Violet heard Tate's question, but she had no interest in responding. She was too mesmerized by the feel of her feet on the sidewalk...outside of the murder house. She had been so wrapped up in her breakup with Tate that she had never left the house on halloween. Not once in all the years she had been dead. It wasn't exactly by choice, though. The first year she hadn't noticed because she was too busy crying her eyes out and drowning her sorrows with cigarettes and the most morose songs she could find on her Ipod. The next three years was when she had taken up drinking, so she was probably too busy being passed out on the gazebo bench in the backyard or getting over a nasty hangover to notice it was halloween. She didn't mind though. Her body had become so numb to emotion that she just flat out didn't care about anything anymore.
Everything was different now. Her and Tate were back together. All their problems seemed to just start melting away. The moment she fell into Tate's arms in the basement her heart had automatically started stitching itself back together. But, even though all the pieces were still there, she had to learn how to fit them back together. And even then, it would never be perfect again. When you cut too deep and have to get stitches, the wound eventually heals. But, there is always a reminder of when it was an open wound. There will always be a scar.
"Vi, are you listening? Violet?" Tate was staring directly at her but her mind was somewhere else.
She blinked a few times before realizing she still hadn't responded. "Sorry it's just...I haven't stepped foot outside the property since the day I died. It all just feels sort of surreal."
"You haven't left on halloween before? Not once?" He asked. He sounded surprised like he didn't know or something. She knew that he did. She knew that before they got back together he followed her around and watched her every move.
"No." She said coldly. After all, it kind of was his fault. She only did the things that made her forget halloween because of him. She only did them to get her mind off of him. The booze worked, but everything else just reminded her of things they used to do together.
"Oh. I figured you would have taken any opportunity you got to leave." He knew why she hadn't though. He had been by her side every time she drank too much. Even though in the back of his mind he knew she was dead and couldn't get hurt, he still worried that she would pass out.
"No, I was a little...preoccupied." She said. She knew this conversation could not go anywhere good, so she decided to change the subject before their only free day was ruined. "Anyways, I was thinking we could hit up the mall or something. Do our umm I don't know what to call them...gifts...work on halloween?" She knew this was a dumb question, but she wasn't sure and if she was going to ask anyone it would be him. He had always been a sort of expert when it came to ghost logic.
"Gifts?" He let out a small chuckle. "I'm guessing you mean can we still go unseen if we do so desire?" He started laughing harder now. He was mocking her with sophisticated slang. She hated when he did that.
She reached over and punched his arm in the most playful manner she could. "Stop being an ass. Yes that's what I meant."
"I know I was just messing with you. Yes our 'gifts' still work." His laughs were slowly dying off.
"Perfect." The grin on her face had 'I have an evil plan' written all over it. "How do you feel about I don't know...stealing?" Her grin turned into curiosity as she searched his face for an answer.
"Depends. What are we going to steal?" He obviously could care less what they did. If they broke the law who gave a fuck; they were ghosts. Last time he checked, laws didn't apply to the dead.
"Well, we need a lot of supplies. We have to go a whole year before we can restock so I was thinking we could get a bunch of random shit to keep us entertained, you know?" She sounded so giddy. Like she had never done something like this before and the idea had her jumping off the walls with anxiety.
"Yeah sounds like a plan. We could use some entertainment so why not. What are we stealing?" He liked the idea more than he showed, he just didn't want to show her the excitement. To him, that read 'mischievous 5th grader'. He preferred the 'Whatever, I don't give a fuck' facade. That was more Tate Langdon to him.
"Well at first I thought we could just steal all the stuff. But then I thought why take the fun out of shopping? So we should just steal the money and then have fun buying everything without the worry of getting caught and spending the rest of our day of freedom in a jail cell."
"You've got a point there. So, where or who are we going to steal money from. And how much did you have in mind?" He was liking this idea more and more.
"Well, a bank isn't really ideal. We would need security codes and all that shit, so why not break into someone's house? It's not like they can see us and there's gotta be some rich ass people within a few blocks. This is LA we're talking about."
"Yeah there's a guy that lives a few streets down from here that I used to go to school with. His dad was super rich so he probably got all of his money when he died."
"Okay first of all, how do you know he still lives there? And second of all, how do you know his dad died?" She was curious to know these things.
"Well his dad had cancer when I knew him, and it's been like 20 years so he is obviously dead. As for the house, It's just a wild guess. It's the nicest mansion in their entire block, why would he sell it?"
"True. Okay lead the way. Let's go steal some cash." She smiled and linked their arms together. She couldn't help but feel so free and alive. She thought of her and Tate as Bonnie and Clyde. Partners in crime. I mean they weren't going to kill anyone today, but they had killed people before. Sure the ones she had killed were already dead, but It still counted for something.
The walk there was anything but silent. They talked about trivial things like their favorite books and what she had in mind to steal. She had actually been quite excited when Tate asked her this. She had made a list earlier that year of what she wanted to get when she left the house that Halloween. This year she had decided she would not let herself forget to leave the house. She didn't need to remind herself though, because Tate ended up doing that for her. It wasn't in her original plans, but she wasn't complaining.
When they finally arrived violet's jaw literally dropped at the sight of the house that stood before them.
"This is the house? Holy fuck these people are probably loaded Tate!" She sounded giddy again.
"Yeah this is it. How do you wanna get inside? Window or door?" He knew the window was the best option, but he wanted to see what violet would choose. He had never asked if she had done anything like this when she was a alive, but he had always assumed she had. She came off as the rebel type. If she chose window, she probably had pervious experience with break ins.
"Window." She said almost immediately. "Rich people never bother to check if their windows are locked. They're like mega insured. If stuff gets stolen they're basically making money. Plus, in a house like this, they probably can't remember how many windows they're even supposed to lock."
"Well it seems like you've got this all figured out. Done this before or something?" He was really curious to know if this was her first time or not.
She looked down slowly and took a breath before raising her head. "Uhm not high class like this, but yeah you could say i've done this before." She didn't look proud. He was just happy to be right, though. "Anyways enough about me, we're waisting precious time. Let's go."
They made their way to the back fence that stretched around the billion acres of land they had in their backyard. Tate hopped the fence like it was nothing. Like he could have done it in his sleep. Violet, on the other hand, wasn't really all that athletic. It took her twice as long to get over it than it took Tate.
"Little help here!" She half yelled to Tate. She was only about 10 feet up, but she didn't want to fall. Tate caught on and grabbed for her waist. He had to climb up the fence a little to reach where she was. They slowly worked their way back down together; somehow managing not to fall.
"You kind of suck at climbing fences." He laughed.
"Shut up." She retorted. "At least I didn't chicken out." This was true. Most girls Tate knew would never go near a fence if it meant they had to climb it.
They walked for what seemed like ages through shrubs and an orchard of trees. This seemed like a legit farm instead of a backyard. There were animals galore. They finally reached a window. It was the first one they saw that was sort of out of plain sight. Even though they could just turn invisible at the first sign of trouble, they agreed they wouldn't unless absolutely necessary. Why not make things fun? What could they say? They were total adrenaline junkies.
The window was a little too high up to climb through, so Tate wandered off further into the backyard to find something they could use to climb up. He returned a few minutes later with a couple pieces of wood. He stacked them up off the ground until a make shift stairwell was made. Violet went first. She seemed eager to get into the house. After the last of her body pulled through the window, Tate started to climb up too. Violet stood watch just in case someone decided to coincidentally wander inside of the room they were breaking into. He made it through pretty quick and let out a sigh.
"Well.." He whispered. "We're in."
"Wow this place is so nice." Violet said as she walked aimlessly around the room. They had ended up in the kitchen which was bigger than any kitchen violet had ever seen before.
"Two pantries? Really?" She said holding in a laugh.
"Come on. Let's go see if we can find an office. That's usually where a safe would be." he said.
"Ok."
They waltzed through the house like it was their own, not even taking the precaution of tiptoeing. They both didn't seem to really care. But violet knew that if it wasn't for the reassurance that they could disappear at any moment, her knees would be shaking and she would be projectile vomiting from fear of getting caught. They found an office after checking through about four different rooms. Turns out Tate was right; there was definitely a safe in there.
"How are we going to get into it? Don't we need like a code or something?" She asked nervously.
"Nah. I'll just pick the lock. I'm pretty good at it. Constance kept one of these in her room. How do you think I got the money for all my drugs." He smirked.
"Right, okay. I'm gonna look around...you just...pick the lock or whatever." He could tell she was slightly nervous. He shook the thought off though and got straight to work. It had to be at least 3 AM by now. Who ever lived here was obviously sleeping and he was a heavy one at that. They had made a lot of noise breaking in, and nobody had shown up yet. So, didn't bother trying to be quiet.
Violet didn't leave the room but continued her search through the drawers and cabinets that were lined up across the room from the safe. She dug through each one carefully.
"Holy shit Tate." Violet said. Tate turned around and padded across the room to see violet staring into one of the drawers. He braced himself for what he was about to find but was happily surprised when he saw what was actually there. Drugs. A lot of drugs in fact. Violet pulled one of the small bags from the drawer and held it up. She analyzed it for a second before putting it back in.
"We are so taking this." She said.
"You are into drugs? I thought that wasn't your thing?" He asked.
"Are you kidding me? I've always wanted to try drugs. Now that I'm dead why the hell not? Don't you want to?"
"Sure I mean it's nothing special, but I guess it is something to do when your bored." He said.
"Tate there's like a shit ton of weed here, we could have such a good time!" She sounded like a little kid on christmas morning.
"Vi, are you okay? This is totally not like you?" He said chuckling to himself.
"Tate we are dead and we aren't getting any older. Why wouldn't we take this opportunity to have a little fun? We could use it. Now get back over there and finish picking the lock."
"Okay whatever you say." He laughed again. He was so amused with this side of violet. He had never seen it before. He liked it though, a lot.
The safe was cracked about ten minutes later. Violet walked over to Tate and they opened it together. Both of their eyes widened when they saw how much was there.
"There must be ten thousand dollars in there. Holy crap." She said. Her eyes were locked on the money.
"Go look for something we can put all this in so we can go." He said.
"Okay." She pulled her gaze from the money and made her way to the closet. She came back to his side with a black bag in hand. He threw all the money into it and made his way to the drawer full of drugs.
"What if your parents find all these drugs? Shouldn't we only take some?" He said.
"Hell no. They can't tell me what to do anymore. Plus have you noticed that they don't pay attention to me anymore? Come on it's fine, take it all." She said with a smirk. With that he emptied the contents of the drawer into the bag already filled with money. He zipped it up and threw it over his shoulder.
"Ready to go?" She said.
"Yeah...We have a lot of shopping ahead of us."
