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Once or twice a week Prudence stopped at this place, just to keep an eye on things. It was a construction site where she met Levi at weeks before, and then the other guy whose name was right on the tip of her tongue, but escaped the tall redheaded killer. She didn't stay long enough to draw attention to herself, just enough to notice any changes to the construction area and it seemed like there hadn't been very many. That was, of course, the external view. Going inside would need more than just her capabilities, so she just looked and listened. Twice a week, on varying days, at varying times of the night.

Tonight, however, there was signs of life. Or at least something going on that hadn't happened before. Maybe it was nothing, or maybe it was something. She wouldn't know without further investigation. Tonight, on what was probably the tenth or eleventh night of her scouting out the place for the typical five or six minutes before she went on with her night, a black, four door of some description came out of the place at a pretty slow pace. The windows were tinted as legal as they could be before it was borderline illegal. So who, and how many were in the four door sedan was anyone's guess.

The woman grabbed a 'For Rent,' paper and turned so she wasn't staring at the site as hard as she once was; as to not be so painfully obvious. Her side was to the construction zone as she paged through the paper she didn't really care about, before the paper was tossed to the nearest bin, a small knife pulled from under the back of her shirt and the woman proceeded to take down the plate of the car with her own blood, smearing it on her forearm. Then, without further ado, Prudence put the knife back in its hiding place, pulled the t-shirt out a little more as to keep it concealed and then grabbed her cellphone. If anyone could find out the information she needed, it would be her bestie Mordie.

"Heeeeeeeeya Mordie. I need a huuuuge favor. Dig up anything ya can on this plate...AKBF 209 as soon as ya can and then meet me at-" There was something jabbing her in the back suddenly and that feeling was all too familiar. The phone was grabbed from her, and promptly disconnected before two large, gruff hands shoved Prudence to the left, right where the mystery car was waiting for her. "Get in." Well, this sure was one way of getting the information she needed, Prudence thought to herself as an even bigger foot stomped down on her phone and pushed her inside the wide open back door. Once she was in, the car took off at a speed that was just barely legal and to a more seedier part of town in the Redwood area.

How Emerson found herself in Redwood that day was beyond her. She’d taken the day out to relax and explore the entirety of Harper Rock, but taking one street and turning one corner turned into taking five streets and turning five corners, until she was in Redwood, somewhere she’d never ventured before. It looked to be an alright area. Some of the buildings were alive, lights on inside, customers passing through the doors, and some of the buildings were absolutely dead, with broken windows and boarded doorways and shadows that made the brunette more uneasy than need be. She ducked inside the lively buildings, browsing products, smiling at employees if she happened to catch their eyes, and she pulled her arms tight around herself, eyes over her shoulders every second as she sped by the abandoned facilities.

The girl had left her friend’s apartment just before noon, stopped by a cafe for a little over an hour for a cup of not sweet enough tea, a muffin too small for its price, and some time to think, and started her journey around Redwood promptly after that. She walked for who knew how long, mentally thanking herself for wearing her converse rather than the cute new pair of heels she had bought just two weeks prior, and continued her hit and go cycle with the buildings. Before she knew it, three bad things had happened.

One - Her phone had died. And everyone knew Emerson was as good as dead without her phone.

Two - The sun had gone down. Had she really been out for so long? Time seemed to just fly by...

And three - Emerson was very lost. And very alone. And very afraid.

“I’m going to die,” Emerson whispered to the open air as one of her hands instinctively reached up to pull at one of the ribbons tied in her hair. “Someone’s going to rob me, and I’m going to die, and no one’s going to notice until two weeks later when my corpse is rotting in an alleyway.” That would be one heck of a headline. The girl’s green eyes squinted at the nearby buildings, looking for one she could hide in for a bit, find out how to get back to her friend’s, and possibly get something to eat. Emerson’s stomach growled. Yeah, she definitely needed something to eat.

The first building with the lights on and the sound of lulled chatter and clattering plates was the first one she went into. The brunette didn’t really care to catch the name of the place, but she figured it wouldn’t matter much. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but it seemed pretty late for anyone to be out for a meal, and the small to moderate amount of people that occupied the restaurant proved her point. But at least there were people. That was good. Emerson couldn’t get killed out in the public.

Right?

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Emerson forced herself to find a hostess and was soon brought to an empty booth for two. The girl sat down, legs crossed over one another “Indian style”, and glanced around the restaurant absentmindedly. She was the only one who was alone, and did the only logical thing she could think of - she ducked herself down into her menu.

The second she was in the car and it was off and rolling, the guy that was stationed to her right prior to her shove inside started patting her down, while the guy across from Prudence watched and waited. The knives were tossed out the window, never to be seen again, offering Prudence a glance at the passing street signs, giving her some idea where she was going to. The shadier parts of the city it seemed. Her hand gun was claimed next as well, with little struggle until the guy made the movement to dump the clip he removed from the gun out the window. "HEY!" She said, only to get a hard elbow to the side of her face for the protest before the clip landed on the ground. She was going to kill him first when she got what she needed.

The gun was offered to the guy opposite of Prudence, and put on the seat beside the guy who was just barely above his fifties. She had never seen him before, but then again, he smelled human. Prudence didn't tend to pay most of them any mind anymore. There was too much other **** going on in the city then the piddly affairs of most humans. "You don't have any id?" The man spoke up after he practically molested Prudence on the spot, searching damn near every nook and cranny on her body for some sort of document that gave a name. "Nupe, never know when I might run into some assholes like you."

It was then Mordie's mind mail entered the redhead's mind and caused the joke to end shorter than she wanted it to with her burst of laughter. Though the guy next to her probably assumed it was due to the face plant she got to her knees from him. Yep. He had to die first and very painfully too. "Enough." Finally, the other guy spoke and the hand that had been on the back of Prudence's neck was released, as her hand went to her forehead to rub at the bruise that was probably going to appear tomorrow. "I've seen you before." He accused Prudence, who just continued to stare at him. "You stick out like a sore thumb with that hair of yours." He continued, glancing at the gun he attained off Prudence. "Pretty girls like you should be careful with what you're carrying. Accidents happen. Guns go off, knives get put in feet and legs. Pretty girls shouldn't carry things like this." He said after giving a few clicks of his tongue.

"And old men shouldn't hold guns. Shaky hands and all. What's your point?" Prudence glanced out the windows, but saw very little to nothing of the places the car was passing by. The older man laughing brought her attention back to him and off the window as a finger waved in her face. "I assure you, never before has my hands prevented me from taking a life." He rescinded his finger then as the car stopped and the door opened to her left and to her right. Deadman walking got out first, grabbed an arm while Prudence was still inside and drug her through the backdoor of some alley that smelled like food, alcohol and piss. Was that blood too?

When the waitress came around to take Emerson’s order, the girl didn’t know what to do. After reading over the menu three times, she discovered that she, a vegetarian, had landed herself in the midst of a beef barn. Just her luck, really. The already small amount of customers was starting to dwindle down, and there wasn’t much Emerson could do to escape the situation. She’d have to face it head on. The girl’s fingertips found the ends of one of her twin braids, and she twisted them around her fingers while she ordered a pink lemonade and a side of fries, head ducked down into her chin and her voice barely above a whisper. After she had finished, and glanced up ever so slightly to see the waitress’ faced laced in annoyance, Emerson forced herself to try again and talk a bit louder. That’s when the rambling began.

“Sorry, I’m really awkward,” Emerson started, trying to form a smile. “Could I have a pink lemonade and just a side of fries? I’m a vegetarian, because I love animals, and I wasn’t even paying attention when I walked in here to see that this was definitely not a place that loves animals.” Oh, ****. “No, wait, that’s not what I meant. I’m sure you guys love animals - and if you don’t, that’s alright too, everyone has their own preferences and whatnot - but this is definitely not a place that’s very... Vegetarian-friendly. Yeah, that’s a better way to word it.” When Emerson’s eyes met the waitress’, the girl’s cheeks instantly flushed a deep shade of red. She handed over her menu wordlessly, an apology dying on her lips. The waitress didn’t say a word as she walked away, and Emerson wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

Her lemonade arrived shortly after, looking not as pink as Emerson had hoped, but her side of fries had somehow become the world’s hardest meal and were taking forever to cook. Emerson struggled to busy herself. At first, she had subconsciously reached for her phone, but that was dead, and she didn’t have a charger, and she definitely wasn’t going to ask around for one. After that, she organized and reorganized the ketchup, mustard, and steak sauce bottles, as well as the multicolored packets of sugar. Then she took said sugar packets and dumped five of them into her mouth.

While waiting, Emerson also managed to plow through her tall glass of lemonade. The lemonade, on top of the tea she had earlier and the lack of stops she made to any restrooms that day really did add up. Reluctantly so, Emerson rose from her seat and went in search of a bathroom. After her more-than-embarrassing encounter with the waitress, she could make due without any further human interaction. Despite not knowing the place, the girl walked around freely, poking her head through doors without a care in the world. She somehow managed to find herself in a back hall.

“It has to be around here somewhere…”

The back hall wasn't all that large. The first door she saw and bypassed was a storage room of some sort. Something industrial or janitorial. To her right a few feet from there was the kitchen that was bustling with life from various dishes clanging around and orders being shouted from someone inside the large, rubber doors that would rock back and forth should anyone push on them. How easy it could be to lift an foot and give it a kick, attaining some attention, but then again...how many of the people in there were innocent, and how many knew what happened in a place like this?

The sound of feet hitting the red and black tiled floors had her eyes drifting to a dark haired woman who was heading towards them. Now things were getting interesting...Was she a friend or foe? Another innocent perhaps. The man following Prudence and the guy dragging her down the hall, snapped a finger and said 'her too,' quietly. That answered Prudence's earlier question as she was hastily shoved to a wall and then maneuvered around so she was in front of the male so that he could shove her inside what used to be a cooler at some point.

It would have been quite easy for Prudence to dispatch of the thug beside her, followed by the guy behind her, even without weapons. But that wouldn't answer any question as to who, or what they were. She would bide her time to find these things out, if possible, before Mordie came barrelling in and put a damper into the oldie's plan. "Have a seat." He instructed and the red head shrugged her shoulders and took the seat that was in the middle of elongated meat locker, as her eyes moved to the muscle man who was making his way down the hall to the other woman. Seemed like a case of the wrong time, wrong place for her.

"What a gentleman. Does he have a name?" Prudence asked as she crossed her legs at her ankles, smirking due to the mind mail Mordie continually sent her. He didn't answer, instead he opted to remove his suit coat and put it on a small, weathered desk that had seen some better days. "Pascal." Was all he said, before looking at her. "It's customary where I come from, that when a name is extended, one is given back." He looked at her, clearly expecting a name in return. "Prudence." She said as she heard the male in the hallway asking, or more really, telling her she was coming with him. It was a tragedy, to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was really no skin off the red head's back either. She didn't know the woman from adam. "Want to know my star sign and hobbies too, now?" She asked, eyes on the guy who was pulling off his tie and undoing the buttons on his sleeves to roll them up.

"I bet you don't have a lot of friends. Using sarcasm as an attempt to distance yourself from others and the scenarios around you." The words glided off his tongue as he sat on the corner of the desk and looked at her. "I'd go so far to bet that given your disposition and the fact you distance yourself, you have no siblings. You are not in contact with your family. Which makes you the perfect candidate to disappear off the face of the earth and no one would be the wiser, Prudence." Pru held up a hand as she started to laugh. "Is that the best you've got? Really?! Oh wow, so I don't have a lot of friends. Big whoop. But you're dead wrong about one thing. The friends I've got, matter. You'll see."

Emerson’s luck proved to be wearing thin as a group of gruff looking men and a pretty redhead (who was definitely a hostage - ****) met her in the middle of the back hall.

Emerson’s luck proved to run out completely as one of the said gruff men was instructed to make a grab for her.

With her heart in her throat, the brunette knew time was precious, and her mind raced to come up with some sort of plan. The man definitely had height and strength to his advantage, but Emerson could almost always sweet talk her way out of a situation. If all else failed, it was nothing a knee to the groin and a stomp on the foot couldn’t fix. Oh, who was she kidding? Emerson wasn’t a particularly violent person and only resorted to getting physical if her life depended on it. Taking a quick glance at the size of the man’s arms, Emerson knew that if he held her a certain way, her life really would depend on it, and she had to act fast.

She could run. She wasn’t the fastest, but there was a crate a few feet away full of some sort of food she could spill, which could buy her some time to find the door the men and woman must have come through. Hopefully, it led outside, where she could run as far as her legs would carry her, lose the men, and find a new safe haven - a real one. Come with me. She could have laughed at the familiarity of his words, ones she had heard all too often, under very different circumstances. She could have laughed, but she didn’t. Instead, she quickly shook her head. “Nuh uh.” Her voice was small, and her hands were shaking. She clenched them into fists, hoping he wouldn’t notice how scared she was, how weak she was.

The distance between Emerson and the man was shrinking. As he made a grab for her, Emerson took a deep breath and brought her knee up between his legs as hard and as fast as she could muster. Using the same leg, she brought her foot down onto his and hoped her actions would buy her time as she slipped past him. She ducked down for split second, knocking over the crate of potatoes - for the fries she’d ordered that night, go figure - and didn’t look back, praying to whatever higher force that this man wasn’t fast enough to catch her.

There was a loud noise in the room outside the old cooler as a couple of unique shaped cut potatoes went sliding down the hallway. A glimpse of dark hair was seen, which Prudence knew was the girl from the hallway. It appeared she wasn't with them, but that didn't mean anything to Prudence specifically. Other than the attention on the redhead in the chair would lessen, as there was a new person of interest in the area. The woman that saw too much and was getting away. "By golly gee. Good help is hard to come by these nights, right, Pascal?" Prudence grinned at the older guy who was rising off the desk to go observe what was going on in the hallway. Clearly, not what he was expecting.

He moved around the corner of the desk, appearing to ignore her as he too saw the dark haired woman, without her 'chaperone,' for a lack of a better word. "Ohhhh, I think she's going to get away. And here you thought I was going to be the biggest problem of your night." Prudence scooted to the edge of the chair with a cackle as her eyes swiveled back to Pascal. "I'm on the edge of my seat, Pascal." Prudence scooted the chair back a little, making room for him to move past her, believing the woman was already well on her way outside.

She probably would have been, had there not been a loud boom of a clap in the hallway a second or two later. Her smile couldn't help but grow in size as Prudence thought about two scenarios. The first would be Mordie coming to her assistance, while the other was someone was not very happy with Pascal and wanted him to know it sooner than later. Either way, that meant his focus was off her and on the bigger problem at hand. While Prudence had no idea what exactly was going on, she wasn't going to let a **** talking opportunity pass her by. "Told ya I had friends that counted." Prudence smirked up at the man standing, so that he was in front of her, but his side to her. Mordie's thoughts came in her mind, and so she couldn't wait to put the icing on the cake. "Your night is totally going to suck balls, Pascal." "Not as much as yours." Suddenly a gun was withdrawn from inside of his suit coat and aimed right at her head, eyes bouncing between the door and her.