"Infrared"
Her Majesty's Watchdog awoke with her cheek pressed into the carpet and her head throbbing. She blinked, bleary-eyed, into the burgundy wool for scarcely a second before panic flushed in and she jolted upright causing her head to swim. Fighting back tears of both pain and anguish, Lizzy cursed aloud. There was no one here to hear her after all; no one but a corpse. This night had gained her nothing.
Bracing herself on an end table, Lizzy forced herself to her feet with one hand clasped to her temple, which felt suspiciously tender; a trip to the hospital would likely be in order once she had checked in on Mey-Rin and Ms. Kelly. Stumbling into the doorframe, she let out a cry of frustration, and after pausing there to bite back a wave of nausea the girl trod slowly down towards the front door. As she did so, her thoughts spun in wild trains: who was the man that had interrupted her arrest? Why would he appear—at precisely that moment—to rescue Grell Sutcliff? And how, exactly, did Sutcliff know him? They had the same eyes, she had noticed. Perhaps he was a relation, who had also been a part of the murders? But in that case, then how far might the conspiracy have gone?
And no, it wouldn't make sense for anyone other than Madam Red and her confidant to have been involved. Lizzy was sure of that, having heard her story. So where did the man fit in? And how had he moved quickly enough to knock her out even after announcing his presence from across the room?
All she had to go on was the name "Will," which Grell had shouted upon his arrival, and an embittered mutter involving "dispatch management," which was really nothing at all.
Elizabeth realized that she was missing a piece of the puzzle; a piece so large that she couldn't begin to guess at its form. But at the moment, as Mey-Rin met her at the door with an apology for leaving her post, Lizzy could barely bring herself to care.
a/n: Hello again~!
…The thing y'all have got to understand about this story, is that there are so many directions I can go that I'm sooo often not sure which path to take. I have a friend IRL whose opinion I get on things, but she hasn't actually read any of this fic, so it really comes down to my judgment… Decision making is the bane of my existence. *sigh* Plus, oh my god, I am so stressed out by the state of the world right now (for instance, my cousin is and has been in Guam during that whole…thing).
Also, classes start for me on Monday (I get to take anatomy and physiology this semester, yay!) but I have the next chapter already done, so that should be posted within the week.
"Infrared:" light that lies outside of the visible spectrum; a shade of red