Heart Strings

Four Sisters

She sprinted out into the streets as fast as possible, blood and sweat dripping from her face. "Th-there was something wrong about that, Beso!" She cried as she weaved through the crowds in the dim, wet weather. She had a hard time staying on her feet as her vision cake and went. "I think—I think I've got a concussion..." she tried to yell. She knew she was going to have to stop regardless of Pinwheel possibly being on her tail. People on the street tried to stop her and offer their assistance but they were only pushed out of the way as Lovely Grace made sure to stop at nothing to get as far away from that bar as possible.

She found an alley that seemed far enough away for her to safely collapse in and gladly fell to her knees there. "Ugh, my head!" She cried out, taking off her backpack and resting it on the cobblestone in front of her. She unzipped her bag and took from it a water bottle and a cloth rag, frantically pouring the water over the rag to wash the blood from her face. "If not a concussion, I've definitely got a knot the size of Mars..." she grumbled as she wiped her forehead. She looked at Beso as he sat beside her whimpering and nervously wagging his tail. He looked as if he, too, knew something seemed off during the entirety of the encounter back at the bar. Lovely Grace poured some water near Beso's mouth and smiled as he drank it. She said sweetly, "I don't know what I would've done without you back there, buddy."

"I saw her run this way, blood all on her head, Miss," a voice echoed from outside of the alley.

"And you're sure she looked exactly like me? Not similar. Exactly."'

"Melody Grace," Lovely Grace whispered at the familiar voice of her sister coming from around the corner. "How did she...?"

"She took out a bunch of my men." Pinwheel was with her. Lovely Grace couldn't waste any time running to the other side of the alley and hopefully attempting an escape if it wasn't a dead end.

She gathered her things and began sprinting to the other end, her heart rate increasing as she tried not to panic—though what she ran into at the other end of the alley gave her every reason to.

She was stopped in her tracks. "Moria..." she whispered, stopped before one of her oldest sisters.

Moria raised one wild eyebrow as she glared down at Lovely Grace. "This is how Goldie's got you acting?!" Moria barked, spit flying from her teeth. Moria stood tall and clean in her all white uniform with minty blue trim. She was decorated with medals and pins that leaned all kinds of different things in the eyes of the United Emblems, but to everyone else, they just meant that she took her job too seriously. Moria's long straightened flew ever so gently in the wind as she stood with her arms crossed, her white gloved hands itching to strike her sister for her behavior.

"This isn't like you, Lovely," Melody Grace came from the other end of the alley, Pinwheel following behind. "Come with us. Now."

"I—I can't do that!"

"Why not? Too busy playing criminal with Goldie?" Melody Grace hissed.

"Where the hell have you been, first of all, Melody?!"

"Doesn't matter," Moria said as she reached into her jacket and pulled out a shining silver gun, Emblem Issued. "Come with us back to the Emblems or I'll shoot your fucking dog."

"Are you crazy?!" Lovely Grace yelped, immediately rushing to guard her dog.

"Come on, Lovely." Melody demanded sternly. "We found you here raising hell. You wanna help Goldie? This isn't how."

"You can help her by bringing her to the Emblems." Moria added, her gun still pointed at Beso.

"So what's it gonna be?" Pinwheel questioned as Lovely Grace stood in a cold sweat.