Watching the coin flip around and around in the air sucked the breath out of Victoria’s body. Her eyes were locked on the coin and she felt her hands held tight in a knuckle, her nails drilling into the skin of her palm. The air around her was cold, but she had been smart enough to wear a long coat before going out and was grateful for its warm cotton. Victoria’s hair was all around her, her dark brown locks framing her head, making her red cheeks even redder and her face looking pale. The alley around her was dark, filthy and deserted, and she knew that even if she had wanted to scream, she would have gotten no help. The only one to hear her would have been the man in front of her with the frightening grin plastered to his mouth and the sinister look in his soulless eyes. What seemed as an hour happened to be simple seconds, when she finally heard the clicking sound of the coin drop to the ground and his quick movement, to go plant his brown scarred leather boot on top of it. Her destiny lied under the tip of his dirty boot. How ironic could this situation more be? She thought, getting an almost bitter look in her face. 
Victoria dreaded having to look up at the big man, but she did not want to show herself as pathetic, so catching his eyes with her own made her almost want to piss herself.

“Now, now… What do we have here now?” 

His voice had an undertone of lunatic in it, and she felt the need to swallow the vomit that had crawled up and away from her stomach in fear. Her whole body was shaking as she watched him bow down a tad and remove his boot from the coin that was hidden underneath it. His behaviour changed from playful to dull in matter of seconds and he hid his hand in the pockets of his coat. Victoria looked him desperate in the eyes, asking for permission to go have a look herself and when she saw what side the coin had landed on, she felt the tears starting to form in the eyes. Never had she ever felt that much relieve, that much stress and that much anxiety jump off her shoulders at the same time ever before. 

“I guess it’s tails. Fine, you win, but this will not be the last you see of me.”

Victoria watched as the man bowed down and picked up the coin, before walking two steps forward and standing himself right in front of her. He grabbed her pocket, opened it and dropped the coin in her pocket. 

“Save it for luck, who knows you might need it someday.” 

She felt stunned, could not move a single limb on her body yet she trembled so much without intending to that one would believe she had been shook by a jolt of electricity. He looked at her and smirked grimly. 

“I want you to find this person and get rid of him for me.” The man said and she stuttered in disbelief. Who was he to order her to do anything? Get rid of him for me. What does that even mean? She punched him back, dealing good damage to his ribcage on the try.

“You do not get to tell me to do anything.” Her sudden bolt in courage shocked her and she immediately took a few steps back and only stopped when her back hit the cold wall behind her. He stood were he had been standing before and just shook his head and burst out laughing.

“I get to tell you to do everything I want you to do, kiddo. If not, I will make sure that you will do it anyways.” He handed her a paper with a name on it, and Victoria knew that this would be the end of her free will. She took it from him and crumbled it, so he knew she was not going to do anything for him. 

“Kid, do as I say. I’m sure your sister would hate having to lose her life, because of your desire to be the innocent little girl you dream that you are. It’s going to happen sometime, we might as well make sure that your talent doesn’t go for granted.”
He spoke to her about killing other people as were it the most natural thing coming to him. But should she be expecting anything else from the man who just placed the decision on whether she herself was going to live or die, in a coin? She was brutally stunned at the thought of him looking at lives in the way he did. How was he able to look himself in a mirror? How was he able to kiss his mother goodbye, every time they parted and met, if he had not already killed her as well?

What sort of sick shit where one supposed to go through, to come to the point in life where they felt the need to play with everybody else’s life’s? Victoria almost felt sorry for him, thinking of all the reasons of why he had turned out the way he did. Did his parents abandon him as a child? Drop him somewhere on the street, leave him there and never turn back? What in heaven made him think that he had the power to send people away before their time? Did he really believe he was some death god? 

Victoria watched him turn around and walk away from her, she watched as he did not once display a single slight of emotions in his way of talking and his way of walking. She cursed him in the name of her god and she barely noticed herself pulling the coin up and sneaking a peek at it. Throwing it away would have been the smartest option for sure, but she felt herself connected oddly to the piece of metal. Grasping it in her hand and walking away from the spot she almost died.

“Tails it is.”
 

Victoria ran around the city looking for a safe spot to rest for the night and did not relax untill she found a small spot behind a fancy cafe somewhere in the city. She leaned back towards the wall and closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.

Next day the ground was cold and arid, the only dry spot being where Victoria had slept that night. It was early in the morning and she was barely awake, and knew she had to get up and get out, cause the streets would be filling up with people all over in no time, and that would give her the perfect opportunity to blend in an see if she could get her hands on something edible. The young girl stayed where she had been hidden in about half an hour, when noise from all the stores opening up and the people awake hurrying over to get some breakfast, appeared. She watched as a couple went into a baker and was going to get some bread for themselves, and she thought of that as an opening for her to run over and grab some for herself. Victoria made sure to keep her head down and not look at the people inside. The heavenly smell of baked bread was too seductive, and she had almost gotten a grin on her face when she grabbed a loaf of the bread on the counter. Victoria gave a quick glance to the side, and got eye contact, with the old baker Jeffrey, whom she definitely had had troubles with before. She watched as he stood up and took a couple of big steps in her direction and that was her que to run.

“Get back here, ya filthy rat!” Jeffrey the baker screamed at her, but still standing in the opening to his bakery. She knew he would never catch her, he was too slow. She was small, and fast and that gave her the advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, his lungs were giant, and still screaming his way to her and suddenly everyone around her had stopped doing whatever they were doing, to see what was going on today.

Victoria ran and ran, trying to find a loophole out of the place, but stopped up. Around her everyone from before had returned to do whatever and paid no attention to what was going on. That hurt Victoria’s feelings in some way, and she could not help but think was she that insignificant? Did she really mean that little, that not even the baker bothered searching for the girl who stole his bread? A feeling of dread caught up in her chest, Victoria felt as nothing but a rat. Stealing bread to survive was what she had to do, and she started thinking about how her life would be if she pursued something bigger. Something that would make her live, not just survive for the night.

She found a small alley and sit down to eat her bread. She took one bite and wanted to save some for later but ended up eating it all in one go the second she started. She sighed and pulled herself closer together to keep the warmth, her hands stuck deep in her pockets. Fingers grabbing a cold coin from the depths of it. Victoria shut open her eyes and took out the small coin and brought it closer to her face, so she could inspect it properly. She stared at it for minutes, maybe even half an hour before almost throwing it away, out of sight, but a small voice inside of her head told her not to and she ended up sticking it right back in the very same old pocket, as it was hidden in before.