PIGEON - a Grishaverse OC story

Chapter 3 - Heist

"How much?" Milena leaned close to the old woman running the fruit stall.

This time she was not wearing her kefta, just a brown coat and suit pants. Her hair was in a simple braid, and most people she passed by did not gaze at her with fear. It was nice, for once.

The old woman held up two shaky, wrinkled fingers up, and Milena gave her two kruge coins. She grabbed the apple she had purchased and turned around to see the Jackal-bank looming above her.

It's profile was majestic, if anything. The marble it had been carved from was pink and white, and the glass of its windows was completely smooth. It had gold trimmings and the doors were massive. Two green flags depicting a running Jackal cast shadows onto the market below that moved in the wind.

But the beauty of the building was deceiving. It distracted from the excessive amounts of highly trained gaurds and Grisha-made security systems. It belittled the valuables it held inside such as Dekappel paintings, statues and gold bars.

Milena glanced at the clock tower to the north, seeing that it was merely a few minutes to 1 am. She munched on her apple, keeping an eye on the doors of the bank, waiting for Inej to gain them access inside.

But then she heard terribly loud gunshots and jumped. Vendors around her began screaming and running to distance themselves from the sound, but Milena stood in place for just a moment.

She took a few steps to the right and saw the stadwatch struggling with a burly man who was shooting a gun recklessly. They were shouting for people to get out of the way. More stadwatch were rushing to the scene. It was chaos.

And from its direction, Kaz came walking at a relaxed pace. He limped past Milena and she rushed after him.

"But the stadwatch-"

"It's a distraction," Kaz didn't even glance her way.

Of course it was.

"Don't enter the vault, were finding a bedroom," Kaz explained, though Milena had no idea what he was even speaking about.

Milena followed Brekker to the bank doors, and the awful noise of screams and gunshots was worsened with the sound of the clock tower ringing. She didn't even hear Jesper walk up behind them, leaning against his pearl-handle guns.

The large doors in front of them slid open and cast light onto the stone steps at their feet. The light was a sickly yellow of lamps on the verge of dying out.

Kaz waltzed into the bank with no regard for secrecy. Milena and Jesper followed, relieved when the heavy door sealed behind them and closed out the terrible racket outside.

But the sound grew eerie moments later. Inej was waiting by the door in her dark blue attire and grisha made shoes. Milena could've sworn she heard the small girls feet shift against the floor as she walked it was so quiet.

It felt like breathing was punishable, "it disturbs the still air in a disrespectful manner" the stadwatch would say, they're usual petty excuses.

Milena was pulled from her thoughts when Kaz disturbed the air in a disrespectful manner, breaking the silence.

"We turn to the left," He stated, gesturing forward.

The hallway ahead was a disappointment after seeing the noble facade of the bank. The two toned walls, jarringly yellow carpet and a single painting to fill the emptiness of the walls did not live up to the standards of pink marble, golden accents and embroidered flags.

The hallway, as plain as it would be in daylight, had bodies littered along the sides. Inej's work. Milena coudn't help but curiously peer over at the dead men's pale and sunken faces. There was much death in the Barrel, but it sickened the inferni everytime.