"So where do you want to go first, Miss Anya?" Yor asked.
While walking through the mall, Yor couldn't help but notice that her daughter was making a few passing glances. At first, she assumed it had to be because Anya was growing restless, but now she was uncertain. Anya looked up at the raven-haired woman.
"Anya wants to look at clothes first."
Yor smiled. "Alright, Miss Anya."
The two Forgers entered the clothing center of the mall toward the female section. Given the recent circumstances of her profession, Yor received a good bit of money from the Garden (and, obviously, she would not disclose to Loid how she accumulated extra money to spend). As winter was on the horizon, she wanted to buy some warm jackets and coats for Anya.
Before heading to the section dedicated to winter attire. There were red sweaters somewhat resembling Yor's casual attire. Mittens, snow hats, scarves, you name them. However, the feared assassin was not one to be fully cognitive of the current fashion trend. She took a jacket around Anya's size and examined it. She tentatively tapped her fingers on the black buttons uncertain of what to do.
Anya stood by scanning the area for any suspicious leads. Being a telepath is a stressful endeavor as far as the youngest of the family was concerned. Having one person's mind to reading is one thing. Two is also fine. Three would be stretching limitations, but a mall would regularly have hundreds of patrons visiting. With so many minds to read, it was a miracle that Anya was able to wade through these countless trains of thought and not have her brain implode.
Now was the perfect time to sneak away from her mother's watchful eyes. But, knowing how quick her mother's agility was, she'd strike her hand out like a cobra rearing its hood. Thankfully for her, there came a divine intervention. A red-headed woman wearing a uniform advertising that she worked for that branch of the mall appeared.
"May I be of some assistance?"
Yor took her eyes off the jacket and turned. "Yes. I was actually trying to find something that suits my daughter."
"Ah, having trouble figuring it out? Well, I can provide some recommendations if you don't mind me interrupting your search."
Yor's eyes widened. "Really, thank you so much!"
While the two adults conversed, Anya saw that as the perfect chance to slink away. Once more, she tried to filter through the thoughts of the visitors. Since this was candy that was being discussed, it made sense for the young girl that the first place to look would be the food court. She went to a Chinese shop to inquire about information from them. When that did not work, she went by a cookie shop. Like previously, Anya did not receive much insight, but she did help herself with some free samples.
After walking around, Anya was finally feeling tired. Her stubby legs were giving out. Panting, Anya leaned down to collect her knees. "This is harder than Anya thought..."
Yor had probably gathered dozens of winter outfits by now and she would probably be tearing the mall apart to find her precious daughter. Anya sighed in defeat. Damian's birthday was drawing near, and if she did not do anything about it, dozens of her classmates could fall victim to the tainted candy. As she turned back in the direction of the clothes department, something shiny caught Anya's eyes.
Darting her eyes, she checked around and spotted a piece of candy on the ground. "Waku, waku," she thought.
It appeared to be a peppermint wrapped up fashionably like a Christmas ornament. The young "spy" licked her lips. From the looks of it, she was on the right track. Anya ran over to collect the candy. She smiled to herself which would seem mundane to some, but it was a huge accomplishment if she said so herself. But, as she would find out, that was only the beginning.
Another piece of candy, this time butterscotch, was carefully placed on the floor in the same direction as the peppermint. Anya shrugged and scooped up the piece, slipping it into her pockets. Then another popped up. And another. One by one, the pink-haired girl was hitting the jackpot. It was her own special Halloween, but the more she lined her pockets with the sweets, she was unwittingly straying far from the departments into the depths of the mall where none ever traversed.
"Ooo, another piece of candy," Anya told herself. Her pockets were weighed down with the candy which caused her to feel heavier. Despite the increasing weight, Anya slipped the last piece of candy into her pockets even if it meant cramming them in there. "I think that was the last one."
Anya looked around. During her candy expedition, she did not realize that the lights were slowly dwindling until she was in a barely lit portion of the mall. "Mommy?"
The darkness shrouded her when she walked deeper into the black pitch. "Hello?" No one spoke back to the girl. "Hello?"
Again, no response aside from the echoing of her voice. She walked without direction hoping that it would eventually become well-lit again. If only she had Bond with her. This must have been any telepath's fear. While hearing an entire group's thoughts was a pickle, not hearing anyone at all was equally scary, or maybe more so. The only sound she heard was her own footsteps.
"Mommy, Anya's sorry for being a bad girl..."
Her heart was racing. Someone had to be there in the darkness watching over her, there had to be. She quietly prayed to herself hoping for some deliverance. Whether it be her mother or some mall employee it did not matter. All she wanted was to be led out of the darkness.
Creak...
Anya's ears perked up. A sudden sound like that would have sent her flying to her bottom, but she caught herself. Her ears perked up. It was a truck door opening, she was fairly aware of what they sounded like since she and her parents would frequent downtown Berint every now and then. Sure enough, she could see that a semitrailer was backed through the dock pit. Candy led to the back of the semitrailer.
Anya sighed in relief. Her prayers had been answered so now all she had to do was meet up with the truck driver and explain away the situation. However, her joy suddenly turned to fear when she heard dialogue coming from the driver. Looking for a place to hide, she spotted an abandoned crate and ducked behind it. The truck's ignition ceased and the doors creaked open. Out came two men. Anya cautiously looked out from behind the crate seeing they were big. Maybe they eclipsed her father in terms of size. They possessed red hair and beards with matching fat guts. While she would not have realized it at that moment, the two were also wearing crudely-crafted uniforms.
One of the men slipped out a walkie-talkie. "Alright, boss, we have the trap set as you ordered."
There was some gurgling noise on the other end sounding like a broken record until Jumping Jack spoke up. "Excellent. Once you nab the girl, you will drop her off at a warehouse where my men will personally deliver her to the factory."
"Wouldn't it make more sense for us to directly bring her to you?"
"We don't want the mother to catch on too quickly. I also have plans for her as well."
Anya gulped. She knew that something was amiss about them, but she had to keep quiet otherwise that would give them a clue about where she was hiding. She hunched down and tapped her lips. "What would her dad do in that situation?"
Brainstorming, she heard the rustling of her candy and an idea popped into her mind. Taking a handful, she tossed it and it made a pretty noticeable noise. The one communicating with Jumping Jack crammed their walkie-talkie back into his pocket and bolted despite his hefty size.
Anya sprints out from behind the crate in the opposite direction, but she did not consider the other one was dashing toward her. Curse her short legs. She attempted to run with all her might, but her arm was seized.
"Got ya, girlie."
Anya attempted to squirm her frail arm away from the tight grip of the behemoth to no avail. She slammed her other hand on top of her arm but nothing was going to pry her from his hold. He grabbed one of her mittens and slipped it off. The other man caught up breathing heavily.
"Dude, you only ran three feet at least," he said.
"Good, you got her."
He goes back into the truck and pulls out a clipboard. He starts scribbling something on the paper and taped it to the mitten. Anya's eyes widened in fright. "Anya's being sold?"
The first hefty man picked the girl up fully annoyed by Anya kicking his arm. "The boss better pay us to double for having to deal with this brat."
She kicked and thrashed and screamed her little lungs out, but the two men were apathetic to it all. They tossed her into the semi-truck with zero concern and sealed her inside. One left the mitten and letter on the ground and escaped. Anya banged on the sides of the semi-truck in a feeble belief that it would change her fate.
"Mommy!"
"Miss Anya? Where are you!?"
Yor frantically looked throughout the store for any signs of her adoptive daughter having long since selected the coats that she felt were up to Anya's tastes. It even had Mr. Peanut images on it. She had left the clothes department so fast; she did not hear the woman who helped her earlier shouting out that she was leaving the winter clothes behind. Her knees buckled and her legs moved with such motion, they were blurs to anyone looking her way. It could even be said that she was levitating in the air due to no one ever seeing her stepping foot on the ground. The wind cracked around her body during her pursuit.
"Why did I have to take my eyes off her after what happened last time!?"
The raven-haired woman frowned and psychologically blamed herself for her daughter slipping from under her nose once more. Posters that were hung on the stands were ripped off and flew into the air. Yor saw the map detailing the sections of the store coming up, so she lifted her heels and used the sharp part as an anchor to slow herself down. The tiles ripped under her pressure until dirt ruptured to the surface. Her heels left huge skid marks on the ground.
Catching her breath, Yor clutched her chest and exhaled. "Where can Miss Anya be?"
She already looked at the toy section suspecting that Anya could have tried enlisting more stuffed animals into her "spy organization" with which Bond and Mr. Penguin were affiliated with. She scoured through the food courts her anticipating she was wanting a bag of boiled peanuts. Still no dice. She checked the bathrooms but no sight of her daughter was found.
Yor scanned the map carefully all while mentally checking off her list of places she visited. Taking her index finger, she skimmed through the departments until she came upon the section the shipments would be carried out. It would be odd for her daughter to be there, but she had to go there on the off-chance Anya wound up there on accident.
"Miss Anya? Are you here?"
Yor entered the shipping department with the sound of her heavy footsteps being her only companion. Crates were littered around as if the deliverymen lacked care for their work and pitched crates aside willy-nilly without any consideration that fragile objects could have been inside. The lights faintly flickered in the poorly-lit area adding to Yor's fears.
She heard something crunch underneath her foot. Curious, she knelt down and slowly removed her foot to check it out. A piece of candy? She reached and grabbed the candy which had split in half when she stepped on it. "What is this doing here?"
She looked ahead and saw more candy laying on the ground. She scratched her head. "This reminds me of that one story my mom used to tell me and Yuri."
Ah, yes, the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel where the two kids left breadcrumbs to trace their steps back home when their awful stepmother forced her husband to leave them in the woods to perish. Yor's eyes widened. Wait, if she remembered correctly, the two were almost eaten by a witch. Yor stammered with her vision becoming cross. It couldn't be. But when she sees these pieces of candy littering everywhere, there was no room to doubt in her mind.
Anya was kidnapped by the wicked witch.
Panicking, Yor placed the candy into her pockets. She followed the trail until she was almost keeled over. There was her daughter's mitten. On the front of it was a message. Yor, gulping nervously, acquired the letter and read it aloud.
"We have your daughter. If you want to see her again, come to the warehouse just north of the mall."
Trembling, Yor gripped the paper between her hands. That witch, how dare she kidnap her daughter and cook her in her oven? Her red eyes glowed in the near-darkness of the shipping department with her teeth gnashing together. Anyone who dared to harm her daughter was not long for this world. Unconsciously, she ripped the letter down the middle in an uneven rage. She slammed the side of one of the shipping docks creating a huge crack in it.
Those two men did not understand what they had done when they abducted Anya. They had awakened the Thorn Princess and now there were little inhibitions keeping her from bathing the city in blood.