Ghosts

Chapter 1: Candidate

A person wearing all black walked down a New York street late at night. He wore a black Hat a grey hoodie under a black jacket. Black cargo pants and black combat boots. On his back was a plain black backpack. He turned off of the street down an alley and briefly looked up and pulled a mask over his nose covering the bottom half of his face. He hopped up on a dumpster then jumped to a pipe and began expertly scaling it. Once he reached a certain point he jumped off of the pipe onto the opposite buildings fire escape. He began walking up the stairs then he reached the roof of the building. He approached  the edge and saw the balcony to a large expensive penthouse. He backed up from the edge and broke to a sprint and jumped off the edge. He sailed through the air and managed to grab onto the edge of the balcony. He pulled himself up and over and was now safely on the balcony.

He approached the door and pulled out a a set of tools. He jammed the tools into the lock and fiddled with it for a moment then the lock popped open and he opened the door. He walked in and the penthouse was large and lavish. He went to a corner of the house and disabled the alarm. Then he casually just began walking around and began grabbing anything expensive he saw. He approached the master bedroom and opened it he looked around and in the corner on a dresser he saw a jewelry box. "Jackpot" he said he cracked it open and he saw several rings, necklaces and bracelets littered with jewels and gold he took all of it and shoved it into his bag. He made his way out to the balcony again and stood on the ledge. He jumped across and found a pipe and slid it to the ground. He began walking away back out onto a Main Street.

He took off his hat revealing his long dark black hair and revealing his blue eyes from shadow. He dropped his mask and revealed his young features. He arrived in the subway and hopped the turnstile and boarded his train. After a short ride he walked back out to the street and to a place called The Sister Agnes home for Orphan children. He approached the side of the building and began scaling it expertly. Gripping onto ledges and pipes until he reached a window sill. He lightly pushed the window open and hopped inside. Inside was a small room with four bunks four desks. He silently dropped in and opened his back pack. He slid aside a section of the floor and stuffed his stolen goods inside. He then changed clothes trying hard not to wake the other sleeping body's in the room. He laid down and heard "Joel?" He looked over to the other hunch and saw a young boy with Blonde hair look at him "Where were you?" Joel just smiled "No where Benny go back to sleep" the little boy just nodded and went back to sleep. Joel rested his head on the pillow and began ti do the same.

Unknown the sleeping teen there was a person perched on the roof opposite his window. He pressed the side of his ear and said "Candidate has returned home" and then disappeared into the shadows.

The next day a sickening smack came from the hand of the nun after she struck Joel in his face. "For the last time. Where. Were. You." She demanded "Nowhere I was here all night" he said and another smack filled the room. The left side of his face was completely red now. "Fine don't tell me I don't care anymore. You turn eighteen in a year. The second that clock strikes on your birthday. You are out. You were so smart in school and yet you dropped out." "I was kicked out" he mumbled to himself. "Yes you were kicked out of almost every school in New York and no other school will take you". The nun just sighed "Go" was all she said and Joel and opened the door and left.

He walked down the street after retrieving the bag of goods from his hiding place. He approached a pawn shop and after a haggle with an old balding man he managed to get around five hundred dollars for his haul last night. He sighed knowing that he could've gotten 2k for most of that junk but he wasn't able to go to any legit sources. He walked to a rich neighborhood and looked at the large mansion that he was casing to rob. He has been looking over this place for weeks now and he felt confident he could pull it off now after extensive digging into the property's history. He cased the house just blending into all of the other pedestrians on the street. As he walked he looked around the house noting all the details of cameras blind spots places to scale. Points of entry, weak spots in security systems or if there was a moment when the cameras were shut off. He knew tonight the family that lived there was going on vacation and the maids and butlers would only be there while the sun was up. He knew his one chance is tonight.