As we passed through the door, we found ourselves in a large corridor. "Don't just barge in like that!" protested the ginger-haired man behind me. I saw, far ahead of us, the girl with the red scarf standing with her back to us.
"You're not my dad," I retorted to Robin and ran towards Clara; I had to check on her, and for some reason, I caught the stench of a rotten carcass in my nose.
My feet stopped instantly; my heart was pounding, adrenaline was rushing through me, breathing was becoming laboured and cold sweat began to pour down my face. I saw my hands trembling and the sick feeling in my chest was growing stronger. What was going on? Why was I suddenly feeling this? It was then that I finally realised... it was an overwhelming sense of fear.
But what was the cause? And at that very moment, I sensed someone behind me and spun round quickly—it wasn't Robin as I'd hoped, but a man with a blue beard and a hat adorned with a large feather. He grinned from ear to ear, and his gaze was truly terrifying. Usually my quick reflexes would try to attack or run away, but my legs turned to stone until I fell to the floor; I felt like I was going to burst into tears—what kind of power is this that can put me in a state like this, really?!
"Oh? You're a sweet girl," said that scoundrel named Gilles. Behind him, I could see Robin lying motionless—he'd managed to defeat Robin without making a sound. "You might be fun for me to play with," and at that very moment I collapsed without a chance to fight back and lost consciousness instantly.
Back in the bar a good distance away, Holmes was sitting and chatting to Humpty, who was preparing another rum for the detective sitting opposite him. "Alice really does seem to be having a good time, doesn't she?" he said, watching the girl play billiards with another customer, having grown bored of waiting for Gilles, who was still nowhere to be seen.
Holmes took a puff on his pipe before exhaling a wisp of smoke. "How long have you known her?" he asked, and this made Humpty smile as he recalled those moments—which, to be honest, were kind of creepy, why on earth was he smiling?
"I've known her for about six months," Humpty began, setting a cup of coffee down for the detective, "Back then, she'd lost a bet to Red, and as punishment she had to come into a bar alone."
"I still remember when she screamed and declared she couldn't possibly be hurt when someone tried to do it."
"Hearing that, people immediately tried, and you can imagine how it ended," Humpty chuckled amusedly as he recalled the incident when dozens of people, who'd previously been so confident, ended up lying helplessly on the ground. "I mean, once she took out her cards—there was no hope left for them."
"Well, I wouldn't have wanted to be your customer that day," Holmes smiled as he pictured it.
"But... the bar where we made those memories was destroyed because of that bean-root incident." To Holmes surprise, he saw Humpty shedding tears. "Oh Barbara! Forgive me! I didn't mean to cheat on you, but I also had to think of myself to survive!"
"Don't worry, Barbara. Once you've recovered, I'll shower you with all my love for a whole day," he said so dramatically that even Holmes, the great detective, was baffled.
"Is this Barbara… your girlfriend, Mr. Dumpty?"
"Something like that! She's the bar where I used to work! The one destroyed by those vicious roots that ravaged the city! I still remember how she wailed in pain—" and after that, Holmes had to listen to just how deep the bald man's love for his workplace ran.
"Liking a fictional character is one thing, but this..." He muttered to himself before turning to watch Alice, who was beaming as she successfully potted the eight ball.
She felt both immensely proud and rather arrogant, and as the other guests applauded her for winning the game, her eyes met Holmes's as he puffed on his pipe. She then walked over to Holmes, still basking in her triumph, "Mr. Holmes! I'd like to go out and bring Red here, if that's all right?"
Holmes, hearing this, raised his left eyebrow. "Oh? What about keeping watch?" he asked politely.
"Robin can handle it. In any case, I'm actually not keen on leaving Red with him." Alice still couldn't quite bring herself to trust leaving me with our former enemy.
"Very well, I shall keep watch here." Holmes nodded, and at once Alice turned and walked towards the exit.
As she stepped outside, the cold air immediately touched her skin and blew through her hair. She lifted her head, looking towards where we should have been, but she saw only the building and the night sky.
"Huh?" Alice quickly pulled out two cards, which instantly propelled her into the air. As she floated through the sky, she saw that there was not a single soul on top of the block of flats.
A sense of panic and worry instantly flooded Alice as she looked around; a strong gust of wind carried a piece of paper, and it struck Alice's cheek quite hard. She gently landed back on the street, picked up the paper, and looked at it—her eyes widened instantly.
She saw a photo of two people she recognised, unconscious with their hands and feet bound, accompanied by blue text reading Caught!
Her eyes glanced down at the bottom of the photo and began reading the words: "It seems you've been obsessed with me, even stalking me lately—to make you happy, I've captured the two of you so you won't have to bother looking for me anymore."
From the words written there, Alice could sense the mockery and humiliation within them; her hand reflexively clenched the note so tightly it became crumpled.
"Unforgivable."