It all began when someone left a window open. I smirked, clearly they haven’t heard the rumors about me. I take a running start and I jump to the window making no noise. I blow away a strand of my auburn hair from my face before I tuck it back into my ponytail. I step down from the windowsill into the room. When I look around I see wallpaper with birds in flight all over the room. I look around the room seeing no one, but I spot a dresser with a big jewelry box on top of it. I grin and walk towards it finding a ton of high-end jewelry begging to be snatched. I grab it all, put it in my bag and leave the way I came. Nothing in the room is different apart from the missing jewels.
It’s the next day and I’m selling my findings at fences all over the city, I handle everything carefully and wear gloves to leave no prints. My hair is also kept tied up tight so I leave nothing behind. “Hey, I got some stuff for ya!” I call going through the back of my last fence’s building. “What have you got this time, Phantom? I hope something good,” he says rubbing his filthy hands together waiting to get them on my loot. He reaches for it but I shut my bag and hold it away from him. “What’s the price? I want something good or I’ll go to someone who is better,” I say looking at him. “I’ll give you a hundred for each piece,” he says just wanting his dirty hands on my treasure. “No, these are the best I’ve gotten in a long time, I’m not letting anyone rip me off, goodbye. I’ll come to you next time I have some rip off loot,” I say walking out and disappearing into the night.
I’m able to sell most of the treasure for quite a bit of money. I run across roofs, in the night the moon my only light. It doesn’t matter I know every crack and pebble on these roofs even when I can’t see a thing I know where I’m going. I jump down into a broken skylight one knee tucked up to my chin the other straight my toes pointed. I plunge through the half a dozen holes that are below me. I twist and turn at just the right time so that nothing touches me. I land a hundred feet below barely making a sound. I let out a low complicated whistle. I get a short high one in reply and I walk towards the broken down door, it’s almost off it’s last hinge but it’s just fine. I swing it open and go through a secret entrance and walk into the mess I call home. “Hey Eden! How much did you get this time?” asks my best friend Lania. “Quite a bit, but I always save the best for us,” I say smiling. “WOW! We could upgrade our generator so much with this! You’re the best!” She gushes when she sees the money. “Don’t forget to get food. We can’t freeload at school forever,” I say patting her on the head. “I know, but we could do so much more with a better generator,” she sighs. “I know. Now come on, we should tell the others,” I say walking into the main cavern.
At school the next day their is a new student in my class with black long messy hair, a goofy grin and slightly tanned skin and muscular, most of the girls in school would kill just to talk to him. “Hi, I’m Marshall and I’m new here, I hope I can make some new friends,” he says smiling, I roll my eyes. Just the usual new kid crap. Later I’m sitting at my desk drawing when I over hear Marshal talking to some boys. “We moved in two days ago and my mom left the window in her bedroom open for an hour and when she came back all her jewelry was gone, without a trace,” he says. “Dude! You already got robbed by the Phantom Thief? Unreal!” says one of the guys. “Who?” He says confused. “The Phantom Thief has robbed a ton of people without a trace, no fingerprints, no hair samples, no nothing. No one knows who they are only that they are notorious and totally untouchable,” says one of the boys. I gasp when I realized it was my latest steal. They look over but I’m already running out of the class. No freaking way! This can’t be happening! I silently curse myself as I run to the bathroom to hide. Before I can open the door and bolt inside someone grabs my shoulder. I turn around and see Marshal, he’s several inches taller than my 5’3 stature. I’m terrified, I shove him away and run into the bathroom. I wait their until the bell rings, I rush back to class and don’t look at Marshall, but I can feel he’s watching me the whole day. I was stupid to ever react this is the first time I’ve ever reacted so obviously to Phantom Thief gossip.
After school Marshal chases after me. He tries to grab my hand, on instinct I flip onto his back in a second. “Leave me alone,” I growl before running away. When I get to the cavern I’m exhausted. “EMERGENCY MEETING! EVERYONE HERE NOW!” I yell at everyone, within a minute everyone who lives in the cavern by looking at me. “We may be compromised, someone I stole from is in my class, and they might find out, we need to find a place to relocate ASAP. We can stay here but we need to be more careful from now on or we will have to leave. Meeting over,” I say. “Can we still pass notes and talk in the code at school?” someone calls. “No, someone could overhear or find a lost note from now on only cavern talk in the cavern. We should start looking for a new place in case we need to leave,” I say. Everyone nods and goes back to doing homework tutoring other kids and working on the project.
I avoid Marshal as much as I can and he leaves me alone, either that or he’s scared I might flip him over again. “Hey, what’s her name anyway? I hear Marshal whisper a few days after the cavern meeting in the school courtyard. “Oh Nah bro, don’t mess with her or even talk to her. No one does and for good reason,” he says to Marshal. “Did something happen?” Asks Marshal. “A few somethings actually. Everyone is scared of her-” Before I can hear anything else Kaycey a little girl who just joined the cavern runs over to me tears in her eyes. I see two bigger boys running after her with evil looks in their eyes. “They’re chasing me,” she says in tears. I pat her head and walk away the boys are closing in on her fast, I wait for them to come closer, then I stick out my arm and they fall backward staring up at me in the mud. “Leave. Her. Alone.” I growl at them they get up and bolt away. I walk back to my place on the wall. “See? She does that all the time, so no one ever messes with her,” the boy, Dan says. “Why?” asks Marshal, Dan shakes his head and says “Because the girl she helped lives with her in the orphanage. She’s the unofficial protector of them all, so if you mess with them you mess with her,” “You never told me her name,” Marshall says. I decide to cut in then. I give them both a death glare and they stop talking.
After school Marshal keeps his distance but he still follows me. “Lania he’s following again, we should the other route,” I say to her. “Sure,” she says. We turn back to school and go on the roof. Marshal trails behind us trying to look like he’s not following us when he is. We take a long winding route home and lose him along the way to the cavern entrance, we jump down and enter the cavern.
