4 James Smith

As usual, he stopped for a while to gaze lovingly at Roux. However, he was distracted when he realized the mademoiselle was glaring at him through the transparent mirror.

Instead of running away and pretended as if he was not caught red handed strangely ogling at a mannequin, the man decided to enter the shop and greeted the mademoiselle.

"Good Morning Mademoiselle" the man tipped his hat to show his respect toward the supposedly older mademoiselle.

"Ouh….Good morning to you too" the mademoiselle raised from her chair by the fireplace. "May I help you Sir?"

"Ahh….Mademoiselle! I am very interested to buy one of your antiques that was displayed on the mirror" he said excitedly.

"And pray tell me which one of them?"

"The mannequin. I really felt in love with her beauty and would like to buy her so I could decorate my house with it…." his words trailed off as he he realized that he sounded like a creep.

"Ahahahaha…you are one funny guy. I had people coming to buy antiques from my shop to decorate their house, but none of them bought any human sized mannequin as decoration"

"Ahh…. well…" he subconsciously rub the back of his head by using his right hand. "Let say, I have different kind of taste when it comes about decoration" he grinned uncomfortably at her.

The mademoiselle lifted one of her eyebrow after listening the words uttered by the young man.

Roux who had been standing still in front of the mirror (like usual) wanted to scream. Why did he said things that made him sound like a total creep?!

"I won't inquire more about your 'weird' taste in decorating your house. But please forgive me Mr…?"

" Er….James. James Smith"

" Mr Smith. Hmm.. that is a very common name" she commented. "Nevertheless, Mr Smith. It pains me to tell you that I could not sell the mannequin to you"

"Why?"

"Because I don't think a man like you could afford MY mannequin" she said with condescending tone while staring at the young man from the head to his toe.

If Roux could breath. She would be letting out an exasperated sigh. Of course Mr Smith could not afford her. In fact he could not even afford the the cheapest thing in the shop! Contrary to the rumour widely believe by the locals, all of the antiques in this shop are real and expensive!

By looking at the way Mr.Smith dress and speaks, it was painfully obvious that he was from around the area in which also means that he belonged to the working class people. None of them could afford any antiques and truthfully, they had never have any interest to buy one.

"How much is the mannequin's price? I would try to find a way to….."

"Even if…. you had the money. I won't sell her to anyone. The mannequin is not for sell. It stays in the shops forever" Her lazy eyes were directed right at the mannequin.

"Then, why did you put her on display if you have no intention to sell her?"

" That's because..." The mademoiselle proceed to turn her attention toward the man who was standing in front of her."… she's working for me…." She flashed her sardonic smiled at him.

There was no response from Mr.Smith. The shop's existence had always been a mystery to the locals around here. But to know that the owner referred to a mannequin as her worker made him had a goosebumps.

"Huh…well then. There's no way to talk to you to sell her to me?"

"Yes." she nodded her head. Her teardrop earring kept on dangling while she was nodding her head.

"Alright then. Please excuse me" the young man then exited the shops without even looking back at them.

Roux was devastated. Now, she had to say goodbye to her only admirer.

"Roux!"

"Yes mademoiselle!"

"Stop seducing men on the streets. I hoped this is going to be the last one" the mademoiselle was giving her a strict warn!

Roux shuddered in her place before replying "Yes mademoiselle".

"Stop giving me trouble. I could not handle too much problem at one particular time. We need less human in this place" the mademoiselle reached for her feather hat. Despite living in the simple working class area, the mademoiselle never failed to dress in weird extravagant way, acting as if she belonged to the upper class society.

Her fashion sense had been the locals favourite gossip the entire time she walk out of the shop's front door. The locals girls however adored her extravagant hats and gowns.

"I have an engagement after this. I'm going out now and will be back probably by...tomorrow. For the time being, be good" she warned the mannequin.

The mademoiselle exited the shop and locked it from outside. She then flipped the 'open' sign so that it would display the word 'close' instead.

Roux watched her master walking away from the shop in an elegant manner. This wretched woman did not even belonged to this street. If she wanted to stay obscure among the working class people, why not act like one!

The day had past and the night show up. The mademoiselle was being true to her words. There was no signs of her on the streets. So, she was probably going to sleep over at the town.

Roux was about to leave her place at the display platform before she caught the sight of suspicious shadow of a man lurking in front of the shop.

'Who is that? A drunk man?'

Suddenly, she heard the sound of the door being forced open from outside. After struggling for a while, the determined James Smith walked into the antique shop with a weird tool in his hand.

'Oh no! What do I do? Should I move? But, wouldn't I scared him, if he knew that I am a living mannequin' Roux was having an internal debate with herself when Mr.Smith stopped in front of her and reached out his hand to her as if beckoning her to get down from the display spot.

'Wait! What was he doing? Did he know that I can move?'

"Er…miss..miss mannequin. I know you can move"

"Huh? How did you know?" without realizing it, Roux accidentally exposing herself in front of him as she was too excited.

" Coz I knew you been lokin' at me the whole time. I can feel it" he admitted.

This statement flattered her. If she was a living human with blood flowing in her vein, she would be blushing right now.

"But, what are you doing here?"

"I want to take you away from this place"

"I can't"

"Why?"

"I promise my master I would wait till she comes back tomorrow"

"Do you think she would allow you to go if you ask for her permission?"

Roux shook her head slowly.

"That's right. Come with me Roux. Let's run away from this place" he extended his other hand toward her.

Without her realizing it , both of them already on the street trying to sneak out past the alleyway. Mr.Smith brought a piece of long cloth to cover Roux's body underneath. They did not want to spook any other people that they would stumbled upon on the street.

However, their plan had already been predicted by the mademoiselle. Well that's a clairvoyant for you!

They immediately stopped on tract when they discovered the mademoiselle was standing at the end of the street.

Still clad in her extravagant gown and feather hat, the woman was smoking her tobacco pipe casually while holding a rectangle looking lamp in her other hand.

She breath out smokes while staring intently at both of them.

"Where are you going?"

"Ohhh mademoiselle please let me go" Roux pleaded to her master.

"Stop pretending innocent Roux. I told you to stop seducing innocent people!"

"She did not seducing me. I fell in love with her!" Mr.Smith tried to intervene.

Ignoring the young man, the mademoiselle instructed Roux to follow her home. However, Roux had already grew a spine and refuse to follow the instruction. This made the mademoiselle's blood boils.

She then promptly breath out another round of smokes out of her mouth right at the couple's direction.

"Mr. Smith! Hold your breath! She was blowing sleeping drugs at us!" Roux instructed. James Smith immediately covered his nose with a handkerchief.

Seeing that her trick with sleeping drug went off. The mademoiselle threw her tobacco pipe aside and pointed her rectangle lamp toward them.

"Be careful, the mademoiselle are able to summon fire spirit inside the lamp to attack us" once again, Roux once again revealed her master's hidden trick.

Just like how the mannequin explain, the fire inside the lamp spread out into the form of a silhouette resembling of a dragon that spit fire breath at both of them.

James Smith was in disbelief watching something that he had never encountered before . However, the man was quick enough to immediately planted his body on the ground in order to duck from the fire.

"what else can she do?!" he yelled at Roux.

"That's all. She could not fight, that's why she always has trick under her sleeve" Roux elaborated.

"Does that means that she was defenseless in term of short range attack?" he pointed out.

"Probably"

"If that is what it takes…."

James Smith immediately get up from the ground and began to run quickly toward the mademoiselle. He pulled out a punch straight to her face. The force from the punch pushed the mademoiselle to the ground.

Thud!!!

The sound of her head hitting the cobbled ground echoed through the quite street. Blood began to oozed out of a large wound on her head. The mademoiselle laying unmoved on the ground.

"Mademoiselle!!" Roux was crying for her master. She tried to approach her but Mr.Smith quickly pulled her away.

"Quick! We had to go now before someone sees us" he implored.

Both of them began to run as fast as they could to get away from the street.