The
Reckoning
JOHN DEL TORO
Copyright © 2014 John Del Toro
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1505976340
ISBN-13: 978-1505976342
DEDICATION
To my childhood friend, Brian Fortson
the reckoning
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my editor, Steve Sforja
THE RECKONING
Remember that old story of Peter Pan and his lost boys? How they would always run around with him, creating chaos and havoc? Well, you could say Andrew and I are just like that. A mix between Peter Pan and Robin Hood, with one part Prince Charming, and two parts mischief. People thought of us as brothers; the mischievous and mysterious duo. They weren’t wrong either.
Andrew, well, he’s kind of a strange yet amazing person. He ran away from his perfect life about three years ago, saying that his parents didn’t understand him, they didn’t love him, ran all the way to Arizona before being taken here, blah blah blah. His back story really doesn’t matter so much. We focused on the future, and what we had right now to help us out. Andrew has the absolute best skill set a runaway teenager could ask for. He’s a master of deception and distraction; the best con artist I have ever met. He can steal something from you faster than the blink of an eye. He would distract people so much, that they could forget where they even were. Of course, if helps that he is incredibly handsome as well; with messy brown hair, dazzling green eyes, and a smile that made every girl at church fall for him. He taught me everything I know; stealing, persuading, charming, distracting, and most importantly, lying.
I met Andrew last year, after I ran away from my orphanage in Missouri I was living on my own for a long time, until I came across this little town. A few months ago I got caught stealing clothing and electronics from the local mall, so instead of sending me off to jail, the judge ordered me to live in town for awhile. Currently, Andrew and I are roommates living at a halfway house in Nebraska run by Christ Memorial Church. This place wasn’t too bad, the people were really easy going, didn’t check on us often, and since it was run by the church, we got ourselves into the youth group program.
“Nicky come on! It’s time for group.” Andrew yelled while throwing on a leather jacket we snatched from an elderly man’s house last week.
Oh yeah, besides just being runaway kids and stealing stuff from the occasional mall, we’re full time crooks at night. That’s where the Robin Hood part comes in; steal from the rich and give to the poor, or more specifically, to us. Christ Memorial Church is packed full of old, rich people, who have put their trust in us, not knowing what we really do. We figure out their schedules, when they will be home, when they won’t, what they commonly wear, what’s left untouched, and the most important part; when we can break in and steal their stuff. You would be surprised at how much you can learn and figure out about a person just by talking to them.
“Nick, come on! We can’t be late again. They have pizza today!” Andrew threw me my black jacket and dragged me out the door.
***************
Almost everyone was at youth group by the time we arrived. A group of girls were leaning against the back wall watching a group of boys playing pool. Some of the guys had gathered around the kitchen counters, talking about last week’s football game and some new celebrity TV show. Others were scattered around the area eating snacks, socializing, or doing homework at one of the tables. Andrew had already taken a spot next to Serena, our trickster goddess.
“Anything new going on?” I asked Serena, leaning up against the wall next to her.
“Well, the buzz around town is that Casey’s grandparents are heading out of town this week, I think it’s to Florida. Casey might be going with them, but my sources aren’t too sure yet.” Serena took her long, black hair out of her ponytail and let it fall onto her shoulders. It was her way of hiding some of our conversation from people’s wandering eye and ears.
“And the house?”
“Watched, but not closely. Her parents will be coming over a few nights to check on the place , but that’s about it. They don’t have a security system, and don’t really need one since they live out in the country. Should be an easy in and out.”
“Thanks baby girl.” Andrew winked at her before walking over to where Casey was sitting.
Andrew was an easy flirt. His charm, attitude, and obvious physical qualities made him the perfect candidate for getting information out of people. He took a seat next to Casey and wrapped one of his arms around her, jokingly of course. Casey’s cheeks instantly turned two shades of red and she tried to fix her hair, though it was already perfectly styled. All the girls here tried looking their best these days, because they never knew when Andrew would stop by.
“Hey sexy, you’re looking nice today.” Andrew stated as I took the seat across from them.
“What, this?” Casey pulled on her top a bit, and Andrew played along, glancing down her shirt. “It’s just something I picked up at the mall yesterday.”
“You went to the mall yesterday? Funny, we didn’t see you there.”
“Yeah, we didn’t run into you.” Andrew lowered his head and whispered into her ear “But I was thinking about you.”
“Nick, could you go grab that thing for me.” Casey was a bucket of giggles and was already three shades of pink.
This is where the fun always begins. Everyone had already taken their places in the other room, waiting for our leader to start the meeting. Andrew purposely put Casey’s purse on the ground next to him, so I quickly picked it up. She was too mesmerized by Andrew for her to even notice it was gone. I grabbed her keys and tossed them to Serena. She took a picture of them, and pressed them into putty so we could create a copy later.
“Serena, the thing. I need something for her.” I jogged over to my jacket, anxiously searching for the bracelet we snagged from another house a month or so ago.
“Here. I found it.” Serena tossed the jade and gold bracelet to me. “We got what we need. Nice going wing man.”
“Yeah. Wing man.” I gave Serena a little shove and sighed before walking back to the table. I dropped Casey’s purse back down on the ground and took my seat across from them again.
“Here ya go. One present, just as requested.”
Andrew grabbed my hand to take the bracelet from me and I gave him two quick taps on the palm, our signal that we had everything. He carefully clasped the bracelet around her wrist and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Have fun on your vacation. I’ll be waiting when you get back.” One wink and everything was finished. We walked back to Serena to make up our plan.
“Alright, she’s gone for the weekend. They’re leaving tomorrow morning, I’m guessing around ten from the way she was talking.” Andrew motioned for us to walk with him to the mass of people waiting for the meeting. “Serena, what kind of a plan do you have for us?”
“Us? What do you mean, us?! I’m gone in less than a year, so you guys are gonna have to start working on your own now.”
“Aw, come on.” I leaned towards her, but she pushed me back into Andrew.
“Seriously guys, I can’t help you on this one. I’ll wait outside and watch, but I’m not going inside. You’ll have to start getting used to having me gone.”
“Fine.” Andrew sighed, with a bit of growl in his voice. “Well then Nicky, it’s you at me now. We’ll head in through the back door. Casey hinted at the bedroom being upstairs, so I’ll head up and grab a few things while you stay downstairs.”
“For what?”
“To make me a strawberry banana smoothie.” I rolled my eyes at him, and Serena tried to suppress a laugh. “No dumb ass!
To make sure no one else comes in, duh!”
“No, now Serena said she’s doing that, so I’m coming with you.” Andrew rolled his eyes and walked with us towards the group of teens.
We took our seats towards the back just as our leader started prayer time. Everyone shared what or who they wanted to pray for, which was always extremely awkward. The pizza box was passed around, eventually making it’s way to us with only a few slices of cheese left. Not my favorite, but who was I to deny free food.
The meeting seemed to drag on for forever, but finally it was coming to a close. We were given scripts for the Christmas play in two weekends, and signed up for the semi-annual pool contest. Winner would get an ice cream party and doughnuts every Sunday for a month. Andrew flirted with Casey for a bit longer, trying to extract any extra information from her, while Serena and I played Foosball. I might not be extremely athletic, but if Foosball was a sport, I would take the gold medal.
“Where to now, Captain?” Serena asked, not moving her eyes away from the Foosball table.
“No where yet. I think we deserve a night off for once. I gotta stop back by the room, meet ya outside in ten?”
“Yeah, sure.” Andrew ran out of the church while Serena and I finished our game.
Night had fallen across town, and so had the temperature. It wasn’t extremely cold, but I shivered without having a jacket zipped up. Andrew had grabbed a few Arizona Tea’s from the vending machine; strawberry for him, green tea for Serena, and mango for me. He was dragging a couple plaid blanket with him too, but he was leaving us completely in the dark. Where were we going?
“Ah, here we are.” Andrew threw the blankets over the fence and hopped over.
“What do you mean here we are? This is the old football field? Why are we so far out of town?”
“I said we deserved a night off, so this is it. A night under the stars.”
“Such a charmer.” Serena rolled her eyes at him and helped him spread out one of the blanket.
We all laid down on the field, with 2 blankets covering us to keep us warm. I can’t remember the last time I had done this; just looked up at the stars. They were so beautiful. The stars were full of possibilities; unknown worlds and galaxies just staring at us from the sky. It’s nights like this that used to get me through the struggles of the orphanage. I would sneak out onto the roof and just lie there, watching the stars dance across the sky. They were my sign of hope, or at least they used to be. I always wondered what my mother was like, or if I had any other siblings besides my brother. In my mind I looked like my mother; sharp cheekbones, blue eyes, black hair, and a slightly crooked smile. I figured I got my attitude from my father, and that my imaginary siblings are much more trouble than I am. Did she know that I was hers? Was she forced to give me, or did she- No. She would never just give me up, she must have been forced by someone.
A small sigh and a head on my chest brought me back to reality. Serena was already halfway asleep, and Andrew seemed to be lost with his mind wandering over hundreds of possibilities. I could tell he was just as tired as I was, and it didn’t seem as if we would be leaving tonight, so I feel asleep with my arm wrapped around Serena. I wish every day could be like this, but Serena would be gone soon, and Andrew was almost 18 so he would be on his own too. It would just be me, myself, and my lonely thoughts. It’s not like I wasn’t used to being abandoned anyways.
*************
“Wake up Prince Charming. It’s time to get to work.” Andrew threw a candy bar onto my chest and Serena threw another coat over my head.
“Don’t I get one day to sleep in?”
“Not in this family you don’t. Come on, we gotta go get stuff for the raid tonight. Casey’s leaving a day early.” Serena dragged the blanket away and started walking across the field.
We hauled all of our stuff back to the house and dug out our money from the dresser. The local pawnbroker always took what we gave him, and we got a pretty good amount of money for everything. He didn’t care where it was from or who it was from; as long as he could make a profit on it, he bought it. I’m surprised nobody has noticed their stolen stuff their before. We had over $700 saved up, and we only needed $500 more for the three of us to ditch this stupid place and start our own lives. Andrew grabbed a $20 bill, and we all made our way to the hardware store.
We don’t need much for a typical house raid, but it was always better to have extra supplies in case something went wrong. I ripped my mask on the fence of the last house, and our rope snapped while playing tug-of-war. Also, we needed to get a key, and the local locksmith was here.
“Hey Billy! Serena here got a brand new lock for her locker, but some idiot stole her key to it.”
“You guys are always losing things. Maybe you should try to get spares made before you lose them.” Billy was always suspicious of us, and we were running out of good excuses to get a key made.
“Yeah. We know. But we’re teenagers! Do you really expect us to do that?” Andrew jokingly hit him on the arm, and faked a laugh.
“Yes. Now, give me the little mold of it that you always seem to have.” Billy was not one bit amused.
Serena handed him the small case with the key imprint, and Billy made us our key. Andrew and I bought our items quickly and Serena joined us outside again. We finally had everything; supplies, plans, and information. Now we just needed night to come, and hopefully soon.
*************
Casey’s grandparents house would be the easiest raid ever. They had no pets, no security system, nothing! They were practically begging for us to break in.
Serena was outside with a walkie-talkie to warn us in case someone had decided to pay the house a visit. Andrew and I had broken in through the back door with the key, and unhinged the screen from the second door. We walked in carefully, to make sure that absolutely no one was home, and that they didn’t have automatic lights to give away our presence.
“Alright, we’re in.” I spoke into the walkie-talkie.
“On your left should be a bedroom if I remember correctly.”
“Nope, you didn’t remember correctly.”
“Oh shut-up. It’s not like I go here every day!”
“Come on Serena, do your job.” Andrew and I were trying to stifle our laughter. Making fun of Serena was one of the best perks of a raid.
“Ugh, just go steal something already.”
The walkie-talkie went silent as we both went down the first hallway. There wasn’t much there except for a little figurine on a bookshelf. I grabbed it and tossed it into our little grab bag.
“Really Nick?”
“Yeah! It’s Captain America! I need this one to complete The Avengers.” Andrew rolled his eyes at me and started walking up the stairs.
“You go left, I’ll go right.”
“But I wanna go left!” He was always taking the cool routes.
“Nicky are you ever gonna grow up?!”
“No. Now, you right, me left.”
“No. We’re settling this right here and now. Best two out of three?”
All of our arguments were settled with this extreme battle of luck, wits, and strategy. Everything was permanent, and could not be changed. Adding additional ammo, or breaking the rules in any way meant immediate loss of the battle.
“Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot!” Dammit. Paper beats rock.
“Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot!” Ha ha! Scissors beat paper.
“Last one. Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot!” Two for two! “Rock beats scissors! Winner right here! Now, you go right, I’ll go left.”
Andrew scoffed at me but eventually took the hallway to the right. He was always a sore loser. I walked into the first room I came across, but there was nothing of immediate interest. The second room seemed to be a jackpot though. A few diamond earrings and a bracelet were tucked away in an old, dusty jewelry box. There were a few autographed baseball cards too, but besides that there was nothing of value. I got done searching my section of the hallway a
nd met up with Andrew in what looked to be the master bedroom.
“Anything?”
“Not much, but check out this awesome necklace! I had no idea Casey’s grandpa was into tribal stuff.”
The necklace was stunning, and not one bit girly. The string seemed to be completely hand made, a white string was the base while a brown string was intricately wrapped and knotted around the white. At the very bottom was a brown bead, leading down to a small ivory horn, decorated in tribal patterns. There was obvious wear on it, but for it’s age it was practically untouched.
“How much do you think it’s worth?” Hopefully it was worth hundreds, but if that wasn’t real ivory then it was worthless.
“I don’t think we’re selling this.” Andrew took the necklace and put it around his neck. “What do you think?”
“I think it looks fine, but it would look better in the form of cash. Come on, take it off.”
“No. I found it and it’s cool I’m-”
“Boys.” The walkie-talkie buzzed out Serena’s voice. “You gotta get out, and fast. It looks like Casey’s parents are coming to check on the house. Head towards the back, jump over their fence, and meet me by the creek.”
We quickly tidied up our mess to make it look like no one had been here. We ran down the stairs, replaced the screen in the door, and sprinted across the backyard. I threw the bag over the fence and Andrew helped me climb over. We both ran out towards the river, almost running straight into it. Serena was waiting for us a little ways down, and we both started laughing so hard that our stomachs hurt.
“That was close!” Serena managed to choke out. “Imagine what they would have said after seeing the two angels of the town stealing from that house!”
That made us double over in laughter again. Ever since we joined the church, and the youth group, we have been considered the angles of the town. People thought that we had finally found our way to a happy and productive life and left our old lives behind us. They were so incredibly wrong, but we weren’t about to tell them differently. What they believed was great; it gave us a good cover, plus the police never considered us as serious suspects. No wonder most of the robberies went unsolved, or were given up on in general.
The Abduction of Abigail Page 1