"…how could you have put yourself in danger like that? Taylor, are you even listening to me?"
I really should have stayed another couple of days before coming home, at least then my shoulders would have had time to heal. Maybe dad wouldn't be shouting at me too. "Dad! I told you what happened. I didn't put myself in any more danger than someone walking through a national park. Can I just get to the first aid kit please?"
As soon as I mention the first aid kit, dad seems to volte-face instantly as he spins around and opens the cupboard to pull out the old biscuit tin that is has been our first aid kit for as long as I can remember.
As he removes the moss and dabs iodine on each of the large scratches, dad grumbles, "I'm sorry for shouting at you, but…"
I shake my head and wince as he pulls another scab away with the moss, "I get it Dad, I really do. It's like when you used to have late nights when there was a cape fight in the docks, and mum shouted at you when you got home."
Dad winces and mumbles, "She never shouted, barely even raised her voice. But by god did she have an extensive vocabulary."
I chuckle, "She did, didn't she. She also shouted, I remember being woken up by it."
Dad huffs, "You and I have very different definitions of shouting then."
A few more minutes pass as dad continues to sterilize my shoulders and patch them up. As he's packing away the first aid kit I say, "I'm sorry for making you worry."
Dad smiles back at me, "Taylor… I don't want to see you hurt, or worse, for you to never come home. Anyway, why do you want to go to the bank?"
"I found a stall selling chimineas at Lords Market, they were cooking skewers on them. I want to buy one of the good clay ones for my camp so that I can cook while it's raining. I was also thinking of buying some mortar and slowly building a proper shelter out of stone, starting with somewhere to keep the silverware and pans."
Dad ruffles my hair just before he gets up to put the first aid kit away, "I'm looking forward to seeing your camp."
I give dad a brittle smile as I say, "I'm glad."
Dad laughs, "No, really, I'm looking forward to seeing what you're putting together. So, do you still want that lift tomorrow?"
I shake my head, "If I've got the day off tomorrow, I'll just take the bus. It will give me some time to do my laundry too."
"Well, I'm heading to bed, you should too, no matter what time it was when you left your camp."
I nod my agreement as dad walks through the lounge. While I'm waiting for him to finish upstairs and get to his room I pull one of the doors to the lounge closed so that I can continue looking through mum's old books for anything that might be useful or interesting.
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The next morning dad's already gone by the time I wake up. Without any pressing needs I take flagrant advantage of the hot water to not only wash my hair, but also just enjoy the luxury of hot water. While I'm standing their with the water running over my shoulders, first one, and then the rest, of my scabs washes away leaving fresh pink skin, just like before.
I swear I didn't whine when the water started to run cold, not at all. Instead, I maturely dried myself off and braided my hair before getting dressed and ensuring that I have my purse, bus pass, sewing box, and a notebook and pens in my backpack. While I think of it I grab my savings book from the drawer in my desk, as well as a shopping bag, as my favorite bookshop is near the bank. Maybe they'll have some book on old fashioned construction techniques, or maybe that group that used to live in western America until the s9 took advantage of the fact they eschewed technology.
While I'm packing, I almost take the spines from the wolf out of my bag before I remember that I can't walk around with my staff. Right, I also need a book on how to care for wood, and maybe a book on how to use a staff. What was I just thinking, spines. Experimentally I grab one of the spines an try to use it the same way I do my staff. It's not quite as easy as the staff, but it's just as accurate compared to using nothing. Well, that cinches it, I'm keeping them with me, that way I'm not defenseless if I'm jumped while I'm taking the chiminea back to my camp.
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As I make my way to downtown on the bus I stare out of the window at the tags on the different bus stops, and how different it is to the slightly grimy inside of the bus. Don't get me wrong, the inside of the busses aren't great, as a case in point, some enterprising kid has made a chewing gum smiley face on the back of the seat one row ahead of mine. However, there are no gang tags inside the busses. Even when it's busy, the gangs don't make any trouble on the busses either. Not that it makes them safe for minorities, as the local neo-nazi's have to recruit from somewhere, and those who aren't gang members will occasionally try their luck.
Eventually, the bus stops at the city center and I climb down to the sidewalk as someone on the bus wolf whistles behind me. All the whistle does is make me remember when the trio persuaded one of the boys at school to 'try and date me'. Really it was just a way to get me in trouble for cheating with the teachers, as the boy copied my work and then one of them would hand it in before me. With a sigh, I try to pull up the hood on my hoodie. Then I pull my braid over my shoulder and successfully pull up my hood.
It only takes me a minute or so to walk from the bus stop to the bank, most of which is taken up waiting for the pedestrian crossing to turn green so that I can cross the road. As I walk through the doors I can help letting out a heavy sigh as I spot the roped off queue that is already three turns deep. Trudging to the end of the queue I stop behind a short, mousy, teenager with frizzy brown curly hair, and a beige light cardigan over her jeans and teeshirt as a nod towards the changeable weather for this time of year.
When the queue only moves one place over the next five minutes, and a woman with a push chair joins the queue behind me, I stand up on tiptoes and look over the people in front of us, only to groan as I settle down again. "Great, there's only one counter open."
The teenager turns around and looks up at me, "Makes sense, it's probably their lunch time."
"Damn it, I wanted to avoid that."
The woman behind me says, "You should have come during lunch hour then. Though that's when the bank's the most packed too." At my confused look she adds, "They have most of the tills open for the office workers, then they close them while their own people grab some lunch while everyone else is back at work."
I sigh as we all shuffle forward a space, "I should have brought a book with me. If you don't mind me asking, why are you here after lunch then?"
The woman smiles down at the wheelchair, "Connor's only two and he can be a bit of a handful when he's woken up, so I come in to get my rent while it's quiet. Can't leave it much later otherwise I'll still be here when all the mum's start arriving with their kids."
I glance back at the teenager, who's still looking towards us. She shrugs, "I've got a free period this afternoon, so I'm grabbing some money for a date later."
I flash her a smile, "Good for you. I hope you have fun."
The teenager huffs, "Fat chance, my sister's setting me up on a double date. They never end well. How about you?"
"I'm being home-schooled, and dad gave me the day off because I'm doing it at his office and he works 10-11 hour days. As for why I'm here, I want to buy a chiminea from Lord's Market. Anyway, I'm Taylor."
The woman with the push chair nods, "Caitlin."
The teenager curiously adds, "Amy." When neither of us show any recognition she visibly relaxes and the conversation turns toward school, and how I'm finding home-schooling - infinitely better than school as I can actually get some studying done, hobbies - camping and handicraft for me, and raising Connor for Caitlin, Amy doesn't seem to have any hobbies yet.
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We've just got to the first row of the queue, and I can see a few people moving around behind the tills, when a slavering and snarling group of three monsters charge out of a corridor towards the rear of the bank, prompting screams from the customers and staff alike. As they clear the narrow corridor each one shakes itself and bits of fur and blood go flying to the sides as they grow.
As darkness floods the room I ruthlessly I clamp down on my instinctive urge to grab for something to defend myself with, as I mutter, "They don't know who you are, they don't know who you are."
As I'm stand there, my ears straining for any possible sound, I feel something brush my hand. Cursing, I pull my hand back as the darkness recedes. All around us the rope dividers have coiled up like snakes on the floor and are swaying from side to side, their metal hooks almost daring us to move.
Standing behind the monsters are five people in costumes, a tall man in black biker leathers, and a black crash helmet with a skull painted over the visor and chin guard; A teenage boy wearing a renfair outfit and one of those fancy masks they wear to balls; A short woman wearing a purple and black bodysuit and a simple domino mask; A taller, butch woman in jeans and a brown leather jacket, wearing a cheap plastic bulldog mask; and finally, a teenage white boy wearing an outfit that's clearly based on the genie's from Sinbad's adventure with a mask based on Jafar from Aleph's Aladdin held in place by his turban.
As the woman in purple and black walks forward, my eyes can't help tracking the movement of the rope snakes that are wrapped around the arms and waist of the genie wannabe.
"Fifteen minutes!" My attention is brought back to the woman as she starts to talk, "That's how long we'll be here. If you would all sit down by the counter, the sooner you do, the sooner the 15 minutes will start. That means you in the back too, don't make us come and get you."
As she's speaking, Connor starts to cry and Catlin leans over the pushchair saying "Shhh, shh"
As a couple of people look towards the exit, more rope snakes slither out of a large sack by the corridor and the woman says, "If you're thinking about running, or making a phone call, here are some very good reasons not to do so. Remember, fifteen minutes and we're gone. And don't worry, we're not stealing from you, as all the cash is insured. We're just liberating the money from the rich and powerful."
As Catlin picks up Connor, I go to move the push chair when one of the snakes lunges at me and the boy with the ropes snaps, "Leave the buggy there."
Reluctantly I move over to the counter with the others as the black man and the dog woman walk over to the blacked out doors with two of the monsters. The purple woman and the renfair reject both walk back down the corridor.
10 minutes into the 15 minutes I hear two faint buzzes from Amy's bag, followed by a single buzz. A couple of seconds later, three of the villains come running out of the back and over to the bank doors, genie boy being one of them. When I look back from watching them, Amy has disappeared.
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A/n - Theme tune for this scene is Rise by Katy Perry
A couple of minutes later, I'm sitting on the floor of the bank with everyone else when the purple villain walks out from the back. As she passes one of the side rooms, Amy steps out with a fire extinguisher and tries to brain her. I watch helplessly as the villain smoothly steps back and draws a gun before she places it against the girls head.
As I see her whispering into the girls ear something inside me snaps and she's replaced with Emma, Sophia, Lung, and that stupid wolf.
I'm not even sure if I stood up or I just became standing, but either way, I reached out with my hand and closed it in a fist. Across the room the villain's gun crumples into a small ball of metal as, behind me, the spines I collected from the wolf last night unbundle themselves and spread out behind me like some demented flower, each one pointed at the villain in purple.
As I step forward, I grab all of the rope snakes as they try to lunge for me and the villain says something, but I can't hear it over the rushing blood in my ears. Instead I shout, "You're all bullies, and I can't stand it anymore. If you want to play with the heroes so much, then they're right outside."
As I open the doors to the bank, darkness comes flooding in from outside where three of the villains are fighting the heroes. The villain in front of me steps back with her arms raised as she tries to say something else, but still I walk forward and the inside of the bank seems to breath in and out and her eyes widen. When I'm only a couple of paces away from her I take a deep breath and force the pulse out of my head.
When I can think again I point at the Villain, "You say that nobody's going to be hurt by this? That the money is insured, but what about the people that can't pay their rent, who can't buy food because you've stolen the cash they were going to use." She goes to open her mouth but I take one of the spine and shove it under her chin, "One more word and I'll pin your tongue to the roof of your mouth. You've had your chance to speak, now it's our turn, and it's your turn to listen. You're just like the girls at school, 'Oh, don't worry miss it's just a harmless bit of teasing.' But it isn't is it. It's never just a harmless bit of teasing, just as this isn't just a harmless bank robbery. You say that the money is insured, but that doesn't matter to me if I can't access my money today, it doesn't matter to her who was trying to defend herself before you pulled a gun."
I catch a glimpse of the renfair reject deeper in the bank just as one of my legs gives way, so I send a spine straight through his shoulder and bury it six inches into a wall as I snarl, "Tell your friend that if he tries that again, the next one is going somewhere less friendly."
Before she can say anything, a loud crash sounds behind me as someone dives through the ceiling of the bank and heads straight for me. I have just enough time to turn around before they punch me in the chest. As I careen into to the wall I just about have time to close my flower on the attacker before I black out.