"Here's your order, sir," said a red-haired waitress, as she set down the man's plate, "Call me if you need anything else."
The redhead turned to walk away, showing a very short skirt, "I know something you can help me with." He reached out his hand, but was grabbed roughly by the wrist. A short-haired, brunette waitress glared down at him.
"We would really like it if you kept your hands to yourself and your meal," poison was laced in her voice. The man could only nod, the brunette's demeanor changed instantly, "Thank you, and enjoy your meal!" She let go of his arm and smiled sweetly.
The brunette went off to help the redhead clear a table. "What would you do without me, Alice?" Alice just gave her a confused look, the brunette sweatdropped, She has no idea what just happened, does she?
"Evelyn. you got table 5!" Called the manager.
"Got it!" the brunette, Evelyn, called back. She adjusted the corset on her uniform. The waitress uniforms all had black skirts connected to a corset that went over a long-sleeved, off-shoulder blouse. Along with that were black ballet flats with lace up to the knee and the employee's choice of cat or bunny ear headbands. Evelyn had chosen cat while Alice went bunny.
Evelyn walked over to the table with her pad and pen in hand, "Hello, is there anything I can get you?"
"Chocolate and strawberry parfait," answered the young girl. She had black hair that came just above her shoulders and green eyes. The waitress left and came back later with a chocolate and strawberry parfait.
"So much sugar's gonna turn you into a Gluttony, Luci," teased Evelyn.
"Who cares? I just want my parfait." Evelyn set down the dessert and Luci proceeded in eating. "I'm surprised that none of you are the least bit curious as to how a 12 year old can afford a parfait a day."
"None of us really care as long as the money's real."
"Evelyn, can you help me with table three?" Called Alice.
"You should get going, 'Evelyn'," Luci air quoted the name.
Evelyn snorted in a very unlady-like fashion and bent down to whisper in Luci's ear, "If you give us away, I will snap little your neck." She walked off.
"Is that any way to talk to a customer?!" Luci called. She quickly finished her parfait and left the money on the table, with no tip.
She began walking through the town like she did every time she ate at the cafe. "This place is so boring!" She whined. As an ex-thief, Luci was used to mapping out the area in her head, so she had the layout of the town embedded in her mind after only a few days.
It was no fun walking around a town alone. Alone, she thought, just like when I was a thief. Luci quickly shook the thought from her head, This is nothing like back then, I still have Melody and Envy that I can visit practically anytime. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her red hoodie dress with a black bunny in the corner of the skirt, "This is nothing like then, so quit being such a whiny bi-"
Luci was cut off as a man on a bike nearly mowed her down and she landed flat on her butt. "Watch where you're going you ass!" She yelled after him. He kept riding and Luci could hear shouts coming from where he was. Ah, this takes me back. A runaway thief in action. She picked herself up and began to run in the direction of the thief, but then ran into an alley. If I'm right, he'll fake them out and end up at the alley up ahead. Then he'll ride down this way, all I have to do is stop him.
Luci began to look for something that could block his path and found a large dumpster on wheels. She hid behind it and could tell that it would be hard to push by leaning on it. Judging by his speed and the distance, he'll be here in about three minutes, I better start pushing. Luci began to push and the dumpster inched forward slowly. But it wasn't moving fast enough to be able to catch the man in time. "Come on, move," she groaned, "at this rate, I'll miss him."
Bicycle wheels and a chain could be heard getting closer, and at the last possible minute, an extra weight was added to the dumpster, making it roll forward onto the sidewalk. The man slammed into the dumpster and crumbled to the ground.
"Victory!" Luci shouted, pumping both fists into the air. She ran out to roll the man over with her foot and set the bike up.
"You're just gonna take his bike?" Luci tried not to jump, hearing the sudden boy's voice. He had brown hair tied up and a red coat.
"Sure, that's the only reason why I stopped him." The boy gave her a look full of disappointment. "It's not like he's doing anything good with the bike, he's using it to steal, and I don't think he'll stay knocked out for long so taking his bike will keep him from getting far away."
"But doesn't it belong to the police now?"
"They don't care about the bike, they want the man and the money." The boy still looked unconvinced, "I'm taking the bike either way, so just try to stop me," Luci said with her free hand on her hip.
The boy was going to retort, but his expression changed to one of fear, "Look out!" He grabbed Luci's wrist and pulled her to him, making her drop the bike.
"You little bitch!" The man was up and had a knife. He swung at the two, making them split up. The man kept coming at Luci, swinging the knife as she dodged each swipe. Luci didn't even notice when she was getting too close to the building in back of her and was cornered. The man raised the knife, but was stuck in his cheek and knocked to the side.
The boy with the red coat was behind him holding a lead pipe. He had the bike set up, "Come on!" He called, swinging his leg over the bike. Luci kicked the thief man right between the legs before getting on the back of the bike. She held on to the boy's waist as he sped off.
"See, the bike just saved our lives. I should keep it," said Luci. The boy chuckled as he kept riding at top speed. He soon began to slow from lack of breath. He kept pedaling at a leisurely pace, panting all the way.
"My name's Alphonse," He managed to get out.
"I'm Luci, and thanks... for not leaving me behind."
"Why would I do that?"
"There was a psycho with a knife coming at me and you already had the bike. I actually expected you to run off without me." Luci felt something dripping on her hands. Alphonse had a cut on the back of his hand and the blood was dripping to where Luci had her hands wrapped around his waist. "Stop the bike."
"What?" Alphonse stopped and Luci got off, "What's wrong?" Luci took Alphonse's hand so he could see the cut. "Oh, it's just a little cut, probably happened when he swung his knife at me the first time." He smiled at her, "It's no big deal."
"Either way, I don't like people getting hurt because of me." With that, Luci untied one of the wristbands that she was wearing. She put it on Alphonse's cut and tied it tight.
"I came to help you of my own free will, I've gotten into worse trouble before."
"That reminds me, how in the hell did you get into that alley without me noticing you? There's only one way in or out, I would have seen you."
"I made a back entrance," he replied, holding up his hands. The palms of the gloves he wore had intricate circles in the center. "I saw you go off that way in a hurry, so I went but got lost and made an entrance through one of the walls." Alphonse chuckled a little. "So are you still keeping the bike?"
"Well duh," Luci said with her hands on her hips, Alphonse gave her a strange look, "Well it's his own fault for using a bike as a getaway vehicle. He's a grown man, he should either use a car or his feet."
Alphonse got off the bike, "It's getting late, teacher's gonna worry."
"In that case, I'll be taking this," Luci grabbed the handlebars from Alphonse and began to walk the bike. "Seeya, Al!" She waved to him as she left. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to ride this thing."
Luci kept walking her new bike when she finally noticed something, "Wait, which wristband did I give him?!" She panicked for a moment before she realized that it was her right wristband. Her left one still covered her ouraborus. "Envy's gonna lecture me nonstop about this. 'Don't let anyone see your tattoo,' he said." An idea came to her and she got on the bike.
"Hey Evelyn, where do you think Luci went?" asked Alice. The cafe was closing up and they were back in their usual clothes. Alice wore a sleeveless pink turtleneck with white sleeves on her forearms and jeans.
"Hard to tell with that girl," Evelyn responded as the two walked back to Alice's apartment. She wore a black halter top with a jean skirt and black leather boots. "But you shouldn't worry about her, she probably just found some jerk to steal from or something."
"Yeah, but even when that happens, she's usually back by the time the cafe closes." Evelyn had to consider that for a minute, Now that I think about it, she's right. Did Luci get herself into trouble?And she actually timed out Luci's schedule, she must care about her a lot, enough to even get so worked up over her not staying.
"Hey Evelyn," Alice snapped her out of her thoughts, seeing her distress, "You know, I haven't seen Envy in a while. Since before I got my job, to be exact."
"He's still around, I'm sure of it." Evelyn decided to go along with it, "Probably just hasn't felt the need to come out."
"Out of the way!" Someone shouted. Evelyn and Alice split apart just in time before Luci rushed past on a bike. "How do you stop this thing?"
"Pull the levers on the handlebars!" Alice instructed. Luci did just that and swerved the bike to keep from ramming into a street lamp.
"Yes! I finally know how to ride this," Luci said to herself. You could see that it had taken her sometime to learn from all the scrapes on her arms and legs.
"So that's what you've been doing all day. I was kinda worried when you didn't come back at your usual time," Alice said.
"What happened to your wrist band?" Evelyn noticed that one was missing.
"Huh?" Luci held her wrist, "Must've lost it when I fell earlier." She held up the wrist to show them that it wasn't the one with the ouraborus. "It's not the important one anyway."
"Still, be more careful with those," Evelyn told her, "Don't just go losing them."
"Yeah, yeah mom. I'm gonna go ride this more." Luci took off on the bike riding a little wobbly until she was out of their sight. It worked! She thought. Luci began to straighten up and rode like a pro, the same way she saw the thief and Al do.
Alice walked into her apartment and turned on the radio. She was listening to a station that she really liked until it was interupted by Breaking News.
"After one month, there is still no sign of Melody Corsen. Since her abduction by an unknown assailant, she has been missing. Melody was supposedly last spotted by shopkeepers in the town of Cinderine. She was seen with a green-haired male, approximately 18. Her foster parents, Henry and Marie, are worried sick about her."
The second the last statement came out, Alice had thrown a bottle at the radio, knocking it off the counter. "'Worried sick' my ass," she snarled.
"You know throwing stuff at your problems won't make them go away," said a sudden voice. Envy was sitting on the window sill and Luci was lounging on the couch. "At least not all the time." He jumped down and closed the window.
"Envy, I haven't seen you in a while." Alice's mood instantly shifted. Envy bent to pick up the bottle.
"You're out of dye and your roots are starting to show," he said holding the empty container.
Alice ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Envy was right, silver strands of hair were visible near her scalp. "The only store that sells dye is closed right now," Luci said.
"By the way," Alice (you know who she really is) said, "When did you get in here?"
"I came in after you did, through your bedroom window." Alice sighed.
"Either way, you need more dye and we both work tomorrow. I'll have to get some during 'Evelyn's' lunch break. If you go then someone may find out that your're not a natural redhead, and someone may put two and two together with your purple eyes."
"Why can't you just send me?" Luci asked.
"Would you trust yourself with money?"
"Good point."
"The reward for finding Melody Corsen is currently $10,000. For information on Melody or the man she was last with, call..."
"Is that why you haven't been around much?" Melody/Alice asked.
Envy nodded, "For now, just stay as 19-year-old Alice and I'll be Evelyn."
"But for how long?"
Meanwhile...
"$10,000, eh?" Said one of the three.
"You'd think a girl with silver hair would stick out like a sore thumb." This man was reading an alchemy book as he talked.
"What if she dyed it?" said the last, "I remember a waitress from a cafe I was at today, she was really cute-"
"Get to the point," the first one interrupted. He had black hair, tied back and blue eyes.
"I was getting to that, Jess. I think that I saw some silver in her roots. What if she's a runaway and not kidnapped?"
"Are you saying that the waitress you met was Melody Corsen?" Jess asked.
"She had purple eyes like they said."
The one with the alchemy book put his book down and ran his hand through his brown hair. "She's not gonna want to go back if that's true."
The first smiled, "Then we'll take her by force."
Hey! You may not have been expecting this to continue. I'm really sorry for leaving this story alone for so long, it won't happen again, promise. And I do have this story planned out and plan to see it through til the end. So if you liked this chapter, please fav, review, or even follow if you want. I'll be back soon with a new chapter so see you then!