Colossal Titan (Open)

It was a tactical retreat.

She wasn’t running away.

This was the most exercise she’d gotten in a while, and she’d thought for certain that her pursuers would have given up already, but nope. They were chasing her like hounds after a fox. Though it was irritating, she had stolen from the wrong person, it seemed. These mall cops meant business, that was for sure. It wasn’t even a huge mall—just an outlet mall. What did they care?

And it was such a small thing—a thing that she needed! They really didn’t need to chase her seven blocks. Ronni was frankly surprised they could even run that long without collapsing—she at least got exercise every day, and her side was already on fire, protesting ever movement.

Ronni didn’t have her backpack with her this day. It was at home, full of school stuff for once, instead of nicked goods. The thing she’d stolen was small enough for her to fit in her hoody pocket, anyway. She had thought she’d been careful, that no one had spotted her—and they hadn’t. But the stupid store had those alarms. In Wal-mart they didn’t give a shit if their alarms went off, but apparently this place did.

All of this running for rolled up shirt—a nice shirt, sure, one that she could wear without feeling like a homeless girl. One that wouldn’t get her yelled at in school. It wasn’t her fault she only had three nice shirts to wear. . . .

These mall cops.

Finally she decided to really try to lose them. She grabbed a railing and used it to quickly propel her around a corner before she hurdled past a group of people and into a big building with a big “Union Station” sign mounted on top. They growled at her, but she ignored them. She had bigger problems.

With quick fingers, she nabbed someone’s ticket right from their hand while they were looking at it, shoved it into the ticket reader, and then blasted through. She could hear the cops calling after her, telling people to stop her.

There—the train. Or whatever it was called. Ronni thought it was a train.

But—no! The doors were starting to close. Ronni put on a new burst of speed and tried her best to make it. Hopefully she just looked like someone who really wanted to be on that train instead of some guilty party—thankfully the crowd had slowed down the cops that had tailed her all this way.

Fuck they were serious.

When she thought she was going to make it—the doors shut. Ronni let out a frustrated snarl and braced herself for impact. Great, now she was going to have to ride home in the back of a cop car. But where was she going to go? They didn’t have a home to take her to—well, if she didn’t tell them they would just keep her until her dad came and got her. They wouldn’t take her away then. . . .

However, the impact never came. Instead, Ronni stumbled inside. She tripped over a seat and fell in a heap on the floor, landing on her hands and knees. Ronni was panting and her side hurt, and now she was confused. The doors had closed, she knew it. Had she?

A quick glance around at the bewildered looks of some of the witnesses told her exactly what she had thought—she’d ran through the doors. Phased right through them onto the train. Slowly, Ronni got to her feet as the train started to move and looked out the small door window. The cops had just made it through the crowd, but they couldn’t find her.

Still stunned, Ronni stared down at her hands. How had she managed that?