My Little Hela

My First Crime

It was dark, the sun had gone down a few hours ago and the street lights of Ohio were shining bright. The gang traveled across the borders of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and now they were in the state of Ohio. They were parked on the side of the street as they sat inside the old camper and talked over a plan.

Hela couldn't hear them because she as sitting next to the window, clutching her frail knees to her chest and concentrated on gazing out of the stained-yellow glass. She watched as the occasional car drove by to get a midnight snack, a pedestrian hurrying home from a long day at work, a red traffic light about a block away blink consistently. It was broken and only showed the red color that was on for a moment, then off but came back on after a second but turned off the moment it turned back on. The drivers all ignored it and drove right by it because there were not enough cars to cause a collision anyway.

"Hela, listen..." Josh turned back and looked at Amanda and then back to Hela after a second.
"We are running out of money for fuel and food." he calmly explained to the attentive child.
"I know you are only 11 and I hate telling you to do this... but you will need this if you are going to stay with us. You are probably not used to this yet but you will after a couple tries. You see that gas station across the street?" Josh asked as he pointed out the window.
"Here is what I need you to do..."

-

Hela stepped up to the doors of the 7-Eleven and hesitated. She shoved her fists inside her sweater pocket and clutched the cold handle of the object inside. The young girl took a deep breath and used her free hand to push the doors open.

It was warm, the lights were bright and they hurt Hela's eyes as she walked in. When she finally adjusted to her surroundings, she carefully began to browse the aisles, careful not to attract any attention from the store clerk behind the counter. She had her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail even though her hair was clearly too short to be in one and had hair strands dangling at her cheeks. She looked exhausted and tired, trying to stay awake as she drank multiple cups of coffee.

Hela watched her carefully as she pretended to be interested in some Monsters and Red bull. As she subtly stalled herself, she thought over the plan Josh had told her over and over again in her head, making sure not to miss a beat.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Hela thought to herself.

She pulled the hood over her eyes and kept her head low as she rounded the corner of one of the aisles, getting closer to the cashier. Hela was extremely nervous, she was shivering even though it was not cold. Then it took every ounce of strength in her small body to retrieve the colt from her pocket and point it at the lady behind the counter.