Beneath the City Lights (Currently On Hold)

Chapter 3-Alice

Screeeeeeeeech.

        "Alice, where is daddy going tonight?!” Emma scrambled into Alice’s bedroom in the wee hours of the night, blonde locks flying around her round face, a ghastly expression taking possession of her face. She jumped into bed beside Alice who had just been startled awake by the sounds of cars leaving the property herself.

         Alice hugged her sister for a moment but when they released each other Alice rose from the bed and quickly as she could without her sister pulling her down for comfort. She fluffed her hair and swiftly changed into a red straight shift dress. Breathlessly she said, “I just…want to see for myself.” She slipped on her shoes and ran toward the door. “I’ll be back soon!”

           Emma called after her, “Be careful!”

            “Shh, you’ll wake everyone up!” Alice hissed, and was gone.

                                                                                           ~

            Alice tip-toed as fast as she possibly could in her heeled shoes and slid into the front seat of her brother’s car. Luckily, one car that was following her father to wherever they were headed that night had left a little later than everyone else. She still had this vehicle in sight, so she took off down the street, making sure to be far enough so that she wasn’t noticed.

            The black car she trailed was quite easy to track for the majority of the drive. She bit her lip as she noticed her surroundings. Trees were bent towards her brother’s car as she drove; dark, spindly wooden fingers pointed her in the direction she needed to go. She could see that the men, along with her father, were slowing down their cars near a large but seemingly empty building. Oh no, she thought morosely, but ignored her pestering conscience and parked the car beside a large tree, a few meters from the entrance to the parking lot where her father and his cronies were arranging themselves in a huddle by their vehicles. She brought up the nerve to casually stroll along the pavement nearer to the back of the building and farther from the parking lot, but out in the open for all to see. She counted her footsteps calmly, to distract herself from the fear of being caught, and finally found safety by the back corner wall of the warehouse. With a hand clasped against the brick, she bent her body enough to the left that she could easily see the Hughes men, her Hughes men, lazily walking into the building with an air of arrogance. The moment she saw the last man disappear from her sight, she took her shoes in her hand and bolted down the alleyway behind the building, searching for a backdoor.

            She reached a steel grey door in quick time, and lurched it open. Thankfully she did not open the door and be discovered by all the Hughes and Blackwells at once-the section of the warehouse she had entered was dark and had no human life in it but her own. Gasping for air as quietly as she could, she walked barefoot through rows of dusty, grey tables which made up an assembly line until the rows ended and the rest of the area before her was vast and blank with the exception of a table and chairs being lounged upon by men in fancy suits. These, she knew without a doubt, were Blackwell men. As her eyes darted in the direction that the Blackwells were facing, she could see other familiar faces-her father and some of his best men.

            She crouched low in front of the last table in the line, preparing herself to be as quiet as a mouse and patting herself on the back for eavesdropping at almost every event she’s ever been to-it now would come in handy.

           “Hello Ed.” Her father boomed casually across the large room. “We have some things to discuss.”

             Alice squinted her eyes to get a better look at the men by the table. She could recognize Edward Blackwell easily, he was the man standing by the table with a hand leaning against it. He was skinny, tall, with a devilish grin-always. She saw a few other men she’d seen around before as well.