Rags and Riches

Ch. 4: Death at Every Corner - Shayne

Whenever I step into a market, a kind of pleasant breeze always washes over me. In that breeze was pure freshness; a pure scent that to some wouldn't even be a scent. It was simply air. But the wonderful breeze of the mornings always brought a sort of calm over me. It prepared me and my nerves for my next heist and it just made me happy.

After all, it was one of the only things free in life that I could really enjoy.

But this morning, all I could feel were nerves. Nothing but anxiety and nervousness wracking over me in considerable waves, despite my calm exterior. A week had gone by without my key, and things were not okay. The initial humour Noah and Keith found in my unfortunate circumstance had boiled down into legitimate concern, and when the both of them start harrowing you down like a hawk, that's when you know something is wrong. Keith didn't even flinch when I tried to (in stuttering breaths) tease him about a "rumour" one of his favourite singers got involved in. He just took a couple breaths, then told me to hush up as he went to get me some water from the bar, since he was one of the barkeeps there.

I made fun of him, and he went to get me some damn water.

It was times like these that made me both afraid and infuriated at what I had become.

"Hey, you're going to be fine."

Noah's sudden voice made me jump. My eyes wide, my shoulder felt warm as a hand was placed there. "Okay, maybe not... There's still time to back out. I could do this myself, you know."

For some reason, that sentence made me annoyed. I was the oldest in our trio and I was sick of being coddled after. I shook the comforting hand off. "I am fine." I said, icy and cold. He backed away one step, halfheartedly putting his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. Just making sure."

The three of us had agreed today to go looking for my key again. After a couple days of persistently going back to the market in a wild search, Noah and Keith eventually made me calm down enough to wait a little while before I went back. I don't remember much from my frenzy, probably because Keith gave me a crap load of drinks to mellow out with, but apparently, I was "going crazy" and I needed "to sit the hell down" and "get some damn sleep!"

Or at least, according to Keith.

So we struck a deal to wait a few more days before I went back into the market, and this time it would be with Noah so I wouldn't accidentally kill myself with my newfound clumsiness.

"Let's walk into the market at different times. You look for your key and I'll at the next couple booths over, okay?"

Noah was also a thief like me, one who was just trying to get by, but we never went thieving together. I mean, we grew up together, coming from the same sorry excuse of an orphanage so we knew each other pretty well. But, it was simply too dangerous to be seen together now since we both lived very high risk lives, with different enemies and different stakes. Should our thieving ways cross paths, who knows who could be watching or what could possibly happen.

With a small sigh, I nodded as I started my way down to the market. Noah also gave me a well-worn dagger to use, just in case I messed up with the wrong people (and living without my key for a week, I have come to learn that to be a definite possibility). It was a little comforting to feel it tied against my waist, knowing that it was a good failsafe. 

I tried to even out my breaths as I took in a deep inhale after inhale. My eyes sharpened as I willed my heartbeat to slow down. Confidence. That's all I need.

As I approached the first booth, one man thrust his first product at me. I pretended to be interested as my eyes wandered, scanning for anything that resembled my lucky silver key. Soon enough, I waved him off with an apologetic shrug and continued on my way.