with a staggering drunk.

The hole in the air was gone. It felt like a victory, and he whooped and shot his fist straight up, then shook it at where the hole had been. “Yew ain’t got me, yer barsterd! Yew ain’t gonna get me neither! Oi’m too tough fer ’Eaven an’ too smart fer ’Ell!”

He stood there, rejoicing in his achievement, for quite some time, as wraiths of people and carts and the occasional cab passed through him. But eventually, as the elation wore off the thought came slowly creeping up upon him.

Now what?

After fruitlessly looking for Reg—?though what he was supposed to do if he found Reg, he had no idea—?he went to stand by his unmoving body and brooded down at it.

He was a ghost now, he supposed. It was clear given the way that the living passed right through him that revenge on Reg was flat out of the question. So what was he to do with himself now?

Ghosts apparently didn’t eat, drink, or need shelter; and he didn’t feel anything at all except emotion. For a very long time he stood there, staring at his body, which lay conveniently out of the way of traffic. A few other people stared at it too, and moved on, as he himself would have done had he encountered—?say, good old Reg—?in a similar state. Dead bodies on the pavement were not an uncommon sight at night in this part of London, and once they’d been looted were regarded more as an inconvenience than a curiosity, much less a horror.

Just as he began to wonder if anyone was going to do anything about him before dawn, the police “body wagon” showed up to collect it, the loaders picking him up by the shoulders and heels like a bit of old rubbish and unceremoniously heaving him up into the wagon-?bed with three others like him, another man, a child, and an old woman.

And the wagon rolled off. He knew what came next: the morgue, someone going through his pockets in a vain attempt to find something to identify him, finding nothing because of course Reg had taken everything, maybe a day before he was either dumped in a common grave with the other unidentified stiffs or (more likely) sold off to medical students. So there was no reason whatsoever to follow that wagon.

In fact, the only thing that really mattered, the thing that made him red hot with anger, was that bloody Reg was going to get away with it all.

And even then, he couldn’t sustain the anger. It bled out of him like water in a sieve, leaving him, once again, feeling nothing, and wondering what to do with himself.

One by one he ticked off all the things that used to give him pleasure, and realized they were all things he couldn’t do now. Eat, drink, natter with the lads, gamble, whore, sleep in a good soft bed—

Did ghosts sleep? If he could pass through walls and people, a bed probably wouldn’t hold him.

He realized he’d been staring at the spot where his body had been all the time he’d been thinking, and raised his eyes as the whorehouse door opened to let out another customer.

Well . . . I can still watch.

When the madam closed the door on the last of the evening’s customers, once again, he found himself with nothing to do. Watching had been . . . exciting at first, but not for very long. He soon realized that without a body to be aroused, watching other people rut was disappointing. In fact, the only interesting thing was watching and listening to the girls when they weren’t futtering. He’d always assumed they were getting pleasure out of it all too; after all, they certainly made all the sounds and expressions of someone having a good time.

Except it turned out that they weren’t.

He’d never kept to any one house or any one girl; he’d always told himself it was no use having a favorite, because if the girl found out shewas a favorite, she might start asking things of him, like presents, or for him to keep her. The one he couldn’t afford, and the other would be as bad as a wife, and more expensive, with none of the advantages, like putting her to work for him, and Hell’s own chance of getting her to take a real job after the easy work of lying on her back in bed for her money.

So he’d never caught any of the girls he used at the tricks he caught them at now.

Like, using the exact same words and actions on every single man that took them upstairs. It was like watching a play, over and over and over.

This was a house with only four girls, and he had half the night to watch ’em at it. He’d stayed with the Irish gel after she’d sent off a sailor, because he’d been curious enough about what she did between men not to leave for another room. Wash up, it turned out, and wearing an expression of utter weariness while doing so. He’d been about to leave when a second mark came pushing open the door, but her first words to him stuck him in place, because they wereidentical to what she’d said to the first lad he’d watched her with.

“Oh, come in, me foine boyo! Sure, and with such a foine lad as yew at me door, I’ll nivver go back to Ireland!”

And after that, every word, every action, was identical to her performance with the sailor, right down to the timing of every sigh and cry.

And when he slipped into the other rooms, he discovered it was the same with the other three girls. The only time they changed their performance—?and even then, it was only the “before” and “after,” not the act itself—?was with someone they’d had before.

By the time the madam closed the door on the heels of the last man, he was thoroughly disenchanted. Not that he’d beenenchanted by whores before, but a man liked to think he was something special in the way of a stallion, and now he knew he was just one more broken-?down old nag at the back end of the stable, getting the same perfunctory rubdown and ration of dusty old hay as the rest.

He was brooding over this as he forced his way out through the closed door and into the street.

And it felt as if he had walked into a gale.

The pressure of something like a mighty wind, but not wind, forced him into a crouch, and to his horror, he felt and saw bits of himself flaking off and floating away! It took him a moment to realize that what he was fighting was—

—?the morning sunlight, pouring down the street from an unusually cloudless sky.

In a complete and mindless panic he turned and forced his way back in through the closed door of the whorehouse, where he stood just inside the front passageway. He should have been shaking. He felt—?lessened, somehow, as if something was missing. Reflexively, he looked down at himself—

—?he could see through himself.

Terror engulfed him.

He hadn’t just imagined that the sunlight was stripping bits of himself away. He’d been eroded. His mind went blank with shock, and he fell gratefully into the blankness, because blankness was not terror.

He was jarred out of his shock when the madam of the house walked through him to answer a summons at the door. Outside, night had fallen. The sounds of the pub across the street came to his ears as if from a vast distance. Andhe was no longer transparent.

A dull sense of relief came to him. So—?whatever the sun had done to him, there must have been a way he had healed himself over the course of the day. Except . . . he didn’t remember anything of the day. Nothing at all. What had happened to him wasn’t like sleep, and although it had repaired him, it hadn’t refreshed him at all. It had been more like he was a kind of clockwork that had run down, and something had just set him going again.

Or actually, more like being blackout drunk, without the fun of getting to that point.

He wasn’t sure what made him more uneasy and unhappy, nearly being torn apart and scattered on the wind by sunlight, or going all blank for the day.

And now what was he going to do? The night-?time hours stretched before him, and there was not one single item in the entire list of things that used to give him pleasure that he was able to do anymore.

And the one thing he could do—?spy on people—?wasn’t any fun if he didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. What was the good of knowing secrets about people if you couldn’t make use of those secrets?

He stood there in the passage, brooding, while customers came and went. After last night’s revelations, he really didn’t want to watch the whores anymore.

Someone walked through him on his way upstairs, whistling “You’ll Miss Lots of Fun When You’re Married,” and this time it struck him like another (but pleasant) blow to the head thatnow he could get into any music hall and any theater in the city for free, and stay as long as he liked. In the toff seats, too!

A surge of cheer went through him at the thought, and suddenly everything seemed brighter. Bloody hell if I can’t get into them fancy toff whorehouses too! He’d heard they had all sorts of goings-on there, music and dancing and orgies, good as a music hall or better, ’cause the girls had less on.

"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.

preigu

Osnabrück, Germany

5-star seller

AbeBooks seller since August 5, 2024

Shipping rates from Germany to U.S.A.

Item	60 to 60 business days	60 to 60 business days
First item	£ 58.41	£ 58.41

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.

Payment methods

Paypal

Store description

preigu betreibt einen Onlineversandhandel mit über 1 Mio. Produkten in verschiedenen Sortimenten. Das Kernsortiment besteht aus Büchern, Medien und Spielwaren. Ein gelungenes Einkaufserlebnis ist das Ziel einer jeden Bestellung bei preigu, denn der Kunde und seine Zufriedenheit stehen an erster Stelle. preigu setzt daher auf einen kompetenten Kundenservice, funktionierende Prozesse und schnelle Reaktion.

Specialty

Bücher, Spielwaren

Seller's business information

preigu GmbH & Co. KG

Lengericher Landstraße 19
Osnabrück, Germany 49078

About Us

Legal website operator identification:

preigu GmbH & Co. KG
Lengericher Landstr. 19
49078 Osnabrück
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0) 541 / 580 72 84
Email: mail@preigu.de

VAT No: DE 455 380 498
AG Osnabrück - HRA 209647

PhG: preigu Verwaltung GmbH
AG Osnabrück - HRB 221793
CEO: Ansas Meyer

We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before consumer arbitration boards.

We are a member of the initiative "FairCommerce" since 30.11.2016.
For more information, see: https://www.haendlerbund.de/de/haendlerbund/interessenvertretung/faircommerce

Contact sellerView this seller's itemsView seller's storefront

Terms of sale

Standard Business Terms and customer information

I. Standard business terms

§ 1 Basic provisions

(1) The following terms and conditions of business apply for all contracts concluded with us as the supplier (preigu GmbH & Co. KG) via the websites AbeBooks and/or ZVAB. Unless otherwise agreed, the inclusion of your own terms and conditions is explicitly rejected.

(2) A ‘consumer' in the sense of the following regulations is every natural person who concludes a legal transaction which, to an overwhelming extent, cannot be attributed to either his commercial or independent professional activities. The term ‘businessman' refers to every natural person, legal person or legally responsible partnership that concludes a legal transaction in pursuance of his/its independent professional or commercial activity.

§ 2 Conclusion of the contract

(1) The subject-matter of the contract is the selling of products .

(2) If an article is placed by us with AbeBooks or ZVAB, the activation of the page on AbeBooks or ZVAB shall involve the binding offer to conclude a contract under the terms and conditions contained in the article page.

(3) The contract shall become effective via the online shopping cart system as follows:
The products intended for purchase are moved to the "shopping cart". You can select the "Shopping Cart" using the appropriate buttons on the navigation bar and make changes there at any time.
After calling up the "Checkout" page and entering the required personal data and payment and shipping conditions, all order information is then displayed again on the order summary page.
Before submitting the order, you have the ability once more to review or change any information here (you may also use the "back" button on the Internet browser), or to cancel the purchase.
By clicking the "Buy now" button to submit the order, you declare your legally binding acceptance of the order which makes the contract effective.
(4) The execution of the order and the sending of all the details necessitated by the conclusion of the contract take place via e-mail, in a partially-automated manner. Consequently, you have to ensure that the e-mail address that you have deposited with us is the correct one, and that the receipt of the respective e-mails is guaranteed. In particular, you have to ensure that the respective e-mails are not blocked by a SPAM filter.

§ 3 Right of retention, reservation of proprietary rights

(1) You can only exercise a right of retention if the situation in question involves claims arising from the same contractual relationship.

(2) The goods remain our property until the purchase price is paid in full.

§ 4 Warranty

(1) The statutory warranty rights are applicable.

(2) As a consumer, you are requested to promptly check the product for completeness, visible defects and transport damage as soon as it is delivered, and promptly disclose your complaints to us and the shipping company in writing. Even if you do not comply with this request, it shall have no effect on your legal warranty claims.

(3) If a characteristic of the goods deviates from the objective requirements, the deviation shall only be deemed to be agreed if you were informed of the same by us before submitting the contractual declaration and the deviation was expressly and separately agreed between the contracting parties.

§ 5 Choice of law, place of fulfilment, jurisdiction

(1) German law shall apply. This choice of law only applies to customers if it does not result in the revocation of the protection guaranteed by the mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which the respective customer's usual place of residence is located (benefit-of-the-doubt principle).

(2) If you are not a consumer, but a businessman, a legal entity under public law or an institutional fund governed by public law, our place of business is the place of jurisdiction as well as the place of fulfilment for all services that follow from the business relationships that exist with us. The same condition applies to situations in which you are not associated with a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or the EU, as well as situations in which the place of residence or the usual place of residence is not known at the time of commencement of proceedings. This has no bearing on the capacity to call upon the court associated with another place of jurisdiction.

(3) The provisions of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods are explicitly inapplicable.

II. Customer information

Identity of the seller

preigu GmbH & Co. KG
Lengericher Landstr. 19
49078 Osnabrück
Germany
Telephone: 0541-580 72 84
E-Mail: mail@preigu.de

We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before consumer arbitration boards.

Information regarding the conclusion of the contract

The technical steps associated with the conclusion of the contract, the contract conclusion itself and the correction options are executed in accordance to the regulations "conclusion of the contract" in our standard business terms (part I.).

Contractual language, saving the text of the contract

3.1 Contract language shall be English.

3.2 The complete text of the contract is not saved with us. Before the order is sent, the contract data can be printed out or electronically saved using the browser's print function. After the order is received by us, the order data, the legally-mandated details related to distance selling contracts and the standard business terms are re-sent to you via e-mail.

Main features of the product or service

The key features of the goods and/or services can be found in the respective quote.

Prices and payment arrangements

5.1 The prices mentioned in the respective offers represent total prices, as do the shipping costs. They include all the price components, including all the incidental taxes.

5.2 The dispatch costs that are incurred are not included in the purchase price. They can be viewed by clicking the appropriate button on our website or in the respective quote, are shown separately over the course of the order transaction and must additionally be borne by you, insofar as free delivery is not confirmed.

5.3 If delivery is made to countries outside of the European Union, we may incur unreasonable additional costs, such as duties, taxes or money transfer fees (transfer or foreign exchange fees charged by the banks), which you must bear.

5.4 You must also bear the costs arising from money transfers in cases in which the delivery is made to an EU Member State, but the payment is initiated outside of the European Union.

5.5 The payment methods that are available to you are shown by clicking the appropriate button on our website or are disclosed in the respective quote.

5.6 Unless otherwise specified for the respective payment methods, the payment claims arising from the contract that has been concluded become payable immediately.

Delivery conditions

6.1 The delivery conditions, delivery date and existing supply restrictions, if applicable, can be found by clicking the appropriate button on our website or in the respective quote.

Unless a different period is specified in the item description or our delivery conditions, the goods are delivered within 3-5 days after the conclusion of the contract (in case an advance payment has been agreed upon, after the payment authorisation).

6.2 If you are a consumer, the following is statutorily regulated: The risk of the sold item accidentally being destroyed or degraded during shipping only passes over to you when the item in question is delivered, regardless of whether or not the shipping operation is insured. This condition does not apply if you have independently commissioned a transport company that has not been specified by us or a person who has otherwise been appointed to execute the shipping operation.

Statutory warranty right

Liability for defects is governed by the "Warranty" provisions in our General Terms and Conditions of Business (Part I).

Information on battery disposal

In connection with the sale of batteries or the delivery of devices containing batteries, we are obliged to inform you of the following:

Batteries must not be disposed of with household waste.

You can either return used batteries that we carry or have carried in our range as new batteries to us at your own expense or return them free of charge to our shipping warehouse (shipping address). Alternatively, you can hand in the batteries at your local collection points.

As an end user, you are legally obliged to return used batteries so that they can be recycled or disposed of properly.

Used batteries may contain harmful substances that can damage the environment or your health if not stored or disposed of properly. However, batteries also contain important raw materials such as iron, zinc, manganese or nickel and can be recycled.

The symbols on the batteries have the following meanings:

The symbol of the crossed-out wheelie bin means that the battery must not be disposed of with household waste.

For batteries containing a certain amount of lead, cadmium or mercury, the following additions below the symbol with the crossed-out wheelie bin indicate the respective pollutants:

Pb = Battery contains more than 0.004% lead by weight
Cd = Battery contains more than 0.002% cadmium by weight
Hg = Battery contains more than 0.0005% mercury by weight

Information on the costs involved in accordance with Article 56 (4) of the EU Battery Regulation (Regulation 2023/1542) can be found at the ‘Batterie-Zurück (https://www.batterie-zurueck.de/de/bewirtschaftungvonaltbatterien/)' initiative.
Please pay attention to the above instructions.

Right of withdrawal

Instructions for revocation

Right of withdrawal for the sale of goods

Revocation right for consumers
(A ‘consumer' is any natural person who concludes a legal transaction which, to an overwhelming extent, cannot be attributed to either his commercial or independent professional activities.)

Instructions for revocation

Revocation right
You have the right to revoke this contract within 14 days without specifying any reasons.
The revocation period is 14 days with effect from the day,

on which you or a third party nominated by you, which is not the carrier, had taken possession of the products, provided you had ordered one or more products within the scope of a standard order and this/these product/products is/are delivered uniformly;
on which you or a third party nominated by you, which is not the carrier, had taken possession of the last product, provided you had ordered several products within the scope of a standard order and these products are delivered separately;
on which you or a third party nominated by you, which is not the carrier, had taken possession of the last part delivery or the last unit, provided you had ordered a product, which is delivered in several part deliveries or units;

To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us (preigu GmbH & Co. KG, Lengericher Landstr. 19, 49078 Osnabrück, Telephone number: +49 (0) 541 / 580 72 84, E-Mail address: mail@preigu.de) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by post, or an e-mail) of your decision to withdraw from this contract. You can use the attached model withdrawal form for this purpose, which is, however, not mandatory.

You can also exercise your right of withdrawal online by clicking on a button labelled accordingly (such as ‘Withdraw from contract' or similar) on the AbeBooks/ZVAB website. If you use this online function, you will immediately receive a confirmation of receipt on a durable medium (e.g. via email) containing information on the content of the withdrawal notice, as well as the date and time of its receipt.

In order to safeguard the revocation period, it is sufficient that you send the notification about the exercise of the revocation right before the expiry of the revocation period.

Consequences of the revocation

If you revoke this contract, we shall repay all the payments, which we received from you, including the delivery costs (with the exception of additional costs, which arise from that fact that you selected a form of delivery other than the most reasonable standard delivery offered by us), immediately and at the latest within 14 days from the day on which we received the notification about the revocation of this contract from you. We use the same means of payment, which you had originally used during the original transaction, for this repayment unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; you will not be charged any fees owing to this repayment.

We can refuse the repayment until the products are returned to us or until you have furnished evidence that you have sent the products back to us, depending on whichever is earlier.

You must return or transfer the products to us immediately and, in any case, at the latest within 14 days with effect from the day on which you inform us of the revocation of this contract. The deadline is maintained if you send the products before the expiry of the 14 day deadline.

You bear the direct costs for returning the products.

You must pay for any depreciation of the products only if this depreciation can be attributed to any handling with you that was not necessary for checking the condition, features and functionality of the products.

Criteria for exclusion or expiry

The revocation right is not available for contracts

for delivery of products, which are not prefabricated and for whose manufacturing an individual selection or stipulation by the consumer is important or which are clearly tailored to the personal requirements of the consumer;
for delivery of products, which can spoil quickly or whose use-by date would be exceeded quickly;
for delivery of alcoholic drinks, whose price was agreed at the time of concluding the contract, which however can be delivered 30 days after the conclusion of the contract at the earliest and whose current value depends on the fluctuations in the market, on which the entrepreneur has no influence;
for delivery of newspapers, periodicals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts. The revocation right expires prematurely in case of contracts
for delivery of sealed products, which are not suitable for return for reasons of health protection or hygiene if their seal has been removed after the delivery;
for delivery of products if they have been mixed inseparably with other goods after the delivery, owing to their condition;
for delivery of sound or video recording or computer software in a sealed package if the seal has been removed after the delivery.

Specimen - revocation form

(If you wish to revoke the contract, please fill up this form and send it back to us.)

To preigu GmbH & Co. KG, Lengericher Landstr. 19, 49078 Osnabrück, Email address: mail@preigu.de :
I/we () herewith revoke the contract concluded by me/ us () regarding the purchase of the following products ()/
the provision of the following service ()
Ordered on ()/ received on ()
Name of the consumer(s)
Address of the consumer(s)
Signature of the consumer(s) (only in case of a notification on paper)
Date

(*) Cross out the incorrect option.

Privacy and security

Data protection declaration

Unless stated otherwise below, the provision of your personal data is neither legally nor contractually obligatory, nor required for conclusion of a contract. You are not obliged to provide your data. Not providing it will have no consequences. This only applies as long as the processing procedures below do not state otherwise.
"Personal data" is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Responsible person
Contact us at any time. The person responsible for data processing is: Ansas Meyer, Lengericher Landstr. 19, 49078 Osnabrück Deutschland, +49 (0) 541 / 580 72 84, mail@preigu.de

Collection and processing when using the cancellation button
If you have entered into a contract via this platform for which a statutory right of cancellation applies, the platform provides you with a cancellation function (cancellation button) through which you can submit your notice of cancellation immediately.
When using the cancellation function, your personal data (name, email address, details identifying the contract or part of the contract you wish to withdraw from, and the time (date and time) of sending the notice of withdrawal) will only be collected to the extent that you have provided it.
The purpose of data processing is to provide you with the statutory option to withdraw from your contract and to ensure the proper processing of your withdrawal.
The platform operator collects your data on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, namely the legitimate interest in ensuring the general accessibility of the statutory withdrawal function on the platform. You will receive a confirmation email from the platform operator acknowledging receipt of your notice of withdrawal.
The data is then transmitted to us by the platform operator.
If the contact relates to a contract already concluded between you and us, this data processing is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR. Otherwise, data processing is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR, to fulfil a legal obligation to provide an electronic withdrawal function.
We use your email address solely to process your notice of withdrawal. Your data will subsequently be deleted in accordance with statutory retention periods, provided you have not consented to further processing and use.

Collection, processing, and transfer of personal data in orders
When you submit an order we only collect and use your personal data insofar as this is necessary for the fulfilment and handling of your order as well as processing of your queries. The provision of data is necessary for conclusion of a contract. Failure to provide it will prevent the conclusion of any contract. The processing will occur on the basis of Article 6(1) b) GDPR and is required for the fulfilment of a contract with you.
Your data will be shared, for example, with shipping companies, dropshipping or fulfillment providers, payment service providers, service providers for order processing, and IT service providers. We will comply strictly with legal requirements in every case. The scope of data transmission is restricted to a minimum.

Duration of storage
After contractual processing has been completed, the data is initially stored for the duration of the warranty period, then in accordance with the retention periods prescribed by law, especially tax and commercial law, and then deleted after the period has elapsed, unless you have agreed to further processing and use.

Rights of the affected person
If the legal requirements are fulfilled, you have the following rights according to art. 15 to 20 GDPR: Right to information, correction, deletion, restriction of processing, data portability. You also have a right of objection against processing based on art. 6 (1) GDPR, and to processing for the purposes of direct marketing, according to art. 21 (1) GDPR.

Right to complain to the regulatory authority
You have the right to complain to the regulatory authority according to art. 77 GDPR if you believe that your data is not being processed legally.
You can lodge a complaint with, among others, the supervisory authority responsible for us, which you may reach at the following contact details:

Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen Prinzenstraße 5 30159 Hannover Tel.: +49 511 1204500 Fax: +49 511 1204599 E-Mail: poststelle@lfd.niedersachsen.de

Right to object
If the data processing outlined here is based on our legitimate interests in accordance with Article 6(1)f) GDPR, you have the right for reasons arising from your particular situation to object at any time to the processing of your data with future effect.
If the objection is successful, we will no longer process the personal data, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that outweigh your interests or rights and freedoms, or the processing is intended for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims.

The Case of the Spellbound Child

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