Shorts: a composition of short stories.

The Jewel Heist

A/N I hope you enjoy this! Not meant to offend anyone.

Glumly, I sit in the back of the police car, looking out of the mirrored glass. How did I get here? The whole thing is spinning around my head like a nest of angry wasps. How did I get here? It's a long story.

Our Family Jewels had been stolen by thieves a century ago, and I was here to claim them back. My great-grandmother was a Russian Queen and the jewels were given to her as a wedding present. Years later they were stolen from my family the night before they were due to be loaned to a museum. Our family was accused of fraud, they said that we were trying to claim insurance money on the jewels whilst secretly keeping them. We have been struggling to clear our name and reclaim the jewels for over a century. Now after years of preparation, planning and research I was finally going to recover the jewels and prove my family's innocence and restore our family name.

Back to that fateful night, I was ready to leave my house and serve some justice to the thieves who stole our jewels. Setting off at about 10 pm, I was dressed as a Muslim woman. This might sound strange, but it's not unusual in Albania. I didn't want anyone to know my real identity or where I was going. Plus, the headdress covered my whole face leaving a gap for my eyes. Getting into character, I put on some mascara, this would make my eyes look more like a woman's. That was my first big mistake.

As I walked down the crowded street, I kept receiving funny looks from the people around me; they were looking at my eyes. Had I applied the mascara badly? I silently cursed my blue eyes and myself for being stupid enough to wear mascara.

As I approached the house and a small fanfare went off in my head, I had been preparing for this moment for months. I had been watching the house, I knew where everything was; the key, the family rooms and where the jewels were. The house was in shadow, apart from a street light which was about five metres away.

Slowly, I approached the side of the house, felt for the key under the mat, unlocked the back door and silently slid in. Once again I reminded myself why this had to be done.

I climbed the pristine stairs, walked silently through the hall and pushed open the door to the room where the jewels were hidden. What happened in that room is a secret, so telling is a must not, it is between me and, well, probably my lawyer. But, I will tell you this, I recovered my family's stolen jewels, I wasn't caught and no one was hurt.

Coming out of the house, I carefully left everything just as it had been: door to room slightly ajar, side door locked, key under mat. I was so elated that I ripped off my headdress as I walked down the street. It was my second big mistake.

Movement caught my eye, somewhere to my left, a curtain shutting. I had been seen! Stupidly, I bolted. I tore through the streets, heading in the direction of my house. If only I had kept my head and walked coolly along the street, or gone into a local café. I only made it halfway home when a police car drew up beside me. Rough hands grabbed me, but I was too surprised to react.

So here I am, sitting in a police car wondering why on earth I was so stupid. Apparently, it was the mascara and the beard that was a giveaway to the police that I was a fake. Now I have to think about the future, not be trapped in the past as my family has been for so many years. I will have a lot of time to think about what I have done where I am going.