Feminine Revenge [Ongoing]

Chapter One: Pickpockets Get Punished

Left, right, up, down. Darting through the crowds and avoiding the flapping coattails of the greedy gentlemen strolling through the biting wind. The key was not to be discovered by their dull eyes which have been dulled over by the blinding gold that sifted through their fingers. The gold they jealously guarded. Oh, how mad they got when you took a little pinch out of their mountain of salt, so you may bring a little flavour into your life. How carefully they guarded what they would never use because it was theirs, and they could never give another reason.

"Hey! You!" The angry guard called, his voice slicing through the biting air making everyone freeze.

How many times have I been called that? What was the point of a name anymore if all I was to them anymore was 'you'? No matter, I must keep running. They might catch me, they might not. It always depended if the odds were in my favour or theirs. Just giving up would merit the same punishment as running for my life if I was caught. Running, on the other hand, sometimes meant escape, and escape I would until I couldn't anymore.

As it was, the odds were so not in my favour in the slightest. These bland-eyed men had now taken notice of poor little me. Not much to note if I wasn't being chased by a mini-horde of angry policemen. Now that was something to take note of. If their civil servants had decided to rampage after an insignificant woman; well that meant that she had disrupted one of the laws that always played in their favour, and we couldn't have that now, could we?

No matter that I wouldn't have had to break it if I could stay alive another way. Hard to keep breathing if your own body rebelled due to lack of nourishment. They gorged themselves till fat dripped off their fingers, looking the same as that stuffed pig they ate in one sitting, wagging their fingers when someone asked for the bones to feed a whole family. Filthy pigs.

I wanted to spit in their faces, I really did. There were no two ways about it. Thing is, that usually puts me off my step and as of now, I had to concentrate not only on avoiding those pursuing me but dodging those who now actively stood in my path. Not that they'd know what to do with me if they did manage to stop me. Like trying to hold an eel without any hands. Good luck with that.

Now unfortunately for me, the officers proved themselves to be rather proficient in catching me. Doing it day in day out certainly gave them enough practice. I would commend them on their improvement if I didn't come at the cost of my freedom and dinner. I suppose they were just doing their jobs so that they could feed their families and letting me free would jeopardize that. Well damn, those greedy pigs managed to warp the system quite beautifully, didn't they?

A pickpocket is what they called my people. Pickpocket was funny to me for reasons that made no sense to most people out there. I both picked the fattest pocket and then deftly picked out what I wanted to have. Picking the people whose pockets I was going to pick. Pretty funny, I thought. No many others did. Maybe the street life had gone to my head, or they were too caught up in those few missing cents that had somehow disappeared into the hands of dirty little children.

"You there!" The sharp voice sliced through again. "Freeze."

I wanted to laugh. No good pickpocket worth their salt ever froze when demanded to. At this point, it was just a warning call for everyone else to get out of their way. A polite way to say it. The sort of way that snooty people listened to more often than being told to 'move'. Now it became a fun little game of tag that either ended in disgrace for the police or imprisonment for the victim. Neither was desirable for both parties, I get that, but hell would freeze over before I ever gave in to them. Nah, I had myself and every other younger child out here to look after.