Knock, knock. A girl with long blonde hair tied up in two pigtails and hanging loosely down her back almost to her thighs stood knocking on the backdoor of a small convenience store. The door was located in a small alley. Her nose cringed at the foul odor emanating from the trash bins beside her. She hated using the backdoor , but for some reason her grandfather insisted upon it. Knock, knock. She knocked louder. The darkness of the alley unnerved her every time she had to wait for the door to open. The brick walls of the alley oozed with mold and stunk of garbage, and the occasional cat whose eyes were only visible seemed to watch her movements warily. Everything the alley possessed gave off an eerie and sinister feel.

Finally the door opened and an old man with a benevolent smile and kindly eyes, although upon closer examination a hint of mischief were to be seen, greeted her.

“Welcome, Lilith,” said the old man, his voice scratchy yet pleasant to the ear.

“Grandpa, why do I have to come to the back door?” she inquired, a question she was prone to asking every time she came to the convenience store.

“Because,” he responded.

She noticed his gaze start to drift up and down her body, examining her. He started at her feet and ended with her hair.

“My word Lilith, why on earth do you wear such, how do I say it, such distasteful clothing?”

“What do you mean?” she looked at herself, unsure of what he meant.

Lilith wore dark purple skinny jeans held on her waist with a black belt that had white stars all around it. Her shoes were flats made of a shiny black material with a buckle near her toes and on the strap on the back of her heel. Her tee was pastel pink that faded into a lavender with black musical notes, orange butterflies flowers, and splotches, purple stars and white stars, hot pink stripes, and to finish it off, a large purple heart at the left base of her shirt with a white ribbon trailing in front and wings on either side. She also wore a half sleeve jacket that portrayed many odd designs of rain clouds and lightning strikes and swirls and rain, and not to mention the famous little cartoon character Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh with his droopy eyes and frown. Her lightly tanned skin only added more to her already colorful outfit. Her colorful, yet light make up only accented her clothing and her bright odd colored yellow tinted eyes.

“A young lady should not be wearing such odd clothes. You should be wearing long skirts and respectable blouses or long dresses that are modest for your age.”

“Grandpa! It’s not the 50’s anymore! Come back to the millennium!” She laughed while snapping her fingers in front of him. She looked him up and down, “You can say much. Shouldn’t a real man wear a suit?”

He wore a dark blue apron over his white button down shirt and brown slacks. A rag hung out of his back pocket, and his glasses, square-shaped and rather large, took up most of his round tanned face.

He laughed a hearty laugh as he turned around and led her to the front of the store. She donned a dark blue apron similar to her grandfather’s and began stocking shelves with a variety of food items. Meanwhile, her grandfather was attempting to organize his profits in the cash register. He had just bought the register last week and was still figuring out how to use it. He readjusted his glasses, ran his fingers through the thin hairs on his head, tugged at the collar of his white button down, tapped his fingers on the counter, all signs of his frustration. She giggled at the sight of her confused grandfather but did not off help. She most likely would be of no more help and might even end up breaking the thing.

It was a slow day. Not many people came to convenience stores where they were located. The store was in the run-down part of town. It wasn’t too bad. Dame Croon was a small town, not like the big classy and skyscraper filled cities of the north. The convenience store, named Grandpa Millow’s Convenience Store, was in the rather run down part of town. The citizens weren’t particularly bad people. They just kept to themselves. Every so often someone would come into the store, but hardly ever more than that.

Tingtingting. The bell at the front of the store jingled as the door opened. She turned to see her best friend walk into the store.

“Hey girl! What’s crackin’, Milly?” Lilith said.

“Nothing. Just looking for some munchies. Zack is coming over later. Movies.”

“That’s cool,” Lilith responded while throwing three or four bags of chips at Milly.

Milly slapped a ten dollar bill on the counter and waited for Grandpa to give her change.

“Hello, Milly. Looking beautiful and normal compared to my granddaughter like usual,” he smiled as he slapped the register opened and without entering any numbers in gave her exact change.

She laughed at his comment, “Don’t be too hard on her. She’s just an odd one. There’s always one amongst us.”

“Shut up!” Lilith laughed while she threw more chips at her friend.

Milly wore a light blue skirt that came to her knees. Her blouse was white with little blue flowers decorating it. She wore sandals that wrapped up her slim ankles. Her hair was slightly pulled back with a blue barrette.

“Oh well. I probably look awful, but I don’t care. Although, Milly, no matter what, you are super cute,” Lilith giggled.

“You don’t look that bad,” Milly replied.

Lilith jokingly glared at her, “That bad?”

The two girls laughed, but the fun was short lived. The front door of the convenience store was kicked open and so was the back. Two men rushed into the back door and one entered in the front. One man ran behind a counter and forced Grandpa face down onto the counter. He held a small gun to the back of his head. The other man from the back aimed his gun towards Lilith and Milly. The two girls held each other, or rather Lilith held Milly. Milly was so in fear she shook incredibly and tears were already streaming down her face. Lilith held her head to her chest cradling the poor fearful girl. Lilith, although scared out of her wits, glared daggers at the man who aimed his gun at them. Her yellow eyes glowed fierce and fearless at the man that she could see his hands begin to shake. She held her ground, knowing full well that any movement might cause a bullet to make itself home in her cranium or even worse in either her grandfather’s or her best friend’s. She prepared herself to shield Milly no matter what happened, and was determined to stand in the way of any harm to come to Milly. She was much to far from her grandfather. She would be of no help to him.

“Don’t move!” both men yelled at them.

Milly squeaked in response. She sobbed louder in Lilith’s arms. Lilith began whispering some comforting words to the shaking girl. She quieted and resumed to shaking like before.

“My, my Grandpa Millow. What two beautiful young women you have in your store today.” A man of perhaps twenty or so stood in the center of the store. He looked up the two girls up and down with a hungry gaze that sickened Lilith.

He stood no taller than six feet, was slender, and wore a black suit. His face possessed sharp features and his eyes were dark green. He had pitch black raven hair that was slicked back and pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and a cigarette between his lips.

“Damon, what do you want?” hissed Grandpa.

“You know what I want. And until I get it, I will take everything that you love and care about,” he turned his gaze to the girls. “Tie the girls up.”

Milly’s eyes grew wide, tears flowing more freely. Lilith pushed Milly behind her and held her fists up. The large man in front of her laughed as she attempted to defend herself. He extended his hand to grab her wrist, but before he could she threw an uppercut with her fist. It connected well with his chin causing him to stumble a few steps behind. He pulled his fist back to prepare a blow towards her face, but she pushed Milly into an aisle and ducked away from the hit. She grabbed a nearby broom and slammed across the grown man’s face. The grown man stumbled back again and rubbed the place where she hit.

“Now, now. You better do what we say or something bad just might happen,” spoke Damon.

Lilith looked at Milly to see the other man’s arm around her neck holding her tight and digging the gun into her temple harshly. She whimpered and cried as she weakly attempted to pull the man’s arm away from her.

“Let her go!” Lilith took a few quick steps forward before she noticed the man’s hand take full grip of the trigger.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Damon’s voice rang out behind her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned down close to her ear. “Just cooperate and everything will be over before you know it.”

Lilith looked at Milly, seeing her friend’s tearful face. She glanced at her grandfather who was looking intently at the situation. Seeing how she was outnumbered with two men that were more than enough to over power her, she relented.

“Fine. Just don’t hurt her. Pull the gun away from her head and I’ll go quietly.”

“Good girl,” Damon said as he grabbed her wrists.

The other man pulled the gun away from her friend’s head and began tying her wrists together.

Damon tied her wrists together with a small rope wrapping it around her wrists several times before knotting it.

“Boss, should we tie their legs, too?”

“Yes. We don’t need any headstrong girls running away and getting themselves hurt,” Damon said with a smile.

Damon took another rope and wrapped it around her ankles, allowing the bigger man to hold her upright. Once he finished, he took a cloth and held it in front of her eyes.

“What are you doing?!” Lilith screamed.

“Cooperate and your friend there will be fine,” he said as he tied the cloth around her eyes.

Milly was tied identically and blindfolded as well.

“Don’t hurt them!” Grandpa yelled hysteric.

Lilith heard one of the older men walk over to him and grab her grandfather and throw him on the ground. She heard the click of metal move and her grandfather gasp.

“What are you doing?” she heard her grandfather scream.

“We don’t need you anymore, old man,” she heard Damon say.

A small click, her grandfather’s sobs, then a gunshot.

“Grandpa!” the sound itself had caused her to fall on the ground. “Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!”

She heard Damon chuckle at her screams.

Lilith struggled to crawl to where she thought he was. Her hands felt an odd liquid substance. Tears began to soak the blindfold as she found the body of her grandfather. She laid her head on his chest shaking with sobs. She pulled her head up, her mouth pulled back into a grimace. She stared upward in the direction she hoped was her captor’s.

“You monsters!” She screamed at them.

“Now, now. We don’t need a lady as you to talk like that,” He chuckled. “Gag her.”

She felt a ball of cloth being shoved into her mouth no matter how much she struggled against it. A couple strips of tape were placed over her lips and a piece of cloth over her mouth and wrapped around her head.

Her muffled screams of curses were inaudible no matter how hard she tried. She stopped when she heard the soft, scared whispers of her friend.

“P-p-please don’t hurt her. It was h-h-her grandfather a-a-after all.”

Damon knelt next to Milly and cupped his hand underneath her chin, “You’re such a sweet girl. Beautiful and sweet.” He ran his gaze all along her body lingering at her skirt which had been ridden up. “Just one strip of tape for those pretty lips,” he ripped one strip off the roll and placed it on her lips.

The two large men picked up the two girls and carried them out the back door and into a car that was parked nearby laying them into the backseat. More men who stood outside began dumping gasoline and lighter fluid all around the shop. Damon flicked the remains of his cigarette towards the shop as he got into the car, inflaming the building. The car drove away, and the two girls laid in silence.