Los Angeles: The City of Angels, home to the rich and famous, and those who aspired to have but a mere fraction of their renown and prestige. The streets are flooded with people; Lights everywhere illuminating the night with colorful, flashy signs advertising all of the temptations that the city had to offer. It was so bright, in fact, that it almost felt as if it were still day as they drove past it all. The sheer amount of people crowding the streets further added to the illusion, the sidewalks packed with hopeful pedestrians and sightseers looking for a glimpse of any Hollywoodland star they could find.
Lucille looks into her compact mirror, refreshing her lipstick and checking her face for any leftover signs of their train car rendezvous. She smiles up at Alastor when he reaches down to wipe a smudge of black off of her cheek bone from where her eye makeup had run. The subtle affection is thankfully missed by their present company: Jim Ramone, and his companion who had picked them up from the train station, Arthur Cartwright. The two men were smoking gaspers in the front seat of the breezer they rode in, hair whipping around their heads wildly as they drive. The car ride had only been silent for the last 5 minutes, as Arthur had orginally settled into the energy of a tour guide; He'd pointed out the sights, thrilling Lucille when he'd shown her the lit-up Hollywoodland sign up above them in the distance.
"How do I look?" She asks quietly then, motioning to herself. Her blue dress was securely buttoned once again, the low neckline still giving a subtle but admittedly tantalizing view of her ample bosom from his view above her. She wore her hair pinned up on the side now, her curls carefully nestled beneath a matching cap that she wore to hide the pins. While the fashions of their time favored a more shapeless, boxy look in women's apparel, Lucille's curves and the softness thereof couldn't be matched in his love-riddled mind.
"Exquisite," he murmurs, tracing a gentle finger along the neckline of her dress where it met her skin, raising the goosebumps on her chest. "Radiant. Angelic, even."
Lucille blushes lightly at the touch, leaning in as if with intent to kiss him.
"Yous two good back there?"
They spring apart, having almost forgotten their companions. However, luckily neither had turned around to check on them with that question. They had been holding hands in the back seat, just below the view line of the men in the front, for the entire ride, which had thankfully gone unnoticed as well. Hiding their affections in public was something they both despised, but being able to enjoy outings with one another nonetheless was something they very much enjoyed. They always tried to make the best of their situation, as they were now.
"Everything's Jake." Alastor replies, sending Lucille a little conspiratorial smirk. Ever since they'd left the train station it had been even harder to keep his hands off of her. It felt like some connection that'd been left neglected and wilting had begun to flourish anew, bringing with it his inability to refrain from touching her. Especially when touching her rewarded him with the sight of the most beautiful blushes to ever grace her sweet face.
"We're checkin' yous two into the hotel up the road from the studio." Jim continues with a breath full of smoke. "Rest up because tomorrow is Lulu's big day. Reservation's already made, yous just need ta' get the key. It'll be unduh' Bechard, like yous requested."
Alastor had told them to put everything they could under his name in order to prevent anyone from giving Lucille a hard time. He wasn't sure how people were in California, but if things back home were anything to go off of, they had a better chance at things being easy if he was the first face they saw. This proves a smart tactic as they enter the hotel, check in, and begin to unpack without a hitch aside from a few sideways looks from both the concierge and receptionists.
Lucille collapses on the plush king sized bed, sighing happily after she'd unpacked her bags and stored her clothes away. They'd had the penthouse rented out for them, which had come with its own personal kitchen -much to Alastor's delight- and a private balcony overlooking the ocean.
"Are you happy, darling?" He asks softly, walking to her side.
She smiles up at him, "Oh, yes. Yes completely."
Alastor lays down beside her, taking her hand to kiss the back of it. "I'm so proud of you." He tells her. "My wife, the star."
Lucille laughs, leaning in to press the tip of her nose to his in an affectionate rub. "Can ya believe it?" She squeals softly. "All that hard work, finally payin' off."
He grins, "You're absolutely adorable when you're happy like this, mon ange. Your precious drawl comes out to grace me with it's presence." Whenever she was excessively excited -or angry, for that matter- her true accent, the one that she'd had when they'd first met as children, would come out. Alastor found it incredibly cute, and it was rare for him to really hear it due to her forced habit of masking it from when she was younger. When she'd begun to perform in non-segregated places uptown she'd apparently encountered a hard time with visitors to the city mocking her thick, Louisiana accent. "I absolutely adore it." He tells her, his tone more than a touch passionate.
She leans in, planting a kiss on his lips before taking his face in her hands, "Je t'aime, mon ciel étoilé. I'm just so happy that you're here with me for this."
"Mo laimé twa," He murmurs, a soft, dreamy smile replacing his grin when she begins to beam at his words. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be." He loved hearing her speak French, be it French Creole with her mother or the more basic version that he was used to. He didn't really understand the former as much as the latter, so any attempts to speak it came out broken, but he knew a few words and a handful of phrases like this one.
Lucille giggles at his pronunciation due to this. "You're improving." She compliments regardless. "You've been spending time around maman, I take it?"
"A little." He admits. "Though, I don't understand half of what she says."
Lucille snorts a laugh, "You will eventually, give it time."
They get up to take a bath together in the room's large tub so that they can prepare for bed upon her suggestion a few minutes later. Once she'd seen the large, luxurious looking bathtub she'd immediately wanted to get in it, mentioning how it was big enough for two people in a less-than-subtle way.
Alastor pulls Lucille into his lap beneath the bubbles once they settle in it, kissing a gentle trail down from her neck to her shoulder and back again. When she squirms in delight at the attention he nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck happily. She was so soft. His arms loosen their hold around her waist so that his hands can carefully explore, running down her hips and thighs, her stomach and waist, just to feel her. For as touch-repulsed as he was with everyone else, he found a special kind of comfort in touching Lucille.
Lucille lays her head back on his shoulder, eyes closed, sighing happily as he continues. Her fingers twirl lazy circles against the back of his neck as she arches her back, a sound resonating in her throat when his hands slide up from beneath the water to caress the curve of her breasts. "Al," She mumbles softly.
"Yes, mon cœur?"
"I'm... sorry if things between us have felt so..." She hesitates for a moment, the words eventually coming out as a soft sigh on her breath. "dull, before now."
"Whatever do you mean?" He kisses the side of her neck again, murmuring against her skin. "You haven't been well in months. I never would've expected for you to simply spring back to normal immediately following the kind of trauma that you've endured." He looks down, watching his hands slide down the soft skin of her belly and back under the water again. "How could I? While of course I missed your usual fire and fervor, my main focus was always you becoming well again."
She's quiet for a moment, running her fingers through his hair as she processes this.
"I'm just happy you're recovering. For a moment... I was worried that you would not." He admits, wincing internally at the rawness that bleeds out into his voice. "I don't know what I would've done had I lost you... Tu es l'amour de ma vie... Ma raison de vivre."
Lucille's soft sniffles alert him to her beginning to cry, the sudden mood change only to be expected with the amount of sadness attached to the topic being brought back up. "I was scared," She confesses, voice thick with tears. "I prayed for it to be over, for me to recover so that I could continue living this life with you. I just didn't know that it would mean..."
Losing a child.
The unspoken words hang in the air between them. They hadn't spoken about it in the months it had taken her to recover, for the physical pain to stop and for her to regain some semblance of the energy she'd had before she had first begun to show the symptoms. Neither of them had wanted to bring it up directly, which made the reveal at the hospital the only time they'd spoken on it. It, of course, hadn't been the only time they'd thought about it, however.
"What..." She begins quietly. "What do you think our kid would've been like?"
Alastor sighs softly, wrapping his arms back around her waist. "Wonderful, like you." He replies, picturing it in his head. "Headstrong, brave, beautiful." In the time following, he'd had moments to truly think about what it would've been like had her pregnancy been normal. He thought about what it would've been like to kiss her when he got home from work before placing another kiss to her round belly. Or he'd wonder what it would've been like to lay beside her in bed, his hand pressed against it in hopes of feeling the lightest of kicks. Or what it would've been like to come home to the pitter-patter of tiny feet running across the wooden floors, a tiny voice excitedly greeting him with a cheerful little "Papa!".
He had long since began to feel a strange... pang in his chest whenever he thought about it. He'd been entirely against it before, but this life he'd developed with Lucille had thawed a fair bit of the ice that had encased any kind of paternal instinct. While he still didn't necessarily feel like he'd be a good father, he couldn't deny the warm feeling that stirred inside him at the thought of her being a mother.
... On top of it all, he still didn't know how to tell her that the miscarriage was his fault... blackout or not, it had still been his hands that had pushed her off balance.
Lucille relaxes into the water, bringing her arms down to lay them against his under the water. "...I came up with a name for her." She says softly, pulling him from his troubled thoughts.
"Her?"
She's quiet for a moment before nodding. "I... asked the nurse one night to ask and the doctor told her the baby had been a girl." She tells him. "At first I didn't want to know... but I decided that I wanted her to know she was loved, even though I never got the chance to hold her... So I named her."
Alastor swallows around an unexpected lump rising in his throat, "W-... What did you decide on?"
"Élise." She sighs, the name coming out on an pained sounding breath, almost like a wince. "I had other names I liked more but... none fit better than this one."
He hugs her tightly, watching the surface of the water dimple as her tears drip off her face and plip onto it. "Élise," he says softly. "For the meaning of it?
"It seemed... fitting because of that," She explains. "Then the name is beautiful to add to it."
"It is." He turns Lucille sideways in his lap, holding her against his chest with her head tucked under his chin. "With a name as beautiful as that she could never fail to see how much she is loved."
Lucille's tears fall onto his chest, her arms wrapping around him in a tight embrace. Though her physical pain had healed, her emotions were still in raging inside of her. The fight was visible in her eyes every day, both when she got too quiet or was left alone with her thoughts... It pained him to see her cry then just as it did now. So he begins to hum to her, a familiar melody to distract her mind from that sad past. If there was anything to help ease her into a better mood, it would be to sing her the song they'd had their first dance to at their wedding. He slips her name into the song seamlessly, rocking her gently as he sings:
"Lucille, wrap me up in all your... I want ya, in my arms." He begins to croon softly, laying his cheek against her head.
"Oh, let me hold ya.
I'll never let you go again, like I did.
Oh, I used to say-
'I would never fall in love again', until I found her.
I said, 'I would never fall, unless it's you I fall into'.
I was lost within the darkness, but then I found her.
I found you."
Lucille's silent sobs begin to slow, her face turning up to press against his neck as she allows him to soothe the vicious tempest raging on inside of her wounded heart.
"Lucille, pulled me in, I asked to...
Love her, once again.
You fell, I caught ya.
I'll never let you go again, like I did.
Oh, I used to say,
'I would never fall in love again', until I found her,
I said, 'I would never fall, unless it's you I fall into'.
I was lost within the darkness, but then I found her.
I found you."
He continues to sing to her softly until her tears dry, then he sits her up, taking that time to wash her off. He begins to cover her in fresh soapy bubbles as the ones in the tub had long since dissipated into nothingness, lathering her up with the sweet almond scent he'd come to love and know as the smell of her. He presses soft kisses to her head and face as he does so, trying his best to put into the actions how much he loved and adored her.
"She needs you now more than ever." Genevieve's words from the hospital echo in his head, drowning out the soft whispers in the back of his mind, as he dries Lucille off, dresses her in one of her negligees, and carries her to bed.
She falls asleep the moment he lays beside her, her small hand gripping the fabric of his bedclothes in her slumber as she seeks his comfort even now. Her eyelids flutter as she dreams, hopefully of happier things as she wore a soft expression of peace now.
Alastor reaches to the switch beside the bed to turn the lights off, plunging the room into a state of semi-darkness, illuminated only by the glow of the business signs outside their window below. Tomorrow was a big day, and he needed to make sure they were both rested and prepared for it.
Lucille had been nervously wringing her gloves for the entire car ride to the studio, so Alastor reaches down and gently takes her hand to stop it. He couldn't give her the comfort he truly wished to in front of these people, so he did what little he could do while they were distracted.
"Don't fret, mon amour," He murmurs gently as they exit the car to follow their driver into the studio building. "They'll love you."
She reaches up to fidget with the necklace at her neck, the same one from the party they'd attended the night she'd confessed her feelings to him. The garnet and large diamond necklace matched perfectly with the red dress she wore, the one from the night they'd first met again when he'd first seen her up on stage. She'd claimed these items would be her good luck charms, as both were worn during significant times in her life that she considered lucky.
"Do you remember what songs you'll be singing?" He asks, trying to get her to talk to distract herself.
She nods, "I'll be singing three of the five that Lester gave them."
They follow the man leading them to the area behind what appears to be a stage. "They'll call for you when they're ready," He says, motioning to the thick curtain in front of them before leaving.
"Take deep breaths." Alastor says gently, tilting her chin up so that their eyes can meet now that they're alone. "You've done this a thousand times. Just imagine you are back home, performing for those miscreants in your speakeasies."
Lucille giggles softly at this, standing on her toes then to press her soft lips to his in a sweet peck. "As long as I have you watching me I know I'll be fine." She replies, blowing out a nervous breath and shaking her hands as if she were attempting to fling the nerves off of them.
Soon they call for her, so he leads her over to the heavy curtain to pull it aside to allow her out onto the stage. In the audience sits 20 people, each in their own groups of at least 2. To their collective surprise, a pit in front of the stage is filled with musicians holding instruments of all kinds, and on the stands in front of them are pages of sheet music. Lucille's sheet music. Off to the side of the stage sits a grand piano, where a woman sits flipping through her own copy of the sheet music next to a group of 3 women who are chattering away quietly.
Jim Ramone and another man who is unfamiliar to them sit in the very first row, the former flashing Lucille encouraging smiles as she takes her spot in front of the microphone. The greasy man was wearing a blue pinstriped suit today, the look in his eyes no more comforting to Alastor than it had been the day they'd met.
He really needed to keep an eye on him.
"Jim has spoken highly of you," one of the men in the audience calls up, making everyone below nod in agreement. "We would love to see what enchanted him so much."
Lucille nods, reaching up to nervously tuck a free curl behind her ear. When she opens her mouth, though, nothing comes out. Immediately her body language changes, becoming more tense.
"Damn it," Alastor mumbles, glancing down at the men below to see the exchange looks at her silence.
Lucille clears her throat and tries again, only for her voice to come out shaky. "S-...Sorry about that." She laughs nervously. "I'm still gettin' over the nerves. Let me startover by introducing myself." Flashing them one of her most endearing smiles, she begins again. "My name is Lucille Bell, and I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana. I'll be singin' three songs for y'all today once I get this frog outta my throat."
The audience laughs softly, thankfully amused by her words.
Alastor quickly crosses behind her, coming up next to the woman at the piano. It was only a matter of time before the nerves got to her again, so he needed to do something. "Pardon me," He says, lightly placing his hand on the piano's glossy black frame. "Do you mind if I...?"
The women at and around the piano turn to look at him, surprised by his sudden appearance. The pianist blinks up at him, a soft blush spreading across her cheeks when she meets his eyes. "Not at all!" She chirps, quickly moving from the piano bench to stand beside it instead so that he can sit. The girls in front of the piano titter softly, sending him shy smiles.
He looks over to where Lucille stands now, almost frozen with her smile glued to her face, and he begins to play a melody that he hopes pulls her out of it. He hadn't played music alongside her in months, but it should be just enough to push her into motion. She'd done her warm-ups in the hotel, but playing them again now might steady her.
She looks over in his direction, startled, but as soon as she sees it's him sitting there she begins to smile genuinely. Taking a deep breath, Lucille begins to do her vocal warm-ups as he'd hoped to shake off the nerves before pausing to nod at him. She was ready, so he begins to play.
Then into the song they went.
"There ain't no gold in this river, that I've been washin' my hands in forever.
I know there is hope in these waters, but I can't bring myself to swim when I am drowning in this silence,
Baby, let me in.
Go easy on me, baby.
I was still a child.
Didn't get the chance to feel the world around me.
I had no time to choose what I chose to do.
So go easy on me."
The song causes the musicians below to flip through the papers in front of them, looking for the unfamiliar song so that they can join in. The song's music, however, wouldn't be there as she'd never performed this song before for anyone but him a lifetime ago.
"There ain't no room for things to change, when we are both so deeply stuck in our ways."
She glances over at Alastor with a relieved and thankful smile as she continues to sing.
"You can't deny how hard I have tried.
I changed who I was to put you both first, but now I give up!"
The last note raises some surprised eyebrows in the crowd, impressed looks breaking through on the faces of others. Lucille no doubt notices this, as her voice gains more confidence as she continues into the chorus once again.
"Go easy on me, baby.
I was still a child.
Didn't get the chance to feel the world around me.
Had no time to choose what I chose to do.
So go easy on me."
She takes a deep breath to regain her air from the "easy" before going back into the song.
"I had good intentions, and the highest hopes.
But I know right now, that probably doesn't even show.
Go easy on me, baby.
I was still a child.
I didn't get the chance to feel the world around me.
I had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me."
The applause is immediate, loudest from the biggest group in the center of the audience that's made up of 5 people. It's the only group with women in it, Alastor notes, deciding then that he'd much rather Lucille work with that group due to it's inclusion of other women. He thanks the pianist and gives her the seat back, settling beside the piano now to continue watching.
"The next song," Lucille says, her voice still carrying that new confidence now. "Is a song I wrote back when I was fallin' in love." She glances back at Alastor with a smile before clearing her throat. "It should be labeled as 'Song 3' in my sheet music."
After a second drums pick up, followed beats later by trumpets. Lucille looks shocked at this, but the grin that spreads across her face shows it's a welcome surprise. A bigger group of musicians meant a bigger show, and a bigger show meant a bigger performance. So, with one more excited grin sent afford Alastor's way, she joins in singing:
"Everybody's looking for that something.
No one ever wants to pay the price.
Everyone is scared of going nowhere, but we ain't going anywhere tonight.
I should be more cynical and tell myself that's not okay to feel this good when I'm with you." She looks at him again when she sings this before turning back to the audience. The words were aimed in this song, too.
"I try my best to fight it, say I hate you but I always stay.
Woah, woah, woah 'cause...
Ain't nobody love, ain't nobody love like you do.
Ain't nobody love, ain't nobody love like you-oo-oo-oo do."
She's gotten into the music now, swinging her hips and snapping to the music as she sings.
"Everybody's talking 'bout the next thing
Feel like what they got ain't good enough, but all I wanna do is release the tension.
Bring the conversation back to us, oh yeah."
She goes back into the chorus before steadying herself for the biggest part of the song.
"Can we stop all the yelling baby hear me out?
I want you here and now.
I try my best to fight it, say I hate you but I always stay..."
Lucille takes a breath, stilling as if in preparation for the next words. "Hey... Hey..." Then, she hits a riff so heart-stoppingly perfect that it seemingly sucks the air out of the room.
Alastor feels his heart stop, and one glance down at the people in the audience shows a collective look of shock and awe on their faces as well. The trumpet players in the pit were even on their feet now, dancing to the music along with Lucille as she continues singing. The three women, who were apparently backup singers, who are still standing in front of the piano, even stare at her in surprise as they attempt to continue following her vocals.
Alastor had never been more proud.
When the song ends Lucille's glowing. It had been months since she'd performed but no one would have been able to tell had they not already known. She'd effortlessly stepped back into the role of a performer, awing the crowd with her vocal prowess like she did before at her earlier performances. It was almost as if she'd been reborn, having retuned from the ashes she'd burned down into during the worst of her sickness.
The applause is louder than it was with the last song, some people even standing up to show their praise. Jim looks like he's struck gold, turning to take in the looks of those around him. Alastor wasn't sure what exactly was in this for him but the man looked like it was something significant from the dopey grin on his mug.
Lucille ends up having to choose one last song instead of her original three due to the one they'd performed together, but once she's through it she curtsies and waves to the crowd before walking off stage.
Alastor joins her, and once they're behind the cover of the curtain he lifts her off of her feet in a hug, swinging her around in a circle. "Attagirl!" He laughs, placing her back on her feet only so that he can bend down and pepper her face with kisses. "I'm. So. Damn. Proud of you!"
She squeals with happy laughter, her hands gripping his sleeves as she regains her footing. "I've never sung like that before!" She says, bouncing on her toes like an excited child. "Do you think they liked me?"
"They loved you, Lucy. Just as I told you they would." He tells her fiercely, his heart soaring when her eyes twinkle at his words. "You should've seen the way they looked at you."
"They're fighting over ya as we speak!" Ramone's voice announces suddenly.
The couple jumps, whipping around to face the door Jim and his companion had just walked through. Though they weren't necessarily being affectionate at the moment, they still step apart, keeping smiles on their face to hide that they were caught off-guard. That could've been... problematic.
"They want ya something fierce." He adds, coming up to stand in front of them. He seems unaware of the moment he'd just interrupted. "That second song did it, non doubt, so I ain't even upset that yous ain't sing the one I heard at the bar."
Lucille ducks her head shyly, "Thank you, I'm so glad to hear they do. I'll probably sing that one again though eventually, treat them to a real performance again on account of me havin' to sing a bit quieter at the juice joints back home."
"Now, what do we do in the meantime?" Alastor asks, interrupting their talk as he subtly pulls Lucille closer to him and away from Jim.
"Wait," he replies, either not noticing or not caring about the distance that had been swiftly created. "Go see the sights in the city and wait for 'em to duke it out. If they don't decide 'fore yous two leave then I'll just give ya Ma a ring later."
So that's exactly what they do, going out to explore Hollywoodland for the rest of the trip. They ride down Sunset Boulevard, go shopping, visit movie sets to see the stars there since they had access passes, and even talk with some of the up and coming performers in the studio. Lucille was starstruck all through it, oohing and ahhing at the sights the city had to offer. Her eyes had never been more alive with awe and wonder.
While Alastor did enjoy this city, he preferred his home still. As the days pass he finds himself missing the bayou, and the trees dripping with Spanish moss that lined the jazz-filled streets. He also missed the darkness he could slip into at night on its familiar roads and alleyways. All the new sights had only temporarily distracted him, but as expected the nagging urge to find another victim began to pull at him once again. Now that it was night again the city streets were packed with people going in and out of different buildings -that were no doubt speakeasies or underground casinos- and the swell of bodies around him had brought murder back to his mind.
Lucille's soft hand in his was the only thing truly grounding him as he looked around, not intending to, but subtly looking for any stragglers that had wandered off alone. She notices his slowing pace and turns around to look up at him, stopping in the middle of the rush of people to touch his cheek, "Al?"
The warm touch startles him from his thoughts, "Yes?" He hadn't meant to zone out like that, but the chattering in his head had started up again and had distracted him further.
"What's the matter?" She asks, raising her voice above both the noise around them and the voices in his head. "You're slowin' down."
He flashes her a grin, one that he hopes is reassuring. "Nothing, mon amour." He leans down and gently adjusts her hat. "Just thinking about home."
Lucille nods, her eyes softening at the mention of home. "I miss it too." She says, tone turning reminiscent. They'd called their mothers immediately after her performance days ago and had relayed all the exciting news to them. In exchange, their mothers had updated the couple on the goings-on in the city that had happened while they were away.
To Alastor's welcome surprise, part of the news was that the coppers had found 3 of the 4 bodies that he'd left behind.
"They found a doctor dead in his home after he didn't turn up for work after his leave ended," Dorothy'd tsked through the phone the night prior. "He'd been dead for days."
A week and 5 days to be exact.
"Another's body washed up a two days after you two left," She'd continued. "They think he was intoxicated and fell off of the ferry. He was declared missing before this when he didn't come back home after the event he was attending."
Lucille had then glanced at Alastor, whose grin had been steading growing at the phone as they listened. "And the third?" She'd prompted.
Her mother had made a sound from the other end in response, "All this morbid news, I probably shouldn't be talkin' to you 'bout it when you're on a trip."
"It's no trouble," Alastor had quickly assured her. "I can understand how it would be... distressing, but the information is helpful to me as I report it all on my show."
"The whole city is afraid again," Dorothy'd said softly after considering this. "They're sayin' the Midnight Slasher is back after killin' the oldest Dupont girl- Ah... Ruby."
"You needn't worry about my feelings on that topic," Alastor said dismissively, having heard the hesitancy in her words. "I've... made my peace with it." That sounded better than the reality of him actually not truly caring at all. He hadn't, however, made peace with the fact that the man he'd seen at the wedding had never been found. He assumed it was a hit by this point, and had resigned himself to making an attempt at making peace with that.
"They found the third doctor dead in his home too, but they don't know if it was a suicide or a murder." She sighed. "There's another doctor missin' that they think is another victim but... they ain't sure." The silence after that statement is loud, but she doesn't say who it is.
They all already knew, unbeknownst to Dorothy.
Once they got off the phone, Alastor's grin had been wider than ever. Hearing that the bodies were discovered had been a mood boost, but it has also brought to his attention that it had been almost two weeks since he'd killed anyone else. The itch came back, and by their last night it had begun to burn.
Standing in front of Lucille now, he tones his grin down to what feels like a soft smile. "Let's not block the way any more than we already have," he says softly. "Let's go-"
"Look! It's Andy Garfield!"
Suddenly, her hand is roughly snatched from his and she disappears into the crush of bodies that flows around them in response to the man who'd called out the name of a popular celebrity. Her hat flies off her head as she's pulled down, vanishing somewhere below the crowd that surges around them with excited screams.
"Lucy!" He yells, pushing through the swarm of people to try and catch sight of her again. "Damn it all!" The road was much too narrow for the sheer amount of people now trying to use it. It was almost as bad as the crowd in New York, where there was no end or beginning to the crowd of people.
Lucille is nowhere to be seen as he scans the heads in front of him. There's not even a flash of the pink dress she'd been wearing.
Alastor feels panic rising in his chest. He should've been holding onto her tighter. He wasn't even sure how she'd gotten separated from him so quickly. The tug of the crowd had been enough to have them hold hands in public in the first place, but not strong enough to wrench her from him like this. Due to her being shorter than those around them it made it even harder to find her now that it had. As the minutes pass he becomes more frantic. He should have found her by now.
The sound of an angry voice pricks at his ears, making him pause. He turns and pushes through the people behind him to move backwards towards the sound as the voice was very familiar. Quiet laughter sounds in his head as he gets closer to where he thought he heard the disruption come from.
And of course it would be an alleyway that he finds her in. She had an awfully luckless way of finding herself in dark alleys with criminals.
Lucille is glaring up at the man that has her by the arm, a knife in his hand pointed at her throat. She appears to be unharmed aside from being visibly ruffled and very angry. The defiant scowl on her face makes a pang of pride and affection shoot through his heart.
That's my girl.
Dangling from the man's hand that grips the knife is the diamond necklace Alastor had bought Lucille on her birthday this year. It looked like he was trying to take even more from her, gesturing to her earrings with the tip of the knife.
The voices in Alastor's head scream in delight at the situation.
It looks as if he was about to change the number of "out of state kills" from 0 to 1.