Alter Ego

Part 6

     Harper stared out the window and watched as kids played at the park across the street. She chuckled as a little girl tripped and fell. The little girl remind her of her niece. She hadn't seen her in years, not since she had that falling out with her sister.
     Scanning the park, her eyes stopped on a young couple laying out a blanket onto the grass. They sat down and began to cuddle. she stared in disgust. How could they be so happy? It wasn't fair.
     She looked up and eyed the cloudy sky. Sighing, she leaned her forehead against the glass. Where did GG go? Was she still in the room with her? She could've been standing right next to her for all she knew.
     GG had turned invisible before they entered the police station. The girls figured it would be best for it to seem like she came alone. She would distract Rodriguez, or whoever, while GG peeked around.
"Cassie. I wasn't expecting you to visit me at work." A man's voice called out.
Harper quickly turned around, unaware of the large red mark now on her forehead. "I just couldn't wait to see you."
"How did you find out what station I worked at?" He smiled, walking up to her.
"Deductive reasoning. And research."
He continued to close the gap between them, standing only inches away from her. "I was thinking about you all night."
I'm going to look around. Keep him occupied.
Harper noticed the ring on his left hand as he went to touch her face. This guy was married!? Seriously!?
"I see you're married."
He froze, "Uhh..."

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     GG hurried to the back and into a room marked 'Rodriguez'. The office was cluttered with boxes and files. She scanned over the items, looking for any clues. There was nothing. She looked in the drawers of the desk. Nothing.          Confused and upset, she sat down in the desk chair and rolled back and forth. How could he not have any information? Maybe he wouldn't bring that stuff to work. Could it be at his house?
     Suddenly, something sparkly caught her eye. Underneath the desk in the back corner was a small safe. The safe needed a key to open. She rummaged through the drawers again and felt something hit the top of her hand. Touching the top of the drawer, she pulled off a key that was taped on. She unlocked the safe and looked inside.
     GG grabbed the stack of files and laid them out on the desk. She opened the first one and looked at the man in the picture. This was a missing persons case.
"Stop!" Harpers voice yelled out.
GG grabbed the files and hurried back to the front.
     Rodriguez had her pinned against the wall. Harper's eyes filled with fear.
"Shh. It's okay." He nuzzled against her neck.
GG frantically looked around for something, anything to save her. She spotted a fire alarm and pulled down the lever. A siren blared out as Rodriguez let her go.
"What's going on?" he turned to Harper, "Hurry outside. I'm going to check it out."
     Gladly, Harper hurried out. She ran down the street as fast as her legs could carry her. Her heart pounding and legs pumping as she turned the corner and continue to sprint.
Stop running.
No. She wouldn't stop.
Harper! Stop!
     She skidded to a halt when she saw GG appear in front of her. Harper started to play with her hair (still curly from the night before). GG watched her, knowing she did this when she was nervous. "Everything is okay now. We got away and no one will suspect you took anything."
"That guy. He was married. Why would he..." She trailed off.
GG adjusted the invisible folders in her arms, "Come on. We need to get home and look at the these."
Harper nodded and followed close behind.

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     Blue walked down the dirty alleyway. Since she was left out of the big heist she figured she'd go visit Ridge. She had told him she would and now was a good of time as any. Truthfully though, the reason she chose to go see him today was because no one was home to see her leave. No one knew about Ridge and she wanted to keep it that way.
     The alley lead her to a large open clearing where cardboard box houses stretched as far as the eye could see. It was more like a cardboard town. There were cardboard trees, cardboard streets and bridges. She saw kids playing on a cardboard jungle gym and swing set. She wasn't sure where she could find Ridge since this was her first time in The Community.
     She walked up to an older woman In rags. "Do you know someone named Ridge? I came to see him but don't really know my way around."
"Ridge? Why of course!" she grinned a toothless smile. "He's such a fine young boy. Are you his girlfriend?"
"No." She replied bluntly.
The woman gave her a strange look, "He's probably at the newspaper stand. He helps out there from time to time. It's located at the center of town. Just head over that bridge and continue straight. You can't miss it."
     Blue nodded a thank you before turning around and heading towards the bridge. Crossing, she walked down the tightly spaced street and passed small shops. She sniffed the air as a waft of something delicious came out from the bakery. She didn't realize 'The Community' really was its own community. They seemed to have everything you could possibly need.
     Entering the center of town, she automatically spotted the newspaper stand. Ridge stood next to it and smiled when people came up to him. He turned to peek inside at someone sitting behind a stack of papers. Blue walked over, noticing the person sitting inside was a girl.
"Ridge." She called out.
He turned to her, eyes widening, "Blue? What are you doing here?"
"I said I'd come to see you." she stood in front of him. "So here I am."
His smile widened, "I'm glad you're here!"
She noticed that he seemed relieved.
"So you're Blue." The girl commented, coming up from around the stand.
"And you are?"
"The names Nicole." she stuck out her hand but Blue just stared, "Ridge doesn't ever shut up about you."
His face grew hot. "That's not true! Blue, it's not true."
She shrugged, not caring either way.
"Is your name really Blue?" she tilted her head, causing her brown pixie cut hair to follow suit, "Or is it a nickname because of your blue hair?"
Ignoring her, she turned to Ridge. "I didn't know you worked at a newspaper stand."
"Nicole owns it. I just volunteer."
Blue watched Nicole as she stared at her.
"Are you always this rude?" Nicole asked.
She smirked.
Nicole turned to Ridge. "Do you see how she's treating me? How can you like her?"
Blue looked at him.
"W-what!? Like her? I don't like her. I mean, I like you but not like that. But if you happened to like me then, I mean, it's possible that maybe I'd like -"
"Stop." Blue said quietly.
Ridge looked down.
Suddenly, she grabbed his hand. "I came to see you. Not some girl. Let's go. Take me somewhere."
He looked at her, surprise by the physical contact. He turned to Nicole, "I'm gonna show her around. That okay?"
"Do whatever you want." She turned around to go back into the stand.
     Ridge guided Blue over to an outside seating area. She quickly let go of his hand, realizing she was still holding it. They sat down across from each other at a small round table.
"Sorry about Nicole. She's a pretty straightforward person."
Blue leaned back in the chair, sticking her legs out and crossing her ankles, "She didn't do anything wrong. I was being rude."
"No. I wouldn't call it rude." he smiled. "That's just how you are."
She stared at him, not sure why he always stuck up for her. Why he was so blind to her bad actions. She found it amusing.
"I was worried I wouldn't see you again." He fidgeted with his scarf.
"I'm surprised I came."
     They sat quietly, not really sure what else to say. Blue adjusted the grey beanie on her head as she looked up and noticed a large blue tarp hanging above the town. She suspected it was to protect all the cardboard from the rain.
"There's an adult store down the street. We could take a look."
She quickly stood up. "Okay. Take me."
"I've never known any girls who were so enthusiastic about that stuff." He chuckled, standing up and leading the way.
"Don't you like it?"
"I don't know. It's just all about sex, right? I don't see the appeal."
"Then you've obviously never had sex before."
He turned to her, rolling his eyes. "And you have?"
She continued to walk next to him silently.
His face fell, "Really? I didn't know."
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me."
"Then tell me." He stopped walking.
     Blue felt déjà vu. Didn't she just have this conversation with GG a few days ago? It felt strange to be on the receiving end of it. Maybe she should just tell him. Get everything out in the open. What did she have to lose? He practically worships the ground she walks on. If he heard all the bad stuff he'd probably just laugh it off and make an excuse for her actions. And if he did happen to leave her, thinking she was the worst human in the world, it wouldn't matter. She wasn't attached to him anyway, right?
     She watched him stare at her. As she opened her mouth to speak, someone bumped into her from behind.
"Whoa! Sorry about that. I should've been paying attention."
Blue looked up to see a young man. He had light brown, wavy hair that sat over his shoulder in a pony tail. He also had striking green eyes behind his glasses.
"Hey. I haven't seen you around before." he stopped to look at her. "Are you new here?"
"She's just visiting." Ridge answered, taking a step closer to her.
The young man continued to stare, a wide smile on his face. "Your hair is quite beautiful."
Ridge grabbed her hand, "She doesn't need you to tell her that."
"Whoa, calm down lover boy." he put up his hands. "I'm not interested in her like that. Besides, I'm already spoken for." He pulled out a wallet from his suit pocket and showed them a picture.
     Looking at the picture, Blue saw the young man standing with his arm around a dark-haired girl. Her black hair was in two braids and she had bangs. A shy expression was on her face while he was beaming with happiness. "She's pretty."
"Thanks! She really is the best." He put away the wallet.
"Are you here to recruit again?" Ridge asked.
"Yep. That's my job. And I think your friend here would be a great candidate." He smiled.
Blue looked confused, "Recruit? For what?"
"I'm apart of an organization and we're looking for people with specific personality traits. Even people who have similar life situations. When I saw you I just felt a connection."
"What exactly is your organization about?"
He laughed, "I can't just tell you with all these people around. It's on a need to know basis. Here," he handed her a business card, "If you're interested give me a call. We can meet somewhere and talk."
Ridge eyed him as the man leaned down to kiss her hand.
"Have a good day." He smiled before walking on, whistling to himself.
She turned to Ridge, "Do you know him?"
"Not personally. I see him around here a lot talking to people. Recruiting."
"Well, that was a waste of time. Come on. Let's head to the store. I'll even tell you about my weird fetishes." She shoved the card in her jacket pocket.
Ridge laughed, pulling her by the hand.

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     Walking up to her apartment door she noticed the lights were on. Gio must still be awake or maybe Nixon had finally come home. She opened the door and shook her head to the sight before her. "Couldn't you be doing research at your own place?"
"We were waiting for you to get home." Harper checked the time on her computer. "It's already 11:00 at night."
"Where were you? Gio was worried." GG asked.
Blue set down her bags on the counter, "I was out shopping." she paused and looked around, "Where's Gio?"
"He went to bed. We told him we'd stay up and wait for you to return." Harper replied.
     Blue pulled out one of her new magazines from the bags and walked over to where they sat in the living room. She plopped down in the love seat. "So how did your investigation go? Did you find any new leads?"
"I found some files. Every one of the people in here has been reported missing, but the interesting part is that one of the guys has a tattoo of the symbol on his neck." GG noted.
"Are they all connected to the organization?" Blue asked, looking over the files.
"It's possible. I've been having Harper look up their names online but we haven't had any luck so far."
Blue paused on one of the files. This girl. She looked familiar. Her eyes widened from the realization. "I've seen this girl."
"Really? Where?" GG hurried to look over her shoulder.
"This guy I met today showed me a picture of his girlfriend. This is her."
Harper turned to them, "What guy?"
"I don't know his name. All he said was that he was recruiting for an organization. He wanted to recruit me so he gave me his card." She pulled out the card from her pocket.
"Should we call?" Harper asked. "We may be able to learn more about this girl and what happened."
GG looked at Blue, "Are you okay with this? You'd be the one meeting up with him. It might be dangerous."
"He wasn't that scary." She shrugged, dialing the number on the landline next to where she sat.
     The phone rang twice before a voice spoke out, "Hello?"
"Hi. It's me. Uh, the girl you bumped into earlier. The one with blue hair."
"Ah! Lover boys girl! How may I help you?"
She tried to keep calm. "I was interested in knowing more about your organization."
"That's great! Let's meet up and talk. How about at the Sharp Cheddar Deli? Is tomorrow at 10:00 AM okay?"
"That's fine."
"Great! See you then!"
The line went dead and Blue sighed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.