Chapter 1
"Faye! Faye!"
Someone's calling my name… Who is it? Was I dreaming?
"Faye, it's me."
"Gramps?"
It was my great-grandfather, who died when I was 10 years old.
"Faye. Faye." He kept saying.
"What? What do you want?" I asked.
I opened my eyes I was led in bed in my apartment. Why was I dreaming about Gramps? I never dream about him.
I looked over at my alarm clock, it was nearly 7am. It was time to get ready for work. I got out of bed, I had a shower, had breakfast and got dressed. After I dried my hair off, I went over to my jewelry box, the morning light glinted off my ring. The ring was given to me by Gramps not long before he died.
Maybe I'll wear it today, I wondered how long it had been since I last wore it?
I went straight to work. It was a busy day.
"Phew, there sure was a lot of visitors today." I said to myself as I gazed at a display case.
Inside the case, was a 11th century solid-gold tiara. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
The alarm then started buzzing.
Huh? Was someone breaking in? I needed to call the police!
I started running when I saw two guys dressed in black holding a painting.
"Hey!" I shouted and skidded to a stop. "Who are you? Put that painting back right now."
"Oh, there's still someone working!" One of the men said surprised.
"Let's get outta here!" The other said.
"Hey! Wait! Stop you thieves!" I shouted.
Just as I started to chase after them, I bumped right into a display case. It began to wobble and a huge bronze statue started to fall towards me.
"Watch out!" One of the man shouted.
One of the thieves grabbed the statue and stopped it from falling onto me.
"Ugh. This is heavy. What is it?" He asked.
"A bronze statue from the Makonde tribe of Africa." I answered.
I was so shocked I just stared at him, he had just saved me but why? Surely if the statue had landed on me, they could have escaped from me easily. The lights were so bright I couldn't see their faces.
"Makonde tribe? What's the Makonde tribe?" He asked.
"Hey! Now's not the time!" The second man shouted.
"She's the one that freaked out and crashed into the display case! Well, I'm just glad you're not hurt." The first one said.
"Thank you but you need to give me the painting back." I demanded.
The second man patted me on the head.
"Sorry we scared ya!" He said.
What was with these guys? They were the strangest thieves I had ever met.
"Since you're being so polite, why don't you return the painting?" I asked.
"Haha! Sorry, can't do that." He said.
"Hey! You!" The first one shouted and grabbed my wrist.
"What? Get off me." I shouted.
"Why do you have this ring?" He asked.
Why did he want to know about my ring?
Just then, police sirens could be heard outside.
"It's the black foxes! They're the black foxes!" A policeman shouted.
"The black foxes?!" I gasped.
"That's a nice ring." The first man said.
He still had hold of my wrist.
"See ya later." The second man said before they both disappeared.
The police arrived, I was interviewed before me and my best friend Ranko went to a restaurant for dinner.
"Aren't the black foxes the ring of thieves who supposedly steal for the greater good? They're all over the TV and the internet lately. But I didn't think the black foxes really existed. I thought it was just an urban legend." She said.
"I wonder if the thieves really were part of the black foxes." I said.
They didn't act like thieves at all, the guys seemed generally good guys. One even saved me from being crushed. It was weird.
"Did you see their faces?" She asked.
"No." I answered.
"Aw man! I'd have the scoop of the century if you'd seen their faces, Faye!" She said.
Ranko was a newspaper reporter.
"Huh? Awww. You're all out of pork noodles?" A loud voice said in the restaurant.
There was a cute man with blonde hair stood at the counter, he wore a grey hoodie and blue shirt.
"We just sold the last one." A waiter said.
Hm? They had some when I ordered which means, I ordered the last one.
Hm. Oh well.
"Ugg. I came here just to eat those pork noodles too!" The man said angrily.
I ignored him and continued eating.
"Hey." He said.
"Yes?" I asked.
"You got pork noodles! Can you not look at me while you're eating? It's annoying." He snapped.
What was with this guy?
"Uh you spoke to me." I pointed out.
Another young man then appeared "I'm sorry. He really has a foul mouth."
He had bright ginger hair and was looked quite cute as well.
"Hey! Two girls and two guys... why don't we eat together?" He asked.
"Sure!" Ranko instantly said.
"Thanks. C'mon Takkun, sit down." The man said.
The rude guy frowned as he sat across from me.
"What's your name?" Ranko asked them.
"Me?" The second man asked. "My name is Hiro. What were you guys talking about just now? I heard' Black Foxes'."
"We were just wondering if they really exist." Rank answered.
"The ring of thieves just like Robin Hood, right?" Hiro asked.
"They don't steal for profit, instead they return illegally obtained works of art to their rightful owners. That's why I heard they steal." Ranko said.
"It'd be pretty cool if they were real, huh?" Hiro asked.
"Not really. They're still criminals." I said.
"Are you dumb?" The rude guy said.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"I heard that the museum got the painting that was stolen from the mafia in a black market deal." He said.
"Yes, I had heard that rumour." I said.
"You're pretty stupid for someone who works at a museum." He said.
"And you're very rude." I shouted back.
"Shut up! Stop yelling at everything." He shouted back.
We then both glared at each other in silence.
What was this guy's problem? But wait, how did they know that I worked at the museum?
"Takkun, stop being so mean to her. She's my soulmate!" Hiro beamed.
He reached out both of his hands and softly cupped them over mine.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Wow.. That's a lovely ring." He said.
"Thanks." I said and pulled my hands away from him.
Who were these guys?
After dinner, I headed home. I was so tired, I couldn't wait to get a cup of tea and go to bed. I went to get my mail before I headed up the stairs. I had some flyers, gas bill, coupons and letter. I opened it up and it read,
"We're coming to get you tonight. The black foxes."
Huh? What was this? Some kind of prank?
Ugh, how annoying.
I threw the card away with the junk mail and went upstairs to my apartment. I turned the light on and made myself a cup of tea. I sipped my tea, the hot liquid soothed my throat.
What a weird day I had today, I had met so many strange people.
As I stood there, suddenly someone came up behind and pressed a hand against my mouth and held me against their body. They made me jump that I dropped my tea.
"Shh! I'm not going to hurt you. Just be quiet!" They whispered in my ear.
I bite the person's finger as hard as I could.
"Oww!"
The man released me and I moved forwards.
"Hey. I have teeth marks, you bit me way too hard." He said.
"You're pretty violent, huh?" A second person asked.
I recognised that voice, it was Hiro from the restaurant.
"Hey! You're the guy from the bar!"
"I can't believe you bit him! Are you a girl or a dog?" A third person asked.
"Wait, you're one of the criminals from the museum." I stated.
He was the one who saved me from being crushed.
I finally realised what was going on, that letter I got was real. These guys were here to kidnap me!
"Be quiet! Anyway, we're not criminals. We're thieves." He shouted.
"Aren't they the same thing? Anyway, what do you want with me?"
"We're after this." Hiro said and held up Gramps ring.
"Hey, that's mine. Give it back." I ordered. "It's the only thing I have left of my great grandfather."
"I propose a trade." The third man said.
"A trade?"
"If you want the ring back, you have to come with us QUIETLY." He said.
"If I want it back? You're the ones who stole it."
"Be quite!" The man that I bit shouted.
I then felt someone hard press into my back. What was it? A gun?
"Don't worry." The man I bit whispered in my ear. "We won't do anything reckless."
These guys were crazy! But did I have a choice? They had a gun!
At gunpoint, I was taken to the bar that I was at earlier. Was this the Black Foxes' hideout? The bar was completely empty.
"Hey! You're the rude guy from before." I said as I was pushed through the door.
What was his name? Takkun?
"Shut up, Pork Noodle girl." He sneered.
"What kind of nickname is that?" I asked.
"Leave her alone, let's just explain everything to her." One of my kidnappers said.
"You shut up too, leader!" Takkun shouted.
He was the leader? He was the guy that saved me from being crushed by the statue.
"Well, if it isn't Faye." Someone else said.
It was a middle ages man with mid length brown hair, glasses and a small beard on his chin.
"We finally meet after all this time." He said.
"Um.. Do I know you?" I asked.
"I'm the Boss of the Black Foxes. I guess." He said.
For a boss, he didn't seem too sure of himself.
"What do you want from me? Why did you bring me here?" I asked.
"Your ring." He said.
"My ring? Why are you guys so obsessed with my ring?" I asked.
When the guys took me from my apartment, Hiro had given me back my ring. I had placed it back on my finger.
"You got it from your great-grandfather, right?" He asked.
"Yes. How did you know that?" I asked.
"Your great-grandfather was a great artist and inventor." He said.
"Yes but he died when I was 10 so I don't know much about him." I said.
"Hmm.. So you don't know how amazing his creations are."
"Pretty cold for someone who's supposed to be his grandkid." Takkun said.
"I suppose you could say he was the Japanese Leonardo Da Vinci." Boss said.
He was really that important? When I was young, I would spend hours drawing with him in his study. He painted such lovely things, I would love watching him work.
"But many of his valuable creations and inventions have fallen into the wrong hands. And we're stealing them back to recover them." Boss said.
"Recover them?"
"His creations and inventions. We can't stand the bad guys profiting from them." He said.
"Ok but.. What does that have to do with me?" I asked.
"He left behind one last masterpiece." He said.
"And we need you to help us get it." The man I bit said.
"Me?"
"Yes, we've been looking for you for a long time. And thanks to that ring, we found you." He said.
"Soo.. You're after the ring?" I asked. "In that case, I could lend it to you for a while as long as I get back."
"No, that's not it." The leader said.
He grabbed my wrist.
"We want your fingerprints. We need your fingerprints to find his creation." He said.
What the hell? I was so confused. So all they needed were my fingerprints? They didn't need to kidnap me to do this, they could have just asked me nicely and I would have agreed.
"Anyway, it's time to celebrate. Because you're about to become a black fox." The leader said with a smile.
"Wait, what? No." I said.
"Shut up!" He shouted and then pointed a gun at me. "If you won't join us, we can't let you get away. It's too dangerous now that you've seen our faces."
I froze.
"Are you threatening me?" I asked.
They were holding me hostage!
"If you work with us to recover your great-grandfather's work, you can return to life as normal." He said.
And if I say no, he'd kill me? I didn't have much of a choice.
"You need my fingerprints, that's fine. But I don't want to become a criminal." I said.
"Not criminal. Thief." Hiro said firmly.
"Regardless... I don't want to do anything illegal!"
"We're not committing crimes, we're setting things right." The leader said.
"Well.. Faye is just a regular girl. No wonder she gets scared when she hears the word thief." Hiro said.
"Don't worry. We won't make you steal anything. Just join us, ok?" The man I bit said tenderly.
"Not like we really expect much out of you anyway." Takkun said.
"So.. All I have to do is join you?" I asked.
"If you're gonna be a pain in the ass, why don't we just cut off her finger?" Takkun asked with a sinister smile.
I glared at him. Even though they were holding a gun at me and threatening me, they didn't seem dangerous. They could have hurt me or tied me up rather than giving me the option to join them. In fact, it would be easier for them to just tie me up in a room till they needed me. I'm sure that Takkun was just trying to scare me.
"Hmm. All right, then who's going to be Faye's babysitter?" Boss asked.
"Babysitter? I don't need a babysitter."
"I'm afraid you do. We need you, so we don't want anything to happen to you. So someone will be your partner and stay by your side to take care of you." He said.
More like spy on me.
"All of us are pretty good guys you know, but there's no telling what could happen if you try to get in the way. So, who's it gonna be?" Boss asked.
I had to choose?
"Better choose carefully, if you're gonna be a burden I won't take it." Takkun said.
I wouldn't choose him if my life depended on it!