Lilith threw an experimental punch. The man dodged it pretty easily, and swung his right fist at her chin, to which she responded by countering it. Her fist met the man’s upper lip; however, she was too slow to counter his fist to her collarbone. She took a few steps back to analyze the surroundings. There was the counter in front of her, the fridges to the right, and shelves behind her. The store was small and the exit to her left. She gave the guy enough time to get out from behind the counter, and then rushed him, aiming a roundhouse kick to his solar plexus. He tried dodging it, but it clipped his elbow, and he quickly jumped out of her range, and then broke out a knife. Lilith’s eyes narrowed. She had also brought a knife, her switchblade, but she had no intention of killing the employee. It might lose her a valuable client. The grip on his knife was very loose – he had no conviction in his grip. He was afraid of killing another person.

“You’re bringing a fucking knife to a fistfight; hiding behind a blade to protect your shit when the enemy hasn’t the same luxury. How pathetic. I bet you have to pay people to even be in your presence.” His features went scarlet. “Don’t try to fool me, girl. I know you have a knife, too. Stop babbling and pull it out.” Lilith smirked. It was men like these who were too easily riled up. If she played this right, she’d be home-free sooner than she thought.

“This started out as a fist fight, shit stain. One does not involve knives in fist fights. Well, apparently some fuckers do, but you can’t really blame them for having their brains in their ass!” Lilith dodged a stab, using his momentum to crash him into the fridges. His boss wouldn’t be very happy with that. “How was I to know that you weren’t going to pull it out? Women are deceptive little liars. They should know their place.” Lilith raised her eyebrows, flicking away a piece of black hair from her eyes. “That’s fucking sexist. Someone’s had lady issues.” He managed to strike her arm, ripping her hoodie and causing her to swear. He grinned and moved in to stab her, but she swiftly rammed the heel of her palm into his temple, knocking him out. The man fell to the floor. He would be up in a few hours, plenty of time to run. She sprinted out the store and through the streets, reaching her apartment. The owner would be back soon and she didn’t want to be there when he chewed out the clerk.

Settling down on her bed, she bandaged herself up, getting some rubbing alcohol to disinfect her cuts, soon realizing she had left the Bacardi at the store. “Shit!” Lilith hissed. After the fight she had looked forward to getting smashed, but in her haste had forgotten to grab the rum. She packed up some extra weapons to ensure that she wouldn’t get injured like that again, concealed her bruises, and headed off. She could always get a bottle off of Adrian or something.