"What are you two lazy little wenches doing asleep? It ain't even proper dark out yet!"

Ashley and Maya woke to see their mother standing over them, wearing her special clothes.

"Don't you two brats listen to anything I say? I TOLD you to stay awake until I got back, didn't I? Ah, up now anyway, up now."

Ashley was immediately suspicious of this apparent good mood—as she passed by her mother she sniffed, but it wasn't the stink of cheap booze that assaulted her nostrils, it was a perfume that was trying to imitate the scent of a rose and failing by a wide margin.

"Ashley, you're to stay here," Ashley heard her mother say, as she washed her face. "Mind the house and clean up a little. I've brought some bread home, you can have half of it if you get hungry."

Ashley glanced back at her mother, frowning, then she dried off her face and straightened.

"What about Maya?" she asked.

"Maya's coming with me. It's about time she started earning money for this little family."

"She already does, she helps me on my jobs—"

"Don't bring no more money in doing a job with her along than if you were alone, do it? No, no, not that one," said their mother, snatching the plain brown dress Maya was holding from her hands, "I've bought you a new dress, look at how pretty it is."

Ashley watched her sister's face as she looked at the dress—it was red with black buttons, cut short with a ruffled hemline.

"Oh, it's beautiful!"

"Don't I know beauty? Put it on now, let's see how you look in it."

"What kind of work is it?" Ashley asked, as Maya put on her new dress.

"The kind that puts food in our bellies, there ain't nothing more you need know about it."

Ashley's eyes narrowed. "Maya's tired," she said. "She can't work tonight."

"You ain't tired, are you sweet?"

"No, I'm okay—Ash, it's fine, I want to help earn money."

"See? The useless daughter turns out to be a good girl in the end, just like a story," said their mother, fussing over Maya's hair, roughly combing it straight. "And we won't be long, won't take more'n an hour or two."

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"No," Ashley said, stepping towards them. "Maya ain't working tonight."

"You'd best shut your mouth, Ashley Thompson. You ain't bigger'n your ma, not yet."

Ashley stood there, fists clenched at her sides, glaring at her mother, watching her prepare Maya for work. After a few seconds her mother glanced at Ashley again and laughed.

"Oh, don't be jealous now, grouch. You're doing well enough with your little jobs, Mr Amon's treating you right good, just because you ain't pretty enough to work like your mother—"

"Shut up. Shut up and get away from my sister." Ashley's voice was low and dangerous. She could feel herself getting hot, felt her face flush, her palms itching. "She ain't working, not like you do."

"Would you listen to your fool of a sister," their mother said to Maya, as she pinched her cheeks hard. "She doesn't know WHAT she's talking about, does she?"

"Hell if I don't!" said Ashley, her palms itching more now, the prickling sensation spreading to her fingers as she clenched her fists. "And hell if you're taking her out!"

"She ain't going on the streets, if that's what you're worried about," said their mother, pushing Maya's hair back away from her face before staggering suddenly, the force of Ashley's punch enough to unbalance her—but only for a second.

"Ma, don't! Please! I don't mind working, I want to work, don't hurt her!"

Ashley squirmed in her mother's firm grip, legs kicking out, her hands grasping at her mother's thick arms.

"That temper of yours is gonna get you into a lot of trouble someday," their mother growled, as she held Ashley tight and slapped her across the face, hard enough to leave a harsh red mark on her cheek. Ashley growled, tears in her eyes as she glared at her mother.

"I hate you!" she screamed, before another slap, even harder than the first, sent her sprawling to the floor. She clutched at her cheek, crying in frustration and pain. "I HATE YOU!" she screamed again, as she twisted around, saw through blurry, teary eyes her mother pulling Maya towards the door, taking her out to—

Ashley pushed herself to her feet, the itch in her hands spreading to her knuckles, the prickle of before now more like a burning, but she ignored that as she burst through the door, running after her mother and sister, along narrow, dim corridors and down narrow, dim stairs, catching the two of them in the corridor leading outside.

"LET HER GO!" Ashley screamed, as her mother went to open the door leading out on to the streets.

"You ain't never been smart," her mother said. She looked down at Maya. "Stay here, sweet."

"Ma, PLEASE don't hurt her! She doesn't mean it, she's just upset—"

"Oh, I know she's upset, sweet. But that ain't never been an excuse, not in my book."

Ashley breathed hard, in and out, as she wiped her eyes and watched her mother approach, clenched her fists and put them up, like Mr Amon taught me, she thought, just—

Ashley shrieked as her mother reached out and grabbed her by the hair, lifting her off the ground.

"Nuh. You ain't near big enough to—"

With a roar of powerless anger Ashley swung her arm out, catching her mother across the cheek with a weak slap, the itching, burning feeling in her hand intense as she felt the impact, felt something more than the impact, and then her mother was screaming, and there was a horrible smell, and Ashley felt a hard shock as she was dropped, fell heavily against the wall of the narrow corridor, was dazed for a moment—and then she saw her mother, still screaming in terror and pain, on her hands and knees but with one hand cradling her face, and beneath her hand Ashley could see the charred and burnt skin beneath, and then she looked up to see Maya, her sister's eyes wider than she'd ever seen them, and then Ashley was reaching out, grabbing her sister's wrist, and they were running, out of the door leading to the street, out of the building they'd lived in for the past few weeks, out of their neighbourhood, out of Unity ... just out.