“No.”
She stares me down.
“No, Skip. I’m a one-woman show.”
Her butt hits the floor and she whines again.
“I suck at teamwork.”
She lays down and rests her head on her tiny paws looking up at me pathetically.
I grit my teeth, shake my head no again and then…fuck it. My foot swings out and nudges her dog carrier bag from where I dropped it when we got home from Target. Skipper launches herself at the bag and hops in. I scowl at her but it turns into a grin. I might be a thief but I’m not a monster. Skipper doesn’t deserve to be stuck with Mrs. Douchebag for the rest of her days so it looks like I’ll have to figure out teamwork after all.
I load up all the bags into the van before I get Skipper strapped into the passenger seat and then hit the garage door opener. I press the brake to stop the van in the driveway before I hit the street and reach for my laptop to end the camera looping program. The camera feeds reset while I hit the button on the door opener to close up the garage and then toss the opener out the window. Hope the guys keep their masks on. I turn onto the street and drive away. I don’t look back.
Black
Asoft rumbling drags me back to wakefulness but it’s a real struggle to crack open my eyes. The rumbling stops and all I want to do is sink back down into sleep again but something tugs at my conscience. Something important. I start to lose the battle again, letting go and drifting off but that rumble starts up again and my tired, foggy brain sluggishly makes the connection…garage door. The rumble is a garage door opening and then closing again. It takes a few seconds but then my brain fires away and my hand lashes out to where Blue should be but all it hits is a piece of paper. Fuck! The owners must have come back early. We need to get out of here!
I roll to the side and shove at my brothers to wake them up.
“Get up! Get up! We have to go.”
They both bounce up immediately. Years of sleeping on the edge, being ready to move and dodge away from the dangerour druggie parents were is ingrained and most likely will never leave us.
“What’s happening?” Green asks as he looks around frantically.
“Where’s Blue?” Red yells.
His eyes zero in on the paper that rests on the pillow I was just sleeping on. He snatches it up as I drag on my clothes.
“Aww fuck. You have got to be kidding me.” He curses out in a pissed-off tone and then holds the paper out to me with a furious expression. I snatch it from his hand leaving my jeans unbuttoned and read the words that have rage filling me.
Hey guys,
Had a great time. REALLY enjoyed all the dick but I’ve got to jet.
Gig’s over and I need to move on.
Don’t leave the room without your masks on. The cameras are now live.
Thanks for the treats, sorry about the trick
Happy Halloween!
Blue
The paper drops from my hand and I bark, “Search the house. She might not have left yet.”
I know it’s fruitless. I know she’s gone but I need to check just in case. That rumble that woke me up was her clearing out. Red goes down the stairs, Green starts searching the rooms on this floor and I climb the stairs to the third floor.
What I find has my jaw dropping and me reevaluating every moment, every word that came out of Blue’s mouth. The owner’soffice is trashed and there’s a huge painting swung away from the wall with a safe door wide open showing that it’s been cleared out. Blue did this. She was running a heist of her own and we barged right into the middle of it.
My gaze takes in the trashed office again but this time I look closer and realize it’s not trashed, it’s papered. I move in closer for a better look. Every wall, all the floor space. Every piece of furniture is papered with…fuck…it’s papered with obituaries.
Pictures of people and tributes of their lives. Old, young, adult, children. Everywhere. Dozens, hundreds.
My eyes lift to the dripping paint on the only spot not papered over, the wall behind the huge glass desk.
