Wands and Fireguns

05. Mustache Metropole

'Get that girl!' The middle-aged, mustached man called out furiously, pointing towards me as I ran as fast as my legs could hold me. 'She's a thief!' he accused once again. By now, the entire public library had been made aware I stole a penny to buy something as simple and delicious as a sweet. Being chased by at least two blue bottles, each of them carrying swagger sticks that were seemingly more painful than being shot, me, just a little girl of eleven years, had to run for a life out of lockup.

Blast you!, I glanced down at my growling stomach. If you weren't so demanding we wouldn't be in this situation.

As the exit came nearer, my brain tried to solve this entire hubbub, looking for an answer. I panicked. There didn't seem to be anything I could use to barricade the bobbies that were trying to skin me alive.

Suddenly, out of an aisle of bookshelves, a librarian pushed a trolley with a mountain of books piled on top of each other. Eureka!

'Stop her!' one of the men shouted after me.

With a forceful kick, I pushed the trolley to the ground. As the books clattered on the marbel tiles, I made my exit out of the library.

'Sorry!' I shouted after me, feeling sorry for whomever had to clean that mess up. My head shot to my left, standing on the steps of the library, seeing a small dingy alleyway next to the bakery. On my right, there was a large amount of schoolchildren outside, looking at the architecture of the metropole of London. The alleyway it was.

With a jump, I caught my landing onto the pavelled ground with my own hands. Argh! As I caught my breath of running from aisle to aisle, I glanced down at the stinging red and swollen hands. Leaning against the wall, I cocked my head to the left as I heard the footsteps of the men storming out of the majestic white building.

Please go right. Please.

A pedestrian stopped in his tracks as his eyes travelled from me and up towards the duo of men that seemed to search and stop children that were walking around the streets. With his mustache and peaky cap, he looked like the least of my worries. Oh boy was I wrong...

'Officer! Ye'r looking for a girl? Got one righ' here!' pointing at me energetically, I stood up quickly and darted in the dark alleyway that had been filled with smoke of the air vent shafts of the bakery. I made a mental note never to judge anyone by their looks, because looks could be deceiving. Me of all people should've known that. Sometimes I wanted to slap myself for being so dense.

As I kept running, I heard the barking sound of a couple of dogs that seemed to have been released after me. Fear lept into my stomach as I began to run a little harder than I did before...

I admit it. I was afraid of large dogs that would bite me or try to tear me to bits of flesh- And I had few good reasons to be afraid. I remember very few, but the night my father had dropped me off at the orphanage, I was bitten by a dog. And I have the scars to prove it!

Of course that experience penetrated my mind every time I heard barking, and it got to severe cases where I would run away from even the littlest terriers. Course no one knew of this- It was rather embarassing. Dogs weren't very nice to me in general- most dogs down East End lived on the streets and were always searching for food. And I did not want to become an eight course meal with an apple down my throat.

Lost at the dead-end street, I panicked and turned around, looking for any kind of escape. Any kind, I bid towards the gods. Perhaps Hephaestus could sculpt me a wall to protect me from the men that were trying to lock me up!?

In retrospective he didn't seem a busy god.. in comparison to the thousands of people calling upon help from Jezus when they were in distraught.

Meanwhile the dogs chasing me, seemed to have caught up on me as they darted around the corner of the smoked alleyway. Blast! Blast! Blast!