Kingdom of tears

Chapter Five

The next day when Zillah got up she decided to try and make a better impression than she did the day before. She attempted to scrub off some of the grime that came with sleeping in an alleyway, and picked out some of the more cleaner clothes she had. She put her hair up into a braid before setting off into town.

She passed by a shop window, and caught a glimpse of her reflection. She almost looked like she didn’t live on the streets. Not quite. But almost. She looked a little closer at the reflection and noticed something in the corner. The guards! They were making their rounds.

She ducked into the shop, and started to run to the back. “Hi, can I help you at all?” the store clerk said.

“Um–yes!” the guards had come into the shop! Zillah really hoped That this plan worked. “Im looking for a different size of…,” she grabbed a random piece of clothing off the rack, “This sweater. I’m looking for a medium, and I can’t find one. Can you help me?”

“Of course,” the lady looked at the rack, double checking for one. Zillah really wanted her to hurry up. “Ok, so I can see if there is one in the back. Is that all right?”
“Yes, that would be fine.”

Perfect actually, she thought.

“Ok then.”

The lady started walking into the employees only door, while Zillah stood there. In her peripheral vision, she could see the guards walk further into the building. “Where did she go?” one of the guards demanded the other.

“I don’t know. I could’ve sworn I saw her.”
Guard one sighed.

Zillah was scared. This was one of the closest times they’d come to finding her since Ryker and Salem died. The only other time they almost had her was when the twins had just died. It was after she buried them, and she was lying next to their graves for several hours, one of them had grabbed her. She had to claw and kick to get away, and she almost didn’t escape. Almost. It was close, too close. She never wanted it to happen again.

The guards were coming closer. Thankfully the lady walked back out of the door, sweater in hand. “Ok, here you are ma’am. Would you like to try it on before checking out?”

“That would be amazing,” Zillah answered

The lady pointed to the far left corner of the store. “Changing room is that way.”

“Thank you.” She set off to the dressing room and locked the door behind her. Underneath the door she could see people shuffling around.

One of them said into what sounded like a radio, “We’ve caught sight of her. Last seen in the clothing shop on 45th Street. I’d send reinforcements near here.” They both walked away

Zillah let out a sigh of relief. She was sure she was good as dead. She looked down at the sweater. She was going to have to buy this now, huh, she thought. It wasn’t like she had much money in general, and she only brought twenty-five dollars. She looked at the tag. It was fifteen dollars. Looks like she was eating off the dollar menu today.

At least the sweater was cute. It was purple with a flower pattern, and definitely much less dingy than what she was currently wearing. She went to check out. As she walked out the shop, she pulled the sweater on. It was a fairly chilly autumn day, so at least it was useful.

She checked the time, It was twelve o’five. Definitely late, hopefully they understood the situation. She turned onto Merchant Lane, the cafe was up on the left. Zillah found the table where Erebus and his grandparents were, and took a seat. “I’m so sorry I’m late!” she started “There was this situation, and I got held back.”