Esther collapsed to the ground, panting in pain.
"Look doll, I said I only wanted your wallet." The mugger grinned from behind her, having just shoved her down. "You gonna be a good girl now? Or is Mr Pointy going to have to come out?"
Esther really hoped he was talking about the knife in his hands. She was a good looking girl, and she knew it: wide hips, thin waist, boobs, the works. Her face was pretty, although that was hard to see with her long brown hair stuck to it with sweat. All in all, a tempting target for a back-ally scum like this guy.
The mugger - a homeless-looking guy wearing a beanie - grabbed the back of her neck and hoisted her into the air, brushing the edge of his knife against her throat. "Your wallet. Now."
Esther made a frustrated noise, before slowly reaching into her skirt. As soon as the leather was free of the cloth, the mugger grabbed it out of her hands, dropping her and running with the stolen good. As he did so, his knife made a shallow cut on the front of her neck.
Esther took a minute to just lie on the ground, regaining her breath. Take a shortcut home from school, girl. Nothing can go wrong with that. Yeah right. On the bright side, at least I still have my phone.
Retrieving said object from her other skirt pocket, she dialed her home. "Yes, honey?" Her mother answered the phone. She always did seem to know when Esther was calling, even though her home phone lacked caller ID.
"I just got mugged, Mom. Call you call the bank and tell them - "
"Oh dear! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Mom." Esther waved her mothers concerns away. She peaked down the front of her shirt. Actually, considering how hard she'd hit the ground, she was expecting to see the start of some bruised on her front; but she couldn't see anything of the sort. "But he took my wallet, and - "
"Forget the wallet, dear!" Her mom interrupted. "What about you? She paused. "Did anything... strange happen?"
What kind of question was that? "No, Mom. I'm fine." She reached up to rub at her throat. Huh? She couldn't feel where she knew she had been cut. Nor could she feel the blood that had been leaking out of her just a minute ago. That's weird, but if I told Mom she'd freak out about it.
"Well, hurry on home then dear. I'll feel better when I can see you with my own eyes." With that, she hung up.
Esther sighed as she put away her mobile. She loved her parents, really she did, but they asked the weirdest questions at the weirdest times. When she'd asked her mom about her knack for answering the door before anyone knocked, she'd counter-asked if Esther had ever felt the urge to do the same. When there had been a radiation scare from the local reactor, her dad had asked if the gamma rays tasted like lemon to her. That sort of thing. This was just another case in a string of weird things that had been going on all her life.