A Small Break

Leaving the Doctors office, with an air-filled wallet. Alice puts her hand on my shoulder. "It's fine, I would say that he's just a licensed Thief, but since he doesn't have one, I can't make that joke."

Waving her off, I stretch only for Alice to start to cough. "You need to take a shower!" Looking like she's gonna puke, I tell her that it can't be that bad. Taking a sniff, I would puke if I had anything in my stomach.

"Okay, first stop, my apartment."

.....

With the sun now rising above the city, Amber yells in the royal castle. "Why did we leave him there?!" While her father does feel a bit guilty about it he understands that the other nobles are happy with this outcome.

"Lady, may you explain to us what's so special about him? he's just-"

Just an animal! I know! But how can you look at another human being and call them an animal!" Storming out of the room Amber runs back to the meeting room.

"Lady Amber!" Running after her, every chase her to try and stop her, but Amber? She doesn't stop, she runs to the room, not even knowing why the nobles are chasing her, what is it to them? I can do whatever I want. Seeing her own reflection in one of the golden decorations, she sees it.

A Smile, it's a smile of a crazy person, the same smile Ravne had when they ran from the volunteers the first night they met. Arriving in front of the meeting room, two guards try to stop Amber but she kicks the door in.

And it hits everyone the smell, Thinking that it's the dead body of Raven, everyone asks if she's finally satisfied, but stops when she asks. "Who are these people?"

Taking a look, a few of the nobles, puke on the floor. "Well, that man's got one hell of a backbone." Amber's grandpa remarks. The room is filled with five corpses that were ripped apart as if a bear has found them, their waists are twisted off, heads crushed, and limbs thrown around the room.

Walking in, Amber looks at the spot where Raven once lay. "He's gone..... "

"Immediately close this room for investigation!" The police commissioner yells. Putting his hand on Amber's shoulder, the king whispers. "Raven..... I think we have something to look forward to."

........

As Raven and Alice arrive beneath an apartment building, Alice asks if she won't disturb my companion. Telling her, that Edward won't be home, she asks me why wouldn't he be there.

"It's 6:30 until 7:15 he's running around the slums." Grabbing the handle, I just slightly push at the door and it opens. "Wow, I'm somehow more shocked that this has more security than some of the government secret files."

Waving her off, we walk to the top floor and enter our apartment. The wood creaking beneath our every step, I call dibs on the shower only to get stopped. "Never heard ladies first?" Smirking, I reply. "As you said, Ladies first, but old hags like you have no-" Getting punched in the balls, Alice walks over to me and reminds me that she's just 3 years older.

"Yes ma'am..."

Getting into the shower first, I'm left in the living room. Getting up, I spot two cups on the counter. Walking over to them, I recognize the smell. "Chocolate....." but my eyes go wide, as I see the cups. They're the old cups that I long thought to be lost. Cups with our names on them.

Taking a cup that has my name on it, I take a sip. It's cold but good. taking a chair from a table, I relax and drink the chocolate.

"It's good isn't it?" I hear Alice I ask. "It is, it brings me back when just the two of us lived here." Seeing her walk out of the bathroom with wet hair, I ask her if she doesn't want some clothes, since I'm sure there are still some of her old clothes.

Pulling on her white shirt she tells me that she doesn't need it. "Anyways, I'm surprised you kept the cups in such a good condition, I was sure you would have thrown mine out." Chuckling, I explain. "Don't worry, I wouldn't have thrown them out, but I'm more surprised you made chocolate."

Taking her cups she sits beside me. "When I was..... still thinking that it was a dream, I just did what felt natural, but now I know why it felt natural." Finishing my cup, I smile. "Because you used to make chocolate all the time."

Getting up, I head to the bathroom.

Taking out my guns and weapons from the clothes, I turn the water all the way to the coldest possible temperature and I relax under the cold shower. Finally getting all the filth and dried-up blood off myself, I think in peace for a second about the upcoming problems.

1, Someone is trying to get rid of me, probably Alice's boss from the lantern cult since they know that I know about their existence.

2, After a few of the gangsters went rogue, huge parts of the slums were destroyed and a huge tent city has been built outside, but that can't hold all the people forever.

I try to connect some dots between the past events but a loud crash from the living room gets my attention. Thinking that Alice has probably just slipped, I ignore it, but the second I hear another thud. I get out of the shower, wrap a towel around my waist and grab my gun.

Opening the door from the bathroom. I see Alice with her hands in a combat mode starting at someone. Pushing the door fully open, I point my gun in the direction she's looking in, only to see Edward.

"Edward? What are you two doing? I thought you knew each other already."

"That's a hard pass, Raven. But I do recognize those pale hands. Back in the meeting, they crushed a lot of good guys." Sweaty from his workout, I try to reason with Edward. "Well, she did kill a lot of people, but not by her own accord."

Looking at me with his guard still up, he asks me to explain. "Look, long story short she was mind controlled, anyways, Edward this is Alice an old friend of mine." Finally putting his guard down, he looks at me.

"You know you tied the towel too loosely right?" Raising my eyebrow, I begin to feel the towel slowly slip down. Quickly catching it, I go back into the bathroom.

"Raven! Don't take too long, I also want to shower!" Telling him off, I start to dry my long hair. "A hair like this requires a lot of care! I don't want to go bald like your brother now, do I?"

"Oh common, Raven! Even I took less time than this! JSut come out so we can discuss the poison!" Confused, I can hear Edward ask Alice to explain what she means by that. After getting his response, Edward yells.

"This is exactly the situation I talked about! What are you gonna do when I'm not with you Raven?! Just die?!" Mad, I yell back. "I can take care of myself! Everyone sometimes gets into unfavorable situations!"

Ripping the bathroom door open, I want to yell, but I'm already halfway clothed.

"Unfavorable situations? Do you call your death an Unfavorable situation?! What do you think I do if you died?! I got no other friends than you! I have no idea how to run the bunnies nothing!"

Is Edward crying? Looking at him, I can see him take deep breaths. "You're my friend Raven. My only friend and I don't want to lose you."

Standing up, I walk over, and hug, Edward. "Don't worry, I promise you that I'm not going anywhere, and you can catch bullets for me all day." Patting him on the back, I can hear Alice sip.

"You really did gain weight."

Letting go of Edward, we both curse. "We've just had such a nice moment!" Putting on a new shirt, Alice asks what's the plan now. We've briefed Edward at The Lantern, so now we're all trying to figure out what will we do.

"I'd start with looking into other southern merchants, which might have sold the Poison, from there we could track down the buyer." Nodding her head, Alice shares her thoughts.

"That takes too long, to go from one to one merchant at a time would take ages, if anything isn't there someone who had the imports into lums under his control?"

Turnign to Edward, he raises his hands. "Don't look at me, I know that my brother was the largest importer of outside goods thanks to his monopoly on the docks but that's all."

Being bumped up about it, We think about other options, "There's also a chance that another assassin will be dispatched t take me out, so if we manga to take him out, we could-

*Ding Dong* "Must be the Neibghor, I asked her to bring us some cherries." Getting up Edward goes to the main door.

"Anyways, as I've been saying they will probably dispatch another-

*BANG!* Flying back, Edward falls to the ground. It was the first time, I saw Edward bleed from a bullet wound. Unmoving, he laid on the ground, with blood spilling from his chest.

"Edward!"