Abort.

What a strange, strangled word, Lily thought to herself as she traced a finger down the page of the latest Superman comic. Pulling her tiny pocket dictionary from her handbag, she finds the word and reads the definition. There were several entries, but the only one that made sense to her read as follows:

To terminate (an undertaking or procedure) before implementation or completion.

Well now that made sense! The Commissioner would be silly not to abort that attack on Superman! He'd just have to learn to trust that caped fellow, because he was a good person! 

Placing the comic aside, she glances at the clock. Gosh, it was late! Momma might actually notice her missing, so it was time to go on home. Locking up the shop, she cuts through a side alley to save some time and is halfway down it when she hears sneers and chuckles coming from the darkness. 

Abort.

The word popped into her head and wouldn't leave. Her steps slowed and she reached inside her pocket for the pearl-handled stiletto blade that @Alexander_Solonik had helped her buy from @SaintSilver 's shop. In her head, everything Uncle Alex had told her fell away like loose change down a sewer grate as two boys emerged and closed in on each side of her, spewing filth and profanities she'd never even heard of before. 

Abort.

All but one move did. Crouching and spinning behind one boy, she sunk her blade into the back of his knee. He screamed out in pain, and it startled her so badly that she forgot the second part of the move...get out of range of your attacker. He reached out and latched on to her foot, yanking her off balance and onto the filthy alley floor. The first boy loomed over her, and with a feral grin, he punched her in the face so hard that her head bounced off the cement. 

Abort.

Her brain went fuzzy, as did her vision. There were brief moments of clarity over the next twenty minutes, none of them good. Clothes ripping. Pain. Cruelty thinly disguised behind laughter. 

~

When she came to an hour later, they were gone. So was her beautiful mother of pearl knife. And her innocence.

Pulling herself upright, she nearly vomited from the dizziness. After a few more moments, she pulled her clothes together as best she could and half walked, half crawled back to her candy shoppe, where she collapsed on the floor and passed into fitful sleep.

~

She could do this, she told herself so as she stared in the restroom mirror the following day. A little cake makeup and powder, you couldn't see the bruised jaw hardly at all. There was a large lump on the back of her head, but no one could see that anyway. She could do this. Maybe the boys could tell, she didn't know if they could or not, but if she just kept acting the same, maybe they wouldn't know she wasn't clean anymore. She thought briefly about Frankie next door, he was so kind to her. And then her mind turned to @AnthonyBlack , who was suffering his own troubles in the Detroit penitentiary. Would he know when he saw her, that she was used up trash now?

A tear slips down her cheek before she has a chance to wipe it away. With a sigh, she goes to work reapplying the makeup.

~

A month later, Lily realizes she's missed her 'monthly visitor'. As she calls to make an appointment with @Gracie , the other definitions of the word she'd looked up that day came rushing back at her.

Abort.