Lady Luck

17

     Everything happened so quickly I barely had time to register what was happening. One second I was walking down the sidewalk, and the next thing I knew I was suddenly inside the alleyway with an arm wrapped around my torso and a hand over my mouth. Though my back was to my attacker, one glimpse at the sleeve of his faded gold sweatshirt told me everything I needed to know:

Hoody.

Stomach sinking slightly at the sight, I quickly began struggling against his grip. I could hear quiet shushing in my ear. "Shh, (Name), don't make any sound..." Okay, I could do fine without making sound. I didn't need to anyway.

He'd be doing all the screaming when I was done.

Deciding not to give him a chance to say anything else, I quickly pulled the cat head keychain out of my pocket and stuck my fingers through the eyeholes before jabbing the ears into his leg. He gave a startled cry and loosened his grip a bit, giving me the opportunity I needed. Dropping to my knees, gravity took over and he was sent flipping over me before landing on his back.

A soft groan escaped him as he quickly rolled onto his stomach and shifted to his feet. "What the hell!?" he sputtered, clutching at his leg as he remained crouched. Two noticeable dents were left in his jeans from where I'd jabbed his leg with the cat ears, making me smirk.

Thank you keychain, I thought to myself as I glanced at the keychain. Cute as it was, its real purpose was to be a weapon for self-defense. The ears were meant more for poking at eyes and fleshier parts of the body, not jabbing a guy through jeans, but after stabbing with enough force I knew it would at least leave a nasty bruise.

Hey, I might be next to untouchable thanks to my luck, but I still need to take SOME precautions living on the streets.

"Worth every cent," I muttered to myself under my breath.

"What?"

"Nothing," I said dismissively, but then grew more serious. While my luck usually shielded me from dangerous situations, this time it didn't. Apparently getting grabbed by a strong guy with violent impulses who once murdered a man wasn't big enough of a threat for the universe to intervene—or at least not yet. Clutching the keychain warily, I asked him point-blank, "What do you want?"

He didn't respond right away, just eyed me silently. Releasing his leg, he slowly got to his feet and held up his hands. "...You really don't remember anything, do you?" His question caught me off-guard, making me falter and stare at him blankly for a moment before quickly reassuming a defensive stance.

"What are you talking about?" I asked slowly.

"The past two and a half months. The video said you and Tim don't remember anything from that time." Eyes widening, my posture slouched as I processed his words and the implications that accompanied them. When I opened my mouth, my voice was so soft I could barely hear myself.

"You... you remember that time...?" Hoody didn't respond, just looked at me silently for a moment.

"...So it's true then," he finally sighed, shaking his head.

"What the hell happened to us!?" I questioned, my voice growing steadily louder and higher in pitch. "Why were you in the car with us? What are we doing here!?" Rather than answer my questions though, Hoody just shook his head once more.

"Forget it. It doesn't matter if you can't remember."

"If I can't—what does that even mean!?" Still I got no answer, Hoody silently turning and heading out of the alley. Angry at his refusal to answer, I rushed forward and tried to grab him, but he just calmly side-stepped me so I stumbled forward and fell to the ground with an "oof". Groaning softly, I slowly sat up and rubbed my chin, wincing as I felt a rough, tender patch from where my face had slid against the pavement.

Great, just great... Even without looking I knew that it would be leaving a pretty bad mark. While I sullenly reflected over this Hoody looked at me evenly, making no move to help me up. "You have a bunch of footage, watch it yourself and find the answers there," he told me flatly, making me snap my head towards him angrily. As usual his mask hid his expression, only adding to my frustration.

"Or you could tell me the answers right now and I won't have to waste a hundred hours of my life watching myself sleep!" I snapped irritably as I held my chin. "Do you have any idea how boring watching all that footage is!? We've been doing nothing but watching it every day for the past WEEK, and nothing good shows up!" Rubbing my eyes, I then added, "My eyes feel like they're going to dry out and shrivel up a this rate!"

Despite my protests Hoody continued to say nothing though, eying me for a moment before turning his head away and walking forward. Growling in slight annoyance, I quickly reached out and grabbed at his leg. He was a bit too far to grab his leg itself, but I did manage to snag the back of his jeans so I held onto it with a death grip.

"At least tell me something!" I yelled in frustration, and at this point he finally paused. For a long moment neither of us moved or spoke, the only sound my panting as I held my chin. Then, finally, he glanced back at me.

"...Don't open the glove box in the car when Tim's there, and don't show him what's on your phone." Surprised by his statement, my grip on his jeans faltered and he jerked his leg away before calmly walking forward. By the time I came to my senses, he was gone. Frowning, I quickly scrambled to my feet and peered out of the alley, but I saw no sign of him in either direction.

Great. Just great. There went my best lead on what the hell happened during the past two and a half months, and like every other lead so far it just left me with more questions than answers.

Sighing, I rubbed my chin once more and lowered my hand to see faint specks of red on my fingers. No use standing around here with a bloody skinned chin. I quickly headed off to the nearest drug store to pick up some bandages for my chin, and then just grabbed something to eat from a pizza place on the way back to the hotel.'

All in all it took another half hour before I returned, and of course Tim was still at his computer when I arrived. "Hey, (Name)," he greeted as he shot a glance at the door, only to pause as he noticed the bandage on my chin and my heavy scowl. "What the—what happened to you?"

"Don't wanna talk about it," I grumbled as I dropped the pizza box on the table next to him, along with the remainder of my winnings from the lotto card. Tim stared at it for a moment with jaw drops, clearly wanting to ask for more information. Instead, though, he just slowly nodded.

"...Uh, okay then..." Opening the pizza box, he got out a slice of (fav pizza) and began eating it. Between bites he commented, "By the way, I was thinking, and why don't we just plug the memory card from your phone into one of the laptops?"

"Already thought of that. The phone has a stupid micro-card thing that doesn't fit into either laptop." That was one of the first things I'd checked. As far as I could tell we must've plugged them into the laptops and transferred them to memory cards that way before wiping them.

"...Oh," he said lamely. "I see..." Glancing at his phone, he quickly pried the back off it and peered at it closely. "Looks like my phone's the same way. We could try it on mine—"

"I'm not sure I want to," I interrupted quietly, not looking at him. From the corner of my eye I could see him look at me in surprise before frowning.

"What...? Why not?" Rising a bit from his seat, he added, "We need all the information we can get, (Name). Our phones would have the most recent footage, so we need it." I didn't look at him as he spoke, knowing he had a point.

"I know, I know, but..."

"But?" he pressed.

"...It just feels... wrong. It kind of feels like it isn't the right time to look at it yet... I don't know, it's complicated." I sighed, thinking back to Hoody's warning about not showing Tim what was on my phone. While I didn't know how much I could trust him—if at all—it was clear to me he knew what on it, and something about that made me think that maybe I should listen to him. At least, for now.

Tim didn't respond right away, but eventually he nodded. "...Fine. I'm not really happy with that answer, but I'll respect your wishes for now. But we'll have to look at it sooner or later, even if it feels like it's not time."

"I know..." With that silence fell over us and I sat down at my laptop, queuing up another video. As it began playing my mind raced, replaying my encounter with Hoody endlessly.

"...You really don't remember anything, do you?" That phrase in particular kept repeating in my mind. Something about the way he'd said it didn't sit right with me. It was like he was surprised that I didn't remember, as if he thought that it was a lie in the video. Why would he think that, though? I didn't have any reason to lie about it, did I? That train of thought just brought me back to one other phrase: "Forget it. It doesn't matter if you can't remember."

What was it I couldn't remember? What happened between me and Hoody during the past two months?