#ofccurage

Arms crossed tightly against her chest, Victoria shifted with unease, wanting nothing more than to go find a whisky to nurse until she forgot about this. For all she’d been through she shouldn’t have felt disturbed by a murderer, but there was a difference between being attacked by raiders flying with too many chems,and being stabbed to death in the alleyway of a city.

There was nothing clean about it, nothing distant. She could justify sniping people from a great distance, but looking them in the eye as you stabbed them just seemed monstrous.

There was a beat of silence before Victoria released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Fingers slowly uncurled from where she held the man’s arm, knuckles white and grip nearly tight enough to bruise. Looking at him for a moment, her wits seemed to finally hit her as she recoiled.

The lock clicked and Victoria smiled to herself, pleased with how well that had worked. Sure she had lost a perfectly good bobby pin, but it was a small price to pay.