Inside a modest house, two girls with identical blonde hair were sitting on the sofa facing each other. The girl wearing a white denim pinafore dress was looking intently into the eyes of the girl in front of her—me.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked before picking up a potato chip from the table.
"Something's been bothering you, hasn't it?" Without beating about the bush, she fired off her question. I didn't reply straight away, choosing instead to eat a few crisps first.
After swallowing the crisps, I stretched and leaned back into the green sofa. "Just a hunch—it's not important now," I replied.
Hearing that, Alice sighed and helped herself to some crisps from the bowl. "Listen, we both know you're a bit of a daft one, and you can't even deny it," her words were spoken gently but cut deep, "but your hunches are always spot on—it's annoying sometimes; I start to believe you can see the future."
"That would be an amazing power if I had it"
"That's not the point!"
After a few moments of silence, she continued, "So, please tell me whatever you're feeling or thinking—even if it's stupid—I'll listen, even though I'll probably make fun of you till the cows come home," her voice brimming with determination.
I exhaled before swallowing the crisps in my mouth. "It's just…" I was unsure where to begin, so I cut straight to the chase: "Before we were given this mission, there was actually another incident I really wanted to investigate."
Alice's eyebrows rose in curiosity; she tried to recall what other events had happened in this town apart from the sudden disappearances of women, until she finally remembered, "Do you mean those cases involving unusual deaths? Those haven't been on the same scale as the incident caused by Gilles, though…"
She stared intently at me before finally saying, "You suspect that the culprit in that case is the one who killed your grandmother?" she asked, and her answer, as usual, hit the nail on the head.
"Who's the one with the mind-reading ability here—you or Holmes?" I muttered, surprised by her hypothesis, which was always spot on.
I then looked down at my hand and that terrible memory flashed back into my mind—my grandmother lying on the blood-soaked floor, with a burly man whose hands were covered in blood standing over her.
"Rudolf…" I growled angrily, and without realising it, my Everafter formed in my hand of its own. "If it really is him—I won't let him get away."
"But how can you be sure it's him? You once told me that you were so terrified you couldn't even remember what the man looked like," Alice asked. At that very moment, I made the shotgun in my hand vanish before grabbing a few crisps and popping them all into my mouth at once.
After swallowing, I answered her question, "I just need to feel that overwhelming fear; that sensation alone is enough to tell me that he is that bastard Rudolf." Hearing that, Alice nodded in understanding, as she'd never seen me feel such intense fear.
"Is that perhaps why Neverkin said that the killer of your grandmother is closer than we thought, because he's actually already in London?" Alice speculated, and I answered with a nod.
"That's why I actually want to investigate that case," I muttered before drinking some water from the glass beside the bowl.
"All right!" Alice clapped her hands and stood up. "Once this mission is over, we'll investigate that case! Or if possible, we can tackle it at the same time—we do have the brilliant detective Mr Holmes after all!"
I really can't emulate her optimistic nature; she always finds the light even in the darkest room, unlike me, who was always stuck in the dark before Alice came along and lit up my world.
I couldn't help but smile and stood up as well, "And after that, we'll watch Modern Times again," I said, full of enthusiasm.
"Uh... I'll think about it," Alice muttered, almost to herself; she really doesn't share my taste in films. Usually, when I'm watching a film, she prefers to sleep on the sofa or in her room.
"Now let's get ready to beat Gilles tonight," I said, picking up that potato chip again and popping it into my mouth.
"Oh? You're full of beans now," Alice smiled amusedly, and before I could reply—Burp—I burped, leaving a long, awkward silence before Alice broke it: "Or... Full of chips"
KRING! KRING! KRING!
The sound of the phone ringing startled us; Alice and I exchanged glances before I walked over to the phone and picked it up. I held the receiver to my ear. "Hello, this is Red speaking," I said, and immediately I heard the sound of an explosion.
"Hello, Red, could you come here, please? There's a huge fight going on between Mr Loxley and Miss Morgan." It was Holmes's voice, sounding panicked, followed by a lot of noise in the background.