Chapter 1
The antiques store across the street wasn't kept very clean. Vicious raindrops smeared dirt down the windows, blurring the letters of the many signs plastered on the inside. The door was a rusty old thing, with weakened hinges and thin wood. Altia didn't know if the upkeep had failed because of neglect on the owner's part or lack of funding for repairs. Luckily, that wasn't her problem.
A taxi rolled across the street in front of her, tires splashing water onto the sidewalk. It was followed by several other cars, both yellow taxis and ordinary vehicles. They rolled to a stop in the middle of the road soon after. Altia glanced down the street with a huff, tugging her hood down before burying her hands in her pockets. When her gaze flicked back to the old shop, there was someone standing outside- a lanky boy, tucking a newspaper into his backpack.
Altia rose smoothly and glanced down the street before ducking out into the rain. She squeezed between a couple backed up cars, ignoring the irritated gestures of the man inside. There was no reason to let him see her face.
One more jump placed her on the other side of the street. The boy met her eyes with a brief nod as she passed him, but gave her no other acknowledgement.
A small bell tinkled as Altia pushed the door open, lowering her hood and giving her head a quick shake. It wasn't much warmer inside the shop than it was outside, unfortunately. At least the cramped isles gave the illusion of a comfortable space.
An elderly man behind the counter glanced at her quickly before turning back to a notepad. "Welcome to Dyson's Wares. Let me know if I can do anything for you."
"Actually…" Altia approached the counter quickly. "I've lost my apartment key. I was here earlier today, and I'm just retracing my footsteps… has anyone turned anything in?"
The man shrugged. "Don't think so. Sorry."
"It's… rather important." Altia glanced at the downpour outside. "Can you check? Just in case?"
As soon as the man glanced up, meeting her eyes for the first time, he was lost. His scowl faded slightly and he gave a reluctant sigh. "Yeah, sure. Wait here."
Altia shifted so that she was still in his line of sight. When his eyes flicked up to meet hers naturally, she adopted her best look of pleading concern. "I can come with you, right?"
This was always a bit of a stretch, but the man simply shrugged. "Sure."
He took her to the back of the shop, where a narrow staircase led up to a second floor. The wood creaked as they ascended, and the noise from the rain was louder than it had been down below.
The shopkeeper pulled out a key ring, selecting one and approaching the door at the top of the stairs. Back pocket, Altia noted. That should be simple enough.
She stepped into the upper room, and her senses were instantly overwhelmed by a horrible, nonsensical clutter. Aging wooden clocks were perched next to music boxes and used to support semi-decent paintings. An abacus rested on top of a mound of books that were probably even older than the shopkeeper himself. The floor was littered with papers that fluttered around, blown by a freezing wind coming through an open window. A few weathered cabinets lined one wall, poorly hiding a safe in the corner, while the opposite was consumed by tall file drawers.
There was a heavy thump as the old man forced the window closed. Altia let out the shiver she'd been suppressing, rubbing her arms to warm them up. The mess made her rather uncomfortable, but hopefully Leer would admit that there was nothing she could do about it.
"Come over here." The man beckoned her over to the least crowded desk, pushing aside a couple lamps and tapping a locked black box. "Just step on the papers- don't worry about it."
Altia approached him slowly, watching as he inserted another key into the lock and pulled the box open. Inside was a small collection of items: two individual keys, a metal watch, a necklace with a broken chain, and an open locket with an ancient black-and-white photograph inside. She took her time looking at the items before shaking her head.
"Nothing? This isn't your key?" The man held up one of the keys in the box. When Altia shook her head, he tossed it back in with a grunt before shutting the box and tucking it away.
"Sorry to waste your time," Altia murmured. She glanced down, but her eyes carefully followed the man's hand as he tucked the key ring into his back pocket again.
The shopkeeper beckoned her toward the door. "It's okay, kid. Good luck."
Altia's gaze flew around the room, quickly settling on a dusty violin on top of one of the cabinets. As she was about to pass the man, she gaped suddenly, pointing at it. "Is that a Stradivarius? Does it still play?"
As soon as the man turned, attention shifting away from her, Altia deftly grabbed the keys from his back pocket. Her outstretched arm blocked the motion of her action quite nicely. She tucked the key ring into her hoodie as the man moved toward the instrument.
"It is. Do you play?" He picked it up and turned back to her inquisitively.
The moment their eyes met, Altia felt a familiar mental tug- little more than a prod. She smiled disarmingly. "I was in orchestra for several years."
"On violin?"
Altia shook her head. "Trombone," she said, quickly selecting an instrument she hadn't seen anywhere in the store.
The man nodded, setting the violin down somewhat reluctantly. "Sorry I couldn't help. You can find the way out?"
Altia nodded, a smile gracing her lips. "Thanks." She glanced around one last time before ducking back onto the narrow staircase.
Downstairs, the shop was unchanged. No one had entered in her absence, the rain was still coming down heavily, and the old man's notepad was still lying by the register where he'd left it. Altia paused on her way out, leaning over the counter to glance at it curiously. Some sort of diary- not worth her time.
She was greeted by a cold wind the moment she pushed open the door. The bell tinkled, almost laughing at her, and Altia shot it a glance before stepping outside and zipping up her jacket. The lanky boy wasn't there anymore, but she knew exactly how to find him.
Three minutes later, Altia ducked into an alley that connected two streets. The tall buildings on either side blocked most of the wind, luckily, but the passing cars on either end of the alley provided enough noise to cover a conversation. The boy- Altia had seen him around before but never bothered to learn his name- was leaning against a wall, backpack on the ground by his feet.
Altia approached the boy with hands in her pockets, eyeing him warily. He was watching her too, but she noticed that he, like everyone else, was careful to avoid her eyes.
The boy grunted when she got close. "You got it?"
"Course." Altia tossed him the key ring quickly before jamming her hands back into her pockets. "Does Leer want me to come tonight?"
"Yep. He always likes having his mutants along. You should know that." The kid tossed the key ring a few times before tucking it into the front pocket of his backpack. He straightened, then looked back at Altia. Well, looked at a point somewhere above her head. "It'll be a straightforward run. Get moving."
Altia hesitated, then nodded. Better to avoid a confrontation, even when it wasn't Leer she was dealing with. Everything got back to him in the end. "What time?"
"One. Catch some sleep if you can. If you can't, at least make yourself useful. Leer's words."
"Fine." Altia brushed past him, moving down to the other side of the alley. She slipped out, joining the throng of people rushing to their next destination. Probably somewhere warm.
A young woman jostled her as she moved past, heels clicking on the wet pavement. Altia watched her go, slowing her pace as she approached the intersection. There was already a crowd of people gathered at the corner. After a moment's hesitation, Altia joined the group waiting to go forward- the way that wouldn't take her back to her dump of a home.
The light turned, and the crowd surged across the street, drawing Altia with them. She stayed with the group for half a block before ducking into a dark corner between a couple restaurants. It wasn't much, but the shadows cast by the clouds and the walls were enough to hide her from casual passersby.
Altia pulled her legs in close to her chest, pressing her forehead onto her knees and closing her eyes. It was better than trying to nap back where the rest of the gang would be waiting.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
The little store looked exactly the same at night as it had during the day. Sometime after sunset the rain had slowed to a drizzle, allowing fat drops to fall from awnings and slide down windows. Altia leaned against a wall across the street and a few skinny buildings down, picking absently at some dirt under her nails. She was early- twenty minutes early. Better to arrive sooner than risk missing the time.
The sound of a shoe scuffing against pavement pulled her attention to the left. Zack was approaching, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. Altia glanced away as he leaned against the wall next to her, watching the store silently.
Zack broke the silence first. "You came here this afternoon?"
"Had to get the keys." Altia shrugged. "The usual job."
"More helpful than me." Zack snorted softly. "So…"
Altia shook her head. "Not now. We can talk after. If it's necessary."
With Zack sufficiently silenced, the wait became a silent one. Fortunately, it wasn't too long- a group of shadows emerging from the alley where Altia had met the lanky boy signaled Leer's arrival.
The gang jogged swiftly over to where Altia and Zack waited. "Good," she heard one of them say. "The mutants are already here." They were shushed a moment later by someone else.
Leer himself was a shorter kid, probably one or two years older than Altia. He stepped out from the pack, motioning for Altia and Zack to join the group as they jogged across the street. A lone streetlamp illuminated the road some fifty feet away. Cars still drove down the larger roads on either side of the tiny one-lane street they crossed, but no one came down at this time of night. Probably a good thing- Leer would try to have Altia deal with them.
The gang leader himself stopped in front of the antique shop, pulling out the key ring and inserting several into the lock before it finally clicked open. The other boys filed in after him. Altia found herself somewhere in the middle, shoved roughly as they tried to squeeze eight people into a narrow space.
There was a muffled thud, then the sound of shattering glass, immediately followed by a curse from Leer. "Girl! I should've gotten a layout!"
Altia knew better than to retort. "Staircase at the back, door at the top. The safe is in a corner, but I don't think any of the keys on that ring will open it. Try the ones in a tiny black box on the middle desk."
"Fine. Trent, with me. The rest of you- spread out. Find what you can." Leer moved away from the group, followed by their largest boy.
Altia moved to the cash register. The notebook the man had been writing in was still on the counter, closed and pushed off to the side. She hesitated for a moment before grabbing it and a pen from a jar. The pages crackled slightly as Altia flipped to the latest entry, scribbling a quick sorry before putting the pen and the book back in their respective places.
"What are you doing?"
Altia jumped, a hand flying to her chest as she spun around. Zack was peering at her curiously from around the counter.
"Goodness, Zack!" she hissed. "Don't do that! I was just looking."
He reached up and grabbed her hand, waiting a brief moment before looking up at her accusatorily. "You're lying."
"Whatever." Altia opened the cash register, grabbing the bills inside and handing them to Zack. "You get those to Leer. He doesn't trust me with money."
The store contained several items that could be valuable, but they were forced to pass up on most of it. They didn't have the connections to be able to sell stolen jewelry. A hasty ten-minute search revealed a few other stashes of money, including another large one in a back room.
Leer returned just as they were running out of places to look. "We're good. Let's go."
Altia ducked out of the store, glancing down the street before waving for the rest of the gang to follow. They came with low chuckled and whispered congratulations, high-fiving each other and grinning. The street was still quiet. No alarms had been set off, no cops had been called, and no one had seen their faces.
Leer drifted back to walk by Altia as they made their way back toward their old building. "Nice call on the key, girl. What gave it away?"
"He asked me if one of the keys was mine but ignored the other, so I figured he probably knew what it did." Altia shrugged, glancing at Leer but keeping her eyes carefully trained on his shoulder.
The gang leader laughed. "Knew you'd be a good addition. Good work with the mutant magic." He clapped her roughly on the shoulder before pushing back to the front of the group.
Mutant magic. Altia pursed her lips, glancing back to the ground. Funny how grateful he could pretend to be. In front of her, each individual was handing Leer the money they'd managed to find. No one asked her for cash- they didn't need to. Everyone knew she wouldn't have any, because none of them trusted her to hold it. And she never did, since they could just have Zack figure out that she'd been dishonest.
Altia knew that the gang members who walked behind her weren't there to guard the rear. They were there to keep an eye on her. Occasionally she would attempt to engage them in conversation, but tonight she kept her focus straight ahead, where it belonged.
After some twenty minutes of walking, they reached a dilapidated section of town. Ancient apartments lined the streets, barely visible in the darkness left by dead streetlights, and potholes were filled with water, creating dangerous hazards for someone on foot. The place where they lived wasn't really a building- it was more of an abandoned construction project.
Leer shoved aside the rotting boards and strode in. The others followed, but when Altia ducked through the gap, she felt a firm hand on her arm.
"Girl. We're gonna need you again tomorrow."
She blinked. "So soon? We just got a big score."
"And we're gonna get another one. Just, no setup for this one. You gotta come with us at night. They've got guards."
Altia leaned back instinctively, trying to put some distance between her and Leer's breath. "Guards? How big is this job?"
"Big. Make sure you're ready. You're gonna get us in." Leer shoved her back, striding away through the maze of wooden beams on the ground.
Altia rubbed her face, suppressing a sigh of exhaustion. Leer didn't understand her mutation- none of them did. It would be nearly impossible to get them into a securely guarded location. Even so, it didn't look like she'd have a choice.
She moved over to the side of the building, pulling herself up a set of rungs to the second floor. Wooden boards creaked under her as she walked, stepping over a few shapeless mounds that were either piles of supplies or sleeping boys.
Her corner was exactly how she'd left it. Altia shrugged off her damp hoodie, wrapping a dry blanket around herself instead. It was cold, but not unbearably so- she'd probably be in trouble once fall started changing into winter.
Her first winter on her own. Altia pondered that for a moment before shrugging the thought off and closing her eyes. Exhausted as she was, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
