3,907/10,000 Words
* The Thief Game *
*Chapter Three *
*The Boy Who Couldn't Turn Back *
Mattias left soon after that, promising to contact me soon. "Tonight, probably," as he put it.
The breeze was picking back up again as I walked into Viridian city. I clutched the now-minimized pokéball in my right hand, the sandwich I packed earlier in my left. The surface of the pokéball was getting sticky from being held in my sweaty hand.
I jumped over the cracks in the sidewalk, careful not to step on the part where one slab of concrete met the next. As I did so, I was pulled deep into my thoughts.
Just what exactly happened? Should I call the police? Was this even legal? Mattias said he was going to have me steal one of his own pokémon, so I guess I wasn't really thieving because the owner gave me permission. But still, it was getting the police involved, that much was made clear.
"The police are going to get involved," I thought with dread dropping stomach. Oh no, what had I been thinking? Why would I do that? I've never stolen anything ever! Well, except for that one time when I was two and ate all the chocolate bars in a gas station, but Mom paid for those.
How would this work anyways? Where is the pokémon I'm supposed to take? I really should have been thinking about these questions before I said yes to the deal.
I broke myself out of my daze when I literally crashed into my front door.
"Ow," I said rubbing my nose. Having finished the sandwich, I placed the pokéball in my pocket and I tried the knob again but found that it was locked. I frowned and bent down to check under the welcome-mat for the spare key, but it was gone. "Great."
I went around to the back door to find that one locked too.
"Okay. Let's see." I didn't want to knock because I never told Mom I was going out and if she knew I was out here she'd kill me. My room's window was too far up to reach from the ground, so that wasn't an option either. (I was pretty sure that was locked too anyways)
So without any other choice, I went back to the front door and sat down on the porch steps and put my face into my hands and let out a sigh of frustration.
"Hey, buddy."
Looking up to the new voice, I saw that it was Brent, Mom's boyfriend. "Hi."
"Why so glum?" he asked, taking seat beside me, but I scooted away from him just a little bit. "Sorry."
"The door is locked," I answered glumly, ignoring the hurt tone in his apology.
"Is that all?" He pulled the extra key from his pocket. "I actually just stopped by to give this back. It seems I forgot it was in my pocket." I tried my best not to glare at him. "If your mom asks, you can just say you were with me." He suggested, giving me a soft smile. "She knows how forgetful I am sometimes."
I actually had to crack a smile at that, but I fought it back as hard as I could. I didn't know Brent very well, but he seemed to know me better than Mom sometimes.
"I'll take that as a yes." He unlocked the door and replaced the key under the welcome mat and then held his arm out for me to enter first.
I did, and my nose was immediately assaulted by the many scented candles and electric sent outlets that Mom is utterly obsessed with. "Kate?" shouted Brent into the silent home.
"Oh, Brent, have you seen—" Mom stopped talking when she saw me. "And where have you been, young man?" She quickly scooped me into a hug. "I was worried sick, you didn't say anything. I was worried that your dad—" she stopped herself. None of us really like to talk about my father. But it's okay, I hardly knew him anyways since they got a divorce when I was three. And I haven't seen him since Christmas a few years ago when I was seven. From what I've heard from what Mom says about him, he's apparently a 'heartless asshole,' but I'm not allowed to call him that because I got in trouble when I said it.
"Mom, don't worry, I'm fine." I tried to get away from her so I wouldn't suffocate, but she held me in a tight embrace.
"It's my fault, Kate," Brent lied, faking a guilty tone. "I heard there was a powerful trainer that challenged the gym and we were going to see if we could watch that. The boy is going to be a trainer as soon as he captures something after all. We didn't have time to tell you or we'd miss it."
"Well, tell me next time," Mom said, letting out a sigh of relief. But then she smiled. "I'm glad you're getting along though."
"Yeah, we're going to be best friends now. Right, buddy?" Brent asked genuinely.
"Uh-huh." I wasn't really feeling it, but the guy had just saved my butt back there from certain doom. My friendship was the least of which I could offer him.
Brent chuckled and ruffled my hair despite my protests. "Okay sport, run along upstairs to your room or something. Your mother and I are going to watch a movie. But you can't watch it because it's not for kids." He looked to Mom for approval and she just smiled and gave a small nod.
I wasn't really sure if Brent had this whole 'dad' thing figured out yet if he was calling kids sport, and buddy, but I didn't complain and did as he said.
I closed my door behind me, and I threw my shoes off by it before jumping onto my bed. The cloud print blankets made me momentarily forget about Mattias, but after a few minutes and nothing to do, my thoughts wandered back to the strange blue-eyed man. I highly doubt that was the last I would see him again, but the longer I could avoid another meeting, the better.
Deciding dwelling on the creeper wouldn't make the situation any better, I decided to pull out one of my pre-trainer's books. Looking at the amazing pictures of the Kanto starters somehow made everything seem alright, and I hadn't made a deal to steal.
"Okay," I whispered to myself. "All I have to do is tell that— that guy—that I don't want to do this anymore. It was a mistake. I don't have to do it."
"I sure hope you're not talking about our deal, Spencer," Mattias breathed from behind me.
"Holy Zapdos!" I screeched in a much higher voice than I thought I could make.
Mattias made a quick glanced at the door before jumping on me and covering my mouth. "Shh, Spencer, don't do that." He stroked the hair on my head almost like he was trying to calm a frightened growlithe. "No one can know I'm here."
As soon as he let me go I jumped up and raced to my door. However, I misjudged Mattias and he was much more athletic than he first appeared and jumped over my head using my shoulders as momentum and had his hand on the knob before I could get back up. "Oh my gods," I croaked. "What are you doing here?" My eyes were wide, and my heart was still racing, and I was griping the bed post so hard my knuckles were turning white.
"Hey, what was that? You' okay boy?" shouted Brent's muffled voice from downstairs. "Did you hurt yourself?"
I opened my mouth to shout for help but before I could, Mattias gave me a warning look and I closed it. "Tell him you're fine," he hissed.
"Y-yeah, I just stubbed my toe!" I yelled without taking my eyes off of the man I was sure was about to murder me. Oh Giratina please don't let it hurt.
Mattias nodded and slowly took his hand off of the door knob. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," he reassured. I had no trust in that whatsoever and didn't move an inch, frozen with fear. "Damn, you look like you've just seen a ghost." And then to my utter horror, he cracked a smile as if it were all some cruel inside joke.
"Okay, okay, no. You cannot just come into my house—up to my room, without my okay." I sputtered, losing the feeling of my tongue. I still couldn't believe my eyes that he was here, standing in my bedroom, threatening me and then suddenly switching gears and being friendly, if you could even call that friendly. "How'd you even get in here?" My window was still locked last time I checked, which was only about an hour ago.
"That would have been my doing." The voice was obviously telepathic. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but my best bet was it belonged to the alakazam who I had seen with the freak earlier.
"Ansel," Mattias said with strong endearment, spinning around in case his pokémon was hiding behind him. "Where did you go? You didn't teleport inside with me."
"Master, I do not believe that this was the best tactic. You are scaring the boy."
Mattias suddenly looked back at me with a deep frown. "I'm not, am I?" he asked, sounding sincere, but I wasn't sure.
All I could do was nod back.
"Oh." Mattias looked sad. "I'm sorry."
"Get out," I wanted to say.
"I-it's okay." I ended up saying. No, no it was not okay. I thought I was going to pee my pants!
Mattias grinned. "Good. I'm so glad." He practically skipped back over to me. "So glad."
I forced myself to control my breathing as he started to pet my hair again. "No—don't, please stop that." I grabbed his hand and gave it back to him. He grinned, oblivious once again, but at least he wasn't touching me anymore.
"Look, I have everything ready." He pulled out his sparkly pink notebook from before that had the rules in it. He faced me and pulled it up to his chin so I couldn't see the pages anymore. "Okay, step one: say goodbye."
He stared at me expectantly before I realized he meant right now, at this second, to say goodbye. "Wait, I don't want to do this. I'm sorry, but I realized that it was a bad idea and I don't want to do it anymore."
"But," he protested. "we had a deal."
"It's wrong though. I-I'm not a thief." I gulped. He had a really good kicked-growlithe face for a fully-grown man. It honestly startled me more than made me feel guilty me though.
"Are you a liar then?" he almost growled, but it sounded more heartbroken than threatening.
"I…" I guess backing out would make me a liar, but it was better being a liar than a thief, right? "Yes?"
Mattias looked crushed and held his notebook in his lap, staring at it as he traced his finger around the edge. "Oh. I see."
"Hey—are you crying?" I said incredulously as a number of water droplets landed on the notebook.
"No!" he sobbed, wiping one of his eyes with his sleeve. "If you don't want to play my game, I'll just ask someone else!" But instead of leaving like I thought he would, he jumped into my bed and wrapped my cloud-print blankets around him and then curled up into a ball. I could hear small whimpers that eventually turned into full out bawling which being honest, was extremely embarrassing to watch.
My mouth opened and then I closed it again because the amount of pure insanity this man had was terrifying. He needed some serious help. "Fine, I'll play your stupid game! Just s-stop that!" I shouted before I realized that words had been forming.
The lump immediately stopped quivering and Mattias popped his head from the mass of blankets. "Yay! Spencer!" I managed to dodge out of the way before he could tackle me, and he instead hit the floor. He didn't seem to mind though, and quickly untangled himself from my blankets. "Let's go right now then!"
And before I could say anything and try to back out again, he grabbed my arm and Ansel teleported us away.
It strikes me later that I never got to say goodbye.