The Great Escape

Chapter- 1

Two years later

The marketplace was hectic as ever.

Vendors and shopkeepers yelled, trying to attract attention towards themselves. Customers bustled through the wide pavement as they carried on with their shopping. The sun was sinking down the horizon, sneaking away from the dais and handing down the baton to the moon.

"Where is Ada?" Mrs. Smith, the Head Maid of the Monroe mansion asked.

The two maids looked at each other and shrugged.

"None of you know?" Mrs. Smith frowned.

They looked at each other and shrugged again.

"She simply vanished?" Mrs. Smith rubbed her forehead.

They turned their heads towards each other and—

Snap!

The sound of a thin stick beating against the ground made them look at the Head Maid, horrified.

"Shrug at me again with those shoulders and you will have no shoulders," Mrs. Smith warned, swaying the stick in the air.

Sarah was quick to ascertain the older woman of their obedience. Sincerely, she nodded. "I promise, ma'am. No shoulder shrugging. We will certainly find some other body part to shrug."

Mrs. Smith raised her stick again. Misa pulled away Sarah from the line of action of the skin tearing weapon.

"Ma'am—" She laughed nervously, a wide eyed Sarah in her grip."Why, of course, no shrugging. Not with shoulders, not with hands and certainly not with the hips," she said the last bit as a joke to lighten the mood.

"Of course not with hips!" Sarah pushed herself up as she exclaimed loudly. "Never with hips! That would be too much similar to Lady Beth shrugging at her female best friends. And we all know whatever follows involves no clothes—"

"What?" Mrs. Smith whispered harshly and the few pedestrians listening to them snickered, whispering among themselves as they cast them quick looks.

Misa half shrieked, half cried.

"Sarah is an idiot," she forcefully cackled and pulled Sarah behind her as Mrs. Smith tried to mask her terrorized expression.

"We will go and find Ada. Who knows if she is shrugging her hips at someone," Misa laughed awkwardly, trying to soothe Mrs. Smith's scarred ears, only to end up scarring the poor woman's soul.

"What?"

But the two were long gone, leaving a scandalized Mrs Smith standing by the carriage in their wake.

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"Where has she gone?" Misa asked to herself.

"Nowhere where we searched for her," Sarah answered.

"What if she is shrugging her hips at someone?" Misa joked.

"Quite possible. There is a red light area around the corner—"

"There she is!" Misa cut her off and pointed ahead.

A dark, slouching figure walked towards them. Wading through the swarm of people, it trudged on. Gingerly, nervously, hunching as if wishing to disappear.

The diffused orange light from the vanishing sun was just enough for Sarah and Misa to recognize the oily strands of strawberry blonde hair of Ada. It was indisputably her— the rough-looking, mossy green eye patch sitting snug on her left eye was proof enough.