Of Thieves And Do Gooders

To write a note to ones self, easier than it would seem right? In my case, not so much, and yet here I am. Writing a note to remind me, to make me remember.

Then again, I suppose it isn't exactly a note to just myself now is it? No, I mean, you're reading this aren't you? Well, I might as well tell a story if it's waiting around to be told, since stories can't exactly tell themselves.

But first, my reminder:

Of thieves and do-gooders, thieves are more prone to survival.

But that's enough of that, I suppose I'll start from the beginning...

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Rich people, how they annoy me...then again I can't exactly complain that they're rich, since it's their wealth that allows my survival. Oh well, I like complaining, so you might as well get used to it now.

I fiddled absently with my necklace as I waited anxiously outside of a small department store. Where the hell was that guy? He had gone into that damn store, what seemed to be, an hour ago. Then again, if you ask Reality, only a few minutes had passed, maybe five or ten. But it still felt like an hour.

Before you ask, no, I'm not a stalker, well at least I'm not a fulltime stalker...okay I'll clarify that later.

My gaze flickered down to the necklace I was busying myself with, it was a gift from my mother, a Celtic sign for the elements on a simple piece of black string. When I looked back up, much to my surprise, the man I had been waiting for strode out of the store with his chin jutting out stubbornly, and his nose joining his chin in the air. He was an old man, probably in his mid-fifties or early sixties. He had jet-black hair, but the roots were gray, showing his age and the obvious dye he used. I could tell from the constant scowl on his face that he'd be an interesting one. Unpleasant, but interesting nonetheless.

Perfect.

This was my next target, I had been tailing him for a day or two now. He was your average rich guy. He had a limo, big house (if not mansion), and a butler named Higgins, along with thousands of maids to take care of his fancy items and endless houses while he was off making money and squandering it.

Family? Nope.

Well there's one thing we had in common. But who's looking for common things now-a-days? That's right, no one.

I yawned nonchalantly as he passed me, stretching my arms out wide so as to barely graze his back with my left arm.

"Sorry..." I muttered shyly and rather pathetically.

The old man snorted and shook his head muttering in turn, "Street rat..." and he continued on his way, only stopping to get into the limo that his chauffeur opened for him.

What a jerk. Now I'm glad I snatched his wallet. Sure, it wasn't in my original plan, but hey, he wouldn't miss it right away. And besides, he had it coming, calling me a “street rat”, I looked nothing like Aladdin and he was far from being a Sultan. I would return it later that night anyway, minus the five-hundred bucks tucked away within it, but hey, he should've been nicer now shouldn't he?

I shrugged and began to walk in the opposite direction, I knew where he lived, so there was no need to follow him now. Besides, I had to get ready, if I was going to head there tonight, I'd need more than what I had. Luckily, I had five-hundred bucks to burn on supplies. So I walked into the nearest clothing store and peered through the never-ending racks of clothing. I was going to need to wear a lot of black, that was for sure.

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Two hours later and it was already six-thirty at night and getting dark.

I was dressed in black tight-fitting under armor and a loose black sweatshirt over that, it was cold that night, I wouldn't be surprised if it rained. I wore black, loose fitting jeans and completely black high-top converse.

What? I wasn't a ninja here, I wasn't about to wear tight-fitting everything. Way too uncomfortable for me.

I scouted the area with night-vision goggles...Great, the dogs were out, and they weren't small dogs either, they were Doberman's for God’s sake, and I doubted they would be slow, so I sure as hell couldn't out run them. I sighed and pulled a black beanie out of my pocket and shoved it on my head, tucking my short, dark blonde hair into the side of the hat.

Once I was finished prepping myself, I picked up my goggles again and zoomed in on the front door...hey, who the hell was that?

The rich guy's limo pulled up through the gate and parked in front of the mansion. Damn, he was supposed to be gone until at least ten ’o clock that night.

I cursed under my breath, and followed the limo with my eyes, waiting for the old man to get out. Grumpy bastard was ruining everything.

...Wait a tick...

I did a double-take. That wasn't the grumpy old rich guy. Quite the opposite actually. It was a young man, around my age, probably around seventeen or eighteen years old. He wore a spiffy, clean black suit with a red tie. Tch, it looked like he should've been working in a cubicle...But that was beside the point. What the hell was he doing at the old guy's mansion and in his limo no less?

The young man stopped on the porch and waved to the driver, and the limo pulled away through the front gate again. The gates closed behind the limo and the young man watched the limo leave. Only then did he turn toward the door again, however, he didn't enter through the front door, but moved around the side of the house and through the shrubbery. And he did all of this in his nice spiffy suit...something wasn't right here.

I tucked my goggles away into my backpack and slung it across my shoulder, I was going in, people or not. I was just going to have to be more careful.

I had been on top of a hill shrouded in bushes with a lone tree at the top, but now I made my way down the side of the hill and to the side of the large gate. Like most mansions, this one had a camera or two set up on the top of the gate, scanning from left to right for signs of life.

I chewed a piece of bubble gum anxiously as I watched the security cameras moving habits.

As one camera moved to the left, the other moved to the left as well, as if watching each others backs. Obnoxious...

However, I had time to study these cameras earlier, so it wasn't that hard to put them out of commission. There was a short amount of time in which one camera was turn around to a point where visual of the gate was nonexistent, and the other camera was also unable to take in visual of the gate. In that time, I leapt out of the bushes, my chewed gum in hand, and stuck it firmly on the lens of the first camera. Within seconds I dove back into the bushes and waited for the other camera to turn in the wrong direction again and did the same with another piece of gum.

Unprofessional? Yeah.

Effective? You better believe it.

By this time the dogs knew of my existence and were barking viciously at the gate. Luckily for me, the house was a ways away from the gate and made the dogs difficult to hear. I flipped my backpack around to the front of me and fumbled around for the dog bones I had brought.

When my hand slid over them finally, I tossed them through the gate and the dogs very generously stopped barking and moved away from each other, growling menacingly at each other with their new preoccupations.

I slid through the bars, just barely and meandered on passed the dogs. I was only about ten yards away, before I heard a bark from behind me. Like cold water rolling down my back I realized, there was another dog. My head whipped around and I located the animal barreling toward me.

"Shit!" I yelled reflexively and broke into a run toward the house. I knew I couldn't out run something with four legs. Hell, I probably couldn't out run something with two legs, I hated running.

I booked it across the cement driveway, the dog hot on my heels, and around the side of the house that the young man had gone around.

Originally I had planned on going around the other side, where I had managed to spot a ladder set up. I would've used the air vents from the roof to get inside. So much for that plan.

I didn't dare look back at the Doberman that was following me, for fear that I might scream. Then again, I was also running with my eyes closed, which, in retrospect, wasn't that great of an idea.

I had barely made it around the corner before I ran into something that knocked me flat. I immediately opened my eyes and jumped to my feet, glancing behind me just in time to see the Doberman rounding the corner. I moved around the stupid pole I had managed to run into and darted forward into a garden of some sort. Next, I spotted a nearby tree and shimmied on up and kept climbing until the branches got too thin to possibly hold me.

Well great, this plan was working out just perfect.

I looked down, my chest heaving up and down as I tried to catch my breath. Damn dog...

The Doberman was hopping up against the trunk, as if he could possibly climb up the tree like that. The dog was barking of course, since that's apparently what dogs are good at, and I scowled down at the hateful creature.

I had to think fast now, if any of the maids heard this stupid dog I'd be as good as caught, and since I was in a tree I didn't see an easy way to escape.

"Shut up!" I whispered fiercely. That stupid barking wasn't exactly helping my thought process.

I held my breath at the sound of a window opening. A moment later a voice came, "Bruce! Would you shut up? There's no one here, see the gate? Nothing." The dog whimpered at the woman's voice and slinked away from the tree.

I heard a sigh followed by the woman's voice again, "I swear to God he's the dumbest dog we've had yet, and to think, I was--" the woman's voice was cut off as she closed to window.

Thank you! I screamed silently in my head and began to descend the tree, branch by branch. And to think, I was dreading the arrival of a maid.

I hopped onto the ground and moved around the very back of the house. Well, I knew where the other guy entered from, the moron left the back door wide open.

I meandered through the door, closing it behind me very gently.

I was in.

I turned around inside the house and sighed in accomplishment. I always knew not to show relief before a job was done, but I had gotten such a lucky break that I could hardly keep the sigh in.

Not even a minute after relief washed over me did I hear a fierce whisper in my ear, "Dude! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I jumped and stumbled forward and away from whoever had spoken to me. Only when I turned around did I realize it was the young man I had seen earlier, slick suit and all.

From the distance I had seen him at earlier it had been difficult to even see his hair color. Now that I had a better view of him, I realized with a churning in the pit of my stomach that he was incredibly handsome. He had light brown (or maybe just blond but weird looking in the light), slicked-back hair and beautiful blue eyes. From what I could tell he was several inches taller than me...which wasn't saying much since I was only five foot four, but he was at least five foot eight. He had a thin built body but as for muscles, I couldn't tell through the suit, which I found slightly disappointing.

The first thing I thought was: Oh crap, I'm caught.

But that thought left me as the boy continued, "Did you hear me? Man, to think a rookie like you even got this far." He sounded annoyed and glared at the door I had closed.

What was wrong with closing a door? I'm sorry I was born with manners, as poor as I was now, I hadn’t been raised in a barn. And who the hell was he calling a “rookie”?

"Ugh, never mind. What's your name guy?" the young man asked informally, which surprised me, since he was dressed in a fancy suit I had expected him to sound more suave and educated.

I blinked and hesitated. Did he just call me a guy? As in a boy, male, guy, homme, any other word you can think of that meant I was the opposite of a girl. Last time I checked my anatomy I wasn’t sporting any hardware ranging from six to eleven inches.

My first instinct was to be insulted, since I didn‘t feel that I had the face to be considered manly in any way. However, my brain started to work just a second quicker than my mouth. If he thought I was a guy, he had no leverage over me later, since if he sold me out, he would mention a guy not a girl, such as myself...Ingenious!

He watched me expectantly as I racked my brain for a name. "Well?" he prompted, sounding annoyed.

"It...Uh...I'm Ray..mond? Yes, Raymond, that's my name," I spoke with as deep of a voice as possible.

The young man looked at me oddly but then said, "Well then Raymond, looks like we're in this one together, thanks a lot." He was being sarcastic, which made me want to slap him, but I refrained. Since a boy wouldn’t simply slap another boy with a limp wrist and then huff and stomp away. Besides, maybe I could use this boy’s help somehow.

"Together?" I repeated, confused and still in my fake, deep voice.

"Yeah, together," he repeated as if it were obvious. "The moment you closed that door the security system was reset. Way to go Einstein." He was being sarcastic again...What an ass.

Wait...Did he say something about a security system? Oh, that could explain why the door was open...Oops...

This was going to be a very sticky situation.