Curiosity's Price

Chapter Fifteen

"Hey, Mom? I'm gonna be out for a little bit, okay?" Alice asked her mother a couple of days after she discovered Matthew in the woods. She hadn't seem him once since Sera carried him off to Allistor's, and she really wanted to see her friend (read: crush) again.

"Oh, no, sweetie," her mother told her apologetically. "Remember your dentist appointment? That's in a couple of hours. You should go brush your teeth soon."

"Oh..." Alice tapered off, crestfallen.

"Where would you have gone, anyway?" Laura asked a bit curiously. 

"T-To the mall," she lied quickly. "There was a sale, I think. Elizabeta told me about it, and I was wanting to check it out before everything good was gone."

"Hmm... We can go see it before the appointment, since we have some time. Go brush your teeth now and we can leave," Laura suggested chipperly.

"That's okay, Mom," Alice piped up. "It's not a big deal. It might even be over by now!"

"What, embarrassed to go to the mall with your mom?" Laura laughed. "Go grab your purse, let's make a mommy-daughter date out of this."

Alice groaned in her head and tried not to get too angry at this roadblock in her plans.

~

Sry, Ser, cant come 2day. Mom says i have a teeth app. 2morow?

Sera sighed at her phone and typed out a reply.

Sure thing. Hope u can come.

"Who's that?" Matthew mumbled from where half of his face was pressed into the couch. He still hadn't gotten up from there since he'd awoken, but Sera knew he would try to rise when the pain medication started its work on him.

"It's Alice," Sera answered. "She was going to come see you today, but it looks like her mom took her to a dentist appointment." She caught his confused expression and explained. "A dentist is someone who checks up on humans' teeth to make sure they're okay."

"Oh..." He put his face into the cushion of the couch and just laid there for a bit, thinking. 'This smells like smoke a little bit...'

"Is he awake?" a new voice, deep and accented lightly in a way Matthew had never heard before, spoke as the owner stepped closer. Matthew tried to push himself up on his hands so he could see, but a spike of pain drove itself between his shoulder blades and made him slump back onto his chest. "Aye, he is."

"Hi, Allie," Sera greeted. "Yeah, he woke up last night."

"And yer sister, is she dropping by?" Allistor asked.

She shook her head. "Not today. Can tomorrow work?"

"Aye. Maybe he'll be strong enough t' get up by himself by then," Allistor said before addressing Matthew directly. "Hi there, I'm Allistor."

Matthew managed to steal a glance over his shoulder without twisting his back too much. The man was older than Mattie by a few years and had some very bright red hair. An unlit cigarette dangled from between two of his fingers, but he was lifting it up to light it right then. 

"H-Hi," Matthew replied in a sotto voce voice, stammering freely. 

"Shy one, aye?" Allistor asked of the two Angels without wings. Sera nodded. "Well, yer safe here. I won't tell anyone about ye."

"Thanks so much, Allie," Sera said with clear gratitude in her voice. "This means so much to me."

Allistor waved his hand as if to say "Think nothing of it" before taking in a drag from his cigarette.