Ugh, it was quite the struggle to get the motivation to write this chapter but I did it! Somehow, I managed to finish this story in two days! And the chapter after this will be the last one. Stick around to read it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Diamond/Joker/Clover/Heart no kuni no Alice series. I also do not own any of the characters, including Edith Liddell who happens to be the star of this story.
Chapter Two
They were clichés straight out of a novel.
The protagonist comes home to find her door broken down, the inside of her house dark and ransacked and if the director and producers of the movie were really hoping to scare their audience the lifeless bodies of their loved ones would also be found inside... surrounded by a pool of blood.
Then there was also the over-used plot of discovering the house completely ransacked where the protagonist's loved one is no where to be found. In this case, there was usually a note left behind explaining that if the protagonist ever wants to see the person again then they should follow the instructions on the note. The instructions of the ominous note usually stated that the protagonist should meet at location X if they ever wanted person Y back alive. Said location was often an abandoned warehouse or a place that was far away from civilization. Far enough so that no one could hear you scream as the villain attempted to kill you.
Edith hated clichés. Especially if she had to reenact one.
Which was exactly what she was doing by heading over to the harbour at the specified time dictated by the piece of paper held in her left hand that she badly wanted to shred into pieces.
Alice and Edith were never close and their already strained relationship only worsened with Lorina's death and the former's inability to acknowledge that the Liddells had lost another beloved member of their family. But Lorina had made her promise to look after Alice once she was dead and Edith did not plan on breaking it even though her eldest sister was no longer around to witness whether she would keep her word or not.
'I'm only rescuing Alice because Lorina made me promise to watch over her on her death-bed,' Edith thought. 'I am a horrible, horrible sister.'
Edith knew that it was only her word to Lorina that had her risking her life to rescue Alice. That, and the fact that they were related by blood and shared the same parents. Those two facts being the main driving reasons as to why she was walking into an obvious trap made her feel uncomfortable and a little guilty.
Still she didn't even know if her sister was still alive. The states of the servants of the household and her father (especially her the old man) did not have her optimistic about her sister still being alive. Alice could have easily been kidnapped and killed in another location; and if that was the case then all Edith would find was a corpse that used to a living person.
But there was also a small sliver of hope that Alice was still among the living. And the duty bound part of Edith could not over look that.
There was no doubt that somewhere up there Lorina was furious at Edith for letting Alice get kidnapped in the first place. And if Alice were to die, she knew that Lorina would never forgive her.
Everyone, Edith included, knew that she and Alice got along like a house on fire. But did she dislike her older sister so much that she could barely gather motivation to rescue her from a disgruntled past enemy? That it was a promise and a fear of her deceased sister's wrath that was making her walk right into a trap and not the fact that Alice was in trouble?
Edith's stomach churned and did flip flops as the realization set in.
Apparently so.
Ten minutes later Edith arrived at the harbour just as she was instructed. It took another five minutes to find the specified warehouse and finally two minutes to break inside. Unsurprisingly there was no one around waiting for her with their arms crossed and an evil smirk on their face. Unless you counted the warehouses and the empty crates that were surrounding her as company.
More importantly there was no Alice either.
As soon as she had set foot in the assigned meeting place, the Hunter had drawn her weapons: the twin guns Apollo and Artemis. Only an idiot or a really green Hunter with an incompetent teacher would explore a possibly hostile area unarmed. Or anywhere else for that matter. A quick (and risky) glance at her wrist watch told her that she arrived at the rendezvous point five minutes early. So that essentially meant five minutes of doing nothing but keeping an eye out on her surroundings and debating on whether whoever called her out to the harbour was actually going to meet up with her or it was a trap she was going to have to fight her way out of.
Edith preferred the latter. She was more of a fighter than a silver-tongued smooth talker; there was a reason why she not allowed to negotiate with the enemy or handle anything of the political nature.
A sound from her left had Edith immediately turning in the direction and tightening the hold she had on her twin guns. When she saw who was hiding in the shadows of a steel storage container, the Hunter growled.
"You!"
Smiling sweetly at her was Estelle Grants, a vampire and an infamous member of one of the many anti-human group factions out there. With her light brown hair, emerald green eyes and her small slender body figure, Estelle was the type of person who looked as if she could do no wrong and needed to be protected from the evils of the world.
Anyone who had encountered and went up against Estelle in any way and escaped the first time knew better. She was a bitch in sheep's clothing and her soft and 'innocent' looks fooled everyone most people into taking her at face value. With the exception of those who knew what kind of monster was lurking underneath those attractive looks.
Edith would bet her father's entire fortune that Estelle was the one who personally broke into her estate and slaughtered the servants and her father. That was the only conclusion she could come up with since the vampiress' clothing was drenched in dark red stains.
"Just on time." Estelle said lightly as if Edith was not aiming her guns at her. "Then again having your sister and her servant makes a great incentive to lure you here."
Edith raised an eyebrow but kept her weapons trained on the vampire. "Servant? You only mentioned having my sister under your custody."
"Yes, well, this one was just too cute to pass up. I figured that I would just take him from you and your sister and put him to better use. You don't mind, do you?"
"Just get to the point. You took my sister. Why?"
Short, sweet and straight to the point. Just as Edith liked it. And it left very little room for the other person to set off a tangent that distracted her from her goal. In this case Edith's point would be shooting Estelle multiple times at point blank range and watching her writhe in pain on the floor.
"You're no fun." Estelle's voice continued to be patronizing. "But if you must know... I want to propose a trade."
"A trade." Edith said flatly. She knew exactly where this was going.
"Yes!" The vampire chirped. "I want to exchange your sister and her servant for the two vampires you captured two months ago. You see, I do not like it when people take my things. As well as break them."
By 'things' the vampiress must have meant her captured henchmen. Like the atypical vampire who was used to being on top or always getting their way, the people around them were not seen as living beings with autonomy but possessions. Vampires were very, very materialistic creatures who obsessed over two things after all: wealth and status.
Edith knew who Estelle was talking about. As the latter said she had been responsible for the capture of two vampires who were wrecking havoc up in Canada. There were originally three of them and they had racked up quite a body count before Edith was able to capture two of the vampires. The third one she simply killed off because there were more dead people piling up and because she figured that two vampires were enough for interrogation.
"I am sorry to say that is not going to be possible." Edith said sarcastically. "Your pawns are simply too valuable to let go; and I highly doubt the sister of a Hunter is worth the trade off that you are requesting. They are not going to agree to the terms even if you are holding a hostage."
Estelle smirked. "I'm sure that a smart Hunter like you can think of something."
The Hunter snorted. "I am sure I can. But that's assuming that you think I'm one of those stupid and silly protagonists who would simply drop everything and act like an idiot when someone she knows is taken captive. Sorry to break it to you, but I am not like any of those types." Edith smiled, but it was far from a friendly one. It was the kind that she used on her targets who were about to get their comeuppance via a bullet right through their heart.
Much to her satisfaction, Edith's words wiped the smirk right off of Estelle's smug face.
"Very well then. I guess your sister simply has no use for me then." She scowled, but then her face twisted into another sneer, more uglier than it's predecessor from a few minutes ago. "I suppose that I should simply dispose of her since she has lost her usefulness, but I have a better idea."
The petite brunette snapped her fingers and three figures appeared from the shadows. Or to be more accurate, two figures holding on to a third that was bound by a brown burlap sack pulled over them. Another snap from Estelle had the figures removing the sack that was concealing the third individual and shoving them none too gently towards the middle of the room.
Edith's eyes widened before she immediately put on a cold facade as the woman looked up dazedly at her; the one she usually reserved for having to do a job despite her inner turmoil.
Because sprawled on the ground was a young woman in her early to middle twenties. Like Edith she had dirty blonde hair, though it was much longer as it went down to her waist.
However it was the woman's eyes that grabbed Edith's attention.
"Her eyes are green-blue like mine," The Hunter noted numbly. "At least they're supposed to be."
The three Liddell sisters all shared the same physical traits; green-blue eyes and dirty blonde hair that was easily mistaken for brown. And while they did not look exactly like each other, there was too strong of a resemblance between them them to be mistaken for anything else other than sisters.
But Alice Liddell was staring at her with dark crimson orbs.
The signature colour of a newborn vampire who was very, very hungry.
Done! It took a lot to crank out this chapter and I am not entirely satisfied with it, but I couldn't bring myself to write any more. Not when I was already struggling with the motivation.
But anyways... please kindly review this story. I want to know what you think! And it would be nice to hear what the fans have to say.
