Excerpt: Gray Lips

In the morning, she awoke to find herself in an unfamiliar place, looking upon an unfamiliar face. “Hi! Ahh, I mean, how do you feel? It looks like you had a bit of a rough night.” She giggled.
“I’ve felt worse,” Iris answered quietly. “Who are you?”
“My name is Celice, and I work for a tailor here. I saw you leaving the bar around midnight and I had to help you out. Come to think of it, what’s your job? You’re built like a farmhand, but I’ve never seen you around before.” Confused, Iris looked down and realized she wasn’t wearing a shirt. She covered her chest and prepared to speak out. “Trust me, you didn’t want to be wearing that anyway. You threw up on yourself, and it was kind of bloody. I would’ve just put some of my own clothes on you, but they’re all too small. I started working on something for you, but I haven’t had time to sew it yet. Luckily that’s the easy part!
“Oh, are you hungry? I’ve got bread and some apples here, and milk.”
“I’m a soldier in the barracks,” Iris informed her.
“What? Why? How?”
“You won’t be able to find out unless you shut up for a moment!” An awkward silence lingered, and then she continued. “I’m sorry…I’m just not used to people acting like this. It’s no problem; it’s my fault, really.”
A knock on the door cut their conversation short. Iris began speaking again in a hushed tone.
“It must be soldiers looking for me, since I obviously didn’t make it back last night.”
“What do you want me to do, ignore them?” Celice whispered back.
“No, we can’t.”
“But, they’ll want to come in!”
“And you should let them. We can buy more time by knocking them cold than by trying to stall them like this. They’ll just break down the door if you don’t answer.”
“We can do that?”
“I can, now you just stop worrying and take care of it!”
Celice tousled her hair a bit, then slowly shuffled over to the door and unbolted it. She made sure to yawn loudly as she opened the squeaky door. “Good morning, sirs.” She saluted them, playing up her faked tiredness. “What may I help you with, on this fine day?”
“We’re looking for a woman who didn’t return to her room last night. We’d like to come in and search for her.”
“Oh,” she yawned again, “of course, feel free.” She allowed them inside, then prepared to shut the door before noticing that Iris had taken a hiding spot directly behind it. The two soldiers searched on and under the bed, and behind the table while Celice walked over to the fireplace and picked up the poker by the tapered end. She walked behind one of them as he opened the pantry, and lifting it high above her head, bludgeoned him with the handle. At the same time, she heard the door slam, as Iris leapt out to deliver a flurry of punches to the other. He never even saw the first one coming, and after just a few it was clear he was no longer conscious.
“So now what do we do?”