The Story of a Theif - Hailey Peterson (good books for high schoolers txt) 📗

The She-Thief
Part 1: The Accomplices.
Chapter 1
I can’t believe you! You lied through your teeth! You said she was on a trip! You said she’d be back! I sat there, on the steps, waiting for her. I would play with the hem of my skirt until it began to unravel. Every day after preschool I would run to sit there, for hours patiently waiting, till you told me to come in for supper. I would struggle with you, until you let me sit there, for a little longer.
Those memories come back to me sometimes. I wake up screaming, in the middle of the night. I have to learn not to have these dreams. Note to self; Give a pep-talk: better dreams, I think. I sat up, rubbed my eyes and tried to find my other boot. With no such luck, I sighed a long and weary sigh. With one boot on and one boot off I hobbled down the steps. My bedroom, the attic, was extremely dusty and covered with grime.
Downstairs, in the kitchen, I stomped to the cupboards. I threw them open and stared at the emptiness. I sighed again. Looks like I have to steal from Tom Gizzerdes again. Who is Tom Gizzerdes you ask? He is the stall manager of “Gizzerdes Meats and More.” Now I know what your thinkin’ Gizzards? Is that really his last name? Its not, it’s Gizzerdes. It’s a French name I think. It’s pronounced Gizz-ar-des.
I slip on my dreary, dull brown coat, and creep out the door. I look about, not a soul in sight! That’s bad.... I thought. There’s nowhere to hide. As I figure out how I intend to do this, I look around the alleyway. There! The roofs. Easy, I’ll climb on the roofs, make my way to the square, then drop down, concealed by passing everyday people! I look for the rope leading to the roof. I hid it in a corner behind some oil barrels. I shimmy up it, swing on to the roof and take off into the crisp, morning light.
I drop down behind a bunch of wooden crates stacked up on top of each other. I peek through the slats. Tons of busy people buzz around, rushing here and there, it was crowded. I pull my chapped lips into a tight smile. Perfect! I rush into the traffic, zigzagging around to avoid getting run over by the hundreds of people. When I spot Gizzerdes’ stall, I try to act normally. I chat with the person next to me. He looks at me like I just hopped off the crazy train. I see Gizzerdes look up, but see nothing unusual. He’s waiting for me, I think. I can tell. Well, why shouldn’t he? I come and steal from him everyday. I try to branch out and steal from others, but I always need meat, and he has the best around.
I sneak around and crawl underneath the table, he suspects nothing. You would think after all these years he would have known better, set precautions or something. One time he set up an alarm system, and he took a nap thinking the alarm would wake him up. I dropped down behind the stall and deactivated the alarm, watching for any signs of trouble from Gizzerdes. Then I stole two of his best loins, one from a pig and one from a cow. Boy did I eat heartily that week.
He started to talk, I froze on the spot, motionless. He’s just talking to a customer. I begin to relax; bad idea, very bad. My foot slips on the gravel, it makes a loud crunching sound. I freeze, hopefully he didn’t hear anything. Boy, was I wrong! His hand flies under the table, holding fast to my ankle. He squeezes my leg hard. I see the blue veins starting to pop out of my leg. I try to scramble away, my fingernails digging into the dirt. Man, he’s got a rough grip. “I hope you know that your crimes are punishable by death young lady,” came Gizzerdes voice. He yanked me from under the table. He smiled an evil grin at me.
“Get away from me, you freak!” My voice squeaks. That was pathetic. I think.
“Oh, is that so.” He says in a milky voice. “I should hand you over to the police right now,” he switches his grip from my ankle to my long, dull brown hair. Ow, that really hurts. “But I think I’ll teach you a lesson first.” He brings out from a drawer a neatly coiled whip.
“That’s illegal!” I screech, hoping someone will overhear. Of course no one does. “You can’t punish someone unless it’s approved by the authority!”
“What they don’t know wont hurt them.” He smiles a grim smile, showing me his rotten, yellowed teeth. He drags me around the stall into the back room. Sand is everywhere on the floor. There is a long iron pole in the middle of the room. He shoves me to my knees at the bottom of it. Tom ripped my coat off me. Then he brings out a rope and ties my hands behind my back. “Get up!” he growls and kicks my ankle. Pain shoots up my leg. I cry out and he kneels close next to my face. I can feel his horrid, onion smelling breath on my cold cheek. “Does that hurt Princess?” he whispers. He starts chuckling and kicks my ankle hard twice. On the last one, I hear a loud crack. Then I hear an earsplitting shriek, only to realize it belongs to me. He laughs hard, then is overcome by a series of coughs. I have to think of a plan. But what? I think. There! A window and there’s a pocket knife on the floor to my left.
He uncoils the whip, slowly, as if to intimidate me. He raises his arm. He directs his evil glare at my freezing, fragile back. Now. I think. In one quick motion, I kick sand in his eyes and (with difficulty) grabbed the pocket knife. “Auggg!” He screams. I cut, cut, and cut. Finally, with my wrists free I throw more sand in his eyes. He howls in pain. Bull’s eye! That should occupy him for a while. He is blocking the entrance, so I hobble to the glassless window and jump through.
“Ooof.” I hadn’t known it was up so high. The pain in my ankle flourished. Aaahaahaah! I screamed in my head. The pain was overwhelming. I try to stretched it. I looked around looking for somewhere to hide. There were many small bushes on the side of the alley. As I hobbled out of sight, I heard an anguished shout. Tom Gizzerdes was cursing my name.
It was slow going, but somehow returned home. I settled into bed, starving. I didn’t get a stitch of food to eat. My stomach growled at me, It’s your fault, you got cocky! I did, I got overconfident. I knew I should have stolen from someone else today. He expects me every time. I always come at the same time! I realized. If I didn’t come so regularly, he wouldn’t know when I was coming. I considered going at night, but by then all the best meat was gone. I can’t go during lunch. He has that big lug Brutus around then. I’ll think on this more in the morning. And with that I went to bed.
Chapter 2
When I woke up my room was mustier then usual. Hmmm.... Deciding it was nothing I pulled on my boots and I limped downstairs. There was nothing in the cabinets. No point in getting your hopes up. Then I heard the sound of gun shot, then feet clomping around upstairs. I froze, was it Tom? It couldn’t be, the footsteps were lighter, like those of a child. I creeped up the stairs. I peered around the corner to see a tall, skinny boy. He looked about my age. He lie on the floor next too my bed, right under the window. His chest was pouring blood. I noted that he had gotten shot three times. I rush over and kneel next to him. I pull out my knife and bring it to his throat. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” My voice is dry and raspy, I haven’t really spoken in ages. There is no one to talk to. Ever.
“Relax, I am a friend. Just help me.” I help him onto the bed and dress his wounds. “Thank you.” He said politely. “I feel much better.” He is quite a gentleman. “My name Is Agabaja. Well, that’s my last name. My full name is Fujiwara Agabaja. You can call me Agabaja, Fujiwara, or just Fuji if you like.”
“I won’t call you anything!” I snap at him. “Your not staying here!” I am screaming at him now. His face was pale. I lower my voice to an almost whisper, “I’ll just lead you into trouble.”
“Awww. Shucks. No need to think of me that way,” he said sarcastically. “I don’t care if I get into trouble. I’m a thief myself.” He said those words through a sly grin.
I looked at the floor, “O.k. But only for a couple days, until your fully healed.” I shot a negative look at him. “Then your gone, not a moment more.”
“All right, all right. I promise.” He grins at me again. His grin is catlike. I wonder. Can cats grin at all? I show him around. There’s not much to show. Just my bedroom, a tiny closet for his bedroom, and the kitchen. He says, “What you got to snack on?”
I glare at him. “I don’t have anything.” I look down. “I have to go to town to steal.” He smirks.
“Stealing is my specialty.”
“Your not coming.”
His wild grin drops like a stone.
“Why not!”
“Because.... Because you’ll just slow me down.”
“That’s no excu...”
I cut him off. “I’ll take you when your better, you’ll just slow me down with that injury of yours.”
“Your injury is worse than mine.” He sits up on the bed. His glare falls on my own. We freeze for a few moments, our eyes locked together. I pull away. “Fine, you go, I’ll stay here.” He’s pleased at this. He jumps up and tears out the door.
It seems like hours since he left. “Where is he?” I wondered aloud. There was a loud and furious knocking on the door. I had just started to get up to answer it when I heard a bang, and the door blew open. Agabaja burst through the splintering door. “What happened Fuji?” I screamed at him.
Agabaja didn’t reply, just leaped over the shabby table that I was sitting at. He grabbed my hand and dragged me the to the closet serving as his bedroom. “SHHH! Be quiet!” He whispered loudly. Agabaja shoved a cold finger to his lips and made a “shhh” gesture.
“What is it?” I whispered. I could barely hear my voice. “Fuji?” Then I heard it. A loud voice came from the kitchen.
“Here little boy, come out, come out where ever you are.” I froze, motionless. It’s Gizzerdes. I was terrified. He must have followed Fujiwara here. THAT IDIOT! Didn’t he know how to be stealthy? I gave an evil glare at Fuji. He only shrugged at me and turned back to he door. We’re hiding under a bed, I thought, We can take him it’s two against one! I looked at him and made the kill gesture. He shook his head. He put two hands apart from him