Night had finally fallen upon London city. The sky fading from a blue to a dark scarlet and finally, to black. Lilac stared through the glass window, her eyes focused on the tiny yet sparkling white stars. Something about them seem oodly peaceful to her.Lilac remembered the multiple times she was almost caught doodling on napkins in the back of the kitchen.

Her father told her that is wasn't ladylike to draw idiotic doodles of the burning balls of light in space.

Lilac forced herself to look away from the sky, her shoes clicked on the checkered black-and-white floor. She finally faced the door, flipping the sign from ''open,, to ''closed,, as a deep sigh escaping her lips.
"Finally...that was one on of the busiest days this week..." She mumbled.

"Sure was, Flower."

Lilac jumped, snapping her head to look over her shoulder to see her father, Jackson, locking the backroom door and putting the shiny bronze key in the pocket of his dark blue almost black trousers. "Dad! You scared me!" Her father chuckled, "Sorry. Well you earned your pay of the month, you really earned it."

Lilac blinked, a small smile on her face as she walked over to her father, clearly excited. A skip in her step as she squeezed past Table 5 and Table 4. The purple-ette rarely ever got paid. Her father always said he wanted to save up and by his own carriage and maybe even a large sign for the Café, to bring in more customers!

Lilac reached her father and placed her hand out for her pay. her short satin ivory colored gloves where still on her danity hands.
She was still in her work uniform and gloves had to be apart of the it. For sanity reasons, and also because it looked nice, especially with the white lace trim at the bottom of the gloves, and most importantly, because Lilac herself suggested it to be apart of her uniform. The white gloves popped, especially with all the dark blues on her dress.

Her father dug through his pocket before her pulled out a few shiny coins. "here you go." He smiled, "your pay." Lilac looked down, it wasn't much to look at, just barley a handful of shiny coins. She counted up the amount of money, "thank you so much dad?" She chirped, "I think I can finally afford that sketchbook I've had my eyes on for about a month-" "Lilac! Don't tell me you still have those stupid dreams of drawing! Drawing isn't ladylike! What have I told you?"

Lilac flinched at his tone. "W-well, you see.. I just want to have a place to store my doodles that I've made! Like the ones I made on the napkins!"

Jackson crossed his arms, "what. You mean these?" Lilac's face was pulled into a look. "What do you-" she paused as her father placed something in her hand.

She looked down, confused. There, in the palm of her satin, ivory colored glove, sat torn up napkin peices. Lilac could see the image of a neat-looking star and besides it was a supposed nice-looki t star but in reality, the other star was ripped in two. Lilac looked at the pile of her ripped up drawings.

"I told you. Drawing is not ladylike."

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Lilac walked carefully down the street, her black grain leather purse her tightly in her clutches. Jackson forced her to walk home by herself, in the dead of night.
He told her he had some important business to take care of. Frankly, she didn't give a shit what he was doing, especially after he threw the torn napkin in the palm of her hand. The thing was, it wasn't no ordinary doodle, it was a peice of illustration that she proud of. The entire drawing took her the entire workday to finish, and it was near and dear to her heart. And also on top of that, Jackson took the money back as well.

Lilac huffed, 'not that I needed those bloody coins anyways...' Looking over her shoulder, she met gazes with ger coachman, Arthur. Arthur was currently following- er well, bringing her home.

She would have a carriage ride back to her house but she told her coachman that she wanted to walk home that night. Let off some anger on the cobblestone streets with her heels. But with reports a Jack the Ripper popping up everywhere and also dead women found all over London with their "lady parts" ripped out, her coachman said he wouldn't allow it. So she compromised, she would walk home while he followed her. Of course he was still hesitant but with some persuasion, soon agreed.

"Lady Lilac. I'm a-all honesty, I really think you should get in the carriage."

Lilac dismissed her coachman. "Why? You see Jack the Ripper?" She heard Arthur let out a scared noise. "What?" She turned her head only to be met with...

"What a beautiful body you have~" a voice echoed down from a tall brick building, "I'd be a shame if someone ruined it..."

Fear washed over her. 'was this...Jack the Ripper?!'

With nothing but pure fear on her side, Lilac took a step closer to the alley way that was conveniently beside her. The person who had spoke previously was clearer to see. A tall red head with what seemed to be a long, red coat over his elbows. Lilac recognized the malice that flashed in the red heads gaze.

Arthur let out a crack of the rein, the blonde haired male disappeared down the street with a yell. "IM SORRY LADY LILAC!!"

Lilac glared after him, anger made her blood boil.

"ARTHUR WHAT THE FUCK?!?"

The red head who was still on the roof jumped down with ease. Now the manic was directly across the street from her. Anger faded away and now, she was terrified.

"Well.." he began, Lilac was a genuinely surprised at how.. feminine, the male sounded. "I was hoping for more of a race, y'know?" Lilac looked over at the tall man. "Yeah, so can I uh, get a few second head start before you decide to, I dunno... m-murder me?"
The red head gave a wide grin, "I would love to. I adore a game of Cat and Mouse~"

Without a second thought, Lilac sprinted down the street, running as fast as her long legs would take her. She still had the purse tightly in her grip. She might've just skipped an early death, or well, made a quick deal with death so she could get a head start, but, that the same thing.
Right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heyy! Its been a minute with this book but I am not done! I hope you guys enjoy this! I'm sorry that it's a bit shorter than some of my other chapters but I still enjoyed writing this!

Also, can we get a "F U Arthur" in the comments?

Spring and Smiley, out! 💜💙