Trigger Warning

One

One (7 Years  Earlier)

Augustus Falls Bank was crowded, people shuffling through the line with bored or frustrated expressions. Their wallets clutched loosely in busy hands. Some spoke into Bluetooth’s or cell phones , others shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

                Waiting in line was like the seventh circle of hell.

Amara shifted, cracking her knuckles and hitting the next button on her mp3 player. Her straight black hair cascaded over her shoulder and hung down low on her waist. Her crystalline gray eyes surveyed her surroundings in a bored manor.

No one seemed to notice that the humidity dropped to zero in less than a second. Nor did anyone think twice about the fifteen year old girl who stepped up to the window delicately clutching her debit card.

That was their mistake.

A crash resounded through the bank and alarmed cries erupted, but the glass teller’s windows had been shattered and the video cameras shorted out.

Calmly, Amara set down her debit card on top of the shrapnel. The terrified teller’s head cautiously poked up from under the desk, her hair and clothing drenched in water. The five gallon water jug behind her for the employees was in shreds.

People behind her screamed and surged towards the exits only to find them densely covered in a coat of thick ice. No amount of pounding could crash through the doors. Everyone was trapped.

“I’ll be making a withdraw.” Amara said, cocking a perfectly curved hip and putting a slender hand on it. Her other hand was home to a bone-handled hunting knife. “Everything.” She indicated the backpack beside her on the ground.

She glanced at the safe door on the far side of the office. It was propped open during business hours. Amara could feel the water running through the pressure lock system and gave a quick tug back with her head and the vault door swung open.

Twirling the knife, she glanced at the teller in front of her. “Whenever you’re ready of course,” Amara sneered.

The woman jumped to her feet and took off towards the vault, returning a moment later with a stack of cash. She dropped it into the red backpack the girl had set on the table.

“What’s your name, darling?” Amara scornfully asked the trembling teller.

Her lip twitched. “I-Imogen,” the teller dropped another tray of cash into the backpack.

Amara nodded. “Nice doing business with you, Imogen.”

 Then she zipped up the bag and turned towards the exit that had frozen over. “No heroes.” She told the people who were trapped in the bank, then flicked the knife at the leg of the nearest person. It landed home in a thirty year old woman’s outer thigh. She screamed.

Then the ice over the doors melted and Amara ran from the cliff side bank and jumped off the edge of the embankment, straight down the seventy foot drop off into the waterfall.

She was well aware of the blue-suited man who jumped off after her.