Justicia

2

I locked the door after my last student left for the day and retired to my one bedroom apartment that was above the studio. It was barely furnished because I only needed a bed, couch and a dining table. I turned the radio on a low volume to the local station and started to cook dinner. I was in the middle of carefully dicing an onion as the news came on catching my attention so I turned the volume up.

"In breaking news, police are wanting to speak to anyone who may have seen or heard anything unusual on Barker Street and Federal Ave last night. Four locally owned businesses were broken into and robbed, leaving the properties severely damaged. Two employees, who were still in one premise at the time of the robbery, are recovering in hospital. In other news..."

I turned the volume back down and continued with my dinner preparation. Barker Street crossed my own street only three stores down and Federal Ave was the next block down. I hated people who felt entitled to take whatever they wanted from hard working people. I hoped they were caught and dealt with swift justice. After finishing my dinner I washed up and sat on my couch with a book.

Many people have told me, without any request from me, how sorry they feel for me, how much they pity me. They point out all the things I have missed out on because I cannot see, but I wasn't born this way. I know what the sunrise and sunset looks like, I have seen the ocean crash against the rocks and lightening shoot across the sky. I didn't need the unhelpful reminder of what I lost with my sight so I constantly reminded myself of the positives.

I could read in the dark, I didn't need to change lightbulbs, I didn't waste money on a tv and Netflix and all the other needless luxuries. I was happy, I was alive, and it was more than I could say for other people. With a yawn spawned from my body clock, I closed my book to go to bed and the wall clock chimed 10 times.

I woke up as I heard the quiet bell above the door downstairs twinkle. The sound was cut off and I heard angry whispers follow. I grabbed my landline and dialled 911 and left the phone off the receiver. I silently climbed out of my bed and walked carefully across the room avoiding the places that I knew, from years of repetition, creaked. I grabbed the wooden practice sword I had been meaning to re-sand and made my way downstairs. I held the sword with one hand as I pushed the internal door open.

"Get out of my shop." I said as I listened to the shuffling feet come at me.

"Tie the bitch up." The leader commanded and two pairs of feet clobbered their way across my wooden floors.

I didn't have my shoes on so I relied on their sounds to pinpoint their positions. I struck first, thrusting the tip into the bulk of mass in front of me. Ideally the blunt tip would cause most harm in a groin shot but I didn't know where that was on my opponent. He grunted in pain and I spun around swinging the sword down onto the knee of the man who tried to get behind me.

I felt the wind shift and turned my head but didn't avoid the punch completely. My head rocked to the side as my cheek took the hit. Following the movement of my head, I used the momentum to spin and with the broad side of the sword, I cracked the man in the head. His body thudded to the ground before arms encased me from behind.

I couldn't help but compare this man to Angel. Where Angel was tall and muscular, he was short and stout. I threw my head back into the man's face and grimaced as he cried out in my ear. I dropped my weight and wriggled back between his legs pulling him off balance. He released me to avoid falling over and, with one solid punch to his groin above me, he was a writhing mess on the floor.

"What the fuck?" I heard the leader growl before a gun get cocked.

I ran full sprint across the room and ducked as gunfire rang out. I used the echo to change direction away from his aim and continued to run. I reached the weapons cupboard only to realise it was still locked. A bullet whizzed by my torso, grazing the skin along my rib cage before hitting the lock. I swung the door open and grabbed the first thing I could, which was a Kunai knife.