Molly hated days like these the most. Most people were already heading inside to avoid the rain when it came, but Molly’s options weren’t as good as most when it came to finding shelter against the raging elements.
Molly was a young woman very nearly at the end of her 18th year, although some calculated choices in her appearance made her seem a little older. Molly’s blonde hair was short and untidy, the victim of a very rough, unprofessional haircut that gave her a naturally scrappy look, only amplified by the red bandana she wore on her head. Her shirt and pants were both blue denim, dirty, faded, and weather-beaten. The girl was wearing a little makeup, although it was inexpertly applied and clearly cheap, much like the cheap pack of cigarettes she clutched.
Despite her age, Molly was a petite girl, a few inches short of five feet tall and skinny as a rail. She walked and held herself like she was much bigger than she was, though, and between her swagger and her disheveled appearance, Molly had the look of a rough, tough young woman despite her less-than-imposing build. Certainly the band-aids here and there on her hands and face suggested she wasn’t a stranger to fights; everything about Molly might put one in mind of the tough, angry little dogs that regularly picked fights with bigger dogs and won. The few people that were out and about made sure to avoid her; there was no way a girl who looked like that was up to any good, skulking around at corners!
In truth, Molly was just looking for a sheltered spot as she moved further and further out from the center of town, lighting one of her cheap cigarettes and starting to smoke it. She didn’t seem used to the action; while Molly projected an air of sophisticated indifference to the world around her with how she handled the cigarette, it was slightly to hesitant to be natural, as was the slight cough she tried to hide with each puff. Molly was a vagrant; a drifter from town to town with no real place to call her own. She was miles and miles away from anyone that might know her at this point. There weren’t any relatives or friends…or really anyone she could call on to let her in when the rain started, and Molly wasn’t looking forward to being caught outside when the downpour began.
Still, she reminded herself, she’d gotten through storms before, both near and far away from busy areas. She was a tough girl, and she prided herself on never asking anyone for anything. She’d survived plenty of rough nights before, and this one would be no different. She just needed to find a safe spot to weather the storm…
This, and getting far away from the little store she’d “acquired” her cigarettes and some food and supplies for later in before anyone raised a stink, drove Molly out past the edge of town in her search for shelter. As she saw the buildings drop off, she began to grit her teeth, taking another deep puff from her cigarette to try and calm herself. She really didn’t want to try to bunker down in the woods, but…
Ah! A sign! Molly went over to see what it had to say quickly, and smiled.
PRIVATE PROPERTY! NO TRESPASSING!
What luck! Someone lived out here. That meant there was a house, probably a nicer one than the ones in town, in this direction. Molly never asked anyone for anything, as she’d reminded herself, and she certainly wasn’t going to ask whoever owned the place for help, but there had to be somewhere near the house where Molly could hide, eat her shoplifted snacks, and wait out the storm before she moved on. She just needed to be careful she wasn’t seen…
As the rain started, Molly pressed quickly into the unknown territory of the property’s owner, darting from tree to tree to try and keep the rain off her but not lingering under any for fear of lightning. This was a nice, big property, she thought to herself as she looked for a house or a shed she could sneak towards before the rain really got heavy. She wondered who it belonged to…