Chapter 16

With a huge inhale, followed by a slow exhale, Lucy meticulously observed the candy store from where she was crouched. She was across the street in a small little alley, trying as best she could to stay hidden, while also being able to see inside the store. She hadn't anticipated Elfman being there tonight. She knew he was going to be there at some point to escort his littlest sister home, but that wasn't supposed to be for another hour. There weren't any customers in the store right then, and there hadn't been for at least thirty minutes. If she was going to do this, she had to act now.

She took a moment to check everything over one last time. Her fake gun was in place, tucked into her pants, and... that was it. No wonder she didn't have a check list. Pulling the black ski mask securely over her face, she gathered all the strength she could muster and began walking towards the candy store.

Her heart thundered in her ears as she neared the doors, the fate of her whole life weighing on her shoulders. Within the next hour, the rest of her entire life would be determined, and it was up to her to make what she was about to do as believable as possible. As much as she didn't want to do this and as guilty as she would feel the whole time, she had to do this. She would send them flowers and gifts for the rest of her life because these people didn't deserve what she was about to do to them. Well, she might get just a little bit of satisfaction from seeing Lisanna's scared face... just a little though.

She swung the door open, only flinching a little as the cute little bell chimed, and quickly ducked behind a big isle of lollipops.

"Hello! Welcome to Strauss' Swee..." She could hear the voice of young Lisanna trail off. "That's weird, I could have sworn I heard the bell chime." Lisanna sighed, "I've been working here too long."

She could hear the booming laughter of Elfman as he walked in from the back room. "You're not going crazy, Lis. I heard it too. They must have just gotten scared and ran away."

As Lucy slowly made her way towards the unnoticing siblings, she heard Lisanna snort, "Like this place is that scary."

"To a man it is." Elfman mumbled dejectedly.

Lisanna giggled at her older brother's sullen and embarrassed face, but it completely died in her throat when the barrel of a gun entered her vision. her back went ramrod straight as she looked dead at the barrel, before her eyes shifted to the one holding it. The fact that the wielder of the weapon was completely covered head to toe was unnerving. Her older brother turned completely stiff as well.

"Don't move, don't scream, and especially don't call the police." Lucy demanded in the best possible masculine voice that she was capable of producing, although it sounded like a very confused gender.

Lucy almost shit her pants when Elfman pinned her with a very malicious glare.

"What do you want from us? Our money?" Elfman growled, slowly lowering his hands down to where they went unseen by the perpetrator.

"U-um" She cleared her throat after the wave of intimidation passed through her whole body. "Yes, I want all your money! Give it to me!" She yelled, moving the gun forcefully towards the younger sibling.

Lisanna flinched at the yelled words and some tears started to burn in the backs of her eyes. Her hands were shaking with nerves and adrenaline as she opened the cash register to put the money in the bag.

Lucy couldn't help the small upturn of her lips at the unraveled sight of whom she just deemed her rival. Something shined in her peripheral and she looked over at the man she had stopped paying attention to, only to have her heart completely stop in fear. While she had been pointing the gun at Lisanna, Elfman had apparently decided to bring his own gun to the party.

"Get out of my sister's store!" Elfman yelled while he held the gun up to Lucy's head.

Lucy's mind blanked out for about 5.5 seconds, completely at a loss of what to do. After those 5.5 second that she wished she had been thinking during, she just squeaked and ran to the other side of the store. As she ran, her heart leapt to her throat when she heard the loud popping of a gun going off. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as she slid behind an isle of stuffed animals, and she tried to clear her mind as she took deep breaths. She didn't have a real gun, so fighting back wasn't really an option. Shit, why the hell hadn't they called the police yet?!

"...yes she's still in the store. We think she was hit by my brother's bullet and is hiding now...okay thank you."

Lucy heard Lisanna hang up the phone, presumably to the police, and could only think about the fact that she told them she was a she. Clearly she needed to work on her masculine voice skills. Also, she said that she had been hit by a bullet, but she didn't feel anythi... Oh! Oh no! She looked down at her arm where she was starting to feel an insane amount of pain from, accompanied by a horrible burning sensation. She had been shot, the blood beginning to trickle down her arm confirming it...she had really been shot. Oh god this was definitely not in the plan, but at least they had called the police, so now she just had to wait it out until the police arrived or until she bled out... either one. Oh wow! It hurts! Its hurts so bad!

Lucy couldn't help the scream that escaped her lips as the pain just continued to build and build in her upper right arm. She shut her eyes tight and clenched her teeth, contemplating on killing herself right there, hell she did have a gun... wait, the gun was fake... Damnit.

"I knew you were a girl."

"You're not manly."

Lucy reluctantly cracked an eye open to see a now more confident Lisanna peering down at her, while Elfman stood behind the little Strauss as he continued to point the gun at her. She huffed out a rough breath, "Well, that's a relief."

Both Lisanna and Elfman's eyes widened at her voice. Lisanna exchanged a curious glance with her brother before she bent down and took the bleeding girl's mask off, the only sign of protest being a pained groan of 'oh god'.

The haunted gasps confirmed that they for sure remembered her. The only question simmering in Lucy's mind now was whether or not they would kill her now for betrayal. She opened her eyes and groaned as Lisanna's face neared hers. The girl's deviously smirking face had a bunch of moving black dots on it... she should really get that checked out.

"You know..." Lisanna mused as she studied the increasingly pale blonde. "You really shouldn't have threatened me twice."

"I'm calling an ambulance."

Lisanna hastily stood up and whirled on her older brother. "Why?! She was gonna kill us! She deserves this fate! It's karma!"

Elfman looked at his little sister as if she had grown an alien type being out of the side of her neck. "I'm not a murderer, Lis. That's not manly."

Lisanna huffed and crossed her arms, but before either of them could say anything else, sirens sounded, indicating the police had arrived.

"Thank god..." Lucy breathed out, watching as Lisanna's shocked face, no doubt caused by her words, faded into darkness.

Well, it's been a few minutes, but I really love this story, and already have the ending planned out, but it wasnt exactly the way I first planned it. That's okay though cuz it has been a long time.

I love you guys! Muah! My dog licks you!