Deceit - The Phantom Thief

Chapter 10: The Other Side

Back when she was younger, life was so simple. 

She had a roof over her head, food on the table and at a snap of her spoiled fingers, she got whatever she wanted. Until the incident, that was. 

After that tragic day, her childhood had been stolen from her - snatched from right under her small nose. She would lay in bed at night, eyes glistening in the moonlight from the tears welling up and slipping down her cheeks. Why? She would always ask herself, crying endlessly over her loss. Why did you have to go? 

Unimaginable amounts of guilt suffocated her, filling her lungs up spitefully, drowning her. She was supposed to be the big sister but she let her go. She lost her. If she hadn't taken her eyes off of her, nothing would have happened. And she regretted it, she really did. 

The last thing she saw of her sister was her long brown hair as she was pulled into the checkered van before the door slammed shut and it sped off. What was there that she could do? She was only ten, and her innocence had been stolen right before her teary eyes, her throat burning as she screamed at the top of her lungs for help, running as fast as her little legs would carry her down the street. 

When no help came she finally realised what a vile world this was. 

It was one of many abductions - ten in total, the news reported. Ten children went missing in ten consecutive days; a pair of siblings ostensibly went missing too. No one could solve the case, not even the country's most famous sleuth. It was hopeless. The girl thought that maybe she would have been better off if she had been taken with her sister, or even if she just took her place. A horrible thing to wish for, she knew, but who could blame her? 

It was her own fault for being so irresponsible. She was a bad sister. She didn't deserve to be appreciated or loved. Soon enough the surly realisation finally hit her, slicing through the girl's already shattered heart, that if she wasn't careful she'd lose everybody. And that's when she began to panic about the boy. What if she lost him too? The thought of losing such an important person in her life tore her up. That was the moment she decided to never let him go. 

She would keep him close, protect him, love him. The girl would never let him feel anything like she had ever felt. She would protect him from the wrath of the treacherous, cruel world and make sure that he was always happy. This overwhelming feeling coursing through her veins?

Despair.

-

The three DICE members made their way down the long corridor, countless metal plates merging together into one gloomy blur as they sped past. The thief often reminisced on the past when the whole organisation dug out these passages by hand using the shovels they had made together, no machinery included in the process. It took months of hard labour, sleeping down in the muddy pits they used to hide from the world. They were young but undoubtedly intelligent. 

After they had completed the task of digging out enough space to live comfortably, then came the job of covering up all the soil and dirt around them to make their underground prison habitable. This, too, took months of slaving away. At times they had thought that they should just give up if it had not been for the thief encouraging them with passionate pep talks about their future - a happy future where they ruled the world. Where no one could tell them what was right and what was wrong. That was the day when he became their leader, it was a role he, and still to this very day, took pride in.

After a minute of walking, Shade pressed his hand against the fingerprint reader which granted the trio access to the lab - a place where the criminal had only recently been allowed access to due to him messing about with chemicals, resulting in an explosion. Luckily, no one was hurt so the thief was forgiven.