My First Try!! :)

My First Try!! :)

Thanks for the prompt @grab-an-idea!

Prompt: “Who are you? Show yourself!”

The job had gone wrong. It was supposed to be a small break-in. Get in, grab the artifact and leave. They had practiced it multiple times, and it had gone flawlessly. It all went wrong when they did it for real.

They had found the window, gotten into the house, and found the artifact. Or where it should have been.

“Where is it?” Chief whispered. “We’ve been watching this house for days, and no one has touched it.”

“What do we do now?” Clara asked. “Do we leave or look for it?”

Chief paced back and forth fiddling with his hair. 

“Chief what do we-”

“Shh, I’m thinking.”

Clara nodded and sat down on the floor. Chief kept pacing, switching between fiddling with his hair and his belt.

Clara sat for what felt like hours before Chief stopped pacing.

“Did you hear that?”

Clara stood up. “Hear what?”

Chief didn’t respond, and they both fell silent again. The faint sound of footsteps echoed down the hall. 

“We have to go. Now.” Chief grabbed Clara’s arm and took off running. They retraced their steps through the house.

Once they got to the window, both out of breath, they stopped. 

“What’s going on? Who is that?” Clara knelt breathing heavily.

Chief, still holding onto her arm, pulled her up. “We have to get out of here. I’ll explain later.” 

Clara nodded and opened the window. Chief let go of her arm, and she crawled out. Chief crawled out after her, and they both climbed down to the backyard. 

Chief pointed to the forest that surrounded the house, Clara nodded, and they took off running.

“Clara go to the right. I’ll go to the left.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we stay together?”

“They want me. You’ll be safer if we split up.”

“Who are-“ Clara stopped. She didn’t want to leave Chief’s side he had helped her through so much, finding her on the street after her parents died and raising her like she was one of his own. Tears started to fill her eyes.

Chief grabbed her by the shoulders. “I will see you at home. I promise. I will not abandon you.” 

Chief pulled her into a hug and wiped the tears from her eyes. Chief let go of her and took off running. Clara wiped her hands on her pants and ran in the opposite direction. 

Clara’s lungs started to ache. Not being able to run anymore she sat down on a nearby log. She closed her eyes and focused on getting air back into her lungs.

Who was chasing them? The family that lives in the house was out of town for another week. They would have seen the family car outside and would have called the job off. 

Where was the artifact? It was their ticket out of the city. Chief promised Clara that they would move to the country and live a normal life. 

Her thoughts were cut off by the sound of approaching footsteps. She jumped to her feet. “Who are you? Show yourself!” 

The footsteps stopped. Clara cautiously took a step towards the sound. She saw a large shadow standing in the distance. “Chief is that you?” 

“Nope.” A gruff voice said. The figure started to run towards her.

She yelped and ran. The footsteps were getting closer. Clara, ignoring her screaming lungs, kept pushing forward. 

She wanted Chief to be with her. He said that this guy would go after him, not her. She closed her eyes for a second pushing back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She opened her eyes and jumped over a log. She almost cleared it, but her back foot caught the edge, and she fell hard on her stomach. 

She curled into a ball and tried to get her breath back. The footsteps got closer and closer until she could see black boots standing right in front of her.

“You must be the new sidekick.” A rough hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet until she was face to face with him. 

“Who are you?” Clara clawed at the hand holding her hair. 

“I was the last sidekick. Until he found you and pushed me aside, now I’m going to make him pay. I thought the artifact would be enough until I saw you.” His lips parted into a wide smile. “We are going to have so much fun.”