Chapter 9

At last Violet rubs her eyes.

"Well, should we head back?"

"If you would like you can, I might stay, I love star gazing."

"Do you sleep Lydia?" she asks with a raised eyebrow,

They laugh, "I like the stars."

She smiles, "Me too, don't ever tell anyone that, I'll screw you up."

"Try." Lydia coughs,

Violet rolls her eyes, "You aren't to bad Lydia. I'm glad I met you."

Lydia smiles, "Me too."

They say good night to each other and Violet starts away. Lydia sits on the rock wall and stares up at the sky.

Violet looks at her and smiles again, she took Adam sure, but...she's not half bad. They started off on a very bad foot, but Violet is finally starting to warm up to her. She's even happy, for Lydia, for Adam and herself she's happy.

She walks back to the house, one of the butlers finds her as she walks to her room and greets her.

"Still awake mam?"

"Hm? Yeah, I'm just about to head to bed."

"Very good, anything I can do for you?"

She shakes her head, "I'm okay, thank you."

He nods to her and lets her wander to her room. She climbs into her bed, she thinks to herself as she lies there. She really wants to ask Adam to join her to the festival. But she knows that he obviously be with Lydia. She just wants to be friends with him, repair any damage and awkwardness. Maybe the day after she'll ask, the festival lasts a week after all, then the next day they can all be together.

She smiles at the thought and closes her eyes.

Lydia swings her fist, Fynn catches it and chuckles. "Too slow."

"You idiot! You almost killed Me!"

He smirks, "We needed it to be real didn't we?" he laughs,

"Prick. I'm gonna fu-"

"Enough! Gah, like little kids, he screwed up, no more contact Fynn, not for a while. Isabella suck it up."

"What?!" Lydia asks,

"You can't tell me what to do." He spits,

She grabs him by the throat. Sparks crawl up her hands and arms. "That's an order from Venix you little cretin. I will not tell you again and do you really think you can take me?" she asks, venom spitting from her mouth,

He looks at her with fear, but she knows it's only because she mentioned Venix.

"What's the plan?" Lydia asks,

"Keep pretending 'Lydia' the day after tomorrow meet with the Shadow Walkers privately. Tell them Sheila is here, you know the rest, can I trust you Isabella?"

Lydia, or Isabella nods, "You can trust me. I won't let you down."

She grunts, "Do I really have to entertain that dim-wit again tomorrow? How do I get away the next day?"

"That's not my problem. Figure it out."

She nods, "Yes Sylvia. I won't let you down."

"You better not, you won't live to see another day if you do."

She shakily nods, Sylvia dismisses her and she heads back to the house. Does she really have to entertain Adam all day? Ugh gah, sleeping with him was enough to make her gag. Well thankfully they stopped at making out. She would've vomited if she had to entertain him any further. Luckily, she knows he's nothing like that.

But making out with her and falling asleep with her in his arms, gah she had him wrapped around her finger. She might as well be leading him into the alley, but it'd be too risky with Violet and Roux, all together they are better than the Shadow Walkers combined.

She sneaks up to her room and lays in her bed. Isabella is exhausted from all this sneaking around, she just wants to sleep and not do anything tomorrow.

She yawns and opens her eyes. The sunlight shines on her torso, she slowly gets to her feet and turns the knob.

Waiting for the water to turn hot, she gets in the shower and gets dressed. She walks down the hall and knocks on Adam's door.

He opens it and smiles. "Good morning."

"How'd you sleep?" she asks,

"Pretty well, how about you?"

"Great actually. I had a really good day with Violet yesterday."

"So you found her? How's she doing?"

"Much better from what I could tell. She seems even happy."

He looks at her wide eyed, "R-really?"

Isabella nods, "Uh huh, I wish she'd make it up with you though."

"Me too."

"Well the festival's today, we're going right?"

He gives a confused look. "Oh right, you're from a lame world, well-"

"Ha ha! Funny."

She grins and giggles lightly, "There is a festival today for New Haven, you want to go? It's actually all throughout the week. They have different events all week."

"Really? Sounds exciting. Let's go, you think Violet would want to come?"

Isabella looks at the ground, "Hmm....maybe? Not sure."

"A-actually I was going to ask about that."

They look over and welcome her with smiles, "Hey Violet, geez you are really quiet."

She smirks, "U-uh, I was wondering, if you two went today, together, Adam, would you want to go with me tomorrow? I mean...just us? J-just as friends of course, I just, would like to start over. Is that okay with both of you?"

They look at one another, Isabella nods, "Sounds good to me?" she says,

Adam catches on with her and agrees, "Sounds like it'd be a blast Violet. I'd love to."

She smiles and sighs with relief. "Okay, good. I don't want any awkwardness between any of us."

"Agreed." Adam says,

"Yeah it will be awesome. We already settled this yesterday, if she gets you killed for any reason, I'll hunt her down, and if I hurt you, she gets to gut me, it's fair."

The corners of Violet's lips curl, she agrees playfully. They all walk downstairs and join Roux.

"You all seem chipper this morning."

"Yeah, things seemed to work out nice."

"I'm very glad to hear that."

They sit down and enjoy breakfast together, though Adam and Isabella make sure not to eat much at all, by the time they're done, the sun has reached its peak.

They deeply enjoy being able to get so much sleep. Isabella grabs Adam's hand and pulls him away, they say goodbye and walk out the door.

"Easy!"

"Come on! Ugh you're gonna love this!"

They run into town and start looking at the different booths. So many stores, and games. They try the different foods and smells, wandering through the streets, getting purposefully getting lost many times.

He leans in and kisses her, she kisses back deeper. They smile and stare at each other. He's sure this is the happiest he's ever been. She makes him smile and laugh, she's the reason he is always happy now.

"What's your favorite dessert Lydia?"

"Hmm, um....cinnamon rolls."

"They had some desserts back there."

"Oh I'm fine Adam."

"Come on." He turns and starts back,

"Adam, you don't have to?!"

"I want to, come on."

She rolled her eyes with that smile on her face, they walk back and up to the booth, "Two please." He says and hands over the money,

"Dummy." she mutters,

Adam hands the dessert to her and they sit on a bench and eat. She lays her head on his shoulder and sighs happily.

"Happy?"

"Mhm, very."

They look at each other, staring into the other's eyes, she leans up and presses her lips against his. They sit there for an hour and return to exploring the ground, playing different games, and running around for hours. At last, with sunset they sit on a bench again and watch the sun fall.

She throws her legs over his lap and lays her head in his shoulder. He smiles and wraps his arms around her, his hand finding the skin on her waist.

They look up at the stars late into the night. At last, they walks back slowly to the house and up to their rooms.

He tugs on her shirt lightly, she falls into his shoulders and kisses him. But pulls back.

He frowns, "Something wrong?"

"You are going to be with Violet tomorrow, you guys are friends but still, it would feel weird if we did tonight."

Adam thinks for a moment and nods, "Okay."

"Tomorrow night okay?"

He smiles, "I love you Lydia."

She smiles and kisses him, but he doesn't let go. He kisses back and soon they're making out in the hallway.

Finally she giggles and pushes him off playfully. "Go to bed dummy."

"You didn't seem to mind it."

She shakes her head as she looks at him shyly. He chuckles and says good night, they walk into their own bathrooms and begin running the shower.

He smiles at the thought of her. She rolls her eyes at his love. "Relax Violet, tomorrow, you can have a free day." she mutters,

He gets out, dressed and climbs into bed, looking out the window at the stars as he drifts off. She lies in her bed wishing tomorrow was a two day thing.

But eventually she goes to sleep she wakes up two hours before mid afternoon the next day and gets dressed.

After getting ready she starts downstairs, rubbing her eyes.

"Late start Lydia?"

"Hmm? Yeah, where are the others? Roux, Violet and Adam?"

"Adam and Violet have left mam, as for Roux, he's taken most of his staff and will sell them today and buy others. It's nice for us to get new experiences."

"I imagine that's hard, leaving a place you recognized as home."

"It's not all that bad."

"Mm, well I got to find something to do for today, I might read a few books or go explore today's events."

"Very good mam, do enjoy yourself."

She thanks him and starts out the front door. She walks into town and secretly finds her way to the outskirts into the abandoned ghettos and into an alleyway.

"We're waiting pest."

"I was confirming you were here Fynn, besides you piece of crap, I have to wait on Sheila."

"I'm here, let's get this over with."

The white skinned figure drops beside them, she hides behind her white mask that's been decorated with green lines, her green eyes pop out of it. But the cursed mask showed the whites of her eyes as black which makes her more intimidating.

She takes it off after pulling a hood over her face, she shrinks the mask with magic and hangs it on a Keychain by the eye hole.

She shrinks her sword and puts it in her pocket and starts away into town. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna make it last as long as possible."

Isabella turns and walks into town, she enjoys the surroundings for a few minutes and looks up at last at the roof where she's supposed to be.

There she is, sitting and watching, mostly hidden, Isabella is actually pretty impressed, she hides inbetween the screens that are attached to two chimneys close together. You wouldn't recognize someone inside unless you gave it at least a good long glance.

Sheila crawls out and drops back to the other side of the roof to flee back to the ghettos. Isabella gets into character and widens her eyes.

"No way..." she mutters,

She breathes heavier and searches the ground. She hurries to follow her down an abandoned street watching her jump from rooftop to rooftop, it's actually almost impossible to follow her.

Isabella knows where she's going but every time she turns a corner, she's lucky if she catches a glimpse of her hair as she disappears out of view.

Isabella stops just as she gets to the ghettos and runs down an alleyway, she takes out the Black Reaper and let's the red energy flow over it.

A black portal appears moments later and several men and two women in black clothes walk out of it and stare at her.

"Lydia?....what's going on?" one asks,

She takes a breath shakily, "I found Sheila, she's here."

They all look at one another fearfully and back. "Are you positive?"

"I am. I know it's her, she was...spying, on someone, she started away before I could figure out who it was."

"You don't know where she is?"

"We-I think she's somewhere in the ghettos. I followed her. I decided to call you though...it wasn't my finest moment okay Winnley? At least we found her." Isabella says shakily,

"Hopefully she's still here. Did she see you?"

Isabella shakes her head, "No, she would've lost me as soon as I saw her."

"How did you tail her?" one asks,

"It wasn't easy, but look we're waiting time right now, we want to look or not?" she whispers in a frustrated voice,

They look at each other again and back. "Alright, lead the way, where do you think she went?"

I think towards the east part of the ghettos. Come on."

All thirteen move carefully but swiftly across the ground, ready for anything. They make it to a corner. Hillie holds up a hand as she looks around the corner.

Nothing. "It's too open." she says,

"We got to get through it'll take longer to go around." One says,

"You want to volunteer Remington to go out in the open?" Winnley asks,

"I-I'll do it, cover me." Isabella says shakily,

"Lydia."

"We got to get across, just....cover me okay?"

Winnley nods, "Be careful."

She nods and takes a deep steadying breath. She draws her sword and creeps out into the square. She follows along side the houses until she makes it to the other side.

She looks around and they wait, for something to happen, but nothing does. Finally six more start across, then the last six when the first have almost reached Lydia.

Suddenly a green holographic box appears, surrounded them and all in the perimeter of it. They stop and freeze, Sheila walks out from a building to the middle of the square, her hood dropped and replaced with her mask again.

"Did you really think it'd be so easy? You cowards have become weak, and dull."