Simple Needs

$1

I looked desperately around me. No one was looking. I would be able to-

No. It was wrong.

But don't the ends justify the means? The only issue was, I didn't know what my ends were. I didn't know why I wanted to do it.

All I knew is that something inside me had to. I needed it.

I just didn't know why.

I stared at the ATM in front of me. If I was caught robbing it, my life would be over. Not literally, of course. But I would have a criminal record.

I wasn't going to hurt anyone. I craved the money inside as I'd never craved anything before. I couldn't leave it.

"Hey," a voice purred behind me.

I whirled around. Lips brushed against my forehead and I sagged in relief.

"Theo," I smiled. "You scared me."

"I didn't mean to. What are you doing? I walked up and you were just staring at the little picture of the money."

I suddenly felt cold. "I don't feel good," I muttered.

His arms wrapped around me. "You got better," he murmured.

"Not like that." I stroked his arm.

"Then how?"

"It's nothing."

I still felt the desire, which is why I smiled playfully and pushed him away. "Could you get me a muffin?"

The bakery was just across the street, and I would be just out of view. He frowned.

"Whatever you need."

I smiled, my face straightening again as he left. I didn't know how to break into the machine, but somehow I did. Somehow, my hands took the money out, and disabled the security camera in an instant, expertly putting everything back just like it was, so I was done in an instant, the money in bundles, tucked into my backpack, my face innocent when he came back.

He handed me the muffin, and a pang of guilt filled my stomach, but I smiled, forcing it down anyway.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah."

He grabbed my hand and grinned, leading me away, to go home, twilight illuminating the city street. Shadows flitted against the building, and I suddenly had another overwhelming urge to ask Theo if he had any money of him. I needed it.

He smiled, leading us to our apartment, fishing out his key. I saw the flash of green. How dare he keep it from me?

I forced myself to look straight ahead. It was getting harder and harder to control the sudden longings for the money I never used.

Theo held the door for me, and a shout came from outside. "Don't go," I whispered. I could control myself more when he was around. I never stole anything in front of him.

"I'll be right back," he promised. He always left when anyone stole anything, which people did all the time by us, and came back ready to throw up. He said he had to help people because stealing was wrong. I heard from other sources that he took the person into back alleys and then they came out, him looking sick, and the other person completely willing to give back the money.

He'd started right when I got sick.

I was alone in the apartment. Theo had hidden stashes of money. I knew it. I tried to stop myself but all I did was make my hands shake as I ransacked my own apartment. I hated myself for it, but all emotion was lost when I found what I was looking for. A beautiful wadd of cold, hard cash.

I didn't need it. I struggled to put it back. Theo would be back any minute. All the more reason for me to hide it sooner.

A month of random thefts had given me a need for a hiding place to keep my growing stash of money. I couldn't let the money go, was the thing. At first, I'd tried to give it to charity to relieve my conscience, and I'd succeeded. My body seized up and I was throwing up for days. It could've been unrelated.

So I tried again. The second time it was only a penny, but before it could leave my hand, my fingers clamped around it, I got a chill, and I'd barely held onto my consciousness until I slipped the penny back into my pocket. I physically couldn't give the money up.

There was a painting in the back of the room that my grandmother had given me in her will. It made sense that I didn't want Theo to touch it, which is why it was the perfect place.

I pulled the painting off, revealing a hole in the wall I'd made myself, filled with bundles of neat cash.

I had just under two thousand dollars. I pulled off my backpack. Five hundred more.

Theo would be back any minute.

His hidden stash. Twenty-five dollars. He used to hide more before I got sick.

I shoved it all away. The sight of the stash, my dragon hoard, made me feel alive like little else did. I grinned, rehanging the picture, making sure it was perfectly level.

Theo knocked, and I opened the door, my frenzied smile gone, replaced with one that was less genuine. I smiled at him.

He looked so pale and so nauseated. I frowned instantly.

I shut the door quickly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He gasped, rushing to the bathroom where I heard him throw up.

I started to fill a glass of water when he came back out. I handed it to him, and he drank it quickly, his hand trembling.

I spread out on the bed, pressing my face into the pillows, and he sat next to me.

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yeah."

"I can take you to the doctor if you need me to."

"Can we afford it?" I asked, my insides churning as I let my eyes wander to the picture.

"I can put it on the credit card."

"I'm fine," I muttered, my guilt rising.

"Rose-"

"I'm fine," I repeated. It was true. I didn't have anything wrong with me that a doctor could fix. "Besides, you're the one that just threw up."

"I guess so."

"Speaking of which, you've been throwing up a lot lately."

"It's nothing."

I made an uncertain groan, pressing my face further into the pillow. He chuckled, seemingly unaware of the guilt that was building up in me every day. The guilt was building even slower than my need for the wealth. I didn't need it for anything. I just needed to have it.