The Thievery Wish by Bugz Rox (children's books read aloud .txt) 📕

 I knew it was a mistake. Before I'd even shouted. Before I'd turn tail and ran. But that didn't stop me, there he was, holding the girl and there I was, helpless to do anything. I hated that feeling. I screamed for him to let the girl go-she couldn't have been more than thirteen, he whirled around, shock quickly morphing into a cruel smile. Let the girl go, he did. The main problem now was that after that little stunt, he was after me. I ran, faster than I've ever run before. Seven and faster than most I was so gone. Twenty-three and faster than me, he was rapidly closing the space. Then the hand. That slim white hand grabbed my collar and threw me against the wall.

I lurched awake. Fear making me shake like a pansy in a snowstorm, a whimper frozen on my lips. I hated sleeping, it makes me vulnerable. I hear a wail, way too mechanical to be a child. Cops. Instinct takes over reason, an instinct to save the others first.

"Cops! Cops! Scat!" I screamed to the thieves frantically scrambling out three and four story windows to the ground below. And scat we did, the shadows were full of thieves all disappearing around me. The cops arrived, they couldn't see me safely hidden in the shadows that gave me my name. That doesn't mean I stayed there, the cops were trying to pick up a six year old girl who was determined to become the president. But currently she was a thief.

I rushed out of my hiding spot grabbing the girl as she gasped my name out in fear, "Shadow!" I scooped her up and tucked her away in a crevice between two buildings.

"Go find the others," I whispered the order to her as I turned to face the cops. They'd found a bigger enemy than the girl, me. I faced them with a scowl, at six foot two and a master with twin blades, they were no match for me. However I was going to get picked up anyway, why add murderous killings to the list of shit I've done?

"Shadow Raven Black, why isn't it surprising you're in the middle of this?" Oh great. Detective Tom. I refused to talk back, I always do when I get picked up. You have to keep your mouth shut and you'll get through, that's what we learned on the streets. We don't ever give each other away. He cuffed me behind my back, what's new? I've been picked up quite a few times, if anything happens where I go they'll pick me up even if I wasn't the one to do it, but I won't be the one to tell who did. Quick as a snake's strike I picked the lock on the cuffs and took off. One thing these guys are stupid about is thinking that if you submit once you won't fight them anymore. Guess not, they were fast enough in response that I only got about sixty feet before I felt an annoying pain in my back. Tasers. I kept going but at a slower pace when another pain shot through me. Can we say rude, although I am the one running. Then I felt a different pain, this time a sleepiness came with it. I had a few seconds before everything went black, enough time to string together one last thought, Did they really use a tranquilizer on me?

I woke up to feel at least one pair of eyes staring at me.

"Is she comin' to?" Huh?

"I don't know. I overheard them say they used a lot on her." Two thoughts popped into my head simultaneously, one, the cops knew I was a girl? memory came flooding back, and two, They tried to OD me with tranquilizers-not cool.

"I do, I think she's comin' to, she was amumblin' an' now she ain't!" I decided I'd call the first voice vocab and the other OD until I learned their names. I opened my eyes and reached for the knives concealed in my sleeves-gone, Vocab and OD gasped at my sudden awakening. I just looked at them until I heard them start to fidget.

"Can you, like, stop, you're creepin' me out. I'm Jessica, by the way," I was glad Vocab had a name because vocab is a pretty lame name for someone lacking one that much. I nodded in acknowledgement in her direction. To which she immediately responded with, "Quit actin' like you can see! You're blind and it's creepy how you can tell where we are!"

At this OD had to pipe in with, "Yeah, kinda creepy, they told us you were weird but we didn't think it'd be this much." Jeez, I'm blind and they're giving me shit about knowing my way around. Rude. "I'm Carly, me and Jessie are twins." My turn to stare.

"I am Shadow," I responded slowly and quietly, wondering if I could trust them with the information of the twin my parents kept. Whatever.

"Shadow? As in the-"

"-thing that follows you?" Disorientating really how they speak as one like that.

"Yes, that is me. It happens when you are raised by thieves who take you seriously by the age of two." I guess I trust them, that's weird, I don't trust anyone on first meeting.

"Thieves?” ” Two?" No hesitation, at the same time, I'm feeling their creepiness, I can relate.

"Yes, thieves they found me as a babe, abandoned in the street. They took me in when they saw my parents intended for me to die as roadkill." I hated having to tell people that, they always gape at me like I'm a freak in a zoo, I mean I am a freak but still they don't have to advertise it.

"Why would they do that?" This was Jessica.

"Simple, I have a sister who is somewhat normal, and I'm not. They kept her, put me in the middle of a road and neither of us was supposed to know. If I even lived," I responded bitterly.

"You aren't the freak, they are if they put you in the middle of a road. What road was it anyway?" Carly asked.

"The old Black Road, there is a reason my last name is Black." I glumly pointed out.

"What's your full name? Cuz we know the first is Shadow and the last is Black, do you have a middle name or two?" Jessica added to the interrogation. Apparently they took turns speaking. Odd.

"Shadow Raven Black is my full name, they gave it to me in bits and pieces, Shadow, the night I was born, for what they saw in my eyes, Raven when I was four, for the raven bird I found and has been by me since, and Black, the night I was born, for where they found me."

"Who's 'they'" Carly questioned.

"They are my mentors and stand in parents for the years I have been a thief, a Nightee, a pirate, and a gypsy. They have raised me and cared for me when my own parents did not, and why? Because a simple and honest man was brave and stupid enough to pick a silent child out of the road." Answered I.

"So which one picked you up off the street? The thief, pirate, gypsy, or Nightee?" Jessica inquired.

"The thief, we call him Glade but few know his real name. This is the most I have ever talked, you guys have got keep your mouths shut about what you heard because for some seriously weird reason, I trust you and most of the people I trust have taken bullets or swords for me and I for them. Plus if you do not you have the honor of looking forward to me skinning you." I answered thoroughly, hoping they'd leave it at that and go away. As much as I trusted them, there was only so much peopling I could do on a good day, today I've been tranqed and tasered, I remember those from when I was six and refused to quit running.

"So what is a Nightee?" Should have known it was not to be, with it Carly's turn to speak. I sighed and closed my eyes for peace-it was going to be a long day, or night.

"A protector, we watch and wait for the right moment to strike our opponents, we protect those who cannot protect themselves." I replied, somewhat refreshed by their lack of listening to my requests, most people are intimidated without seeing my glazed over, violet eyes, semi-heavily freckled cheeks, and glossy black hair that goes past my waist. Not to mention my fifteen-foot wingspan, cat ears that can only be seen when I choose, and a long furry tail that I keep hidden in my pants.

"And you thought it was a good idea to become a protector of the people you steal from? Great logic, that," Jessica sounded honestly confused.

"For the first time in history, the thieves and pirates, Nightees and gypsies do not hate each other. We live in harmony with people whose feuds go back to when time began. They were at each other's throats, the verge of a war that would have destroyed thousands of lives of people who do not even know what their heritage is. People who were orphans whose parents were one of the four, anyone with even a drop of blood from any of the four would have been slaughtered because of a heritage that they were unaware of. I grew up in that situation, they made me a peace maker because I do not have any blood of them running through my veins. Goddess, I hate talking." I explained thoughtfully.

"Did they have your permission, or did they do it anyway?" Curious Carly.

"I volunteered the idea the day before my second birthday, the next day we were with the gypsies who were did not like the idea of a thief in their midst. The plan was to join the Nightees as well, the pirates were going to die," My answer was thoughtful, almost pondering.

"So how did you become a pirate? Did they put you up to it?" I briefly wondered who was more curious, Carly, or the twin I was talking to.

"It was a mistake, I was on a ship illegally going to Vatican City when the ship got jumped by pirates, I was five and tiny. I got shoved overboard on accident. The captain of the pirates saw me go down, I could not swim, I do not like water. He dived in after me like he would his own crew. I would have drowned and have been a pirate since." My answers were getting more drawn out, that usually didn't happen.

"Uh-huh, and who's this 'Goddess' you said something about?" Ugh, why can't Carly quit asking questions.

"The Goddess of the moon, all gods are real but she is who I believe in. Now can we just get some sleep?" I snapped at the two of them, Goddess it's been a long day, they need to be quiet. Alas, silence. I curled up on my bed and felt my