Bella had spent the last thirty minutes walking from one end of the alley to the other and still no sign of number sixty nine. The address was very clearly printed on the flyer she had found at the previous night's rave and having gone to the extraordinary bother of getting out of bed early this morning to visit the sweet shop she was rapidly losing her cool.
"This is fucking ridiculous. What's the point of having a shop no one can find. Especially a confectionery store. Fucking outrageous!"
Bella was not by nature a patient girl. Very much the product of her upbringing she was accustomed to life having a certain pace and ease of access, after all that's what search engines were for, wasting time and effort actually looking for something seemed very twentieth century. Her new shoes were starting to pinch just a tiny bit. She had dressed quickly this morning, it had only taken just over an hour to choose her outfit and to carefully ensure everything fitted and matched perfectly. It had seemed a perfect opportunity to try out the pair of Iron Fist Star-ship Platform Booties that had arrived fresh from California the day before.
"You looking for the Sweet Shop?"
The interruption to her thought pattern made Bella jump. She looked at the girl and smiled the cookie sweet smile she reserved for occasions when she wasn't really happy, just being polite.
"It is really hard to spot the first time you visit."
The girl was dressed reasonably well. A bit punkie for Bella's tastes the Gothic Kera kimono dress was mainly black with mauve tartan trim and lace at the hem and a matching Obi. Worn with black knee socks and a pair of Demonia V Creepers the look worked.
"Hard? It's fucking invisible."
Bella wasn't inclined to mince her words. Her head was still thumping from the intense volume of J-Pop so recently pounded into her head and the candy low was starting to make her grumpy.
"Should I show you?"
The girls offer of directions was accompanied by a handful of sweet hearts.
"Thank you, yes please."
The words were mumbled through a mouthful of delicious sugary heaven.
"By the way my name is Cara."
"Nice to meet you Cara, I'm Bella."
"Yes you are. Bella, Bella, Bellissima!"
Cara lent forward, gave Bella a peck on each cheek then taking her by the hand headed into the alley.
Number sixty nine was between number sixty eight and number seventy, but of course it wasn't. The doorway was completely unnumbered and without any hint to what lay behind its very boring appearance, in fact it was totally nondescript. The color was an undistinguished brown, the glazed panels were dirty and the handle was rusty and when turned seemed to do little except rotate endlessly. However with a little patience and a lot of pressure the door creaked grudgingly inward to reveal a very glaring and bright light at the end of a dark corridor. Cara pulled Bella after her and they had reached halfway down the mysterious passage when the door slammed shut again behind them.
"Don't worry it closes automatically by sensor."
Cara's explanation seemed reasonable enough but Bella still shivered inexplicably.
"Don't say the obvious whatever you do."
Bella wondered what Cara meant and was still puzzling when they finally stepped into the Sweet Emporium proper.
"That's impossible. Its bigger on the inside!"
"They always say it Cara."