Traffic outside the train station was mad. It was lunch hour and it seemed all of London had taken to the streets. Shalina hesitated for a bit, looking for a taxi when a rat girl approached. She was dressed in tracksuit pants, a leopard print tank top and a gaudy designer blouse - a fake designer blouse, Shalina could tell - and enough cheap gold jewelry to weigh a body down under water.
“D’yo have a light?” the creature asked, getting uncomfortably close to Shalina and spreading a smell suggesting a steady diet of cheap beer and cigarettes. She wrinkled her nose and recoiled, a gesture not appreciated by the rat who raised her voice and repeated her question.
“I said d’you have a light?”
Shalina shook her head. “No.” Since the rat didn’t even have a cigarette she anticipated the ouverture was just a cover, and rightly so, as the rat pulled out a sad looking knife.
“Well fuck you then, give us your money.”
Shalina couldn’t believe the nerve, and in broad daylight too. Still, nobody seemed to notice, or - if they did - care.
“Are you deaf? Give us your money, you fucking paki!”
Behind her back, Shalina rolled her newspaper up tighter and adjusted her grip.
“Please leave me alone.”
The rat waved her knife impatiently.
“I’ll leave you alone after you give me yo-OUFF”
Shalina had unceremoniously jabbed the rodent hard in the gut with the rolled up newspaper, striking upwards to knock the wind out of her opponent before giving her a hard shove out into traffic, tripping her up with a foot as she did so.
Quickly, without checking on the results she turned on her heel and started walking away, trying not be feel too satisfied by the squealing brakes, thump, and honking behind her.