Diary 1: Beginnings

"Thief! Thief! Dammit! Someone! Anyone! Catch that thief! Now! Now! NOW!"
The poor shopkeeper was on the verge of losing his voice – right after losing three of his apparently most expensive loaves of bread. His shouts only seemed to turn more heads as I shoved my way through the crowd while hugging my stolen goods.
It was in the afternoon in Stonehelm Village, the merciless sun not giving a hoot on the bustling shoppers packed together like sardines on the village square. And there was me, just your ordinary black haired 1.6m teenager squeezing my way through the sweaty bodies of the townsfolk, with an angry shopkeeper on my tail.
"But not for long," I huffed to myself, looking around me for an easy escape. The problem about me is that every time I try to do something I never think of Step 2. Step 1 was snatching the bread. That was the easy part. I never had a chance to think further than that.

Cursing my short stature, I kept bending down whilst running to peep through the legs of the people around me, just to get a glimpse of the nearest 'Emergency Exit'. My efforts paid off almost instantly as a I spotted an escape route.
Taking in a deep breath I hugged my loaves even tighter. Then, I leapt. Ever tried throwing a bowling ball into a cup? Yeah. I thought so too. Because that was what it was like to try and escape the seemingly entwined net of passers-by. I ended up with two bruised shoulders and a sprained ankle. But I realized these only later on, because the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins caused me to go numb all over.

I sucked wind as I tumbled along the ground, all this while hugging onto my precious loaves. Dust speckled my knees but I knew I could not afford to stop. I ran, and ran again.
This time, I was in a new street alley: Quiet, clean, orderly. I glanced at the fine condition the windows of the houses were in, as they whooshed past me, the feeling of tidiness and cleanliness was something I could never get used to. Peeking over my shoulders I heaved a sigh of relief as my pursuer lost his mark.
I started paying more attention to my surroundings. Such clean walls free from graffiti and spared of grime or dirt. It was hard to imagine the difference in conditions of two neighbouring streets. And the atmosphere, oh was the atmosphere a breathtaking experience. Quiet, tranquil, silent. A bit too silent if you asked me. Then I noticed something amiss. The streets were empty. Devoid of people.

Where were the people?

And since when was there a dead-end here?

"Jacob, oh Jacob, how many times do we have to get over this in order to get you to understand," A smooth, silky voice wafted behind me slowly turned menacing, "that if you don't get a fucking job and continue to fucking resort to theft to live out your daily lives, then every single time you do this kind of shit you have to answer to me." I swallowed the knot that formed in my throat. I looked down, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, all in preparation to turn around and meet one of my nightmares turned real.
"Morty! W-w-what are you doing here?" No matter how straight a poker face I kept on me, I still could not stop myself from being intimidated by the blonde-haired male who stood 20cm higher than me.

"It's Mortekaiser to you. And this is NOT the first time we have met because you have committed some heinous crime." His last statement was meant to tickle, and yet it felt like a punch in the gut.
I started to think about why I stole in the first place. I used to have a job. But that was in the past. Well, I sure hope that having a group of scientists who put together decades of research to forge 'Powers' from clumps of anti-matter in order to throw off the world's balance and take advantage of the upheaval to reign supreme by manipulating the lack of proper government through the use of their world-changing creations inserted into test subjects… (man that was a mouthful) would justify my actions. In the end, 'Power'-less folk like me and my sister Gloria never stood a chance in the harsh world, since after the dissolution of government, "poof" went all the white collar and blue collar jobs. Farmers, food-manufacturers, the F&B industry flourished under such pristine conditions. The entire hierarchy was flipped over like a pyramid doing a headstand.

"…and I got my pay cut by 500 peniers… Hey! Are you even listening to me?" The enraged "dog-of-the-scientists" barked at me. Some days I wished I had a "Power" too. Every day, in fact. 'Heh, peniers, man even the new currency sounds screwed up to me' I thought to myself.

"Yeah yeah, I'm listening." I pretended to roll my eyes as I scanned my surroundings for an escape route. Again. "Look, as you have said, we've been here, and done this before, for the umpteenth time. Just tell me what you want, and we'll both be on our way." My heart was racing at that moment. Pleeeeeeease, I begged inside, crossed my fingers and hoped that he would buy my proposition. In my arms lay 6 snapped halves of bread.

"No." NO! I felt this pressure building in my nostrils as tears began to well up in my eyes.
"Today, I have something else in store for you." I never knew such words said so plainly could affect me so much. The cornered rat slowly back away from the cat, as its tiny heart seemed to beat its last.

"JACOB! HERE! HURRY!" Salvation! Mortekaiser and I both turned our heads towards Gloria, atop the building behind me. In her hands a thick frayed rope dangled heavily. I exchanged glances with Morty before the same brainwave rushed over both of us. "OH NO you don't!" It was a funny sight to see as Morty's eyes seemed to bulge out as he frantically tried to race me for the end of the rope Gloria threw down the building's walls.

"Hehheh! See you later, old man!" If there was something I was confident in, that would have to be my agility. A display-case full of First place sprinting medals once stood in the house that once sheltered me.

Just like when I was running past the facades of the new buildings, everything that happened seemed like a blur. In a moment, I tossed up the remains of my spoils, crumbs and all, just in time for the crescent descent of Gloria's cloth-bag to scoop it all up in one motion. As if we were doing our usual routine, Gloria began to retract the rope as I began to scale the wall with rope in hand.
It was then my shoulders started to smart. But as the angry cursing and swearing of Morty behind me grew faint and distant, I smiled as another eventful chapter of my life came to a close.
Getting by each day was already hard as it was.
And I loved it.