Part 4

It was nearing night time, the city began to close down for the day, and Lucas was on the prowl. There were few people left on the streets, only those who were courageous enough to come out at night with all of the crime. Lucas leaned casually against a pole next to the newspaper stand. He was wearing brown jeans that he had had for almost three years along with a black t-shirt and average hiking shoes. Nothing more than an average teenager, someone who you could take one look at and forget in the next instant. This was exactly what Lucas wanted, and he was good at getting what he wanted.

His dark brown eyes vaguely looked at the magazine Lucas held in his hand, not that he was interested in it. No, he had another goal in mind then just catching up with the latest celebrity gossip. Lucas kept glancing at the other people buying magazines and newspapers while he vaguely turned the pages in the magazine he had.

Lucas had been there for over an hour and had looked at seven or eight different magazines when a woman came up to the stand and bought a newspaper. The woman had on an expensive looking coat and earrings that probably cost a fortune. She opened her wallet to pay for the newspaper and in doing so she revealed over $200 in cash that she had. 'Bingo', thought Lucas. This was the perfect target, one of the best ones he had had in weeks. He waited for her to walk a few paces before buying the magazine he had been holding to avoid suspicion and began to follow her.

On the next block was an alleyway that would make for the perfect place to grab the cash and go. Lucas knew this city's alleyways well, and he knew that the one up ahead wasn't a dead end, so he could run through the other side and get away. As they crossed the road, Lucas came up very close behind her and put his hand casually in pocket, getting ready to pull out his knife.

As they drew up next to the alleyway Lucas put his arm around the woman's neck, knife drawn, and dragged her quickly into the alleyway. He pinned her against a dumpster and she started to scream Lucas turned her around so they were looking eye to eye and put his knife against her throat. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Lucas said quietly. His voice, though quiet, pierced the woman in such a way that the knife almost wasn't needed. "Now give me your wallet and your coat. Then we'll talk about letting you go." Lucas continued. He said it in such a way that the woman thought that conversation wasn't going to go well, she thought she was going to die.

"P-please don't hurt me. Take whatever you want, just don't kill me." She said this without yelling to keep the man happy. Maybe she could still talk her way out of this. Lucas laughed a bit at her terror, and grabbed her wallet from the coat pocket she had put it in.

"Just for the record," Lucas said, "I'm a very good pickpocket, but this is so much more enjoyable." He smiled as he said this. The woman realized what was about to happen and began thrashing as much as she possibly could just out of shear terror.

Then a man came up next to them, so soundlessly that Lucas could've sworn he had simply teleported. "Why hello there, do you need assistance?" The man's voice was so chilling that his simple question made both Lucas and the woman completely quiet and still as statues. Even their breath caught. The woman turned to look at the man and plead for help, but his cold, dark eyes were on the person attacking her, not the woman.

"No, I've got this. Why do you care anyway?" Lucas replied, this guy was creepy as hell and Lucas just wanted him to leave. The woman saw that she had a chance to escape when Lucas looked away, but the second she started to get loose from his grip the mysterious man punched her with lighting speed that knocked her unconscious. Out of surprise Lucas let the woman fall to the ground.

"Now then," the man continued on as if nothing had happened, "I've got an offer for you that I'm sure you'll enjoy. Would you like to hear it?" Now that Lucas didn't have the distraction of trying to keep the woman from escaping, he looked closer at this mysterious man. He stood at about six feet high, with a black trench coat that hid most of his figure. The rest of his clothes were black as well. His clothes made him look sophisticated, and his smile gave the same inner-coldness as his eyes. Any ordinary person would've crossed the street with one glance at this guy, but Lucas decided to hear his offer.

"What makes you so sure I'll like what you have to say?" Lucas scowled, this guy wasn't giving him a good ending to his day, and the day had been bad enough already.

"Well you look like a man who's good at getting what he wants," Lucas stood a bit straighter as he was referred to as a man. Since he was still in his late teens it felt good to hear that from anyone, "and I'm sure that what you want is money. What I'm about to offer you will aid you in gaining much more money then you could possibly get doing things like this" He motioned toward the unconscious woman.

Lucas' ears perked up at this, money was always good. "Sounds good to me, what's the catch?" One of the life lessons that Lucas had learned was that there was always a catch.

The man chuckled a bit and said, "Well I wouldn't really call it a catch since it will benefit all of us in the end." He smiled slyly and looked Lucas dead in eye and said with those piercing gray eyes, "You are in the same martial arts class as Tamryn, correct? We need you to get close to him so that he can be….eliminated. That is all I ask."

"How did you know that?" Lucas demanded quickly and sharply. "Have you been watching me?" The man had been creepy enough without knowing things that very few other people knew. Suspicion filled Lucas along with a touch of fear. Who was this man?

"That doesn't really matter; just simply tell me if you accept the deal." This guy may have been extremely creepy, but money tends to have a much bigger say in things when it's something that one currently lacks. So Lucas let it go for now, and decided to see where this conversation was going to go.

"Sounds simple enough to me, never liked the punk anyway." Lucas responded by giving his own eyes a similar coldness and stared the man down.

The mysterious man smiled a bit more then he already was, amused at Lucas' attempt to intimidate him. "Very well," He drew a piece of folded paper from his pocket and gave it to Lucas saying, "meet me at this address at the given time. There we can talk about the details a bit more. Make sure you are there." He turned and walked away as quietly as he had come. Lucas unfolded the piece of paper, looked at it, and put it in his pocket.

As Lucas began to walk in the opposite direction he pulled out his MP3 Player and put the headphones in his ears, as he did so he said, "I'm in."