"How is she?" I asked Fraser the moment he came out of the hospital room.

He seemed momentarily surprised when he looked over at me. Maybe because he hadn't really been expecting me to talk to him in such a normal way. Anytime soon, that is.

"She's doing just fine." He smiled, then frowned a little. "Woozy on those pills, though. She's been saying a lot of shit that won't really make sense."

I nodded, smiling in relief when all I wanted was to cry in relief, and looked over at Mrs Rhodes--Alice's mother--who was talking with the two police officers, who'd shown up earlier, around the corner of the hospital hallway. I could feel nausea slowly gnawing its way up my stomach.

"Are you all right?" Fraser asked, still looking at me with that small frown.

"Yeah." Not fine. "I wasn't the one who..."

I slowly trailed off as I saw Mrs Rhodes and the two police officers making their way towards me.

Here it comes.

"Grace, sweetheart." I could see the strain on Mrs Rhodes's face. I wonder where Alice's father was. Didn't he care that his daughter nearly died? "The officers have some questions for you. If you don't mind."

I really, really did mind and wanted not to take a step closer towards them. Not because I was scared, but because I knew how useless this was. They wouldn't help. They never did. They never helped me in all those two years and I'd nearly begged them for it. For help.

"Sure." A small weary whisper left my lips.

"We just need to know all the details as to what exactly happened." The woman officer asked me.

"Alice and I went out to shop." I started. "We'd just exited one of the clothing stores when a car came out of nowhere and...hit her. I couldn't--I tried to warn her but it all happened so fast."

Mrs Rhodes made a distressed sound and I swallowed, watching Fraser wrap a comforting arm around her.

"Did you see anyone in that car?"

"No." I wished that I had.

"Can you describe the car to us?" She asked. "Plate number?"

I opened my mouth but stopped right then. I'd seen the car plate number; I still remembered it. But would it be worth telling them?

"GUI-7018," I stated. I got a surprised glance from Fraser but that was that. The other police officer quickly noted it down.

"All right. We'll get in touch with you if we find something." Mrs Rhodes nodded and walked along with them towards the exit.

"You can see her," Fraser spoke up, breaking the silence. "If you want."

I looked over at the room where Alice was. "I'll...okay."

He stepped aside, and with one last glance at him, I pushed open the door and walked inside.

The room was empty save for Alice herself, lying on the bed with her arm covered in plaster. She still looked the most alive, and the most colourful thing in the whole of the room, despite how pale she looked.

Sudden guilt clawed at my stomach. "Hey."

She immediately broke out of her thoughts and looked up at me. Her eyes widened in what looked like surprise and vanished just as soon, a small smile overtaking her face. "Grace."

"Hey," I repeated in a whisper this time, the lump quite obvious in my throat as I swallowed.

"I thought you weren't planning on visiting me." She joked.

I could only stare at her.

"Oh, come on now." Her voice slurred and I could see how much effort it took her to keep her eyes open. "Still mad at me?"

"God, no. Are you serious?" I asked, shaking my head. "You should be mad at me. Furious, Alice. What the fuck?"

She leaned back and grinned.

"How are you feeling?" I asked softly, frowning as she scooted a little to the side and patted the space on the bed in front of her. I slowly sat down.

"I feel pretty fine." She shifted a little and grimaced, looking at me and laughing. "Don't give me that look. Like you were the one who ran the car over me."

I might as well have been.

"I do feel a bit high, though." She added. "It's like...My mouth feels like I've got cotton filled in it."

I managed to smile a little at that. "I'm sorry, Alice."

"For what?"

For everything.

If I hadn't been so mean to her, she wouldn't have left the shop in such a rush. She wouldn't have snatched my jacket by accident. And she wouldn't have gotten hit by a car that was supposed to hit me.

But I couldn't have told her that.

"You were right. I was being mean for no reason." I said. She just listened quietly. "You were just trying to be nice, Alice, and I get it. I just...I guess I've just been kinda getting used to people not caring about me. I didn't mean to be so ungrateful for what you're doing."

Alice smiled and her dark eyes softened. She patted my knee. "I'm not really doing anything. And that's all right, you know." She said, then sighed. "I can be a handful sometimes. Just let me know and I'll tone it down a notch. It won't hurt my feelings."

I frowned, looking down at my hands. "No, Alice."

A beat of silence passed by.

"No?"

I shook my head. "You're naturally nice to everyone. I like that about you." And I didn't want her to change just because of me. Hadn't I already done that when I wasn't there for Luca?

Alice shrugged with her good shoulder. "I kinda do like that about me too."

That caused a laugh out of me despite the tiny lump in my throat. Alice smiled too.

"I mean, I've always wanted to have this plaster thingy. You know, when people write stuff on it?" She spoke up. "Would you write on it? Please?"

I looked at her for a while, and then blew out the breath I had been holding. "You're so weird, Alice."

"Yes, but you did just say that you like that about me so..." She leaned towards the tiny table beside her bed and picked up a black sharpie. "Please don't write anything grumpy. I might need some pics with this plaster."

Shaking my head in disbelief, I uncapped the marker and placed its tip on the rough surface of Alice's plaster.

Alice had saved me this once.

I wasn't so sure about the next time.

•••••

I tried rubbing the exhaustion off of my eyes as I pulled out my phone from my work pants, switching it on.

One hour until midnight. One hour left till my shift ended.

"Can I get two Cokes?" A girl came up to the counter, watching as I pocketed back my phone. "And a bottle of water."

"Sure," I replied and moved to get her order done.

At nights like this, especially around midnight, this place got crowded almost immediately with all kinds of people. Especially, as I'd noticed to pass off my time, teenagers who just wanted to get wasted. And usually, wanting to get wasted always had a big reason behind it.

I would know.

I would think about going to that one person or the other one who'd be drinking their nights away, and I would think of telling them that it was no good, that it wouldn't do any good the next day. Your problems didn't vanish just because you drank the night away. They become a whole lot worse, I thought.

I didn't, though. Because I didn't think Hal would've appreciated me interfering in his small ongoing business.

"Are you new here?" The girl asked me as I handed her a water bottle. "I haven't seen you around before."

"Yeah. Kind of." There had been no Welsh's Bar two years ago, and I didn't quite know whether she was talking about this bar or the town, in general.

"That's nice." She smiled. "We rarely get someone new in this town anyway." Taking her drinks, she backed off, dwelling back in the crowd.

I watched her disappear and sigh, pulling out my phone again and looking at the time. Straightening the plain white button-up I was wearing, I got out from behind the counter and headed for the staff door.

Maybe I could convince Hal to let me off a bit early. He was mean when it came to our shifts, but I think the dark circles under my eyes would convince him just fine.

I was seconds away from stepping past the backdoor when I heard a small commotion coming from the main entrance of the bar. Looking over, I noticed the guard having a somewhat heated discussion with a rather old-looking man. Who seemed to be angry at something.

And then the old man's face became a bit clearer and my blood ran cold. Barely anyone noticed but I saw and recognised him just fine.

"She's one of your employees." The old man hissed at the guard. "I know she works here! I saw her coming here!"

Oh dear lord.

He was the same man I'd managed to encounter at Bridgeview Street, in that old abandoned house. I remembered his greasy white hair. I most definitely remembered those wide bloodshot eyes.

He'd been stalking me, I realised in horror. For how long? How long had he been following me?

I saw his eyes raking over the crowd before stopping at me. A chill went down my spine when his eyes widened in what I thought was recognition. "Oh, I see her."

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath and did the only thing I could've thought at that moment. I turned around and dashed in the opposite direction, which also happened to be right into the crowd.

I squeezed past people, murmuring small excuse mes and trying to walk faster. I think I heard the man shouting behind me, but I didn't look back.

My head was too busy thinking up ways to escape and imagining all the horrifying scenarios that could very much come to life, that I couldn't even stop myself before I slammed into someone. Pretty badly.

With a painful oof, I stumbled and almost immediately, a hand shot out and gripped my arm before I could've fallen back with the sudden hit.

"Fucking hell." I heard a voice.

Regaining my footing and pushing my hair away from my face, I looked up to see Luca--out of all the people in this goddamn town--and I noticed pretty fast that I was gripping his arm much tighter than he was gripping mine. My heart skipped a loud beat.

Luca blinked and let go of my arm--like it was something poisonous. "What are you doing here?"

I let go of his arm too, but didn't bother taking a step back. "I...well, I work here."

"You work here." He made a face, and it shouldn't have looked as devastatingly handsome on him as it did right then. I swallowed. "And why in the hell were you running in between a crowd?"

I stared at him, not sure what to say, and it didn't really help that he stared right back, dark eyes angry and disbelieving and darting across my face.

He muttered something under his breath which I couldn't have heard either way, even under the loud music. Fortunately so, I did hear the familiar shout behind me.

"Hey, you! Stop trying to run away!"

My eyes widened, and so did Luca's as his gaze flickered behind me. "Is that man talking to you?" He asked me.

I made a rather incoherent gesture at him, hoping he understood, and didn't think twice before grabbing his arm again and stepping behind him. The muscles of his arm stiffened beneath my touch, but he complied quite easily.

My heart raced and I hoped the old man went away.

Luca glanced at me over his shoulder and he looked nowhere near happy. "What are you--"

"You think you can hide and I won't find you?" The old man appeared right in front of Luca and I almost flinched, my grip on Luca's arm tightening.

What did he want from me? I'd done nothing to him, nothing apart from visiting his house--which I didn't think was a valid reason why he was stalking me.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Luca asked, and I heard the underlying frustration in his voice.

"Give her to me!"

My eyes widened even more.

"Give me one good reason why I should do that." I heard Luca, and it was disbelieving itself how much I think he meant it. Like he was willing to shove me away the moment that old man gave him a good enough reason.

I didn't think he hated me that much. Yet I still didn't pull away from cowering behind him. What did that say about me?

"Why don't you ask her that?" The old guy hissed angrily. And I was only given a second's notice before he was reaching out for me. Luca, however, stepped in the way right on time.

Someone brushed past me from behind and I flinched.

"Listen here, you old man." I heard the edge in Luca's voice. "I'm not in a considerable mood right now. None at all. So if you don't back away now--"

"Ask her why she was lurking outside my house." He nearly growled and I saw a few people around us giving us curious glances.

Luca stepped near him and since I was still holding onto him, I was dragged along. "Back. Off." Luca gritted out and I was left momentarily stunned when I heard the warning in his voice. "Because I won't be held responsible for what I'll do if you don't."

The old man with greasy white hair took a cautious step back. I took a small peek at him from over Luca's shoulder.

"This isn't over. I will come back." The old guy glared at me. And then he did the unexpected; a small, creepy smirk took over his lips. "Good luck with the man in black."

I blinked as I watched him turn around and vanish into the crowd. The same crowd that he'd chased me through just a few minutes ago.

Man in black.

All of a sudden, I could feel the chills in my arms. I didn't think I could've run after him. I didn't want to. But God, he knew...he knew something.

Luce jerked his arm away from my grasp and turned around, directing his frown at me. I saw the way his jaw worked, clenching and unclenching.

"Why was he after you?" He asked me, then lowered his voice. "And why the fuck would you lurk outside his house?"

I stared. "I-I don't know."

He knew about the man in black. He knew something about Papa, didn't he?

I heard Luca inhaling a deep breath as if searching for patience that we both knew he'd never find. I looked back at him and then behind him.

"I know when you're lying, Rose." He said, and to my surprise, there wasn't much of an edge to his voice. Just that impassiveness. "And you really don't want me to go after that guy and ask him myself why he was after you."

I blinked in disbelief. Was that a threat? Now that the adrenaline rush was gone, I felt the exhaustion settling in. And I wanted to go home. Home. Just away from all this noise and these questions and this hopelessness which was starting to feel like it'd always be constant.

Can't give up, I told myself. You can't.

"Maybe if you let me into your business and maybe when you stop threatening me every time we meet." I forced out, looking directly into his eyes. "Maybe then I'll tell you why he was after me."

His eyes seemed to darken.

"It's not always so easy, Lucius," I added. "You of all the people should know that."