Posted:
14 years ago
So I made this a while back..figured I'd post it here even though I don't think it's my best work.
On an unrelated note: Yes, Chandni, this is Josh. I told you I'd find it.
Anyways, here it is.
[quote=Story]
Just pick up the bread, dance and weave. Pick up bread, dance and weave. Move!
Thought Raphael, a skinny young boy with dark hair, blue eyes, and
tattered clothing. Moving from the crowd, he started trotting. This
trot turned into a graceful run, weaving in and out between people
towards a bread vendor. Keeping his lead low, Raphael then jumped to
land right in front of the vendor, quickly put his leg behind the man,
and collapsed his knee. Picking up the bread, he quickly ran and leaped
into an alleyway, whilst shouts arose and the city watch was alerted.
Hah, those stupid guards won't find me. Besides, even if they do, I'll just escape. Better eat or the bread will get stale. Raphael
devoured the bread like a hungry dog that hadn't eaten in three
days—which was what he looked like, half-dressed in rags. He was a
truly pitiful sight—he was as scrawny as the wealthy were fat. Living
as a thief in Italy for the past fifteen years had taught him
much—which streets to avoid, what type of person to rob, and the like.
He was also extremely agile, moving from place to place without making
a sound. Better get back to the shelter or there'll be hell to pay, he thought.
The
shelter was a sort of home for Raphael. Actually, this was only
somewhat true. It was home to many thieves, all around the age of
fifteen. They had become close, almost like a family—though not too
close as to allow anyone to use trust to their advantage. They had a
leader, John, though he was seldom seen, prowling about at night,
looking for fresh victims to rob. Whenever he was at the shelter, he
brought food—which was mostly pizza. This always brought laughs of
delight and humor to the thieves, as the thought of sitting around
eating pizza was both enjoyable and hilarious.
Raphael
moved quickly, like a dart being fired at top speed. He was rarely
seen, and if he was, he was dismissed as a mere shadow. He knew the
city like the back of his hand, and could easily navigate it to go
anywhere from anywhere. He was approaching the shelter quickly—almost
there now. Ducking and weaving, moving quickly—it was an art, a skill,
truly graceful. Do a few jumps, run up a wall and into a window—nothing
else brought such ecstacy to him. He was nearly at the shelter, just a
few more alleyways and…there! He approached the building, casually
walking up to it as if an innocent civilian. It was an old, abandoned
building, though no one knew for sure what it used to be. Some argued a
fancy restaurant, though some still argued a mansion. Either way, it
was incredibly big, so the thought of petty thieves living inside of it
would never be thought of. It was truly the greatest hideout.
Instead
of entering through the front door, he instead went around to the back.
Walking a ways away from it, he ran straight at the building, ran up,
grabbed the window and vaulted himself up and in. This was all done in
a single, fluid motion. Six faces stared at him, looking up from a deck
of cards. "Raph, why can't you just knock? Seriously, we have a door
for a reason." Groaned a smaller teenager, setting down a shovel.
"Seriously, it makes me think we're being attacked by ninjas or
something!"
"Shut up, Marc. I still think that you shouldn't be
always ready to let anyone who knocks in. It could be the city watch or
something." Raphael retorted, annoyed. Marc, or Marcus, was younger
than Raphael. He was short for his age, with blonde hair, milky white
skin and eyes as green as polluted water. While Marcus was almost as
agile as Raphael, he didn't use that unless necessary. He was lazy,
only doing things that must be done. This annoyed Raphael, since Marcus
never wanted to go leaping with him. Leaping was Raphael's favorite
pastime. He would get up on the roof and try to leap from building to
building as fast as possible. The first one to take a break would
lose—unfortunately, Raphael almost never had an opponent.
"Guys,
just shut up. Raphael, where were you? You were supposed to be here an
hour ago!" said a girl, not taking her eyes off her hand of cards. The
girl's name was Rachel, and she was Raphael's age—fifteen, though she
looked much older. Her brown hair, blue eyes, and tall figure made her
look seventeen, even eighteen.
"I got…caught up." Raphael mumbled.
"Oh!
Let me guess! You wanted a tasty morsel!" Rachel groaned sarcastically.
Raphael turned red. He had a tendency to stop and steal bread and hard
candies a lot, even when he had already eaten that day.
"What if
you had been caught? I mean, seriously—is it really worth risking that
for candy or something?!" Rachel asked, obviously annoyed.
"Actually, it was bread. And besides, I kept my head down! Nobody saw me!" Raphael retorted, embarrassed and angry.
"Oh, wow! Bread! That was worth it!"
"Guys!
Shut the heck up! Raph, come sit down. Play Go Fish with us." Yelled a
taller asian kid. He was Zachary—though he preferred to be called Zach.
Zach was seventeen, the oldest in the group next to John. He was always
trying to be the peacemaker in the group, calling everyone "immature"
and "deviants".
"Go Fish? I don't think so. What are you guys,
like, five?" laughed Raphael, walking towards the single couch. He
plopped down on it, then quickly got up as a shout of pain erupted from
the couch. A lump moved, then Raphael saw that it was just Michael, the
youngest of the group. He had covered the blanket over him, making him
blend into the couch perfectly. Michael was thirteen, and he was just
recently picked up by John.
"Geez, dude! What are you
trying to do, kill me?" shouted Michael, infuriated. "I'm trying to
frickin' sleep, and you sit on me!"
Raphael laughed. "Sorry dude, you looked exactly like the couch! Move over. I wanna rest."
"Get
your own couch! Maybe you should steal one on your way back from a
job!" Muttered Michael, shifting to sleep on his side. "I bet it'd only
take an hour or two."
Raphael sighed, and sat down next to Rachel. Picking up five cards, he muttered, "Got any Jacks?"
END OF CHAPTER LOLOLOLOLOL
Raphael
was wasted. He had just come back from doing a job, and now he had to
deal with his "family". After winning three times in a row at Go Fish,
he promptly removed Michael from the couch and sprawled on it. He had
had to steal a necklace from a lady as she was walking down the street.
She was, of course, surrounded by guards. Quick blows to some pressure
points and they were down. After snapping the necklace off, the woman
had promptly called the City Watch, which had forced him to run. After
a long chase, he had escaped into a building, and then out into an
alleyway. He had then had the caper with the bread vendor, and now he
was at the shelter. Just another day in his life.
A couple of
hours passed. Raphael was awoken by a sudden jolt, forcing him wide
awake. He immediately went into a defensive stance, jumping off the
couch and onto the floor.
"Whoah, Raph, it's me. John. You got the
necklace?" Said a man in dark sunglasses, with his hands up. Raphael
lowered his hands, realizing who and what had awoken him. It was just
John, coming to pick up the necklace and sell it. He reached into his
pocket and was hit by a sudden jolt of terror. It wasn't there! The
necklace wasn't in his pocket! He must have dropped it! Then he reached
into his other pocket, and was instantly relieved when he found the
necklace. Tch, idiot! You didn't even think of checking the other
pocket, did you? He thought. Handing the necklace over, Raphael asked,
"Yo John, got any pizza?"
At the mention of pizza, everyone
looked up. Pizza was the joke of the shelter—for obvious reasons—though
at the mere mention of it, everyone instantly thought the same thought:
Where?! Unfortunately, John didn't have any pizza, so everyone was
disappointed. Returning to their previous work, their focus immediately
left John.
"Nope. No pizza…you guys seem to change your favorite
toppings every week, so it's hard to keep track. Besides, it's pizza—it
should be rare. Anyways, I'll go sell this necklace. Probably get a few
hundred for it. Maybe we can get another couch, eh?" At this, John left
as soon as he had entered.
Raphael returned to the couch.
He looked at Rachel—then noticed she was looking at him, so he quickly
turned away. He had always had a strong affection for her, and he felt
like a child whenever he looked at her. She was so confident, so in
charge. If something went wrong, she would immediately take over,
issuing orders. At the moment, she was examining a cube of some sort.
She was flipping it around and moving it in odd ways. Raphael finally
recognized what it was—a rubix cube. It didn't have any colors, like a
traditional rubix cube, so it was hard to notice that that was what it
was. In fact, it had patterns instead of colors. There were lions,
horses, dragons, gargoyles, sheep and wolves. Raphael watched in utter
amazement as she flipped it with expert speed, never pausing. In less
than ten minutes, she had it completely solved. She then started to
flip all of the sides at insane speeds, not paying any attention to
what she was doing. After doing this for a few minutes, she seemed
content—and then she started solving it again.
Raphael decided to go leaping. Rising up, he stated, "anyone wanna go leaping?"
Everyone looked at him, then looked back. Sighing, Raphael turned to climb up the ladder.
"Yeah
sure, let me finish this first." Rachel said, not removing her
transfixed eyes from the cube. Raphael waited, wondering how long it
might take. Surely it would take hours—she had just started, after all.
"Should I go and do a few rounds while you finish, or…?" he said.
"Hah,
nah, I'll have it in under a minute." Rachel smirked. In thirty seconds
she was done, smugly holding it up. "Alright, let's go."
They
climbed the ladder to the roof. The sun was just about to set, and
Raphael estimated that they would have about an hour before it got too
dark to navigate.
"Alright, so the rules are normal. No
distractions, no knee collapsing, move as fast as possible." He said,
quickly. He didn't want to waste too much time standing around, since
he obviously looked a little red, being alone with Rachel. He thought
it childish, really—he was fifteen! Why should he be embarrassed?
Nevertheless, it was as such. He hoped to hide his red face with the
excuse of being exhausted. Without another word, he ran, jumped, and
leaped. Grabbing onto the ledge of an adjacent building, he vaulted
himself up and over. He had always been much more agile than
Rachel—though he went a little slower so as not to make her feel bad.
He figured he could completely lose her, though he didn't want to.
This
cycle continued for a while. For Raphael, it was pure ecstacy. Leaping
and running with the grace of a cat made him feel alive. Vaulting over
obstacles, sliding under pipes, all of those things made him
exhilarated. It was a thrill unlike any other, for when he went
leaping, all of his worries faded. It was as if he were outrunning his
worries, his problems, his fears. Leaving them in the dust, never to
catch up.
He slowed down a bit, in order to let Rachel catch up. "You feeling tired yet?" he teased.
"Hah,
yeah. I'm freaking jumping from building to building! What do you
expect?" she retorted, breathing heavily. Making sure she could see
him, Raphael jumped onto a ledge, lifted up and flipped onto the
building. "Oh yeah! Ninja!" he yelled, fists in the air. "Hah! I win!
You stopped!" Rachel mocked, savoring her cheap victory. Crap! Raphael
thought. I just had to do the little fists in the air thing. "Eh,
whatever. It's getting dark—let's head back." He said, panting. With
that, he ran and leaped onto the next building, shouting taunts and
beckons.
END OF CHAPTER LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Panting,
Raphael walked into the shelter. He plopped down on his "bed"—a piece
of cloth folded many times over. John insisted that they call them beds
so that their attitudes didn't go bad. In his mind, they were not
"cots", or "rags". They were beds, and that was that.
Trying
to go to sleep, Raphael fathomed any possible way to get Rachel to like
him. She had to have noticed him, right? But maybe she liked Zach—he
did look a lot better. Maybe she went for the older guys. She probably
thought of him as a stupid runner, only caring about moving around. She
only went leaping with him because she felt sorry for him for being
such a little freak. Finally, exhausted, he managed to catch some rest.
"Raphael!
Wake up! I got a job for you." Said a voice. Raphael instantly shot to
attention, something he had learned to do a long time ago. It had
helped him many times, being able to instantly become fully awake.
"What is it, and what's my payment?" he asked. John hesitated, then
said, "I want you to get us food for today." Raphael groaned. "Food?
Really? I thought it was Michael's turn."
"I want you to do it. You're the fastest in the group."
"Fine, fine…anything in particular?"
"Nah, just get some food."
With
that, Raphael was getting dressed. It was still dark, so he put on dark
clothing. He'd be in and out before anyone knew a thing was
happening. He walked over to the window, opened it, jumped out, and
disappeared. John smirked. That kid was agile, alright.
Shooting
down the alleys like a falcon to its prey, Raphael headed towards the
pizza parlor. He hadn't had any pizza in a long time. Creeping up next
to the building, he determined how best he could enter it. He noticed
that there was a ventilation duct about ten feet above him. Stepping
back, he ran up to the wall, shot up it, grabbed the vent, and swung
into it. All of this took less then five seconds, and made almost no
sound at all. Creeping in, Raphael noticed that pizza was already
cooking. The great thing about the pizza parlor was the fact that there
was only one man working there. Currently, this man was waiting at the
register, as he always did—his version of great customer service.
Sneaking out of the duct, Raphael looked for a few boxes of pizza. He
was like a snake in the grass—making no noise, no signs of being there.
Carefully, he picked up a box and started to sneak back. Suddenly, the
man at the register swung around and started to run at him! Setting the
pizza aside, he swiftly sidestepped the man, dealing a swift blow to
his neck. Immediately, the man collapsed, not to wake up for three
hours. Smirking, Raphael took the pizza and left.
Running
back to the shelter was tricky. The sun was starting to shine, so he
had to move quickly. Running between alleyways and leaping over
obstacles was something he did mechanically, thinking nothing of it. He
was barely paying attention to what he did, when he suddenly realized
that he was running straight towards a police man! The police man
obviously had not noticed him. He had to be careful here—if he was
noticed, that was it. Suddenly, the police man turned around, noticed
him, and blew his whistle. Immediately, the area was teeming with
police officers. How were there so many!? He looked around. The alley
was too narrow—he couldn't get enough distance for a running leap onto
the wall and into a window. He was trapped. Dropping the pizza, he
raised his hands in defeat.
END OF CHAPTER LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
"John! Where's the food?" asked Rachel, hungrily looking for any sign of food.
"I
don't know—I sent Raphael out to get some, but he hasn't come back
yet." John retorted, looking puzzled himself. Was he caught? Nah. He's
too fast for that. He thought. But then…what? John racked his brain,
thinking of an answer. He was just caught up, that's it. Yeah!
"Where
is your hideout?!" bellowed a large man, sitting at a table. He was
bellowing at Raphael, who was looking very bored and plain. "Excuse
me?" he asked, trying to appear as if he had no idea what the man was
talking about. "You know very well what I am talking about! You are
Raphael Cassandro! You are a well-known thief, guilty of many crimes!"
retorted the man. Raphael grinned. "I see my reputation preceeds me,"
he said, smirking. Any minute now, he could escape. Just a little
movement of his fingers and he could have the key to his cell. He'd
sneak away, and no one would ever find out until he was long gone.
After
bellowing at Raphael for a while, the man told the guards to take him
away. As they locked him up in his cell, Raphael stole the key from one
of the guards. The fool—he had no idea what had just happened! Waiting
until everyone was out of sight, he slipped the key into his handcuffs,
releasing them. He then slipped the key into the jail cell, and with a
click, he was out. Grinning, he sunk into the shadows, heard by no one
and seen by no one.
"John, Raphael still isn't back. I
think he was caught—I'll go look for him." Rachel said, anxiety showing
in her face. At the shelter, if anyone ever goes missing, you go look
for them. No one gets left behind. Especially if they are to bring the
food.
"Whoah, let's just settle down here." John said, reassuringly.
"If he's not back by six, we'll look for him." Rachel started to
protest, but realized it was of no use. She sighed, then went back to
her rubix cube.
Rachel was growing worried. It was five
thirty, and still no sign of Raphael. She decided to search for him
immediately. As she was about to leave, a figure leaped into the room
from the window. "Yo." Raphael said, as casually as could be.
[/quote]
Edited by Geel9 - 14 years ago
