Private Finished Missing On The Way Back

"Good night Alice! See you tomorrow!"
Alice looked behind her and sent a small wave and a warm smile at her co-workers, as she stepped out the door to tue back alley. It was 9pm, and she had just finished her shift at the strip club. Thankfully tonight she didn't have any customers so Alice was, unfortunately, free to go home as she pleased. Well, not as she pleased. Alive had to be back by 10:30pm before her master got home, or he would make sure she had another sore part on her body tomorrow morning.
That thought encouraged Alice to get on a quick pace. It took 15 minutes to get to the apartment from here but she didn't want to take any chances.

Alice's heels clacked against the cobblestones as she powerwalked/jogged to the apartment, it took her only 10 minutes and there was no way Ulric would be back yet, he was never on time. But as Alice began digging her purse for her keys she...found nothing. Instead she found a hole on her old, worn down bag, in the pocket she kept her keys. Alice could feel colour drain from her face, and she kept looking for a few more minutes before she admitted to herself that she had lost the keys. Alice could feel her heart in her throat, this was bad. Her master would surely be furious if Alice lost her keys, that meant making a new copy and making a new copy meant making a trail that could be used to follow his illegal business. Alice felt like crying, why now of all days? Alice had something very important she wanted to do on her next free day and Ulric would surely take that away if Alice lost the keys.
But Alice refused to cry, not yet. Instead she took off her heels, put them in her bag and ran back towards the strip club with just her stockings. Maybe the keys were still there.


Alice stepped back out from the strip club second time today, and now the tears were welling up really close to the surface. The keys had not been there, Alice's feet hurt and she was starting to get cold. Maybe she could try and find a customer from the street and that way push back the inevitable? No, Alice had said Ulric today she wouldn't take any customers.
So the only choice was to start looking for the keys on foot. On the strip. At night, at 9:15pm.
It took all Alice's willpower not to cry and start walking, her eyes strictly aimed to the ground, looking for the keys.

Alice had walked about midway back to the apartment, and the only things she had found were bottle caps, some loose change and one lighter that didn't work. But no keys. She hadn't lifted her head in a while, even though occasionally she heard some catcalls from passerbys. Alice was too tired to react, and her thin jacket wasn't doing much against the evening chill. She was starting to feel increasingly sad and miserable and scared, and even irritation was welling up. It was already 9:40pm.
Alice sunk down into dark thoughts about what would happen if she didn't find the keys, and didn't see the person in front of her. She only noticed them when she walked into the head-on, jumping back a bit and looking at them with guilt and shock.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going, please forgive me!"
Alice said quickly, and before she could stop herself a couple of tears fell from her eyes to her cold cheeks. Alice hurriedly wiped them away.

Cosette was so afraid and frustrated over her keys already, and now she was afraid over who she had collided with. This was the strip, if you bumped on the wrong person that could mean you could get beaten, or in Cosette's case, raped. But as she looked up and blinked some tears away from her eyes Cosette could see she had collided with a young girl, who was even asking Cosette whether she was okay. Normally Cosette would've just nodded and went on her way, but right now her self-control was spread very thin and Cosette was too tired to keep it up. So she let out a trembling sigh, went over to the closest wall and slid down on the ground, holding her hands on her face. Behind them she was crying.
"I do not think I am..."

Cosette cried for 10 or so seconds, that was how long she allowed herself to be weak, before she took a breath and wiped her eyes and cheeks. She expected the girl to have left already, but when Cosette looked up she was still there. In fact, she was crouched beside her, and even draped her jacket across Cosette's shoulders. The warmth almost made Cosette cry again, but she had let this young girl see too much already.
Cosette looked at the girl in confusion when she sat beside her and spoke to her.
"Y-you could say that. Thank you, for this, but you need it. It's chilly out tonight."
Cosette took the jacket off her shoulders, already missing the warmth, and she had a small warm smile on her face.
"I wouldn't want you to catch a cold, sweetie."

The hoodie the girl was wearing didn't look much thicker than Cosette's own jacket, and she was much more worried over this kind girl's health than hers. So Cosette shook her head a bit and in turn draped the jacket back on the girl, she had a gentle yet firm smile on her face.
"I can't get sick, fortunately. It's part of my constitution. You look like a student, you must not live around here. You still have a way home, I live close-by."
Cosette was lying about not being able to catch a cold, but all the rest of her words were sincere and she sniffed a bit, her cheeks and nose were red from tears and the chill.

Cosette accepted the hand the girl was offering and stood up, she was keeping herseld from rubbing her arms so she wouldn't worry the girl.
"Oh, I, um, lost my keys, unfortunately. I was looking for them."
Cosette didn't give details, she couldn't.
"Have you by any chance seen them?"

The moment the girl mentioned she might've found her keys Alice's face visibly lit up. Only to dim down almost immediately after hearing that they were at the police station. Alice looked fearful and defeated for a short moment before returning her face into a smiling mask. But inside she was still afraid, confused, and troubled. Her master didn't want Alice to have any kind of contact with the police, he didn't want her to leave any kind of trace that could be tracked back to her. He hadn't given her a magical order, but Alice was so afraid he would find out about this.
But Alice would always be afraid, and she'd rather suffer her punishment later than now.
"They, um, there are two keys, and one keychain. A candy, that has yellow and pink stripes."