Cherise was a thief by profession. Or, really, she was officially a freelance artist, but this was only so that she would be able to use as much time for thievery as she just pleased - art hadn’t proved out to be a very lucrative profession for her, personally.

Stealing had started in her childhood: she would steal from store, her parents, her friend’s parents and even places like school and library, simply for the fun and thrill of it - kleptomania, she was later told, and she was then being treated for it. Seemingly it had worked, but when her career as an independent artist hadn’t been quite as easy and luxurious as she had imagined it to be, she had started stealing again for fun, then to get by, and finally in order to buy the luxury items and travels she wanted, but couldn’t otherwise afford.

Having recently moved to a new city in order to bring some change into her life, Cherise had immediately set her eyes on a detached house in a calm neighbourhood. Fast information checking had taught her it was a place mostly inhabited by families, and as such the place would have very little people present during morning hours: children were at school and their parents at work, and those who weren’t would most likely not notice a single thing.

Furthermore, from her underground connections, Cherise had learned this house had an old woman living there with an unlocked jewelry box, and of course this immediately excited her: the jewels were practically begging to be stolen!

A few weeks of careful planning and studying the blueprints of the house, Cherise was finally ready for yet another gig. And with her skills accustomed to these sort of things, it didn’t take long until the young woman was inside the empty building.

Sneaking her way from the back exit into the kitchen, a door was dividing the rooms. Cherise opened it carefully despite not suspecting anyone to actually be home - rather, it was a habit, but something that had saved her more than once or twice already.

Much to her surprise, behind the door was standing a young boy no older than 13, eyes wide and face pale from what Cherise assumed had to be a result of shock. It didn’t take a genius to sum up the situation: the kid had heard her breaking in, went to check, saw her and then got so scared he froze.

But unlike Cherise had calculated next, the boy didn’t start screaming. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all. From the movement of his chest the burglar could see the kid was still alive and hadn’t died from the shock on his feet, but the way he simply stood there and stared at her was incredibly disturbing.

Cherise closed the door.

She wasn’t sure why she did that, but the presence of the boy in her field of vision unsettled her.

“Shit, I better get out of here before he comes back to his senses and calls the cops!” she thought, but the memory of the jewels upstairs was tempting her, forcing her to reevaluate her priorities and plans of proceeding.

“He saw me already anyway,” she mused and looked at the door. “I might as well make it count and take a risk; it’d suck to get in trouble for this and end up leaving empty handed.”

Cherise nodded to herself, satisfied with her reasoning and opened the door once more, expecting the boy to have gone off already.

But there he stood, white as a sheet and eyes just as wide as they had been before.

“Alright, this is really freaky,” she spoke while staring at the boy, shivering in discomfort. He seemed to respond to Cherise’s words by shifting his position slightly, but even then he seemed to be completely in some sort of trance.

However, as he didn’t seem to have a phone with him nor pockets where to carry a phone, Cherise was fine with that. With some good luck, when the police would eventually arrive, the boy wouldn’t even remember her face due to being so obviously freaked out.

“Hey kid, get outta my way” Cherise mumbled and pushed the boy gently out of the doorway to access the hallway and the stairs. The child moved obediently, not putting up a fight, and when Cherise took one last look of him, he remained still.

“Poor boy… I wonder if he’ll be alright?” she thought while climbing up the spiral stairs to the second floor. “This is obviously good for me, but it’s not like I want to hurt a child.”

Soon she was upstairs, making her way into the unlocked target room and find the box full of jewelry.

“Ooh boy, I’ll be eating like a queen for months!” Cherise gasped in awe when she opened the box and numerous expensive trinkets and necklaces revealed themselves. Cherise felt the round jewels in her hands, the white pearls and shining emeralds, and couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of fool leaves all these fancy things completely unprotected. Did the owner of these precious things think the outside lock could stop a criminal? Or did she assume nobody knew of these? Either way, she was wrong and also an idiot, and Cherise was grateful of that.

Cherise grabbed everything she deemed to be of any worth and put them in her pockets, making sure to zip them close to avoid things falling when she had to make her grand escape. The temptation to loot the room even further was strong, but knowing the kid was somewhere downstairs filled her with the sense of urgency that told her to leave - and so she did.

She exited the room, only to see the boy standing behind the door again.

Cherise’s heart almost jumped out of her chest at the sight and it took all her mental strength to keep herself from screaming.

“Don’t you have any sense of self protection?” she then asked angrily from the pale boy. “You should have at least escaped the house; I might beat you up, you know? Are you not scared for your safety the least bit? Or are you that shaken up?”

For a slight moment she felt almost sorry for the boy, but then he slowly shook his head in a highly unsettling manner.

This was enough. Cherise didn’t want to see this boy any longer.

“Shoo, shoo! Leave my sight!” Cherise continued and waved her hands, trying to tell the boy off.

But he remained there, staring at her with large, blue eyes.

“Ugh, fine, whatever. I’ll be going now, see you!”

With this, the burglar started marching towards the room with a window outside; she knew there was a large tree right next to it, which would easily help her out of the house. Cherise was certain the cops had to have been called by now by the neighbours, so using the front door would be too risky. She was a good climber anyway, so this was the safest route - and fastest, as she didn’t want to spend a moment longer with this ominous child.

The boy continued walking behind her with stiff movements. He didn’t speak or even tremble, just followed her as if he was sleepwalking. It made Cherise’s skin crawl, but she didn’t bother to do anything with the boy. She yanked the window open and swiftly hopped out, landing on the large tree and then sliding along its trunk onto the ground. The weight of the jewels inside her pockets made her smile, and she bid adieu to the house.

Only once she turned around, only to see the boy was looking at her from the window.

“Thank god I’ll never have to see him again!” she thought as she started running away from the scene, blending into the shadows of the quiet street.

The house was on the news the next day. By then Cherise had already sold the jewels, gotten her money out of them and stored some of them in her own private safe to avoid raising suspicions with the bankers.

As she congratulated herself on this successful robbery, she watched the news on screen.

“The elderly couple was robbed early in the morning while they were returning from a business trip. The burglar seemed to be familiar with the blueprint of the house, indicating the crime was carefully planned and calculated. The house was empty during the moment of crime. If you saw anything suspicious or know anything, please call the number on screen.”

Cherise’s smile dropped as the disturbing revelation started making itself known to her.

Elderly couple.

Empty house.

“Oh jesus christ…” she whispered and covered her mouth with both of her hands.

“Who the hell was that boy then…?!”