Home ALone 
by alpesco
A very Young Brionn takes on some thieves.


The place looked ideal, just out of town, nice and secluded near the lake, but
near a main road. and what's more, we knew the owners had gone away for at
least a week.

There were three of us in the pick-up that night. Carl, Larry and me. I'm
Morris. Carl and Larry were small-time crooks with little experience of the
more sophisticated heist. I was the brains who had led them out of mugging old
ladies for cigarette money, and on to better things.

It was when we jemmied open the back door that we got our first shock. There
was somebody at home.

'Who's that?' A shrill voice from the stairwell above made us look up. A
little girl of about eight or nine looked down at us. I expected her to scream
and run when she realised what we were. But she didn't. She squinted her eyes,
staring straight at us in the meanest look possible, and said, ' What do you
want here? Get out, before I make you sorry!'

'Who are you, kid?' I asked.

'I'm Brionn. I live here, and I want you out. Now!'

We stared at her in astonishment for a moment. Then first Larry, then all of
us began to laugh.

It was then that the baseball hit. It came flying out of the stairwell
straight at us, its trajectory deadly accurate as it crashed into Carl's
temple. The kid must have had a good arm, because the ball hit rock solid,
drawing a loud curse from its victim as he staggered backward, clutching his
head.

I looked round to see a huge bruise rising on the side of his face, with blood
trickling from it. A second ball followed a second later, thudding into
Larry's open mouth. It dropped to the floor like a stone, followed by three of
his front teeth. He cursed, raising a hand to his split lip and drawing it
away filling with blood.

A third and fourth hard ball whistled towards us. One struck me on my upraised
arm. Despite myself, it made me cry out in pain. How hard could this kid
throw? I was glad It hadn't hit me in the face as it would have done if I
hadn't raised my arm to shield myself. Behind me, Larry squawked as a second
ball cracked into his face just between the eyes. He fell, moaning, to the
floor.

Two more balls came down, followed by some heavy glass objects. All struck
hard, very hard. We retreated under the rain of missiles

'I'll kill that kid!' Carl roared as we retreated to the safety of the
outdoors. 'She can't throw those things all night'

'What if she calls the cops?'

'It's all right,' I said. 'I've cut off the phones.'

Just then a window opened above us and a wooden cabinet dropped out, hitting
Carl on the head and smashing in pieces.

'Right!' he roared. 'Kid or no kid, I'm going to tear her apart!'

He ran back ino the kitchen, but the instant he opened the door, a heavy iron
pan flew out through it to crash in the middle of his face. Carl staggered
back with a groan, blood pouring from his shattered nose.

Larry shook his head, still dazed from the two hardball hits. 'Let's go,' he
said. 'Try somewhere else. This is too much trouble.'

'We're not gonna let a nine year old kid beat us, are we?' I roared. 'Come on!
Let's rush her!'

I led the charge back into the kitchen, holding up my arms to protect me
against two more flying pans. My forearms took them, but boy did they hurt.
Larry and Carl were beside me, holding up chairs to shield themselves from any
more iron.

Now at last we could see our short antagonist. I say short, for she was only a
kid, but I could see now she was tall for her age, almost five foot tall, long
and gangly.

'I warn you, you idiots,' She stood at the far end of the room in front of a
doorway and made some Kung-fu motions with her hands. 'I study martial arts,
and I'm real strong for my age. You three better get lost before I do you some
serious damage.' She looked directly at Larry and Carl. 'You're pretty beat up
now as it is!'

With a furious roar, Larry ran at her. To my surprise she stood her ground
till the last minute, then she suddenly pivoted on one foot. Her right leg
flew up in a fraction of a second to drive its heel hard into the side of the
advancing man's knee. Larry gave a shrill whoop of pain as the girl ran off
into the darkness.

Larry staggered, half-hopping to the bannisters where he supported himself on
one arm.

'What now?' I said impatiently. 'Follow her!'

'My leg!' he gasped, half hopping, half stumbling forward. 'The little bitch
has broken my leg!'

'Don't talk sh...' I began, but now I could see he could put no weight on the
injured knee, which was now bent at a funny angle where the kid'd kicked it.
It was broken, sure enough! What sort of kid was this?

Carl's nose was still bleeding badly. Up the stairs!' I said, pointing. 'Cut
her off!'

As Carl obeyed, I ran after her through the door. As expected, she fled up the
back stairs I'd noticed earlier. Once sure she'd gone, I doubled back to the
kitchen. Sure enough, Brionn appeared on the landing overlooking the kitchen,
just as Carl got there. For the first time we had the initiative.

'Grab her! I cried.

Carl spread out his arms to catch her, but he was too slow. She ducked beneath
them and spun round behind him.

Fool. Now she was trapped between us! But turning, she stooped and wrapped her
arms about Carl's knees from behind, locking them tight to hold his legs
firmly together. To my surprise, Carl, all 180 pounds of him, now struggled
unsuccessfully to tear himself free.

I was even more astonished when, with a loud grunt of effort, the girl
straightened her body, her arms still locked tightly round Carl's knees. To my
amazement, she managed to stand straight, lifting the 35 year old man clean
off his feet, and holding him up a foot off the ground!

Carl let out a yell of astonishment, which turned swiftly to a cry of fear, as
with a brutal twist of her body, the girl sent him tipping right over the
bannisters! He crashed through the thin rails to fall to the kitchen floor
fifteen feet below. His outstretched elbow hit me as he fell, knocking me to
the floor.

I looked up, through a mist of pain, to see Brionn staring down at the two of
us entangled on the wooden floor. As I watched, she jumped, curling herself
into a tight ball as she plunged towards us. She struck, knees first. I only
caught the edge of the impact. Carl took most of it, but the pain as one of
her knees drove into my stomach was almost unbearable.

She sprang lithely to her feet as I gasped in pain, but sheer anger drove me
up after her. Grabbing her round the waist, I lifted her in a tight bear-hug.
'Got you!' I roared.

'Let go of me!' she screamed, her face a mask of fury.

'I've got you now, you little rat!' I yelled, 'Now I'm going to...'

Her arms still free, she used her right to hit me hard in the mouth. Using
both my arms to hold her in place, I couldn't protect myself, and now she
began to send a rain of punches storming into my face. I was astonished by the
sheer solid power of her punches, and just how painful they were. Her fists
were rock hard, and they came in so hard and so fast! They closed my left eye,
split my lip, and sent blood flowing down my face - all in a few seconds.
Every three seconds, a half-dozen more of those blows rained in. And the
punches were getting harder and harder as the girl concentrated all her effort
into them. I felt my nose break, two teeth tear loose, my cheekbone crack..
Her fists were doing too much damage! I had to let her go!

As I dropped her, she turned and drove her heel into my foot. I cried out as I
felt one of the bones snap and another wave of pain hit me. The girl was
heading for the far door.

'After her!' I roared in rage, leading the charge after her through the open
door. On the far side of a large bare room the girl stood watching us with an
odd look on her face.

..That's when the trapdoor beneath us opened up. I screamed as we plummeted
twenty feet onto the concrete floor of the cellar. The three of us just lay
there groaning, frightened to move in case we did ourselves any more damage.
We stayed still while Brionn left the building, waiting there quietly until
the police and the medics turned up.