Lost & Found

The bell above the glass door jingled, announcing the arrival of another customer in the bustling shop. The familiar sound of buzzing came from the sectioned off rooms behind the counter and giddy chatter filled the lounge area from various customers gushing over their soon-to-be permanent artwork and piercings.

 

Striding out of the first room on the right side of the shop, a tall fiery redhead in an off the shoulder crop top and red leather pants flashed an apologetic smile to the newcomer as she slipped off her ink stained gloves. “How can I help ya?” she drawled out in a heavy southern American accent.

 

“I was told I could get my belly button pierced here for a decent price, is there a long wait?” the customer, a bleach blonde with yellow and orange streaks in her curly hair asked. Lifting up the clipboard on the counter and scanning over it with eyes the color of rich moss surrounded in thick kohl liner, the newcomer announced “I'm with a customer right now, but I'm sure I can get Anna to get you situated. Just a sec” the redhead held up her finger before strutting back down the hall and knocking on the third door on the right.

 

The door swung open almost instantly and a head of electric blue hair blinded her, looking past the neon pin-up style ponytail and bangs she saw the ever so cheerful smile of their youngest Employee. Sticking her thumb out over her shoulder and holding the clipboard up, the taller female explained.. “I got you a customer, blonde and orange. Wants a belly ring” she nodded and skipped past the redhead to go introduce herself with the woman.

 

The door directly across Anna's opened and out came a tall, pale girl with dark green hair, her nose, upper and lower lip pierced with black diamond studs holding a burrito in her left hand and a packet of hot sauce in her right. “What's up?” her Australian accent coming out lazily as she squirted some of the sauce on the Mexican delight.

 

Slipping past her into the break room, the redhead went to the fridge and pulled out a can of Sprite. “Not much, givin' my customer a break after she nearly fainted” she rolled her eyes. “Is she the one getting the hip tatt?” the Aussie asked with her mouth stuffed with beans and green chillies from the burrito.

 

Nodding, the redhead opened the can and chugged down half of it before she was interrupted by Anna popping up. “Hey, Paige. Can you man the counter while you're on lunch?” raising her brow, the southern belle interjected “Where's Izzy?” The shop had a total of five employee's including the owners Rion and Charlie – The redheaded southerner.

 

Anna was their youngest and most recent addition, while Paige had been with them barely even a month after opening, and finally Izzy, possibly the sweetest thing ever at hardly even 5'2 and 100 pounds wet, the girl was a darling blonde who typically manned the counter on Tuesday's but hadn't been seen the whole day.

 

“I don't know, I called her but it went straight to voice mail. She never just splits without letting one of us know” Anna worriedly explained. Clucking her tongue in thought, Charlie speculated aloud “She could've just overslept again, she did have a busy night last night”

 

Scrunching her nose up like she usually did when she was bothered by something, Anna hesitantly nodded and started to go back to her customer when she was stopped by Charlie patting her on the shoulder. “I'll stop by after I'm done, check up on 'er and make sure she's alright” The younger girl flashed her a grateful smile and bobbed her head up and down like a toddler with ADHD.

 

Chuckling at the girls behavior, the co-owner shooed her away to take care of her customer and returned to the break room to finish off her sprite. Now nearly halfway through her lunch, Paige dabbed at her mouth with a napkin before asking “D'you want me to go with you?”

 

Shaking her head and causing her wavy red locks to whip around , Charlie replied “Nah, I don't wanna leave Rion and Anna to get swarmed. I'll just go after I'm done with Ella and be back in thirty” Agreeing with a simple nod and going back to eating her lunch, the Jade haired girl flipped through the Inked magazine on the table and dismissed Charlie to go back to her work.

 

~~

 

Switching off the Tattoo gun and placing it gently on the sanitized table beside her, Charlie grabbed a few paper towels and the cleaning solution to wipe down the intricate butterfly work she'd just done on one of her usual customers. “You can look now” she informed and the girl ever so carefully got off the lounge chair to walk over to the mirror.

 

Gasping in surprise, she clasped her hands over her mouth and examined the beautifully done ink-work now covering the left side of her torso from her ribs down to her knee. “Oh my god, it's even better than I'd hoped!” she squealed in glee.

 

“I don't know if I should be proud or insulted” the artist joked as she set about throwing the used paper towels in the garbage along with the ink containers and her gloves. “I love it! Thank you so much!” she blurted out and Charlie laughed. “Alright, come over here so I can patch it up and get you set on your way”

 

Ten minutes later the co-owner waved goodbye to the ecstatic customer and slipped on her coat just as the other co-owner stepped out of her room with her customer. “Where're you goin'?” asked the husky voiced platinum blonde. “Checkin' on Izzy, she didn't call in or show today”

 

Patting the fresh pack of cigarettes in her palm, Rion replied “That's odd, did you call her?” shaking her head, Charlie pulled her hair free from her collar. “Anna did, straight to voice mail six times”

 

Humming in thought, Rion stared off into space for a moment before giving a slight nod. “Alright, lemme know when you find her” With a mock salute and a adios tossed over her shoulder, the redhead was on her way out the door and heading straight towards her blacked out crotch rocket.

 

~~

 

Only a few blocks in the opposite direction from the university, nestled between an apartment building on the left and a liquor store on the right stood the small white townhouse Izzy called home. It wasn't exactly a five star resort what with the paint chipped and the shutters falling apart with each use. Not to mention the boarded up window where Rion had thrown a shoe out the window by accident during their drunken karaoke night.

 

Sure, it had it's fair share of bumps and bruises, but it was still the same place everyone had chipped in to help Izzy buy only a few years ago after she'd joined the Brass Knuckle family. Pulling up into the driveway barely even big enough to fit her bike let alone a car, Charlie turned her bike off and after making sure the kickstand was out, she dismounted her baby and slid her sunglasses back on her head to keep her hair out of the way.

 

Heels clicking on the stone walkway to the door, she tried to listen for any signs of life inside the home that'd signal Izzy was in fact alive and had just decided to laze around home for the day; but she heard absolutely nothing.

 

Taking the steps two at a time, she walked across the short distance of the steps to the front door and knocked with her knuckles. “Izzy, it's me! Open up!” she shouted and waited for a moment in hopes of inciting a reaction only to be welcomed with silence yet again.

 

Reaching out to grab the doorknob to find out it was unlocked, she scrunched her brows together in confusion before shaking off the weird feeling and shouting once more that she was coming in. Pushing the door open, she was immediately welcomed with the sight of furniture turned over, lamps busted on the ground and picture frames strewn about the floor in shambles.

 

Her body going rigid and her eyes darting around to take in the sight before her, she practically bolted towards the kitchen for any sign of her friend only to see it just as trashed as the living room. Her heart beating in her ears, she pulled out her cell phone and started dialing the police.

 

A creak in the floorboards upstairs caught her attention and she forgot about her phone, running to the stairs until she remembered that she hadn't seen Izzy nor had she replied so the noise could be the attacker upstairs waiting for her.

 

Bending down slowly and silently she slipped off her boots and pulled her switchblade from her boot sheath before padding up the stairs with her back to the wall and her bare feet on the carpeted steps. Reaching the top without any difficulty, she heard another creak coming from Izzy's bedroom on the right and made her way over to the door.

 

A muffled voice sounded from the room and she burst through the door hoping to find Izzy just having a bad day but instead a dark haired man in black jeans and a muscle tee whipped around and instantly they were locked in a fight.

 

Dropping low to the ground just as he threw a punch, she swiped his legs out from under him and straddled his torso with her knife at his throat. “Who the fuck are you and where is she?” glaring at her, he landed a blow to her ribs just under the arm holding the knife and she nearly lost her grip.

 

But the hesitation she showed was enough for him to grab her hand holding the knife and flip them over so he was pushing the knife towards her stomach. Using all her strength and focus on trying to prevent the injury, she couldn't think of a way out of the position and was about to just accept the wound when a sudden growl came from the doorway.

 

His attention taken off of her and to the intruder, she was able to free herself from his grip and plunged her knife to the hilt in his side. Roaring in a mixture of pain and rage, he scooted off her and stumbled into a standing position so he could pull the knife out of his body.

 

Now able to see the intruder, Charlie realized it was a large black and grey dog with pale blue eyes snarling at the wounded man with its ears back and head low like it was about to charge. Scrambling up, she launched into action again and kicked him on his wounded side before he could defend himself and in anger he swung the knife out just in time to slash her retreating calf.

 

Hissing in pain, she stumbled to her knees and clutched her bleeding leg. Knowing she's fucked if she can't stand, she was prepared to fight with everything she had left until the dog ran at the man and bit into his thigh.

 

Screaming in pain, the man swatted at the dog until it let go of his leg and tried to go after Charlie but the dog stood between her and the man growling with blood smeared on his muzzle. Clutching his side and resting most of his weight on his good leg, the man threw the knife at her and she ducked just in time to avoid getting her eye taken out.

 

By the time she looked up again the man was gone and the dog had turned around to face her. Figuring he was harmless to her after he saved her, she held her hand out for him to nuzzle and she scratched behind his ears. “You're a good boy, ain't ya?” he let out a short bark and she laughed.

 

Grabbing a shirt from the ground, she ripped it into a makeshift bandage for her leg so she could stop the bleeding and pulled out her phone to finally make the dreaded call to the police while the dog sat beside her and licked her face.