Mary Corwin rubbed her aching wrists, frowning as she glanced over her laptop. For the weekend her advanced placement history teacher had assigned her a paper on the fall of the Roman Republic, and she was almost done. History had always fascinated Mary- but 5 page essays never had. The worst part is she knew it would only get worse in college. Still, nothing beat the satisfaction of an education well earned- and if she wanted to get anywhere in this world she would have to work for it.
Her shoulder-length black hair had fallen into her face again.
"Pppht- ppht-" Mary blew the hair out of her face, frustrated. For some reason she had put this off, but that was the last straw. She reached into a drawer to find her vast and not-at-all tangled collection of elastic hair-ties. Her shoulders sank when there was none there. Reaching her white, un-calloused hands up to her face to try and wipe the exasperation off of it.
Pushing her rolly chair back, Mary walked next door to her brother's room, who was playing on his Play-Station 2.
"Paulie. Have you seen my hair-ties?""Nope." The ten year old said so overly casual it was borderline insulting.
"Haven't you out grown this yet?""Nope."
"It's not even clever."Paul just giggled. Blowing the air through her lips, Mary glanced over her shoulder. Mom was probably in the living room, which was to the left of the small hall-way that lead into the three small bedrooms of their one storey house.
"Okay fine," Mary said, a playful meanness in her voice. She strode over to his Ps2 and unplugged the wired controller.
"Hey!" He protested in his high pitched voice that could easily melt her heart if he was ever anything but horrible.
"Where are they?" She said, holding the wire above his now grasping hands.
"Don't make me beat you up!"
"Are you threatening me?""Yeah!"
"I won't give it back until-" She swatted away a particularly lunging swipe. Soon he was going to be almost as tall as she was, but luckily she'd be out of the house by then so she wouldn't have to put up with this crap anymore.
"I won't give it back until you give me my hair ties.""I'm trying to save the city!"
"I'm trying to save my essay."Their mothers face rang out from the living room. "Is everything okay in there?"
The two froze, Mary's face stinging from being roped into another childish game by her little brother. She was trying to grow up over here and this little jerk always managed to make her feel like a stupid kid playing recess games. He had a poop-eating grin on his face despite the fact that *he* was the one currently being harassed.
Mary smiled tightly and tossed the wire into his arms.
"Yeah, everything's good." She called out back to Mom. She pointed at him, eyes wide, as she began to leave the room.
"They're in that drawer, dummy." Paulie said, pointing.
"Thaaanks." Mary said totally 100% genuine, opening the drawer and expecting, she didn't know, a bomb to go off or something. Lo and behold it was her hair ties, all clumped on. Mary clicked her tongue.
"Man, you got 'em all tangled up.""They were already like that!" He said, offended, as if
this accusation was one step too far. Mary squinted hard at him as she left the room. Getting back into her chair, the young woman successfully tied her hair into her 'signature' ponytail. It was the style she preferred.
Finishing up her work an hour later, Mary opened the closet. Inside were clothes hanging up, shoes, etc, but the two points of interest for regular people were the two back packs on the floor. A blue back-pack full of books, notes, school supplies... and a black one. Inside was a gun, 12 bullets, and a knife. Paying no mind, Mary grabbed the blue one and did a little skip out of her room.
"Hey mom, I'm heading out with friends." She called out behind her.
"Okay," She responded, wheeling herself from behind the counter with a tray of food in her lap. She had tired but friendly eyes and had maintained diet and exercise after her accident a few years back. She smiled.
"Just be back before midnight, okay?" They had built up quite a bit of trust over the years, and she knew that Mary was prepared for almost any threat. Despite being a thing statured teenager her daughter was proficient in self-defense for obvious reasons, and she knew that Mary wouldn't get into trouble.
"No problem, mom. Love ya,""Love you too."
Mary closed the door, closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh afternoon air. It smelled of possibility.
It certainly did. Perhaps not the kind of possibility Mary was looking for, but things were about to change in Salem. She began to open lift up the garage door to fetch her bike, by getting out her key and kneeling down to fiddle with the lock.
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