Night Robbers

The full moon illuminated the trio, casting a bright shadow on their black-clad bodies as they darted stealthily through the cornfield.

“Come on! We’re almost there!” said the group’s leader, a relatively large 15-year-old boy, who was leading the group with the confidence of one who knew what they were doing. He was ugly, not in the way one would expect, however. There was nothing… inherently unappealing about his face, besides the mustache that was too small to be attractive, and the black eye that covered the right side of his face with ease. No, there was just something wrong about his face, something that couldn’t be decided, but something that certainly made an impact.

As a wolf howled in the distance, the youngest of the group, who only stood to be 13 years old or less, stopped, stubbornly refusing to move as the other two vigorously attempted to reorient the fellow. “I can’t do this.” he said, as a single tear fell down his babyish face.

“ Come on, Jacob! We’re almost there!” said the leader.

“ I can’t do this!”

“ Yes, you can!”

“ No!” Jacob screamed. “ You guys can steal all you want, but I’m not going to get caught up with it! Not again! Okay? It’s not my fault we’re in this mess. That’s you two!” he cried, pointing at his two companions, who were now looking each other with an air of nervousness as if to say to each other, “Do we really need him?” They seemed to come to a silent agreement.

“ So don’t get me involved! Just leave me alone!” Jacob continued, suddenly breaking down into tears.

“ Jacob, it’s not stealing if it’s for the common good.”

“ Shut up with that! Of course it’s stealing! You’re going into a house without permission and taking the owner’s property! Like, what else could that be! You can think you’re helping people, but you’re not, and you know that as well as anyone.”

The leader’s sidekick, whose upcoming statement was made all the more eerie with the night’s shadow that blanketed his face, spoke quietly: “ He’s not going to move, Connor.”

Connor responded with a grunt and started to move again. “ We don’t have time for this. Let’s just go.”

And then they moved, quicker than ever, without looking back, until they saw an old, but large brownstone mansion placed squarely in the midst of the countryside, looking oddly out of place in the full land. The two dashed through the tall grass with excitement and adrenaline outweighing their moralities, forcing them blind to the horrible truth of their actions. Walking around the house quietly, they searched thoroughly for the window they knew to be open, until they found it, set high above ground, on the first floor, hopefully on the opposite side of the house from the owners, who their handler had said to be quick to anger. The two didn’t know much about the owners, not even how they were able to afford this beautiful house, or how they came to be in possession of the object they sought.

“ Okay.” said Connor. “Okay. Here’s how we’ll do this. Climb on top of me.”

“ What?!”

“ Just do it! Get on my shoulders.”

Connor kneeled on the ground, and the sidekick climbed carefully onto his shoulders. Connor stood up with surprising strength and waited for the sidekick to crawl in the window.

“ I don’t know if I can make it. It’s really small.”

“ Just try! I know you can do it.”

The sidekick squeezed through the window, carefully, slowly, quietly.

“ I’m in.”

“ Okay, now hoist me up.”

“ No, you won’t fit.”

“ Yes, I will. Come on, just hoist me up!”

“ No! I could barely fit, and you’re; what?; like a foot taller than me, not to mention the fact that you weigh maybe 40 pounds more.”

“ Fine. What do you suggest then?”

“ I’ll go around and open the door up for you.”

“ Hurry up, then. I want to get this done soon.”

Connor went back around, and after a little searching, found the front door. He waited patiently for his sidekick to let him in, who eventually did so, after a little bit of time. “ What took you so long?”

“ I got lost. It’s a big house!”

“ Start looking, you take the second floor, and I’ll take the first. Got it?”

After a thorough search of the first and second floors, the sidekick groaned with disappointment.

“Maybe it’s in their bedroom?”

“ Well, how are we going to get it then? Huh? Maybe now’s the time for another one of your brilliant ideas! Just like last time. ‘Why don’t we just let Jacob handle the planning? Maybe we can make him help us again. Well that definitely worked out for us, didn’t it?!’”

“ Calm down, Connor. We’ll find it. We just need a little time.”

“ Time is a luxury that we do not have. It’s almost sunrise!” he said, pointing out the nearest window. “ We need to find it today! If we don’t deliver it by tonight, we’re toast!”

“ I…”

“ Oh, shut up! You know what, I’m checking the second floor again! No doubt that you messed up! It’s probably lying in plain sight somewhere.”

The sidekick sighed, resisting his urge to fight back, and started to lie back on a small table, jostling to get comfortable. Connor moved for the staircase, but as the sidekick moved a vase of flowers standing next to him, in order to create space for himself, a bookcase slid aside with a loud rumble. Connor whirled around and shouted out with glee; “ We’ve found it!”; as the sidekick startled.

“ Careful!” said the sidekick with sudden uneasiness creeping across his thin, angular face. “ You’ll wake the owners.”

“ They’re fast asleep. We’re fine.”

With the air of someone who believed they were about to change the world, Connor entered the room and gasped. “ Wow.”