Thief

As my partner and I sat on the ledge of the museum outside eating our dinner I could see our breath in the air, I thought about how long I’d been doing this. The repetitive theft after theft just to get off the streets and put bread on the table, being a runaway at the age of 14 was hard and I had to do something to eat. But I had gotten good, very good and am now one of the best known thieves in the entire city. It’s a dangerous job however, due to the major problem with thievery in the last 25 years it’s become a crime punishable by immediate execution. The new government really had their way of cracking down on things. It was a cold night and there was a gentle frost on the windowsill, which almost made me feel as if I was going to slip. Although the frost and the sounds of the city below were almost… comforting. My accomplice took one more bite of his turkey sandwich, smiled, and pulled down his mask. “Well if we’re gonna do this let’s move!” I pulled down my mask and flipped around. I pulled out a small razor blade from my back pocket and he took a large suction cup from his pack. I cut an outline of a small hole on the window right above the latch, he then used the suction cup to pull the glass from where I cut.

I reached my hand in, sliding my fingers across the condensation on the window feeling the droplets build up on my fingertips, and unlatched the window. It opened with ease. We jumped in ready for anything, but not getting much. “Security doesn’t look that bad.” I agreed. My partner pulled out a small device and pushed a button. “I hooked this up to the frequency of the camera feed weeks ago.” The small frequency EMP was an invaluable tool when pulling major heists like this. We crept along to the glass casing holding the large diamond pocketing anything valuable we found along the way. “What’s the deal with this mysterious client?” I asked.

“I don’t know much about the guy; just that he’s one of those greedy business types looking to make a quick buck.”

“That seems odd. Usually not the type of guy to have something like this pulled.”

“It’s not our job to question the client.”

Still I felt something suspicious about the situation, but I pushed it aside to focus on the matter at hand. Repeating the same process we used on the window, we removed a large hole from the glass to access the diamond. That was easy… seemed almost too easy, but my cockiness told me I was just that good. We finished our job and and coming back out the way we came we parted to go home. I shook his hand and walked the back alleys about one block before I got to the location my car was hidden, I made the mistake of parking to close to the target building once before and will never do that again. I got in my car and drove home.

It was about 1 a.m. when I walked into my small, but expensive apartment on the 15th floor of my building. Crime pays well that’s for sure; I could hear the T.V. in the other room. It was talking about the recent string of thefts that had swept across the city. I couldn’t help but smile, and I went into the room and turned the T.V. off. I brushed my teeth and took some aspirin. I laid down and drifted into sleep.

When I woke up I was squinting my eyes, I could hear knocks and footsteps outside the door, and it was cops. I sprang out of bed and grabbed as much money and supplies as I could and jumped out the window onto the fire escape. I knew that client was suspicious, he was an undercover officer and I completely fell for it. I made my way down the fire escape and as I made the last jump down to the sidewalk my ankle caught the railing and I heard a loud SNAP as I fell. I landed on my back and I knew the ruckus had attracted the police, they immediately looked at me and chased me down. I tried to run but with the broken ankle I couldn’t get far before they swarmed me. I was beaten into submission and handcuffed before being thrown into a cop car. We drove a little ways before I saw my chance to escape. A small forest in the middle of the city, we called it the Heart. I knew this forest was my only chance to escape, not being the first time I’d been in cuffs I knew how to get them off quickly. I still had my metal armguards on and used them to smash the window, I dived out and rolled but knowing I wouldn’t have long I sprang into the air and landed on the hood of the car that almost hit me, that was close. I ran to the forest.

I rushed into the trees and quickly climbed the nearest big tree I saw, I swept the area and saw what I expected. Teams of men sweeping the forest. I heard a shout from below and a bullet whizzed past my head, I started to jump from tree to tree. I hit a branch with my right leg first not realizing my mistake, the ankle. It cracked and hurt as I hit the branch, I fell to the ground. The men surrounded me and I knew that I was going to die, one man who looked like the leader put his gun to my head. I was never one to believe in any gods but I prayed to all of them in that moment, more like begged for another chance. I wanted to start over and I promised I wouldn’t take the route of thieving again. I heard the man pull back the hammer and squeeze the trigger. Then bang, my eyes opened. I was on a bus.

I looked around the bus and got my bearings. I am a 14 year old runaway and I’m hungry. I looked around and saw a gold pocket watch hanging out of a man’s pocket just within reach. “Well I need some way to get off the streets and get some food.” I thought to myself. I pretended to bump into the man as I grabbed his watch. “Sorry sir. Didn’t mean to bump into you” I said as I robbed him. Well you know what they say, never trust a thief.