The Art of a Pickpocket

Chapter 4: M-a-x

Stepping out of the building, I suddenly remembered that what I had wasn't enough to take me to Akira's school and back home and walking there wasn't an option today.

Moving through the crowd of people who were on their way to their various locations, I silently pulled a few notes sticking out of the pockets of some people and tried to look as innocent as possible.

Concentrating on looking innocent was hard, especially when you had to look at the pockets of people to see if you could actually pull whatever it entailed out without them noticing. But I did anyways, some people gave me weird looks.... yes, that's when I pushed them, in order to take their mind from their pockets and pull out what I wanted. I made sure to apologise to them, smiling a little so as to make it genuine.

Boarding a car, I quickly get to Akira's school to pick her up, bought some food on the way and we make it back home. I help her with her assignments and we have supper together, then I prepare her for bed. After, I head to the bathroom to take a shower. Getting into the tub, I hear a shuffle of feet right outside the window and a flash of a torch appears in the mirror for a second and disappears.

I quickly cover myself with a towel, freezing in shock, my face drained of blood. My toes start tingling with fright as I make my way slowly back to bed, not even bothering to look for clothes. Hugging my sleeping daughter, I shut my eyes tightly and force myself to sleep.
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I woke up at exactly 8:00 the next morning ,took a quick shower and headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. After, I wake Akira up and get her ready for the day. Finishing off with our meals, we head outside to the backyard to have fun.

"Mom, what are we going to do today?" Akira asks me tugging on my clothes. "Hmmm...." I said, as though in thought thinking of what we could do. "How about hide and seek?" I asked her after a few minutes. "Yes, yes, let's play hide and seek." she said approving of my idea.

We took turns to hide and count and after an hour decided to rest in the shade of a tree . Akira gets up suddenly and walks to a vase directly behind the window of the bathroom to pull out something. "What's that?" I asked her as she furrowed her brow in confusion still staring at it.

"Mom, see what I found." she said stretching forth a small piece of paper covered in mud. Brushing of the dried mud from the paper, I make out the letters;M-A-X. My eyes widened as a little as I checked the paper once again to confirm. "Max..." I whispered his name like a prayer, shaking my head in disbelief. "Max?... who's Max?" Akira asks me with a raised eyebrow. "N- n- no one my dear." I say, stuttering.

I looked down once again at the name, this is definitely his writing, and I knew it.

A/N: This is actually a short chapter and I'm very sorry but please vote, share and comment. Thanks♡