For a moment she felt only anger.

How dare he steal from her?

Each impact on her knuckles vented a bit of that anger in the thief's face, sapping her little by little until she had enough.

When she stopped and inhaled a breath of air, Erica saw herself on the man's torso. His nose was twisted and covered in blood, his face smashed. Beneath them both, a large, red puddle stained her knees.

She stood up, feeling the gaze of other people on her back at a safe distance. The thief had stopped breathing some time ago. His face was unrecognizable. He was dead, very dead.

The girl looked at her knuckles, covered with his blood. She stretched and contracted her fingers to ease the stiffness. Then she shook her head to pull herself together. There was nothing to be done about the guy, there was no turning back. She had to stop looking at him and start thinking about how to get out of there.

She looked at the subway platform. It wasn't rush hour, but there were still a lot of people crowded around, staring at her and the corpse dumped on the floor. She would have to push her way through. So she bent down to pick up her wallet from the thief's hands, put it in her pocket and ran with her head down toward the wall of people staring at her.

Naturally, some stepped aside to avoid any possible conflict with the young girl who had just killed a man with only her fists. Others interposed their bodies to prevent the murderer from escaping.

Erica, seeing it coming, merely punched them in the stomach to paralyze them in place and get through safely. Soon, however, the density of people increased and it became very difficult for her to avoid them, so she jumped over their heads and leaned on their shoulders and necks to advance at full speed towards the stairs.

She ascended fast as a rocket towards the street. She was downtown, it was almost four in the afternoon and it was crowded. It was autumn, and it was colder outdoors than in the subway. She had an excuse to cover the blood on her chest. She quickly untied her sweatshirt from her waist and pulled it on, hoping no one would notice her red—stained hands. The feeling of warm liquid on her chest wasn’t very comfortable, less so knowing that not long ago it had been inside the man's body, but she didn't have much choice at that moment.

She had to get to her dad. He knew what to do in that kind of situation. Without thinking twice, she ran down the street, between cars. She passed cars going the speed limit and jumped buses stopping to pick up passengers. She didn't want to attract attention, but she had to get to him fast if she wanted to avoid trouble.

—It's not my fault they're all jerks— she said to herself— He robbed me, I just defended myself.

Thinking that, she realized that she hadn't heard sirens or anything like that for a good ten minutes since leaving the subway. For a second she thought she was finally off the hook, but her hopes were shattered soon after, when a patrol car skidded around a corner behind and started chasing her. The cops even fired into the air to scare her.

—Shit— she thought— should I fight?

She looked in both directions, but there was no hiding place. She had no battery in her phone, so she couldn't call her dad. She had no choice.

Erica slowed to a stop and turned around. The patrol car stopped in front of her, two policemen got out, pointing their guns at her at all times. She had to let herself be arrested, at least for the moment. She would do something later.

Erica was an 18—year—old girl with long, voluminous blonde hair. Her features were sharp and, although pretty, she didn't wear makeup, because it intimidated her. Her face was expressive and her blue eyes looked hostile by default.

Less than an hour after being arrested, the young woman found herself in a police station cell. She was frustrated, for it hadn't been long since they had moved to that city and already they would have to move again for killing that stupid thief. Of course she knew that killing was wrong, but sometimes she couldn't help it, people were just too fragile.

She was in these thoughts when the grille of her cell opened. The girl tensed her muscles before looking, expecting to meet one of the policemen. Instead she found a man with short, wheat—colored hair and a smile as solid as a bulwark. Lucifer Sanz was tall and stocky, although he usually disguised his threatening body very well with sympathy and eloquence.

—Dad!— exclaimed the girl, jumping up and down in surprise.

She ran to embrace him before giving him time to speak.

—Are you all right? — he asked —They didn't do anything to you?

—Nothing out of the ordinary — and by ordinary, Erica meant a few shoves and blows.

Her father nodded in agreement. Then he stroked her head and gestured with his chin for her to follow him outside.

As they crossed the corridor, Erica noticed a few bodies lying around, another on a desk and a couple of policemen in a cell that had previously been unoccupied. All unconscious.

—Heh...— she said proudly.

—I'm tired of these cops— he explained —We're going to have a vacation, you and me.

—Oh, yes— she exclaimed, happy.

Lucifer grabbed the desk nearby, removed the officer on top of it with one hand and with the other charged the piece of furniture as if it were a shield. Then he turned around the corner, followed by his daughter, only to find two more policemen pointing their guns at them.

—Let go of that...

The policeman stopped for a moment when he noticed that Lucifer was carrying a desk as if it weighed nothing. He took advantage of the moment of hesitation to throw it at him. The desk rammed the subject and dragged him the length of the room until he was smashed against the wall. The other officer watched all this with bewilderment, and by the time he remembered that he was in front of two criminals and thought about shooting them, Erica knocked the pistol away from him and kicked him against the wall.

As the fugitives left the police station, amid debris and siren noises, Erica looked at her father with joy. Fighting cops was never a bad exercise, but doing it with him was exciting. He noticed that he had his daughter's attention, so he smiled at her.

—Dad...— she snapped at him.

—Yes?

Erica shrugged her shoulders and ducked her head, shy.

—I’m sorry I did it again. I know it's a lot of work for you to move places every time I fuck shit up.

Lucifer let out a light laugh.

—Don't worry, my princess. It happens to all of us.

—You too?— the girl was surprised.

—Ha! Of course, many times... and many times I would like to say that they were accidents.

Erica was eager to dig deeper into her father's violent past. She loved it when he told stories on the verge of being believable, but the stories would have to wait, for at that moment several police cars appeared from both sides of the street. Dozens of police officers got out and pointed their guns at them.

—I think it's time to go— proposed Lucifer.

—Yes— replied an excited Erica.

The policemen barked orders, but the fugitives were no longer listening to them. Father and daughter took a huge leap and fell like bombs between the cars.

Lucifer kicked up a patrol car and threw it at half of the uniformed men. All around, the rest of the police opened fire, but none of them hit the target. Erica grabbed one guy by the leg and used him as a mace to hit the others. Finally, she threw the man into the air, who flew away, broke a window and fell inside a building.

Before the cops recovered, the criminals jumped into one of the cars that had been left intact and ran away.

Those were Erica and Lucifer, two strong fugitives.