The Thief's Key

Chapter 1

I knew it. I knew it would be locked. Everything around here was locked. It made the life of a thief harder than it needed to be.

A lamp was lit in the nearby house. Time to go. I dove into the bushes beside the barn, hiding in the foliage. I didn't want to leave, not yet. I was curious about what this person would do. Maybe they would open the barn and I could sneak in.

And besides, I had to get in, so I wasn't leaving anyway. I had a person waiting for me who would pay a begungle of charms for the horse inside.

The footsteps of a man were approaching so I crouched lower. I could tell he was a man because his footfalls were loud and purposeful.

He began to mumble to himself. "Blasted horse thieves. They get me up every night." He stalked around his barn, checking for damage or areas where a thief could have broken in. Then he inspected his thick padlock and surveyed the yard.

My heart faltered when he looked at the ground and followed my footprints to my bush. He stormed over to the bush and reached over it. I backed away, trying not to make any noise. My shirt snagged on a branch and I was unable to back up any farther. I wanted to curse.

The farmer grabbed a hold of my collar and hefted me out of my hiding place, tearing a piece of my shirt off at the hem and ripping my pants up as he dragged me through the bush and into his lamplight.

"Well, what do we have here?" He looked me up and down, with suspicion scribbled all over his face. That suspicion soon turned to confusion. "Little girl, what are you doing out here at night? I thought you were a horse thief. You could get into some serious trouble being out at nighttime in these parts."

I was shocked. He didn't think I was trying to steal his horse! He thought I was just some lost child! Sometimes it pays to be short.

I began to shiver and said, "I was trying to get into the barn for shelter. It was getting cold and I was lost. I didn't want to disturb whoever was living in the house."

The man softened even more. "We wouldn't have minded. We don't want any little girls freezing to death out here." His breath puffed out in white steam as the temperature steadily dropped. "Let's get you inside before we both catch a cold."

As I followed the man to his house, I noticed a key ring hanging from his belt. It held all shapes and sizes of keys, but the weirdest one of all was the plain grey cylinder. I wondered what that would open.

The man left me next to the hearth while he went to wake his wife. His house was small. The kitchen was the main room, with a small table, stove, fireplace, and chimney. A doorless hallway led to the bedrooms. The hall was dark, so I couldn't tell how many rooms there were. From the outside, it looked like there were two.

A cat scampered across the room from a dark corner, chasing a mouse. I heard the bones snap as it dispatched its prey. That's what my client, more like my boss, would do to me if I didn't bring this horse to him. It was his fault for trusting a twelve year old, anyway. I wasn't to blame here. Although I had agreed.

A woman in blue-grey pants and a plaid shirt entered the room, followed by her husband.

"What are we going to do with her?" the man was whispering.

"I don't know. We never had kids. I don't know how to handle them. There was no use in waking me up," his wife responded. "I have terrible maternal instincts."

I was shivering, from fear and from the cold. The wind began to whistle in the chimney as a post-winter storm blew in. The woman began to prepare something on the stove, probably for me.