Innocent Devil

Outcast

I walked through the school halls with a frown on my face, my head lowered and my black hair falling around my face, blocking my view of the other student’s cruel smirks. My bright blue eyes were glued to the ground as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. I could hear the jeers and whispering as I walked past and tried to ignore it. I should be used to it by now. I felt a heavy object hit my back and gritted my teeth to stop myself from lashing out. I managed to make it to my locker without starting a fistfight and sighed when I saw the comments my admirers had left on it today.

 Freak. Loser. Outcast.

 It was true. Well the last comment was anyway. I had been an outcast since I was four, when my parents abandoned me and left me to die. If it wasn’t for the kind old lady who heard me crying then I would probably be dead. I was taken to the police and she was eventually given custody of me and we were happy. But all good things pass – as did she. I was alone. Passed from foster parent to foster parent, never finding one I actually cared for, or who cared for me. I shuddered and felt my eyes grow dark as I turned to face the girls crowding around me.

That day had been just like any other, but for some reason it had always stuck with me, reminding me why. Why I had become the person I am now. Now 19 years old, I was annoyed at myself for how cowardly I had been. I should have hit them, I should have kicked them, and I should have made them regret the day they were born.

 “Amber? Amber…” A voice drawled, snapping me out of my thoughts. I shook my head and turned to face the owner of the voice. I smiled unconsciously. He had black hair and was well muscled but not overly so. Just how I liked it. He was almost half a foot taller than me at six foot two, but he did not purposely tower over me like many people did. I twisted the smile into a mock scowl.

“Given up already Sam?” I teased him.

“Actually,” He said grinning back “We’re ready to go and waiting for you to snap out of your little dream world.”

He was only kidding of course; Sam would never insult me and mean it. I pouted.

“Shut up.” I muttered.

He just laughed again and gestured to the car, and I rolled my eyes and got in. The second my door closed, it was all business.

“How many guards?” Paul asked.

Paul was the muscles as well as the tech guy in our team. Six foot seven with dangerous brown eyes and rolling muscle, he was intimidating just to look at.

“Fourteen. Cameras?” Sam asked.

“Twenty four spaced out over the area. I’ll handle ‘em.”

We had gone through this all before of course, no one went into these missions unprepared but it never hurt to make sure. I decided to speak up.

“How much?”

Sam licked his lips unconsciously.

“Two million, plus anything else we can grab.”

I smiled.

We sat for hours in our nondescript van across the street from our target. We concentrated intensely on the movements of the guards and re-familiarised ourselves with the locations of all the cameras. When we first got there I had gasped in amazement. Months of planning. Blueprints. Bribery. Threats. Photos. None of these things could prepare me for the size of it. The house was massive, with the back of it reaching so far that I couldn’t see it past the shadows. I was suddenly very nervous. If somebody could afford this then couldn’t they afford to keep out a couple of teenage criminals? For a moment, I wondered if we were taking on more than we could handle. I was nudged out of my reverie by a hard hit on my arm and I hissed and turned to glare at Sam. He just smirked and grabbed my arm as we made our way to the gate.

 We crept past the initial security easily enough and crouched behind some bushes as we waited for Paul to complete his part of the plan. Minutes passed and I started to fidget, only being held in place by Sam’s iron grip on my shoulder. I leaned over so I could whisper in his ear.

“What’s taking him so-“

Blackout.

I rolled my eyes dramatically and we made our way across the yard to the side of one massive wall. My breath sped up. This was where my part came in. I trembled but tried to hide it from Sam. I wanted to look strong next to the boy who never showed fear, no matter how difficult the task.

“Go on.” He whispered and I lifted up my chin and turned to face the tree almost hidden in the menacing darkness.  I let out my darker side and felt my eyes go dark. My smaller weight would allow me to scamper silently up the tree with ease and decide whether or not the branches were strong enough for Sam to follow me up. It wasn’t essential, but it would be so much easier if he could. Without another thought I grabbed onto the lowest branch and hauled myself up, followed by another and another until I reached the branch I wanted. I was balancing right outside a child’s room. He was infant so young that there was no concern about him raising the alarm. I tested the sturdiness of the branch again just to be on the safe side and nodded down to Sam. He smiled at me and climbed up after me, albeit not as quickly or gracefully. I held in a snicker as he landed next to me with a loud ‘oomph!’.

 One of the good things about spending two years hanging around Sam and Paul was learning many of their criminal habits. I managed to break a palm-sized section of the window without minimum noise. I waited for a moment to listen for footsteps or a baby’s cry, but heard none. Smiling triumphantly I put my hand through the hole and opened the window open from the inside. I then climbed through the open window, my feet landing on the wooden floorboards with a small thud. I crept forward, not having to wait long to hear the sound of Sam following behind me. For once I let my eyes remain dark and let the darkness reign over me as we made our way through the house until we reached the hallway adjacent to the room in which was one of the house’s several safes. I poked my head out a tiny bit and pursed my lips when I saw two guards standing outside the room, each holding a gun. Not that I expected anything less. I crept up until I was right next to them and waited a moment but when they still hadn’t noticed me I sighed and said in a mock friendly voice.

“Hey. What’s up?”

Jumping in fright, one of the guards fell over his own feet and dropped his gun. I sighed again in exasperation before turning my attention to the guard that had managed to stay on his own two feet. Pointing the gun at my head, he glared and was about to speak when I ducked out of the way of the gun and forwards. Toward the guard. The man had no time to realize what was happening before I had my knife in my hand and slid it in a blur across his neck. He looked at me in horror but had no time to call for help before he fell back. The other guard tried to reach his gun but I stepped forward and stood on his hand. Crying out in pain, the guard tried to snatch his hand back only to find it firmly secured under my foot. He cried out for help, his panicked voice echoing down the marble hallways and I cursed, lunging forward with the knife and pushing it hurriedly into his stomach. The guard screamed before going silent, his head dropping to the ground. I looked at him and for the first time noticed his youth, he barely looked older than 17. I didn’t care. I turned around and frowned, noticing for the first time that Sam wasn’t out helping. I searched the darkness until I noticed that he was still in the hallway, looking shocked at my display. I was confused but didn’t pursue the matter.

“Should we keep going or leave in case they catch us?” I asked in a monotone.

“No, no. Keep going, we have gone too far to stop now.” There was an odd tone to his voice but again I decided to let it drop for now, I’d ask him later.  I nodded and I crouched down at the door. Fortunately, it was only locked with one of those old-fashioned code locks. Well, it was about 5 times as thick as a normal one but anyway. I started fiddling with the lock, nervous again now and my face turned into one of intense concentration. I was about halfway through the six number lock when I heard a shuffle of feet behind me.

“Quiet Sam.”

Normally I wouldn’t be telling Sam what to do, but I was really tense right now and even his small noise put me on edge.

“No.”

I frowned. That wasn’t Sam’s voice. I started to turn and got a glimpse of black fabric before a blow to the head sent me spiraling into the world of the unconscious.