She is not bad

Chapter 1 : Robbery

The last customer of the day just left the store. The woman turned to carton on the door on the side of "closed" and joined the checkout to do the sums. She was happy that her day was over. All she had in her mind was to go back home, hug her sons, and especially having a good sleep in her bed. Every time she was finishing a day, she was feeling sad and nostalgic. She hadn't worked in this store all her life. She used to be a nurse and a social tutor for children and teens in need in a center. Sadly, the lives of these teens were not important enough for the State which stopped giving them funds, meaning they had to shut down the place. Now, she was spending all her days in this store, having a measly salary. She wasn't complaining, at least she had a salary which could allow her and her sons to live correctly. But she was missing the social contacts with the teens, trying to understand why they were like that. People were always blaming the teens, but they seemed to forget that, in most cases, it was because of the parents and a lack of help.

She was almost done when she heard the "ting-a-ling" of the door. She told them that it was closed without looking up, thinking they would leave, but she heard a loud noise of a gun being armed. She had goosebumps and a bad shiver. She slowly looked up, raising her arms, and faced a barrel of a pump-action shotgun. She was trying to not panic. When she was working in this center, she had lived similar situations. But she was never alone. Right now, they were four, and she was alone. She managed to move her eyes from the barrel to look at the face of her assaulter. Their face was hidden by a mask of a baby face. She couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. The person holding the shotgun placed an empty sport bag on the counter.

- "You know what to do."

It was a girl. She didn't move. She looked deeply into her assaulter's eyes, trying to see a form of compassion from her, but all she saw was red eyes. She was probably high. The assaulter made a threatening movement with her shotgun to tell the woman to move. The woman started before gathering the bills to put them inside the opened bag. While she was doing that, two of the assaulters decided to do some shopping and put some of the products, especially alcohols, in their bags and pockets. The fourth one was near the entrance door, to keep an eye on the outside and on the inside. They were probably the leader. The woman focused on what she was doing. The girl with the shotgun went on the other side of the counter with a threatening walking.

- "Please, don't hurt me," she begged of panic.

- "Shut up!"

The girl hit the woman's head with the cross of her shotgun. The woman fell on the ground, dazed, and felt some blood flowing on her forehead. The girl angrily pointed the barrel at the woman's head, ready to shoot.

- "Please, no! My name is Joyce, I have two sons, Jonathan and Will! I'm divorced and I lost my first job! I'm just trying to live, like everyone! You don't need to do that!"

The girl took a moment to think before lowering her shotgun. When Joyce looked into the girl's eyes, she didn't see the same anger that she saw just before. Maybe she calmed her. They stayed a few seconds looking at each other, but the assaulter remembered why she was here. She looked around and began to fill the bag with packs of cigarettes, cigars, and lighters. While she was doing that, Joyce could smell the odor of the perfume of the assaulter with a strong odor of cigarettes. The leader whistled, making move the other of the groups. The girl closed the bag and followed the others out of the store, letting Joyce on the ground. The woman waited a few minutes before finally being able to move. She was feeling nauseous because of the hit on her head, but she managed to grab the phone to call the police. She wouldn't let them go like that.

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A/N: Chapter 2 in a few minutes ;)