Dana was walking home, alone, at night, in a terrorist infested city of war. Though there was no one around to be concerned about that fact. Evie was under the assumption she was in her room pouting and her father was away, assuming she was being kept safe under her sister’s watch.
She was obviously doing neither, but she grabbed the hood on her sweater and pulled it up over her baseball cap and kept going. A schoolyard attempt at one upping a boy who claimed to have once tagged an overpass devolved into a series of ‘nuh uh’s and bravado when Dana said there was no way he could’ve when he was just her age and probably would’ve killed himself, and that she could do that if she wanted to.
At some point they had realized their fight was going nowhere with made up feats of bravery they were bragging about in leveling amounts of ridiculousness, and challenges were issued. Dana had picked a spot she dared him to paint and he picked one for her in return. She was sure tomorrow his target would be clean but hers wouldn’t. She was just lacking in enough common sense to think it was possible, and lacking in enough supervision to get out there and make an attempt. She was so going to win this.
Well sort of. Dana’s target was an overhead walkway of an office building and the space to paint on was just a straight section of wall about three feet below the rail and twelve feet above ground. She frowned and stared before deciding to climb around the side of the building at a fire escape and slide over around the side might be the easiest route. At least the one that didn’t involve adding breaking and entering to her intended vandalism.
“Okay,” She huffed, looking up at the start of a ladder and started grabbing various things from the alleyway to stack under it in an attempt to reach. Recycling bins worked well enough, but she still couldn’t quite reach. There was a crate, but she wasn’t sure it would hold her weight.
Dana started at it for a long, contemplative moment before deciding it would be at the top anyway, and she only needed it to hold together for a second. It could handle a second, right?
So she started her climb and gingerly positioned her final box and tested it with one leg before hopping up to the top of her precarious tower. “Ha...!” She breathed, her fingertips just brushing against the bottom rung when she heard a fighting cracking noise, followed by the sensation of her foundations swaying under her feet. With a yelp, Dana made a desperate jump and grab for the ladder just as the entire thing collapsed beneath her
Her long legs kicked at the empty air as her hands held on for dear life for a terrifyingly silent few seconds. Just long enough for her to catch the approaching glimpse of a shadow or something, but she didn’t have time to really process it before she heard a snap and the groaning of metal. And the entire ladder slid down the building.
It stopped just short of letting her feet touch the ground, but the shock of the stop rang through her whole body and she ended up letting go, falling on her back in the pile of boxes with another yell. Oh god that hurt, and it took a lot of sitting there and whimpering to convince herself she wasn’t going to cry before she got brave enough to get up.
“Ow,” She squeaked out, hugging her arms against her. Okay, maybe she still wasn’t over that urge to cry thing. But after a few sniffles and pulling her backpack off to check her spray paint cans, she was more determined than ever to get up there.
She stood up, put her backpack back on and grabbed the straps to pull them both to tighten it with a short ‘harumph’. And then set to climbing, even though her arms hurt like hell. About two thirds of the way up she paused to stare at her target. The overhead walkway in the architecture would be a cinch to climb on if she could just cross the space between the fire escape ladder and the rail.
She hooked one sneaker on the ladder rung to balance herself as she made a dangerous lean to the side, flailing trying to grab a window ledge she thought she could use. She heard the metal holding her up groan, though, and another shake made her think the ladder was going to slide down some more and she panicked.
In some feat of magic, she managed to pivot on her leg and swing around to cling to the ladder, clenching her eyes shut until a long moment of silence let her be brave enough to open them.
Still alive, not broken yet.
But, the urgency with what she had set out to do was diminishing. She reached back into her backpack to fumble out a can of paint and ended up spraying a scribble on the window. It was better than nothing, but before she could even design a proper ‘******** u’ she noticed something glimmering in the pile of boxes below her and she was instantly distracted from the goal she’d already done so much for.
She dropped her paint can when she got distracted anyway.
She scrambled down to collect the dented spray paint can and look for whatever that shiny thing was, and was honestly thoroughly relieved to have both feet solidly on the ground. Kicking away broken recycling crates and shattered remains of boxes, she found a shiny silver... thing. With a logo on it to a brand she couldn’t really place. Some weird bird in a circle. Further inspection and she concluded it was a pen.
A really weird pen.
She was still trying to figure out what to do with it when she heard a “What are you doing?!” Shouted nearby and she jumped out of her skin. Not bothering to see who said it or if they were even talking to her, she darted off in the other direction and never looked back.
She was obviously doing neither, but she grabbed the hood on her sweater and pulled it up over her baseball cap and kept going. A schoolyard attempt at one upping a boy who claimed to have once tagged an overpass devolved into a series of ‘nuh uh’s and bravado when Dana said there was no way he could’ve when he was just her age and probably would’ve killed himself, and that she could do that if she wanted to.
At some point they had realized their fight was going nowhere with made up feats of bravery they were bragging about in leveling amounts of ridiculousness, and challenges were issued. Dana had picked a spot she dared him to paint and he picked one for her in return. She was sure tomorrow his target would be clean but hers wouldn’t. She was just lacking in enough common sense to think it was possible, and lacking in enough supervision to get out there and make an attempt. She was so going to win this.
Well sort of. Dana’s target was an overhead walkway of an office building and the space to paint on was just a straight section of wall about three feet below the rail and twelve feet above ground. She frowned and stared before deciding to climb around the side of the building at a fire escape and slide over around the side might be the easiest route. At least the one that didn’t involve adding breaking and entering to her intended vandalism.
“Okay,” She huffed, looking up at the start of a ladder and started grabbing various things from the alleyway to stack under it in an attempt to reach. Recycling bins worked well enough, but she still couldn’t quite reach. There was a crate, but she wasn’t sure it would hold her weight.
Dana started at it for a long, contemplative moment before deciding it would be at the top anyway, and she only needed it to hold together for a second. It could handle a second, right?
So she started her climb and gingerly positioned her final box and tested it with one leg before hopping up to the top of her precarious tower. “Ha...!” She breathed, her fingertips just brushing against the bottom rung when she heard a fighting cracking noise, followed by the sensation of her foundations swaying under her feet. With a yelp, Dana made a desperate jump and grab for the ladder just as the entire thing collapsed beneath her
Her long legs kicked at the empty air as her hands held on for dear life for a terrifyingly silent few seconds. Just long enough for her to catch the approaching glimpse of a shadow or something, but she didn’t have time to really process it before she heard a snap and the groaning of metal. And the entire ladder slid down the building.
It stopped just short of letting her feet touch the ground, but the shock of the stop rang through her whole body and she ended up letting go, falling on her back in the pile of boxes with another yell. Oh god that hurt, and it took a lot of sitting there and whimpering to convince herself she wasn’t going to cry before she got brave enough to get up.
“Ow,” She squeaked out, hugging her arms against her. Okay, maybe she still wasn’t over that urge to cry thing. But after a few sniffles and pulling her backpack off to check her spray paint cans, she was more determined than ever to get up there.
She stood up, put her backpack back on and grabbed the straps to pull them both to tighten it with a short ‘harumph’. And then set to climbing, even though her arms hurt like hell. About two thirds of the way up she paused to stare at her target. The overhead walkway in the architecture would be a cinch to climb on if she could just cross the space between the fire escape ladder and the rail.
She hooked one sneaker on the ladder rung to balance herself as she made a dangerous lean to the side, flailing trying to grab a window ledge she thought she could use. She heard the metal holding her up groan, though, and another shake made her think the ladder was going to slide down some more and she panicked.
In some feat of magic, she managed to pivot on her leg and swing around to cling to the ladder, clenching her eyes shut until a long moment of silence let her be brave enough to open them.
Still alive, not broken yet.
But, the urgency with what she had set out to do was diminishing. She reached back into her backpack to fumble out a can of paint and ended up spraying a scribble on the window. It was better than nothing, but before she could even design a proper ‘******** u’ she noticed something glimmering in the pile of boxes below her and she was instantly distracted from the goal she’d already done so much for.
She dropped her paint can when she got distracted anyway.
She scrambled down to collect the dented spray paint can and look for whatever that shiny thing was, and was honestly thoroughly relieved to have both feet solidly on the ground. Kicking away broken recycling crates and shattered remains of boxes, she found a shiny silver... thing. With a logo on it to a brand she couldn’t really place. Some weird bird in a circle. Further inspection and she concluded it was a pen.
A really weird pen.
She was still trying to figure out what to do with it when she heard a “What are you doing?!” Shouted nearby and she jumped out of her skin. Not bothering to see who said it or if they were even talking to her, she darted off in the other direction and never looked back.
(104 cool
