Bone tiptoed into the quiet house, silently shutting the door behind him. The house was dark and neat and motionless. He was the only conscious presence, the only movement and breath in the thick loneliness. He loved it that way.
He poked around a bit, looking for the kitchen. Then, he stopped. Silverware was hit or miss. Some people had the really nice stuff you could sell for a good price and other people didn't. Bedrooms were where the best stuff usually was. Antique jewelry, expensive watches, small electronics - all easy to carry and easy to pawn. Bone turned around and headed for the stairs.
There was sound upstairs. Light breathing and occasional snorts told Bone which closed doors were bedrooms. He carefully turned the knob to one, peeking inside. A girl was asleep in a large bed, her blonde hair plumed over her pillow. Her mouth was slightly open and a tiny trickle of drool ran down her cheek to her pillow. On the wall behind her bed, the word "Angel" arched over her in blue letters. Bone shook his head, holding in a chuckle.
He went first to her dresser. On top of it there was scattered jewelry, lip gloss, a hair brush and a hand mirror. Bone picked through the jewelry, leaving the ones that were clearly worthless and pocketing the things that had promise. Bone glanced in the hand mirror and saw the girl standing behind him, with a scowl and a large textbook raised over him.
Bone twisted around quickly and managed to dodge the textbook, but the girl dropped it, deciding her fists were more useful. Now, Bone was a spectacular thief. He had a flawless record of breaking into the most tightly sealed houses, stealing the best stuff and never getting caught. He'd never had to fend for himself in a break-in or run away before now - which had been an extremely good thing because there was no way he could win a fight. He was thirteen, short, scrawny and pale. Every item of clothing managed to be too big on him and he had chronic raccoon eyes due to his insomnia. When messing around with his brothers, Rat and Pierce, he always lost. Now, he was up against a really angry girl that was taller than him and judging by her muscle tone, worked out.
The girl had Bone pinned to the wall in about two seconds.
"You have till the count of three to come up with a good explanation or I'm calling the cops!"
"We'repoorandneedthemoneyandmysister'sblindandmybrother'sgirlfriendmightbepregnant andwecan'tafforddiapersandnewclothesandstuffontopofeverythingelse!"
The girl raised an eyebrow, looking Bone up and down. Then her eyes widened and her grip on him tightened.
"You're a darkling," she said with wonder. "I didn't notice your clothes before because it's so dark. I thought you were just some idiot on a dare or something."
"No, I'm just an idiot that should have thought of that first," Bone replied, trembling. The girl shook her head, laughing.
"You'd never pass for a pureling. I would have noticed anyway, as soon as I paid attention to what you were wearing."
Bone was in fact wearing a black hoodie - a hand-me-down from Pierce, with sleeves completely ripped to shreds - a pair of jeans, cut at the bottom and held up by a tattered belt because it was far too big for Bone, and a dingy, stained T-shirt, though the girl couldn't see that. A pureling would never be caught dead in worn or re-used clothing - as proven by the girl's perfectly fitted silk pajamas.
Bone wondered why the girl hadn't called the police yet. And why she wasn't scared. Not that he was intimidating or anything - clearly she was the one in power - but most purelings were terrified of darklings. That's why they'd built a whole wall to separate the purelings and the darklings - as if just living in close proximity to darklings might tarnish the riches and luxury of the purelings.
"Now, what was all that you said was your excuse for stealing my stuff? I barely caught half of it," the girl questioned. Bone sighed. He might as well, clearly his only hope of getting out of here was in pleasing this girl long enough till her grip on him loosened enough for him to make a dash for it.
"Well, we don't have a lot of money - clearly - and we need to steal in order to survive. My sister, who is blind, just moved in with us because Ma died and now Blade, my brother's girlfriend, thinks she's pregnant and we can't afford a baby on top of everything else."
"That's quite a sob story you have there," the girl snorted.
"It's true," Bone said, glaring. The girl didn't look convinced. Bone hated that. The only time people ever doubted him was when he told the truth. He should have lied to the stupid girl.
Then she let go of him.
Before he even had time to realize she'd done so, Bone took off. He ran down the steps and out the door, hopping over the porch railing and sprinting down the street.
The girl didn't pursue him, locked the front door and went to sleep without calling the cops.
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