The Great Escape

Chapter- 1

"Ada! My Goddess, it is a blessing we found you here!" Sarah shouted, waving her hand at the girl.

"The red light area is quite crowded, especially during the evening, it would have been a chore to spot you." She continued screaming and dashed away before Misa could physically force her to quiet down.

Sarah ran towards the clueless and bewildered Ada who was looking left and right in embarrassment. People stopped and gawked at both the girls, their faces contorting into masks of repulsion. Some laughed and giggled. A mother, who was passing by Ada and made eye contact with her, gasped and covered her child's ear. Flushed, Ada jerked her head left to right frantically.

"No, no, no— it's nothing like that—"

"Healthiest tomatoes would blush if they could see how red you are," Sarah said, laughing and holding Ada's forearm. "Exerted yourself much?" She wiggled her eyebrows and Ada looked down, pulling up the scarf tied around her neck to hide her burning face.

"Sarah, hush! What are you saying?" Misa clamped Sarah's mouth shut with her palms from behind. Ada's one good eyelid, the right one, blinked rapidly. Then she let out a big sigh and  adjusted the makeshift eye patch on her grey and non functioning eye.

Sarah remained unbothered.

"We two were discussing how you could be—"

"Sarah, stop." Misa snapped shut Sarah's muffled rambling.

"We must leave. Mrs Smith is livid."

Misa held their forearms, one girl in grip of each of her palm.

Just how I like it. She thought and giggled, earning questioning looks from the two.

Dragging both the girls behind her, Misa made way towards the carriage, shoving people out of the way like an elephant on rampage.

On their way back, Sarah ogled on the food stalls and grumbled to herself as they blurred past her.

Ada, on the other hand, bit her lips. She let Misa guide her to the carriage. Her gaze was stuck on the ground as her free hand clutched the side of her gown. Then, an unintelligible urge to scratch at her burnt cheek gnawed her guts. She let her nails scrap against the left side of her face, before she poked around the eye patch. Letting her head fall down to her side, she grabbed her gown again. But her hands itched to touch her eye patch and cheek again.

Moon was slowly ascending up in the dark sky with its band of fellow stars. The stars, they twinkled like gems, like snow crystals shining at a distance. Ada willed one of them to grant her mercy. To take in account her pitiful condition, grace her with their scintillating presence— then hit her on the head. Not hard enough to blast her head, but enough to injure her. A wide sea of possibilities awaited her to exploit after that. She could pretend to forget everything. She could—

No! Ada screamed mentally as her mind fabricated various scenarios, various aftermaths. Anything. Everything. But a plausible excuse.  Something new. To say, 'I forgot the way' was getting old and boring. And suspicious since she has been frequenting the market bimonthly for past one year.

"Where were you?" Mrs Smith shouted as soon as the girls came in sight.

"I forgot the way," Ada answered without dropping a beat.

"Classic excuse."

"Boring as well," Mr. Thompson, the butler who was sitting in the carriage the whole time, piped in.

That is what I thought, but too late now.

"I still demand an honest answer when we get back to the mansion." Mrs Smith narrowed her eyes at Ada, making her scratch her left, scorched cheek nervously and cower behind Sarah's big frame.

"Quick, hop in the carriage, we are late. Running errands should not consume this much time— Ada where is your basket?"

"Oh, ma'am." Ada hastily produced an empty basket hiding beneath the faded blue shawl she had wrapped around herself. She held it in her right hand and extended it towards the Head Maid.

"None of the items Young Master demanded were available here. One of the shopkeepers told that only in the noon market of Val is it possible to find these."

"That's a week later. Young Master is going to throw a fit." Mrs Smith sighed. "Come on, in." She waved her hand at the girls, gesturing at the carriage.

Misa and Ada were quick to get in as the butler helped them up. He offered his palm to the Head Maid. She extended her hand to take a hold of it-

"After you," Sarah said but did not wait a second for picking up Mrs Smith from behind by her underarms. Ignoring the old woman's shrieks, she calmly placed her inside gently. Mr Thompson was surprised and fell back into the seat of the carriage as Misa and Ada held him.

Adjusting his monocle, he glared at the ever enlightened Sarah who smiled brightly at him. He scoffed, then hopped down the carriage and sat in the front to get hold of the reins.

Ada and Misa glanced at each other and shook their heads.

"What are you doing?" Mrs Smith gasped and sat down opposite to Ada, "A warning would be nice!"

"It's too high for your bad knees." She was about to shrug her shoulders then stopped remembering the threat thrown before. She climbed in and sat beside Mrs Smith, across Misa.

"My knees work just fine," Mrs Smith said, huffing and turned her head to look outside. Her cheeks were tinted red, Ada noticed, as the diffused light of the torches binded to the poles along the road illuminated her grey hair through the white curtains.

"They crack like a thunderbolt every time you climb stairs, missus." Mr Thompson slid open the small flap and peered in from outside. "Shall we move?"

"Yes," Mrs Smith huffed again and Mr Thompson nodded before cracking the whip and jolting the horses into action.

A/N: Okay, so whoever has read the previous version, Ada may or may not have friends in this one. Do tell me if you guys liked them, I swear I won't kill them off lol.

Vote and comment if you liked the chapter! Thanks for reading xD