The atmosphere was still, with only a quiet murmur coming from the distance. Murmurs of faraway laughter and conversation. The peace was drained from this perfect night. I was sitting in the back of a van. Black clothes covered every part of my pale skin, leaving only my face exposed. I was wearing slightly worn leather boots, track suit pants, a jumper that smelt like burnt rubber and fingered gloves, all in black. A face mask gathered around my neck, waiting to be pulled up when necessary. My fingers were interlocked on my lap to suppress the urge to fidget, instead letting out my nervous energy through rhythmic leg bounces. I watched through the vans tinted windows as guests in assortments of flashy attire entered my half-brother Kael's auction house, which towered high above us.

"It's been a while, huh?" Rafa said, causing me to look over at him. The back of the van that I sat in contained two rows of seats that faced each other. Across from me was Rafa and Allambee, who wore formal black and white tuxedos, and beside me was Liam, who wore an all-black outfit like me.

My leg froze, and I chuckled dryly, "Yeah. This isn't like the small stuff we used to pull off. " Liam, the blue haired boy, who I estimated was about fifteen years old, rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Just admit you're scared and leave it to the professionals."

Suddenly getting a hold of my nerves, I responded, "I'd rather me cautious than take advice from a cocky child." Before Liam could say anything further, Rafa cleared his throat, a barely audible sound, and so Liam resorted to flipping me off, turning his attention to a laptop that sat on his lap.

"So, we're all clear on our rolls in this, right?" Rafa asked.

Allambee was the first to respond, saying, "Me and you will take part in the auction. Buy the others time however we can. " Raffa nodded.

"I'll be providing you all with info through the coms. Hacked their cameras, will make sure nobody gets seen, " Liam said without looking up from his laptop.

"I'm waiting on the roof until the locket is removed from the vault, then I take it and leave as fast as possible" I said, forcing up memories from the back of my mind about how cruel Kael had been to me. He deserved this, I was only collecting what was already mine.

"I'm covering granny boys back," Cash, a white-haired boy, stated with a quiet, croaky voice from the passenger seat of the van. I had known Cash before I left Ashen. I remembered him as a quiet and pale boy. It seemed all that had changed after three years was that these qualities had increased.

"And I'm your escape wheels," Ava said from the driver's seat. Rafa nodded. "Good. Stay connected, and don't get caught, whatever it takes", he tapped his earpiece, then his waist. Underneath his jacket, I knew there was a loaded gun, and probably a few knives, too. I swallowed, suddenly aware of the warm metal pressed against my own skin under my jumper. I had never shot anyone, and I never planned to.

"Alright, me and Allambee first. Once people are distracted, make your move, " Rafa said, his red eyes meeting with my yellow ones. As soon as I nodded, he and Allambee opened the back door of the van and stepped out, blending into the crowd. The van went silent, and suddenly, the loudest sound was the chatter of hundreds of voices as they entered and lingered around the auction house entrance.

"So, are you going to stick around?" Ava asked, breaking the silence. I looked up and met her green eyes in the rearview mirror.

"What?"

"Are you going to stick around after this? You know, at Ashen Avenue. You know we'd all be happy to have you, "

I smiled weakly in response to Ava's words. Cash, however, let out a quiet scoff from the passenger seat. Before I could say anything, however, Liam spoke up. "Alright, they're distracted. Cash, Kota, get". With that, we pulled up our masks and hoods; I exited from the back door of the van while Cash exited from the passenger door. It was easier than I had expected to reach our designated lookout spot. While all the attention was drawn toward the noise and lights coming from the auction house entrance, our path was down the side of the building, which was dark and abandoned.

"Yep. Right there, " Liam's voice sounded through our earpieces. Cash and I paused and looked up the side of the building. "Climb there, and you'll be almost right above the vault room door." Stretching my stiff and cold arms, I grabbed onto the side of the wall and began climbing. I was surprised to realise it was much harder to climb walls than it used to be. My muscles burned only a few steps up, despite many options for foot and hand holds, including railing and jagged bricks. After what felt like eternity, and after many times of accepting defeat, we reached the glass top of the auction house. I almost gasped when I saw the inside of it. It was nothing like I remembered it. I had briefly seen inside of it before Kael had inherited it, and while it was a grand building, it was nothing like it was now. The once old antique building with cracked walls and grimy glass ceilings was now pristine, with every corner glimmering with light and reflections. "He's really put money into it, huh?" I mumbled before realising Cash was crawling on ahead. I quickly followed him, crawling forward with my forearms.

"That's the spot," Liam said through our earpieces, and Cash and I stopped, looking below at an empty hallway. "A few metres to your right is the entrance to the vault room. Someone will come from the left to collect the new items to auction." All we could see from atop the auction house roof, was a few metres of glass that allowed us to see the hallway below; everything else was made of some other kind of black metal looking material.

~

The next forty minutes or so stretched on for what felt like eternity, with me and Cash laying in unmoving silence. Nothing moved below us except the occasional time a staff member would walk down the hallway below us from the left, then return holding some expensive looking object that Kael was going to auction off next. The sound of his mumbled voice through a microphone and hundreds of voices chattering could be heard as a wordless buzz in the distance. The smell of sweets wafted in the air, somewhat altered by the smell of tyres and smoke that clung to the clothes that I wore. Rafa had given me the set of clothes I wore, stating that 'just because I was homeless, it didn't mean I had to look it'. Despite the harsh words, I was glad to change out of the clothes I had been wearing since my last day at my apartment. The smells that clung to Rafa's clothes were more bearable than the ones that had begun to cling to mine.

"A lot has changed these last three years, huh?" I said in a quiet voice, finally deciding to speak. Cash scoffed just as quietly. I turned my face from facing downward into the hallway below to look at my old white-haired friend. The only thing not obscured by black clothes was the slit where his eyes were, and the few white-haired that poked out of his hood and onto his forehead. His dark eyes glared downward into the hallway, ignoring my gaze. "What's your problem?" I asked with a mixture of genuine curiosity and obvious frustration. Cash's head turned to me, his eyes boring into me like he was fighting the urge to strangle me.

"Three years. You've been gone three years, you know?" he asked in a venomous whisper.

"Nice to see you too," I responded sarcastically.

"What was your answer to Ava going to be?" I looked back down into the hallway, my chest suddenly feeling tight. Cash scoffed again, quiet and knowing, as he too looked back through the glass, "thought so." I sighed, the tightness in my chest being replaced a pang of annoyance in my head.

"The answer is no, okay, Cash? Nothing has changed since I first said I was done with this life. So, get off my back about it." There was no response, as Cash continued to stare below in silence.

Liam's voice sounded through our earpieces, "Nothing besides the oh so mighty Kota coming back after all these years just to ask us to risk our skins for you. For what? If you're not even one of us anymore." I rubbed my temples, the rubber of my gloves cold against my skin.

"If I left back then when we were kids, why would I stay now? I'm not oblivious, I know Ashen is even deeper in crime than we used to be. We used to carry around knives, now its guns. We used to steal to survive. Now I know it's way past that." Ava's voice booed me loudly through the earpiece so that I had to squint against the noise.

"You didn't leave because of morals," Ava huffed. "You left because you had someone who became your 'normal' family. She offered you a house, food, money, and safety, and you didn't need the streets anymore, and yeah, good on you. That's what we all want. But quit lying to yourself, you're back to where you started. You're broke, homeless, alone, and a few moments away from being a wanted criminal." Having my life's failure laid out like that was hard to hear.

"You're right, but that doesn't mean I need to go back to Ashen. I can at least try to do better with my life." A long silence followed my statement until finally Cash spoke again from beside me.

"So basically, you're too good for us and our terrible way of life, but you're not too good to ask us for help?" His tone was very matter of fact, but the accusation in his tone couldn't be missed.

"Why are we helping this kid anyway?" Liam chimed in, "maybe if he gets off his high horse begs us for help, he'll even be worth our time." I rolled my eyes hard and wished silently that he could see it.

"Nobody forced you to be here, kid. If you don't want to help, then beat it! Why are you even here to complain just because I chose to do better for myself, while you'll probably be in jail before your my age." I hissed, both frustrated and relieved that I wasn't in front of him right now so I could vent my anger out with more than just my words.

"Don't temp us, Kota," Ava said in a threatening tone at the same time Liam scoffed, "maybe I will," and Cash glared over at me while flipping me off with both hands.

"That's enough," Rafa said, clearly whispering so as not to be heard by those around him at the auction. "If you are all done squabbling like children, take a moment to remember that you are here because I told you to be, not because you chose to." Cash put his hands away but continued to glare at the side of my head. "Kota is one of us whether he likes it or not. He was loyal to us for years, and we're here to repay that. If the time comes that he chooses to rejoin us, you can ask your debts to be repaid then. Remember, if Ashen's don't give others a chance, none of us would be here. Ashen is birthed from loyalty and debt."

The world returned to silence for a few minutes before Rafa chimed in again. "They've announced this is the last item to auction. Has anyone spotted the locket yet?" My stomach turned with sudden anxiety. Had we been distracted and somehow missed it?

"That's not possible." Liam said, seemingly answering my thoughts. "What's the last item?" Silence followed his question for a moment as I listened intently to the mumble of voices in the distance and through their earpieces.

A moment later, Rafa answered, "It's not the locket. It's some fancy jug." I resisted the urge to smash my fist into the glass below me as my mind raced for ideas as to how we could have missed it.

"We're sure he was auctioning it today?" I asked to no one in particular.

"A hundred per cent. I hacked the system. It lists everything they're going to auction each day, " Liam stated, his voice quiet. Did he make a mistake? He's only a kid, after all. But he got us this far, is it right for me to doubt him?

"Well, if it's not going up now, you all need to get out of here. Once the auction is over, it will be hard to distract everyone. Someone might get caught for nothing." Rafa spoke. Cash began sliding back the way we came but paused when I spoke.

"Wait! But if we're mistaken, we will lose our positions, and the locket will be auctioned off right in front of us. We'll never get this chance again." I stared pleadingly at Cash, hoping words alone were enough to convince the others. After an excruciatingly long pause, Rafer spoke. "If you have a plan," he said simply. I nodded despite the fact that he couldn't see it.

"We can continue as planned. The only difference is that we will have to get it straight from the vault instead of out of the hands of the staff. "

"That's even assuming it's in there," Ava stated.

"I saw what the code was to open the vault. That will speed us up. But being able to get there and escape before security reaches you is close to impossible, " Liam said.

"But not impossible?" Another long pause followed my question until Rafa said, "Do it. But don't stop for anything. In and out as fast as you can or we're all done for."

Again, I nodded, more hurriedly this time, "we'll be quick."

"We?" Cash scoffed. "We're almost sure to get caught. The alarms will be blaring before our feet even touch the floor."

"It's your choice, Cash. Just make it quickly, " Rafa said. Cash looked at me for a moment before sighing and pulling his bag off his back. Inside was a rope. "If I so much as get a sniff of security, you're on your own." He mumbled as he knelt above one of the glass panes, preparing to pry it loose.

I nodded. "Deal."

-Interdimensional Pirates
-April Bluebird/@BlueWhiskers1
-12/Sep/2025
-Chapter 5: Break In
-2485 words
-419 👁‍🗨, 38 🌟, 38💭.