Sweat trickled down Kally's face. The summer heat bore down on her, causing her to grimace uncomfortably.

Kally had never really liked summer. Everything got too hot and sticky. Besides, she had only a few summer clothes in the small backpack she'd taken with her three years ago when she'd left home. That meant she was left to broil in her ratty jeans and sweatshirt most of the summer.

Winter had always been her favourite time of year. She could wear her favourite sweat pants and the nice oversized green shirt she'd taken from her mother's closet when she was sixteen. She could huddle by her cosy fire and imagine that it was her fireplace back home.

As much as she resented her mother, she did miss her home. Even though her mother wasn't much to boast about, her father was the sweetest man Kally had ever known.

Kally recalled the time he'd tried to tutor her for her history class. She'd been about thirteen at the time, and her dyslexia had only been getting worse, causing major problems at her school – Clarence Academy. Kally's father was a teacher there, a professor of ancient history, so he was helping to explain the myths that Kally just couldn't seem to get her head around.

'So what are the bat-like creatures that work for the god of the Underworld?' Kally read from her homework sheet. It took her several tries with her dyslexia. She'd almost given up on the question because of her constant impatience – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, the doctor said.

But Kally's father was patient. He smiled at her encouragingly and beamed when she finally got it right.

'The Furies,' her father said. 'Three of them. All horrible creatures. They do the lord of the Underworld's bidding. Can you tell me who the god of the Underworld is?'

'Hades,' Kally replied immediately, then gave her father an incredulous look. She didn't pay attention in history – how had she known that? Her father seemed undeterred by her sudden knowledge.

'Good.' He smiled warmly. 'Now, can you name the beast guarding the gates to Hades?'

'Cerberus. The three headed dog.'

Again Kally stopped short. She hadn't known that before had she? Her own knowledge was astounding her. Her father just smiled, pleased with her progress.

'Well done Kally,' her dad beamed.

He began to ask another question, but at that moment Kally's mother strode into the room, her arms full of groceries.

There was no denying that her mother was beautiful – she was a model, of course she was gorgeous. Her legs were long and toned, her arms matching. Her physique was enough to make any woman jealous and men unable to turn their heads away. Her shiny blonde hair fell in lustrous waves down to her hips that swayed from side to side as she walked.

People said that Kally looked a lot like her mother. How often she would hear at publicity stunts that her mother had been forced to take Kally along to 'Oh you look so much alike!' Even at school, where Kally did her best to hide her mother's identity from everybody, she would still get things like 'Oh you're so lucky! You look so much like Penelope Hark!' These were not the kind of compliments she wanted. She wished she didn't look like her mother, but apart from Kally's dark hair, she could have been her mother's younger twin.

'What are you filling her head with now Graham?' her mother sighed as she began putting away the groceries.

'She needs help with Greek mythology,' her dad replied easily, barely glancing at his wife. 'Being a history professor I decided to lend my services.'

He playfully punched Kally on the shoulder and she giggled, but Penelope Hark stiffened. She whirled around, her eyes wide with horror.

'Well stop,' she said quickly. Her eyes went back to normal, but they seemed darker, angrier. 'Dinner's almost ready.'

'You just got back. How can dinner be almost-' Kally started.

'Don't you backchat me,' she snapped, rounding on Kally. 'Go to your room. I'll call you out when I want to see you again.'

Kally resisted the urge to shout terrible things at her mother. She bit her tongue hard. She knew she would only end up in more trouble if she tried to yell at her mother. So instead, she stood and marched to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Through the door she remembered hearing her mother shouting at her dad, telling him off for teaching her about those things. Kally had never understood why her mother had got so worked up about that lesson. But from then on, her father gave her no more Greek mythology lessons.

Kally frowned up at the sun. She didn't like thinking about her mother any more than she liked this summer heat. Although it was close to six-thirty in the evening, the sun was barely beginning to set, and it bore down with such intensity that Kally had to wander around looking for a shady place to rest.

She knew the town well by now, enough to know where would tolerate her loitering and where would chase her away with a broom. She passed the barber shop where she had once had shaving cream thrown at her head in anger. Next to that was the Middle Eastern restaurant that occasionally gave her some customers' leftovers if there was no one around. The place seemed pretty packed at the moment though, so Kally decided she'd better leave them alone.

Up ahead she spotted a store she'd never seen before. It was a redbrick building with faded green shades over two smashed front windows. The doorframe leaned to one side, which meant the door was always slightly ajar. The door creaked on its hinges in the dry breeze that blew through the city. Racks of old clothing stood beside the door, like advertisement for the place. A faded sign above the door read Furious Fashions.

The place looked ancient, and it was clear from the broken windows and faded exterior that no one had been there to care for the place in years. Kally figured, if it really was abandoned then nobody would mind her taking refuge from the heat inside it.

The interior was no more appealing than the exterior. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. The same faded green paint covered the walls, peeling off in places, leaving the redbrick backing exposed. More racks of clothing ran along the walls and formed aisles of sorts throughout the room.

Upon closer inspection, Kally realised the clothes were all from different time periods. One rack held a bunch of flowery frilled shirts and tasselled jackets. There were even some bell-bottoms hanging in there somewhere. The label above it said From the 1970's. Another rack held costumes that would have made Elvis jealous. Kally didn't need to look at that label to know it was the 50's section. The 20's section had a fancy looking suit on display, and a brightly coloured collection of feathery dresses.

Even stranger items were present in the odd store. A suit of armour stood at attention in one corner, complete with sword and helmet. On a mannequin next to it, a dress that could have been worn by nobility in the 1600's was on display. The label in that section read From the 1680's. The 1680's? Kally was starting to get a weird feeling in her gut.

Nearby was a section labelled From the 1850's. A costume fit for a naval commander was pinned neatly on the wall, with a simple peasant's dress next to it. A rifle was mounted on the wall above the commander's suit.

Kally moved on from the strange clothes and investigated the rest of the store. A long counter at the back of the store held a glass display cabinet full of accessories from all the different time periods represented. A cash register sat above at the end of the counter, covered in dust just like everything else. Kally considered looting it for a moment.

'I hope you aren't thinking of stealing anything from my store dear,' a voice said behind Kally.

She whirled around. Stepping through one of those doors made from beads on strings, was the strangest woman Kally had ever seen.

The woman seemed to be representing all the time periods sold in the store, all at once. She was probably quite young, but her skin was aged in a strange way. She wore wire rimmed glasses over her dark brown eyes, and her makeup was overdone in dark colours. She wore a floor length brown skirt that fell to her leather sandals. Her top was a bright flowery print that wouldn't have looked out of place in a tourist shop in Hawaii, and a black biker jacket was undone over the top. In her frizzy sand coloured hair was a collection of strange items – a feathery headband from the 20's, a daffodil, a couple of metal bolts, and for some reason what seemed to be a dog whistle.

'I work hard for my earnings,' she continued in a raspy soprano. 'And I don't very much like it when someone else gets the goodies for my hard work.'

Kally was too stunned to say anything in reply to the woman. She didn't know if she was afraid, amused, or horrified. Eventually she found her tongue.

'I – I wasn't going to steal anything,' she lied.

The woman looked at her mistrustingly for moment. She seemed to be searching her brain for answers. Kally didn't like the thought of that. She knew I was impossible, but after all the impossible things she'd seen, a mind-reading old lady with scrap metal in her hair and a flowery shirt didn't seem so crazy after all.

Apparently the lady didn't have telepathic powers because she broke into a grin and stepped forward with her arms out as if to embrace Kally. Suddenly Kally wasn't so sure which was scarier – the possibility of the lady reading minds or her friendliness.

'Well then,' she beamed, which made her look about ten years younger. 'If you aren't here to rob me, what are you here for?'

'I was just looking for some shelter from the heat,' Kally told her. 'It's awfully hot out there. Would you mind if I just stayed here until the sun goes down?'

'But of course! Such a pretty face is always welcomed in my place,' the lady beamed. 'Oh and help yourself to any of the clothes you like. They're on sale, thirty per cent off!'

Kally forced a smile that she hoped looked like gratitude as she eyed the racks of clothing again. 'Oh, really?' Was all she managed to say.

'Yes,' the lady's smile faded and was replaced with watery eyes and a quivering lip. 'For some reason, nobody seems to want my clothes.'

'I can't imagine why,' Kally said flatly.

'Oh I haven't a clue,' the lady told her earnestly. 'I can't see why nobody would want these lovely clothes. They're so…'

'Eye-catching?' Kally offered. Personally, she thought that was being very generous. But the woman shook her head, causing some of the scraps of metal to fall out of her hair.

'I was going to say fabulous,' her lip quivered even more.

Wonderful, now she'd offended the crazy lady. Probably not a great thing to do. Kally had never been very good with people, but she patted the gently sobbing woman on the back, trying to console her. Now she just felt stupid.

Kally peered out the window, still patting the old woman on the back. She noticed that the sun was starting to sink in the sky, casting beautiful golden light over the store. The suit of armour glowed like it was made from the golden sunlight.

'So, these are pretty cool,' Kally wandered over to the 1850's and 1680's area. She was desperately trying to change the subject, if only to avoid more embarrassing attempts at affection. 'Did you make them?'

The woman looked up at the costumes, a bewildered expression on her face. Then she started laughing hysterically.

Kally fought the urge to slap her. She'd just been trying to make her feel better by distracting her. And now she was laughing at Kally like she was the court jester.

Between giggles the woman managed to get out something like 'Oh my dear girl, no! Of course not! I possess no skills in the way of costume making.'

'Well then,' Kally gritted her teeth. 'If you didn't make them, who did? They're like exact replicas.'

'Replicas?' The woman looked confused again. Then understanding flooded her thin face. 'Oh, I see. No dear, those aren't replicas. None of these are. I pride myself on being completely authentic with my works.'

'Authentic?' Kally probably looked like a stunned mullet with her mouth hanging open the way it was. 'But that would make these ones over five-hundred years old. That's impossible. They'd be rusted and ruined.'

'Ah, they are very well preserved aren't they?' the lady nodded and marvelled over her costumes. 'I remember claiming these. That was a fun day. The girl who wore that dress, she was betrothed to the knight who wore that armour there. Oh they were such a lovely couple. And the girl was so very beautiful. I was quite jealous of them, really.'

'But you said that these were authentic, from the 1600's,' Kally reminded her.

This didn't seem to faze the old lady. 'Yes dear, that's right.'

'But then how could you possibly remember claiming them?'

Realisation dawned on Kally. She snapped her head up to look at the lady, who was looking back at her with a passive face. Her first impression of the lady's age had been dead wrong. This woman was saying she was six-hundred years old, probably more. Normal people didn't live that long, which meant only one thing.

'Monster.' Kally breathed.

'What was that dear?' the lady asked, a terrible smile playing at her lips.

She had a feeling that once this lady knew Kally was aware of her being a monster there'd be no escape. Slowly, she began backing up to the door, walking into racks of clothes every few seconds.

'Uh, nothing,' Kally said hurriedly. 'Oh look, it's dark out now. I'd better be going.'

'But you haven't heard my story about the knight and his betrothed yet,' the lady hissed. Wait, hissed?

Slowly, the lady's hand extended and curled into claws, with razor sharp talons at the ends. Her teeth elongated into needle-sharp points and her eyes shrunk to black beads. The aged skin that was present before withered into a leathery texture and her clothes slipped off, revealing a matching body that seemed to be filled in only with bones it was so thin. Wings like a bat's unfolded from behind her and extended to their full span, knocking over several racks of clothing nearby. Only her hair stayed the same – frizzy and full of junk.

Kally fell against to the floor and crawled to the exit.

'Oh no you don't, dear,' the creature growled loudly. She lunged at Kally and managed to grab her by the ankle to stop her crawling away.

'What are you?' Kally screamed.

'You don't remember me?' the creature seemed confused and hurt, but mostly it was just scary. 'We've met before. Your father insisted upon it. But you were very young… No I don't suppose you'd remember me.'

Kally was still breathing quickly, scared out of her mind, but her brow furrowed in confusion. This… thing was connected to her dad? She couldn't imagine her kindly father allowing this monster near her.

'So, allow me to introduce myself once again. I am Megaera. I am one of the three goddesses of vengeance, although you may know us better as Furies. But since we're practically family, you can call me Meg.'