To: Thief In The Mind
From: Thief's Apprentice
Sent: May 26th 20XX 10:20 PM
Subject: Hello Simon...
Greetings Master...or should I say Simon? Simon Psez?
Surprised? You shouldn't be. After all it was you that taught me to always be two steps ahead of everyone else. That included you. Did you really think I wouldn't listen? Or find a way to get around all of your pathetic safeguards?
The way I see it, this makes us equals. I still have much to learn from you and I recognize that, but I am tired of being your errand boy. From now on I want to include in the larger plans, with a larger cut of the profit.
As a show of good faith I have taken the liberty of completely erasing the memories of both Officer Cartwright and her sister. I have done this despite a genuine desire to keep, at the very least, the sister. She was quite the animal in bed. All records of you have been erased from the New Chicago Police Department as well as Interpol. Not that they had much on you to begin with.
I await your answer... Master Simon.
Your faithful apprentice...and partner.
--
12 hours earlier...
Lindsey Cartwright was leaning against the wall in the south end of the mall, near the food court, waiting for her sister. "Why is she always late..." she thought to herself. "If she doesn't get here soon, we won't have time to go shopping before 'Steve' gets here." She was so looking forward to trying on lingerie with her sister. Although for the life of her she couldn't' figure out why they had never done this before.
As she continued to lean against the wall, looking out over the various people passing to and fro in the food court, she heard a noise...far away but moving closer and closer. It sounded like a clicking...no, a snapping. Finger snapping, to be exact. Someone was snapping their fingers in a steady, almost rhythmic, beat. Snap... snap... snap... snap... snap... snap...
She looked around to see where the sound was coming from and for a split second she thought she could see a man walking towards her, snapping his fingers. But then he seemed to simply fade away. "Where is that coming from?" she asked no one in particular. She was starting to become more and more disoriented, more distracted, as she shook her head to clear it. She could have sworn she saw a person walk up and stop in front of her, but then the image just faded away. Snap... snap... snap... snap... snap... And then her thoughts just melted away as she stood there and stared up at the man in front of her, a man she couldn't see. Her arms fell to her sides and her face went slack.
The man just smiled.
Jennifer Cartwright walked into the mall a few minutes later. She felt a little uncomfortable wearing such a short skirt for the first time in years, but today it just seemed...natural to do so. "I don't know how Lindsey wears these things all the time" she asked herself as she started to scan the food court for her sister.
After a few moments she spotted her, sitting on the couch near a window overlooking the parking lot. Not the best view in the world, but it was better than nothing. She walked up behind her sister and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey sis..." she said happily. But got no reply.
She leaned over the edge of the couch to look at her sister and noticed that she seemed to almost be daydreaming. Just staring off into space. "Sis?" she said, shaking Lindsey just a bit. "Yo, sis! You in there?" And then she started to hear it. It was distant at first, but was getting closer and closer. A snapping sound.
She looked around the food court for the source of the sound. It was odd, the food court was full of people and extremely noisy. But yet the sound of the snapping seemed to make everything else just fade away. Snap... snap... snap... snap... snap...
She tried to get a handle on where it was coming from, her entranced sister long forgotten. Finally, her training kicked in and she was able to lock onto the source of the sound. She turned sharply to her left to see a man standing next to her with a smile on his face. "You?" she asked, as if she recognized the man. But another snap later and the image of the man vanished from her mind. He turned into a simple black shadow standing in front of her. Snap... snap... snap... now it wasn't just the man that was fading, but the world around Jennifer.