DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hollow Fields or American McGee's Alice!
The freezing waves engulfed Claude and his friends as the brunette struggled to keep a hold of his breath as long as he could manage. The waters bit into his skin like a cold knives and the salty waves burned his nose. He could only hear the splashing of the waves for the longest time before he felt himself being jerked out of the water and laying on the docks, freezing and wet.
Claude coughed many time as he heard a deep, brutish voice saying "Caught us some sea nymphs and drowned sailors."
Another deep, brutish voice yelled "Saints be praised! HE works in mysterious ways. Got any plans for them?"
A high-pitched, shrill voice was heard saying "Yes, we do. Angel and I will take them to the Mangled Mermaids and get the boys to our rooms."
"I'll take the small one and rent a bed for us. John, you get the one with the broken shoes and rent a bed for you and her." The first male said as all four teens got up and coughed madly before Claude gave them a good look; two muscular fisherman and two women in skimpy clothes.
"What do you think you're doing?" Carmen yelled as the four teens got up.
"Doing what is natural, sweetie." The first male said in a naughty tone.
"Not natural to us! Now, get out of the way!" Francine yelled as the four got to their feet and walked away from the four sex-hungry adults.
As they walked away, Claude got a good look to where they were at; they were at the docks, or at least one of them, and he saw a sign calling the docks Billingsgate. It was already nighttime and it was raining harder then Claude would have like it to. Boats were tied up to the docks and a tall building was seen up ahead that looked like it would lead away from the adults.
But before they could have gotten any further, the brunette heard Carmen yelling in annoyance. He turned around to see her grabbing her shoes and an angry look on her face. Her shoes had the heels broken, her pearl bracelets were gone, and her pants had a rip down one side from the lower thigh to the hemline.
"Great. Now what do I do?" Carmen asked as she held her shoes under her arms.
Claude looked at the dark-skinned girl then at Simon. The blonde sighed as he looked at Carmen and said, "Get on my back." Carmen looked worried at first, but grabbed on Simon's back as he piggybacked her.
After Carmen got a good grip on Simon's back, the four continued on as they walked through the rain and Claude looked at the ships, boxes, dead fish piled together, nets, barrels, and ropes that littered the docks. They were about to step on the stairs when Francine squealed with happiness and ran past Claude. "SNOWDROP!"
Claude watched the pigtailed girl ran up to a small, white cat and pick it up. The cat rubbed against Francine's cheek as her three friends walked up to her in shock. "That damn cat again..." Simon murmured under his breath.
But Francine ignored him as they all walked into the tall building Claude saw, only to learn it was freezing cold and covered in a thin sheet of ice on the inside as the harsh mist almost froze Claude on the spot. They all sighed as they walked up to the long staircase and climbed it, with Carmen yelling in Simon's ear about how slow he is.
Claude had to hold back laughter at the two as they reached the top of the stairs and walked around, but the only building in sight as a smaller building than the one Claude and his friends currently were at.
They walked down the staircase on the side of the building as they entered a shady alley that had posters littering the brick walls. Claude saw that most of them were for freak shows, some saying rat men or bearded ladies. But he ignored the thought of freak shows as the sound of old-timey music entered his ears and he looked to see the small building he saw when he was on top of the staircase.
It was a two-story black-and-white building which faced the docks, with a courtyard in the back. Over the front door, there was a wooden swing sign bearing the name The Mangled Mermaid, and a statue of a corpse-like mermaid.
The four walked towards the building as two men whistled at Carmen and Francine. "Oi, lassies. Got any plans tonight?"
"You should know that we just came form the asylum." Francine said in a calm manner as the two men at the door had looks of pure fear and shock on their faces. Claude was now snickering as they got to the side of the building.
There, Claude looked to see a poster for a show that had a huge, warlus-like man and a thinner man with red hair. Claude read the poster as simon put Carmen down: The East End's lousy with spectacles and exhibitions, fire-eaters, and freaks. This play is likely to be bloodthristy, flamboyant, and and melodramatic with saucy songs. The audience will be as raucous and rowdy as the performers.
Claude looked at the warlus-like man for a second longer before Francine tapped his shoulder lightly. The brunette turned to where the smaller girl pointed at to see two people arguing in the alley of the building; a woman in the second-story window and a man in the alley.
"Where's me money, you fucking spunk bucket?!" A young woman with long, black hair tied into a bun, cold grey eyes, pale skin, and a tall and curvy body that had huge breasts said to the man below. She wore a lacy fingerless gloves and a peacock feather in her hair from what Claude could tell.
"Get those fat-assed whores out here on the street or I'll burn your place to the ground!" The tall and thin man said. He had shaggy brown hair with a goatee, brown eyes, and pale skin. He wore a black fedora with a long grey coat lined with fur, a button-up white shirt with a purple vest over it, black slacks, and black dress shoes.
"Shut up, ya bastard! You'll never get pass Long Tim!" The woman yelled.
"I'll get what you and your sluts own me! See if I don't, Nan." The man yelled once last time before walking away and pass the teens as the walked towards the open window.
Nan looked at the man as she yelled, "Maybe ya noticed I'm not pissing me drawers at that prospect!" When she stopped yelling, she looked down to see four wet teenagers and one of them with ripped-up pants and broken shoes. "Oh, do you need something?"
Claude gulped as he said, "Yeah. Are you Nan Sharpe?"
"Yes. Why?"
"We want to talk to you about Lucinda Snow. You were her nanny before the fire happened." Claude yelled as everything but the rain became quiet.
After a second, Nan sighed as she jerked her thumb towards the back of the building. "Go pass Long Tim and say you're here to see me." Then she slammed the windows shut as Claude looked at his friends in shock.
But when the four tens walked around the building, Snowdrop jumped from Francine's arms and went ahead of the teens. "SNOWDROP!" Francine yelled as she chased after her cat again, which caused her friends to chase after her with annoyance in their eyes.
As the four teens ran to catch up with Francine, but they instead skidded to a stop so they wouldn't crush their small friend as they saw a gruesome sight; a woman, most likely a worker there, ws crying over a dead man's body. But what sent the chills down Claude's spine the most is the fact the man had a pot belly and greasy black hair; it was their cab driver from earlier that day.
"Wow, we have only been in London a few hours and so much has happened." Claude thought as the teens walked up and saw the woman crying. "What happened?" The brunette asked.
"J-Jack came and s-s-s-stabbed him." The woman wailed as Francine kneel to the ground. The woman looked confuse for a second before Francine touched Tim's eyelids and closed them. The worker had a look of disbelief on her face as Francine said, "There. Now he looks like he's sleeping."
The woman sobbed softly now as she whispered, "Bless you, girl." and let the four through the door.
The inside was huge with tables and a bar in the light of the room, and a curtain on the bottom floor that kept people from seeing guests being entertained by the whores. A marble fireplace kept the freezing chill in Claude away as the crowded downstairs made him feel a little safe. A long, wooden staircase led to the upperstair rooms, which all looked the same to Claude except one door was wide open.
Carmen rolled her eyes as they passed a whore, but Claude looked at her with serious eyes and said, "It's better than being in the rain."
The four continued on their way as a fight broke out, but they ignored it as they climbed the staircase and saw Nan waiting for them at the open room. In the light of the building and without a window cutting off the rest of her body, Claude could have sworn he heard Carmen shudder with disgust at the woman's outfit.
Nan wore a very short, red plaid mini-skirt witrh fishnet stockings, thigh-high black boots with seven-ince heels, a cropped black t-shirt that showed her stomach, and tons of makeup on her small face. "Nice to see you're here." Nan pointed at Carmen and said, "I have you some clothes."
Carmen shivered as she walked up to Nan, thinking she would get some skimpy and trashy clothes. But instead, she got a pair of black skinny jeans with silver bracelets and a pair of knee-high, bash riding boots. Carmen looked them at shock as Nan said, "You think I only had trashy clothes?"
Carmen pursed her lips and shook her head as she went into the room with the door closing behind her so she could get change. Nan looked at Claude and asked, "What do you need anyways? About Lucy?"
"Nan, we need help to find her. We know that she isn't in the best state of mind, but she has gone missing and we need to know-" Claude was cut off as Nan waved her hand at him like he was a child, which annoyed him to no end.
"About the fire? Same questions Lucy wants to know." Nan said in a despressed tone. The door opened to reveal Carmen in her new clothes, but she was more interested in the conversation. "You need to move on. That is what I did."
"We can't move on!" Francine yelled as Nan walked back into her room. The four followed as Nan sat on her bed and looked utterly despressed. The room was small with only one bed, a dresser, and a desk iwth an oil lamp on it. "We have to know where Lucy is. We want to take her back to Nullsville with us."
Nan gave a weak smile as she said, "Well, better that all of that asylum business. Everytime I go, all I hear are the same things; 'My past is dead', 'I killed them', and 'I should have saved them or died with them' .Her mind is really in shambles, to tell you the truth."
The prostitute looked outside through her small window. "Kaioh thought it would be wise to bring familiar faces around to help her. After a year or so, he lost interest in her family's money, greedy sod. But still asking bizarre questions to Lucy, who wouldn't answer them."
Nan looked back at the teens as she continued. "I said she had a heavy dose of madness, but honesty is never the best policy is this life. When she wasn't comatose, she gasped with her eyes like pinwheels and she never uttered a sensible word. And like the child she used to be, she still keeps her secrets close."
After Nan was done speaking, the room became quiet as this information snuck into Claude and his friends. Out of the people they have met so far, Nan and Diana seem like the only good people that have been around Lucy in a long time. Claude gripped his loose choker around his neck as he took a deep breath to regain his courage. "That's all?"
Nan shook her head and said, "I also don't trust that Dales fellow, to tell you the truth. He has lurkers around those poor tykes he is supposed to take care of. Like the blameless ants wasps consume, or a spider's feeble prey. Dales says he is helping Lucy, but I have no doubt in my mind he wants her for himself."
That statement made Claude's blod boil as he tried to take in a deep breath again, so Carmen came in and said "On our way here, I was reading that you invested in Lucy's room at Renwick's. What were you-"
"You call that a room? Well, Kaioh payed me for a bit.. A woman alone sometimes does things that she doesn't want to do. Unlike Nurse Pris, I don't hurt people and I am no drunk like her. Hooking is not a bad life.." Nan said as her voice became more despressed.
After Nan was done speaking again, Claude regain his calm composure. He looked at the hooker as he said, "Ms. Sharpe, we need to know-"
"About the damn fire? Listen, you lot, I can't help you anymore than I have already. But after you leave here, go to Kaioh. He has the Inquest Report on the fire and Lucy's journal." Nan said as she smooth at her skirt and shirt.
As the hooker got up from her bed, Claude heard someone come up the stairs. He looked to see that man that was arguing with Nan eariler coming up the stairs with three musuclar brutes behind him, all looking beyong angry. Before Claude could say anything, the man from beofre pushed pass the teenagers and towards Nan.
"Whataya want Jack?" Nan yelled at the man from the alley.
"I. Want. Me. Whores!" Jack yelled as he punched Nan right in the face and watched her go down as she held her bruised eye. He kicked her once as he yelled, "You won't give me what I want, then I'll burn this dump of yours to the ground!"
"HEY!" Jack turned to see Claude staring him down. "How about you leave? She has done nothing to you." The eighteen-year-old boy said.
As Nan cried on the wooden floors, Jack gave Claude a nasty look and walked up to the brunette. "She hurt me feelings."
Claude rolled his eyes at the statment. "Then go and blow your nose in the bathroom. Who cares if your feelings were hurt?" As Claude said this, he never bother to notice that Jack's goons were behind his friends as he faced the cruel man himself.
Jack growled as he knocked the oil lamp on the desk to the ground, sparking a fire against the wooden surface. Hookers from downstairs heard the loud crash and ran up to see Jack and his goons getting closer to the teenagers as the small spark of fire became a huge, roaring blaze that threatened to kill anyone in its path.
Claude was in shock, as well as his friends, as Jack's goons knocked the three teens behind Claude with their fists. All three fell to the ground, knocked out, as Claude turned to see Jack's hand coming at his face. Claude felt the hard punch and he fell to the ground, knocked out as well, as the fire continue to burn through the wooden floor.
But the odd thing that snuck out in Claude's mind before his vision blacked out is that he didn't feel like he was in a burning room. He felt like he was in a frozen landscape instead.