The End Days (well, years)- a Good Omen Fanfic

A Frosty Evening

13 years later (well, almost):

Frost had not melted away on the pavements and roads of Soho, London by five past four on Monday, the third of January in the year twenty-thirty-four. Which, was a fact that nobody could actually tell you that not completely out of the range of possibility, nobody was entirely sure why it was like that that particular day but it was. However, what anyone with the right mind would definitely be able to tell you is that in this icy conditions on the road and pavement, you should not ride a bike in it, which was something that a twelve year old was currently doing.

Delilah Eden Crowley was pedalling as fast as she could down the darkening streets in Soho, in an attempt to get away from her pursuers. the reason why she was being pursued was of no fault of her own, or rather it possibly was, she wasn't entirely sure, you see, Delilah was seen as peculiar in the eyes of everyone at her school, well, almost everyone, there were a few teachers and students who actually liked her peculiarity and eagerness to learn. so of course, she was the subject of bullying, and whilst this mostly didn't bother her too badly, it was on this occasion that she'd decided to not ignore then and insult the leader of the bullies, Jerome Smithson, and call him a "good for nothing homophobic piece of shit" to his face after he had called her out for having two dads and that she was going to hell for it*. They'd given chase, getting on their bikes after her angered by her comment and so Delilah had ultimately, ridden for the safe haven of 'A.Z and Co bookshop' hoping knowing that literally nobody would be able to get in past closing time (with a few exceptions of course).

it was across the road from said safe haven that her bright blue bike had skidded on a piece of ice and flung her over the handlebars, her Harry Potter-esq glasses flying off her face and hit the ground with a crunch. damn it now her parents would definitely ask questions. Her elbow stung, clearly been grazed but it was nothing compared to what came next. kicks and punches from Jerome and his gang were what followed. at one point she got kicked on the nose so hard that a crack was heard and she felt wet coming out of it. after what seemed to be hours of beatings (it was only five minutes) Jerome had ordered everyone to stop and just told her to never answer back to him again then buggered off on his bike somewhere away from the shop starting she had learned her lesson*. standing up, a little disorientated, she picked up her miraculously unharmed bike and her smashed glasses, fixed them with the wave of her hand and limped across the road, parking her bike securely outside the shop, and entered.

"hellooo? Anybody hooome?"

"Delilah! did you have a nice day at sch-" the book collector poked his head from round the back of the store "oh my! what happened?"

"same old story" she said pinching her nose to stop the blood flow

Aziraphale lead Delilah to a seat round the back

"sit there and hold this to your nose"

"can't you just miracle it or something?" she hissed as she placed the tissue to her nose

"I will, after you've stopped bleeding"

"thanks pa"

"you're welcome"

"for somebody's sake, what happened to you?" another voice said as Crowley, the demon appeared having come through the door seconds after Delilah had entered the shop.

"fell over, then got beaten up by Jerome and his gang of arseholes" the girl replied sounding as if her nose was bunged up.

The serpent raised an eyebrow

"you look pretty badly beaten up there"

"if you think I was bad, you should have seen the others"