Rough rough draft:Raven chapter 3

Chapter 3

A phone ringing forced Kate to stumble out of the shower. Kate would have been eating the floor if she had not grabbed the sink at the last moment.
Gripping the towel tightly around her, Kate slipped her way to the ringing phone. Kate answered the phone, exasperated.
“Hello?”
“Katelynn Marie Leigh Crossland! I have not seen or heard from you in over a week! What has been so important that you couldn’t call to tell me how you are? I came over to your house everyday since you weren’t answering the phone and you weren’t there” Mrs. Andrews’s voice wasn’t angry; it was more upset and concerned. Mrs. Andrews could be rather impeding on Kate’s life sometimes, constantly checking on her. She reminded Kate of a mother hen constantly clucking over her eggs. But Kate didn’t truly mind it so much, since Mrs. Andrews was the closest thing Kate had to a mother. Or parent for that matter.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t feeling well and I had gone over to a friends house who let me stay over while I was sick, but I’m better now, I’ll come over for dinner tonight to,” Kate quickly replied, she had actually been staying in her office at the academy since she had to be there everyday for Zero, and the academy was an hour away from Kate’s house.
“You should have told me you were leaving! You always leave to friends houses unexpectedly without telling me and it worries me. Oh well at least I know you are safe and sound,” Kate smirked at that, thinking of Zero having to dodge razors and lasers among other things, “Come over soon, Cammi is having a soccer friend of hers come over early to play some soccer in the backyard, so I think they could use another player,” Mrs. Andrews told Kate wistfully.
“Alright I’ll be over soon then,” Kate promised.
After they exchanged goodbyes, Kate hung the phone up and walked towards her room. Kate lifted a hand to her hair and felt the shampoo that was not yet washed out.
Kate sighed again and went back to the shower. As the shampoo fell from her head, Kate couldn’t help but wish her thoughts could.
Kate knew very little of her mother. She had died when Kate was 8. Kate’s father had told everyone she had been secretly been battling cancer. Kate knew that wasn’t true. Mrs. Andrews didn’t quite believe it either, saying Kate’s mom would never keep a secret like that from her. Kate didn’t know how her mother really did die, she had tried many times to get her father to tell her, but he never did. Her mother’s name was Karina Heaven Leigh.
Kate’s mom had named her, and as Mrs. Andrews said each part of her name held special meaning. Mrs. Andrews said that Kate’s mom had constantly said during her pregnancy that Kate was magic and she knew that Kate would be a girl, despite not having an ultrasound. The name Katelynn had been chosen, because when Kate’s father had proposed to Karina at a beach, Karina had seen the name written in the sand. Marie was supposedly Karina’s mother’s name. Leigh having been Karina’s surname was added into it. Her father had nothing to do with her naming; only her last name but it wasn’t as though he had any decision on that.
In Kate’s bedroom she towel dried her hair and stuck a baseball hat on her head. She threw on some clothes and hurried to leave. Figuring the sooner she was next door, the sooner she would get her mind of her mother.
The Andrews house was colonial looking with brick walls and two columns at the entry way. They had a large driveway on the right of the house with a basketball hoop placed away from the road, but also not too close to the house. A garage was attached to the right side of the house. Kate’s house was on the Andrews left side, and was separated by a hedge.
When Kate, Cammi, and Jack had been little kids they created a quick pass through the hedge, so they wouldn’t waste time walking around it. Kate found it and ducked into the Andrews yard. Kate could already see Cammi and Jack putting up soccer goals on either side of the yard. The Andrews had a large backyard so it was perfect for them to play sports.
“Hey!” Kate yelled and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Cammi looked up, smiled, and waved Kate over.
“So what soccer teammate of yours is coming over?” Kate asked once she reached Cammi. Cammi stood up and brushed the dirt off her hands.
“Not a teammate, just someone I know from soccer,” Cammi said smiling.
“Do I know her?” Kate said curiously.
“It’s a he and I’ll keep it a surprise,” Cammi said and headed towards the shed to get a soccer ball.
Frustrated Kate went over to Jack. Jack had finished setting up the goal and was now lying on the ground. He had a hat covering his face, blocking the sun out, and his arms behind his head as a pillow.
Kat smiled and lied down on the opposite side of him, so her head and his, were parallel. This was what Kate liked about Jack; he was really chill and didn’t always have to be doing something. She was sure he knew she was there, but they could stay that way not saying a single thing the whole time.
“So, do you know who Cammi’s mysterious guest is?” Kate said breaking the silence. Jack took a moment to respond.
“No she is keeping me in the dark too,”
“She said it’s a guy,”
“Did she? Hmm, well she does have a lot of guy friends so I’m not that surprised,”
“True, but she doesn’t usually have them over to your house,” that made Jack quiet because they both knew that was true. Cammi didn’t like bringing guy friends home because her parents made a big scene about it all the time. They just joked, but Kate could see how that would be embarrassing. Cammi was pretty, no way to get around that, and she was able to cooperate with guys a lot better than with girls. But because she was pretty guys tended to start liking her, and when she didn’t return their advances she usually lost them as a friend. Her parents joking that they were her boyfriend just added fuel to the fire.
Kate rolled over onto her stomach and hovered above Jacks face so her eyes could meet his. Jack took his hat off and looked up at Kate.
“Do you think she might like him? As more than a friend?” Kate said quietly. Jack was silent; the idea was foreign to them both. Kate remembered when one time last year a girl in Kate and Cammi’s English class had asked Cammi why she didn’t have a boyfriend. Everyone knew that guys liked Cammi and she never seemed to like any of them. Cammi looked at the girl and gave her a look of pity. Then Cammi smiled and said,
“Why would I want a boyfriend? I would date him and then we would eventually break up and not be friends, also I doubt he’d like me hanging out with all my guy friends,” Cammi had then walked away leaving Kate to catch up to her. That had been the first and only time Cammi had talked about having a boyfriend.
“If that’s the case I’m sure she will tell us,” Jack said and slid the hat back over his face.
“But this has never happened before so how do we know she’ll tell us?”
“We don’t, but if we intrude she’ll never tell us. But I don’t see why she wouldn’t, so calm down and just trust her,” Even though Jack said to calm down Kate couldn’t. Cammi, Jack, and Kate told each other everything. Well mostly everything….But Kate still couldn’t believe Cammi could like someone and not tell her. Kate lied back down and let the thoughts swirl in her head. A new thought appeared and Kate rose so her eyes could meet Jack’s again, about to speak before another voice interrupted her from across the yard.
“It’s hard to believe you two aren’t dating in a compromising position like that,” Kate and Jack both turned to look at the person from which the familiar voice had come. It was Lucas, seeing him made Jack quickly sit up, while Kate was still looking at Lucas, and proceeding to hit Kate’s nose.
“Owe! My nose!” Kate reeled back from the pain and felt warm liquid start to come from it.
“Kate, oh I’m so sorry I’ll go get you a towel, stay right there,” Jack said and hurried to the house. Kate struggled not to let any blood drip onto her black shirt. Lucas came over and sighed.
“Sorry that was my fault I shouldn’t have said that,” Lucas apologized and pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief from his pocket. He handed it to Kate who looked at unsure of whether to soil something like that.
“It’s ok, use this, it may as well be used for something other than for show,” Lucas said and placed it in her hand. Kate took her other hand from her nose and put the handkerchief up to it. Noting the fact that her hand was bloodied she tried to keep it away.
Jack sprinted back with a towel in hand which Kate first used to wipe her bloodied hand, and then replaced the handkerchief with it. The handkerchief was stained crimson and Kate was unsure of what to do with it, she couldn’t hand it back to Lucas bloodied.
“I’m sorry Kate I should have been paying attention,” Jack said sitting beside her.
“It was partially my fault too,” Lucas said, Jack looked at him and glared.
“Where’s Cammi?” Kate said while looking around.
“I don’t know,” Jack said, and both him and Lucas looked around for her, as they did Kate stuffed the handkerchief in her pocket.
Cammi surfaced from the house with a soccer ball and some cups.
“Hey Lucas!” Cammi smiled and hurried over. Her smile faded when she saw Kate on the ground.
“What happened?” Kate said and kneeled down next to Lucas.
“An accident, we got it covered though,” Jack quickly said.
Kate wiped her face with the towel, and then blotted her nose.
“I think it stopped bleeding,” Kate said, looking at the towel.
“Umm so I was thinking since there are only four of us we just won’t have goalies,” Cammi told us.
“So who is on whose team?” Lucas asked.
“Boys against girls?” Cammi asked.
“No,” Jack said quickly, everyone turned to look him. “I mean, how about you and Lucas against me and Kate? Lucas is your guest after all,” Kate realized Jack didn’t want to be on the same team as Lucas. Jack also probably wanted to get another chance to prove himself, after having been defeated by Lucas.
“I guess that’s fine,” Cammi shrugged.
Since there would only be the four of them playing it wasn’t going to be a real game, but the tension rising between jack and Lucas may as well have made it real. They weren’t going to have goalies or actual positions.
Cammi gave Kate a pair of camouflage pants and a white shirt to change into; because Kate’s other clothes had blood on them.
Despite what most people thought, Kate was very athletic, due to Raven’s requirement of it. She was average height, skinny, but if people looked closer, Kate actually had lean streamline muscles on her body. Gym was Kate’s favorite class since she was able to ace physical tests easily.
So when Lucas asked Kate if she had played much soccer, Kate smirked and said.
“Nope, but I think I’ll manage,”
“Well I’ll go easy on you, I was the junior soccer league MVP at my old town, and I even led them to state,” Lucas bragged casually. Kate raised an eyebrow and suppressed laughter which must have given her an odd look on her face because Lucas looked at her incredulously.
“Thanks, that so nice of you, I’m just a small girl and being a girl, well that just makes me inferior right from the beginning,” Kate said elaborately sarcastic.
“I didn’t mean it like that…” Lucas cast his eyes down, embarrassed.
Cammi had the soccer ball placed for the kick off, which Jack and Lucas had both volunteered to start.
Jack in his blue soccer sweatshirt and Lucas in a green one looked like the earth and sky clashing. Cammi had a whistle around her neck which she used to signal the start. Despite Lucas being a seemingly better player than Jack, Jack was much faster. Jack quickly got the ball and rushed towards the opposing goal. Jack scored a goal and Kate cheered. Lining up for the next play Jack got the ball right from the start, but Lucas was prepared and stole the ball from Jack. As Lucas steered towards Kate and Jack’s goal, Kate got in front of him forcing Lucas to stop.
“Hey girlie, why not step aside so I can score?” Lucas asked. Kate laughed and shook her head; Lucas shrugged and geared up to kick. Kate anticipated it and once he did she blocked the ball, bouncing it off her chest. Kate knee kicked the ball up and down, showing off and laughing inside at Lucas’s surprised expression.
Kate stopped joking around and swept past Lucas toward his goal. Cammi, having stayed back to protect the goal surged toward Kate and smiled.
“I rarely get to see your athleticism, but when I do I’m always amazed at how fit you are,” Cammi admonished. Kate nodded in response and tried to doge to one side and kick the ball. Cammi intercepted it and smirked.
“Even if you are fit you don’t play soccer enough to know how to
weave in and out of the way very well,”
They played soccer for a solid two hours, and would have played longer but Cammi and Jack’s mom called them all in for dinner. The game had ended in a pretty close score, Cammi and Lucas winning by a few goals.
They went inside and washed up and went to the table. Mrs. Andrews had the food all set up on the dark oak table. Mr. Andrews was already seated on one of the six seats at the head of the table reading the sports section from the mornings paper.
Mr. Andrews had the same striking blonde hair as Cammi and Jack; he had soft brown eyes that were always scrunched up in a smile. He always said to Kate that a person is at their happiest when they don’t need their mouth to smile. Cammi and Jack received their love of sports from him as well. He was always cheering them on whenever he could at games. Mr. Andrews was a reporter for a big newspaper in New York and would often have to fly away at a moments notice. Even so, he always tried to be at home as often as he could. That was one of Mrs. Andrews main complaints about Kate’s father; if Mr. Andrews could try and be home so could Kate’s father. Mr. Andrews and Kate’s father didn’t get along when they had met, both having completely different opinions on basically everything.
Despite his disagreement with Kate’s father on everything, he was very kind to Kate and had a nickname for her as he did for his own kids. Mr. Andrews called Kate, Marileigh, partly because of her middle name being Marie and Leigh. The main reason for her being called that though was because when she was younger she never smiled after her mother died and she was always somber and serious, but he told her a joke one day and he said she started laughing and smiling merrily. He said from that day forward she continued to laugh and smile. It happened to be though that it was that day Kate had met the old man who changed her and, after taking his advice to heart, she was able to smile and laugh again. The joke had not been particularly funny, in fact it was a rather bad pun having something to do with an ant and a toilet, but thinking of how silly Mr. Andrews was made Kate laugh.
Mr. Andrews’s nicknames for Cammi and Jack were, Cammander and Jacques. Cammander for Cammi, because of her commanding and controlling demeanor. Jacques, wasn’t really a nickname, it was Jack’s actual name, which he thoroughly despised and hated being called.
“Jacques, Cammander, and Marileigh! What have you all been up to?” Mr. Andrews asked as he looked over his paper. Cammi and Jack both let out exasperated sighs at the sound of their nicknames, Kate simply smiled.
“Dad, we have a friend here, please ixnae on the icknamesnae,” Cammi begged, gesturing at Lucas.
“Well, who is this?” Mr. Andrews smiled.
“Dad this is Lucas, Lucas this is dad,” Cammi muttered and quickly took a seat at the table on her fathers right, Lucas sat next to her, Jack sat opposite his father, Kate on Jack’s right( and to her dismay, across from Lucas), and Mrs. Andrews sat next to Kate (on Mr. Andrews left).
Mrs. Andrews had put a lot of work into the dinner obviously to impress Cammi’s friend. She had baked a honey glazed ham, cooked a delicious she-crab soup, had a toasted loaf of bread, made corn, and potatoes, and even served a citrus salad. Everyone quickly filled their plates and started eating with much vigor. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews chatted pleasantly about their schedules, and how they could fit in time to spend alone time together, which made Cammi and Jack blanch.
“So, did I tell you guys that Lucas is taking a lot of the same classes as us?” Cammi asked. Jack didn’t respond so Kate shook her head.
“In fact one of his electives is drama,”Cammi told them. Jack quietly groaned which made Lucas smirk.
Jack and Kate had taken drama together because of their love of improv and just movies and films in general. They had an awesome teacher, Mr. P, and he was very understanding about everything. Mr. P would help the kids analyze movies and TV shows in ways they wouldn’t think of, finding the message behind everything. He would sometimes take a whole class just to help someone with a problem they were having. The class was composed of many different students, and yet it was in his class where the pressures of normal high school were lifted. Prejudice, peer pressure, and social classes, were gone, as though an invisible force field encased the room. That was perhaps the reason why Kate and Jack decided to stay in it year after year. Cammi took a photography class, since it was the one thing other than sports she sincerely liked.
Kate understood why Jack had groaned, besides his dislike of Lucas, he was worried that drama would be brought into drama, which was rather redundant. Drama class was Jack and Kate’s silver lining of school and Lucas entering the class might ruin it.
A phone started ringing; everyone looked at Lucas, who pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket.
“Sorry! I have to answer this,” Lucas said to them all, and then stood up, walking to the back porch. They continued eating and several minutes later Lucas returned, but he did not sit down.
“I have to go home, my father called and he needs me right away,”
“Is everything alright dear? Do you want us to drive you home?” Mrs. Andrews asked, worried.
“Oh, no everything’s alright, someone is on their way to pick me up, I think I’ll just wait outside,” jack assured her.
“Well it was nice meeting you Lucas,” Mrs. Andrews said kindly, Mr. Andrews nodded in agreement.
“Thank you, I’ll see you again,” Lucas said.
“Bye, I’ll call you tomorrow,” Cammi said, and waved him goodbye.
Dinner continued as well did the conversation.
“So, Cammi, do you like Lucas?” Kate lowered her voice. Jack was staring at the white wallpaper as though he found something very interesting about it.
“Oh, no we became friends at a soccer game we were both watching and started to talk, and I decided to help him with something,” Cammi said smiling wryly. Jack seemed able to finally draw his attention away from the wallpaper. Mrs. Andrews brought out a dessert of lemon meringue pie. Just as Kate was going to retrieve a slice, her cell phone vibrated. Kate narrowed her eyes and stood up.
“This dinner had been really wonderful and I don’t think I could eat another bite, I’m feeling tired so I’m going to go on home,” Kate said pushing out her chair; she rubbed her stomach for emphasis. The Andrews looked surprised at her sudden statement and didn’t say anything for a moment till Jack excused himself to use the bathroom.
“Alright dear, are you sure you don’t want to have a slice of pie?” Mrs. Andrews offered. Kate gazed longingly at the pie but shook her head firmly.
“No thank you, I’ll see you later,” she called to them and made her way to the door.
She quickly ran to her own house, once inside she called for Hisame, who jumped down from the couch in the living room.
“I received your page, what is it?” Kate asked. Hisame looked up with her giant blue eyes and took a moment.
“You have a job,” Hisame said.
Normally Kate had to approve of a job, but there were some cases where her father assigned her to them. Those times her father was usually being paid a large sum, and wanted to make sure everything was going to go smoothly.
Kate was upstairs sitting on her bed, waiting for Hisame to give Kate the equipment she would need.
“So, what and where is the job at?” Kate asked Hisame, once she was back in the room.
“You’ll find that out when you get to headquarters,” Hisame said, and tossed a bag from her mouth to Kate.
“What do you mean? Aren’t I just going to the location from here?”
“No, you are supposed to take the person you call, Zero, with you,”
“What?! My first mission in MONTHS and I have to bring her?” Kate jumped off the bed, shaking her head.
“No way, my dad said I could do jobs again if I was that brats Turner, he never said I would have to take her with me!”
“Kate,”
“I mean it’s unfair, it wasn’t my fault a stupid photographer had to take some snap shots of me!”
“Kate,”
“I told him I could just change how I looked for a while, there was no need for me to stop doing missions altogether!”
“KATE,” Hisame yelled. Kate stopped talking, and looked at her.
“Stop acting like a spoiled brat, you want to do a job? Then do it, stop complaining. It doesn’t matter if someone is coming with you as long as the job is done. Now be Raven and shut your mouth, your going to catch flies in it if you keep it open like you are,” Hisame said with no patience, she exited the room.
Kate glared at Hisame, as she left, and went to her closet. It wasn’t a walk in closet but a person could fit in there. There were white cabana folding doors, which Kate closed once she was inside. Kate felt with her hand along the pole her clothes hung on until she found a sort of knob, Kate pulled it out turned it clockwise 3 times and then pressed it in.
The closet went downwards, like an elevator and stopped, at least three floors down, to a room conjoined with the secret hall. The room was all white, with a concrete floor, inside were dozens of racks of clothing, all white black, olive green, and brown colors. There was also a mound of shoes of many kinds, sneakers, boots, in various coordinating colors. A bleak vanity table was in one corner, with a multitude of bottles, containers, and packages. A stand with various identical wigs was next to it. Kate was an expert by now at dressing the part of Raven, the hardest part was face prosthetics, but she had done it enough times to be an expert. After 10 minutes Kate was just about ready, she applied the last touch, a dark purple star under her left eye, and was done.

. . .

Hisame was in the hallway waiting for Raven. The hallway was long, miles long, but it was the quickest way to get to Headquarters. Raven and the Andrews lived on the outskirts of the suburb, but in back of their houses there were no other houses, just miles and miles of forest. Raven’s father had long ago bought all the land to make a tunnel to Headquarters.
In that hallway (which was made of concrete) was a Tran like vehicle. Raven had read somewhere that the fastest subway was in Japan, the speed of it paled in comparison to the Tran in the hallway. Kate had been on it many times but never quite enjoyed the gut wrenching speed.
With a sigh Raven stepped up to the silver vehicle and buckled herself in, 4 times with different buckles, and put her bag in a compartment that would protect it. Hisame stood by the control panel, waiting to launch Raven off. The vehicle closed its wind resistant windows, so Raven wouldn’t be whip lashed by the air. Raven nodded toward Hisame, she pushed a button on the panel and watched as the silver vehicle lurched forward, propelling down the hallway. Raven had named the vehicle the silver bullet, after her first ride on it when she was 10. It was indeed shaped like a bullet, and it was blindingly bright silver. Whenever Raven could, she opted not to take the silver bullet, but instead drive or take a bus or taxi to Headquarters. In total it took maybe an hour to get to Headquarters by a vehicle, by the bullet it only took ten.
Once Raven was closer to the other side, the vehicle began to slow down and finally halted. Raven got out and immediately collapsed onto the ground. Raven rested for another minute, then pulled herself up and walked over to the ladder, which was the only thing there. The ladder led up to a manhole that opened into a special assembly room.
Zero was standing in there among the various equipment, outfits and other necessities.
“You look like you’re dressed for the army,” Zero said, eyeing Raven’s camouflage drawstring caprice, and her black tank top. Zero was wearing a white tee, and khaki caprice.
“You look prepped for an Indiana Jones film,” Raven quipped.
“Why is your hair down? Intending to strangle people with that mop on your head?”
“What’s with the purple spiral on your cheek? It looks like you wish you were like me, and your hair, same color as mine isn’t it?” Raven said pulling on a strand of Zero’s hair. Zero looked slightly embarrassed, but was relieved when a television screen on the wall turned on and Steel, one of Raven’s father’s assistants, came on.
“Good you’re both here,” His voice was calm and cool sounding. He had been an assistant as long as Raven could remember and was the only one who was ever in direct contact with her father. He was about Raven’s father’s age, maybe one or two years older, although he might very well be much older. There was a barbed wire pattern down the side of his face, which made him look tough, which was the complete opposite of his personality. He had steely gray eyes and a long silver haired wig, his face was strong looking, as well as his body, besides being an assistant he was also a bodyguard.
“Mr. Thorne told me to give you both, the instructions for this job,” Mr. Thorne was Raven’s father’s alias at The Company.
“The old Castillo mansion at rising point is a gallery now, because of the enormous amount of artifacts Mr. Castillo collected during his lifetime. The owner of the place Mr. Castillo died last Monday, and The Company has been hired to retrieve something that Mr. Castillo had borrowed from a friend turned rival. The client and Mr. Castillo had a feud over something about ten years ago, and Mr. Castillo kept a valued object of the client, he would now like it returned. Mr. Castillo had no remaining relatives to inherit any of his antiques, or his vast sum of money. He instructed in his will that he wanted his house to be turned into a gallery, run on his remaining money. Besides collecting antiques and artifacts he also upgraded the security of his house at any chance he could, in his will he also stated his money would buy any new advances in security. So, before his wealth does upgrade security, the client wants his belonging. You both are to sneak into his house, and find a jewelry box with the initials ‘KHC’. The box is described as being very prominently decorated with jewels,” Steel finished. Raven absorbed the information and thanked Steel for the background information.
“Raven a car has been provided for you and Zero to get to the Castillo mansion. It has been suggested that you not try to use the front entrance since it probably has an alarm. Finding a different way in would be ideal, I’m sorry but that is all the instructions there are,” Steel looked up at Raven from a paper.
“That’s alright, we’ll manage,” Raven said. Ralph nodded and the screen shut off.
“So do you have all your equipment ready? It sounds like we’ll be scaling walls tonight.” Raven asked Zero, who promptly nodded.
The car that was provided was a sleek black car, it looked like liquid night had been poured on to make the body, it was obviously fast and Raven was slightly envious that her own car at home wasn’t as nice. Raven and Zero sidled into the car and took off away from headquarters toward rising point.
Rising point was a wealthy area full of millionaires and billionaires. The mansions had vast grounds and acres of land separating them. Most of the occupants were elderly, all living off the old money their family sat upon. The Castillo mansion was the most famous yet most private of them all. The Castillo mansion was the largest mansion at rising point by far, and had the least known about it.
“So how has the maze been coming?” Raven asked Zero. Zero looked away towards the window refusing to give an answer.
“Well how about tomorrow I come and watch you attempt I again?” Raven asked.
“Look you obviously rigged it or something because I must have done it a million times, with different equipment, trying thee same door multiple times in a row, but all I ever find is that stupid half of a feather” Zero seethed.
“You’re just not looking at the problem as a whole,” Raven said, and let Zero fume.
Castillo mansion finally rose up, on a hill, the land around it was clear of any foliage, but after a few acres there was a large amount of trees. Raven pulled into a secluded area that would harbor and conceal the car.
Zero and Raven walked away from it, towards the open landscape.
“We can’t just cross to the house, someone will see us for sure,” Zero said, despite it being night, there was a full moon out which lit up the open land. Flying wouldn’t be an option since they’d easily be spotted in the air.
Raven got an idea and rummaged through her pouch, she pulled out a package of the candy smoke bombs.
“Instant fog,” Raven said to Zero’s quizzical face, Zero nodded and quickly went through her own bag.
Raven was the first one to throw a smoke bomb, Zero and Raven quickly ran into the cloud and ran towards the house, licking and tossing the bombs, creating a man made fog. They reached the mansion and went to the back where they wouldn’t be spotted, edging along the walls and watching for cameras.
“Ok, take it out your harpoon hairbrush, and your pick footed boots,” Raven said to Zero. The harpoon hairbrush had a grappling hook on it, and the pick footed boots, had picks like rock climbers used.
Both Zero and Raven shut their harpoon hairbrushes toward a chimney, once it connected and they were sure it was firm, they ascended the house. The smoke was heavy and so did not cover them for very long. They hastened their speed to the roof, and crouched down behind the chimney.
“Ok, looks like this chimney might be our only way in, I’ll go first,” Raven said, as she tied up her hair. She put the rope from the hook inside the chimney and led herself down into it, Raven touched her star earrings which became flashlights, and illuminated the dusty walls of the chimney. Once Raven neared the bottom, she turned herself upside down and looked out the mouth of the chimney. It was a Victorian style mansion with old furniture, which looked as though it came from the 1800’s.
Raven stepped into the room, looking at the numerous china and glass objects. She didn’t dare touch anything and wondered what type of security the house had. She new there couldn’t be any lasers or something like that, because she doubted Mr. Castillo would have wanted to destroy his belongings in the process of keeping them safe.
Remembering Zero, Raven went back to the chimney and called her down. Zero appeared looking sooty and disgusted.
“You’d think they would clean that thing!” she whispered furiously, Raven nodded to get Zero quiet.
“You look around this half of the mansion, and I’ll go to the other side, keep in mind it’s a jewelry box, so look in bedrooms,” Raven said to Zero. Zero nodded apparently very happy she’d get to be on her own.
“Use the ‘lip gloss talk off’ to keep in touch,” Raven said and smeared lip gloss on her lips, Zero did the same. The lip gloss had tiny microphones in it, which were connected to the flash light earrings and created a wireless communication.
Raven set off towards the other side of the mansion thoroughly surprised at how huge it was, but even more surprised that she had come across no traps. At one point she even took out her x-ray mirror, but could find no high frequency waves that any devices would be emitting. She used the mirror to find bedrooms, up a marvelous staircase.
“Find anything?” Raven whispered.
“No, it doesn’t seem like any of these bedrooms have been used for a long while, they’re all dusty,”
“Keep looking, it might still be in a room even if it is unused, use your x-ray mirror to find anything that might look like a jewelry box,” Raven said and touched her earrings to turn off the microphones, and conserve their energy.
Contrary to Zero’s side, the side of the mansion Raven was in, had been used. It may have been used but she didn’t think it had been lived in. The room was decorated for a baby, although there was a normal bed in it, with a crib and pink and white everywhere. The room was very clean but obviously not lived in. There were piles of clothes in the open closet, clothes for a baby, a toddler, a child…Clothes for a growing person, but clothes with tags on them. None of them had been worn, it was as though the baby had not been there, and someone had bought the clothes for the baby’s arrival. But as the baby did not arrive and the as time passed, the clothes had to be upgraded for a growing child. Raven, spooked, left the room to look at others. The room next to it had been lived in and appeared to belong to an elderly person, perhaps Mr. Castillo.
There was a dark oak four-poster bed with a dark green down comforter. A dresser had various bottles, but none that looked like a jewelry box. Kate walked over to the night-stand and spotted a letter, someone had intended to mail. Kate picked it up gingerly and opened it up.

Karin,
I have not heard from you for a while and was hoping you might send me a letter, or even better come and visit. It is very lonely being here by my self, I have been buying lots of gifts and clothes for the baby, if only you would come and bring her so she could use them. My cancer is growing worse and I will eventually succumb to it altogether, but before I do I really want to see a reminder of Jonathon, his own flesh and blood, his daughter. There are things here I know he would want her to have, if only you’d bring her.
Theodore Castillo

Raven set the letter back down, it explained the room, slightly, but left Raven with more questions then answers. So, Jonathon, who was probably Theodore’s son, had died and his wife, maybe, had taken their child. Why would she not bring her daughter to see her grandfather?
Raven left the room, and realized that she was being an idiot; she was supposed to be doing her job, not looking through letters, and reading about their family problems. Raven went into the next room, it seemed as though a woman had at one point lived in there, but then left, and a man had moved in but left some of the women’s things. The bed was tidy as was the rest of the room, but there was a jacket hung over a chair at a vanity. Cologne was on top of a dresser. The vanity had makeup and perfume on it, but looked to be very old.
At last Raven spotted on a dresser, on the other side of the bed, the jewelry box. Raven understood what the client meant by prominent, there did not seem to be any spot on it not covered with a jewel, the top held true to having the initials K.H.K. on it. Raven picked it up and opened it. There were only two things in it, a purple gem and a letter. Raven accidentally dropped the gem, she bent to pick it up and put it in her pocket, while she opened the letter.
Just as she was about to read it, she heard a laugh. Raven swerved around to face the person.
“Aren’t you just supposed to be getting the box? Why are you reading a letter?” a boy stepped out of the shadow, a teen, he was obviously an Angel like her. He had dark blue hair, green eyes, and a black spade on his cheek. His hair was slightly long and tousled, yet Kate had the impression it was that way on purpose. He was smiling arrogantly at Kate.
She had never seen this boy before, but she was mad about the way he talked to her. She crammed the letter in her back pocket and glared at him.
“Who are you and what are you doing here? I don’t know how you heard about this job but I was especially assigned to it,” Raven said.
“I am Sparrow,” He said with a sweeping bow.
“I am here to retrieve that box in your hand right there, and I was assigned to this job,” he said grinning.
“You’re mistaken, my father would have told me if he put someone else on a job, so leave,” she said.
“Oh no miss, but you are the one mistaken, for you see I was not assigned by your father, and I wont leave,” Sparrow said with his hands in his pockets. Kate was dumbstruck.
“Then who assigned you?”
“No one you know, I am not a part of your company, and I am in fact a part of a rival one that has just started,” Sparrow said with ease.
Panic gripped Raven; she whipped her hand up to her earring to turn on the communication.
“Zero…”Raven uttered, Sparrow was over by Raven in a second and looked down at her, his green eyes glinted. Then, he kissed her. She pushed him away, as she did he grabbed the jewelry box.
“What?!” Kate blushed. Sparrow reached in his pocket and pulled out what looked like Chap Stick.
“This was made especially to disrupt any communication frequencies, to do that though it needs to be connected to the frequency itself,” He said tossing the Chap Stick up and down in the air.
“I figured kissing you, would be a lot easier than trying to hold you down and apply it manually,” he smirked.
“Plus I kind of enjoyed that,” he added
“You!” but before Kate could say anything else he ran past her to the window and jumped out it, shattering the glass. She recognized wings, like her own on his back.
“Oh and you can thank me some other time for turning all the electricity off in the house, goodness knows Mr. Castillo could have used some security devices that didn’t require electricity,”, and with that Sparrow flew off, Raven raced to the ledge of the broken window. His silhouette in front of the full moon was unbelievable. He soon flew out of sight before Raven could react further.