Going for the win

Trigger - descriptions of domestic abuse

***

She was desperate. Sitting in her borrowed car, fingering the "joke" pistol on her lap, her knees jiggled with nervous anticipation at what she was planning. Balaclava at the ready, dressed in black, for the part. If only she felt like she could do this...

She tried to breathe deeply but her chest was constricted by tension, yes, but more so, by the reminders of brutal injury. She had made the mistake of looking at her body this morning and been horrified at the colour of her blue skin and its misshapen landscape. She had winced as she had pressed the contours of violence showing on her skin.

She had tried to escape before but she had always been persuaded to come home. It had seemed like the easiest option then, with no money and no options.

But something had broken in her that night, as she lay on the floor and it wasn't only her ribs.

It was time.

Deep breath, balaclava on, door open, quick exit.

The old lady in the music shop was terrified by the black-clad gun-wielding robber as she handed over the cash.

Fleeing the scene, her balaclava hid her shame.

***

Another micro-fiction challenge and a sequel to "And the winner is...?", a previous micro-fiction Top Story. Inspired by L.C. Schäfer's request for a heist sequel to a different story Life Through Glass which is still in the making...