Chapter one
„Yuri? You awake? It’s almost noon!” The voice of my older sister, Lily, cut through my sleep.
Tired, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “Yeah, don’t worry, I’m awake... now!” I answered her call and began to get up and doing my ‘morning’ routine. As I came out of the bathroom, still brushing my short, blonde hair, my other sister came to me.
“Hey, you did an awesome job yesterday, you know that? And you have to look at the newspaper!” she said, grinning. “Of course, part of it was my work, but still!” She brushed some of her bright red hair out of her face. “Just come on!”
I rolled my eyes. Lucy - that’s the name of our red haired devil here - was always so energetic. But she really was awesome, so I nodded, smiling.
“Okay, give me just a sec.” I put the hairbrush away and followed her into the kitchen where the last of us - my twin brother, Alec - sat at the table, reading said newspaper but looking up as I entered the kitchen. Lily was there too, cooking lunch by the looks of it.
“Oh, finally awoke from your beauty sleep?” Alec asked and I stuck out my tongue at him, before he closed the newspaper and gave it to me. “Look at it. I’m not sure if I like it or not, but whatever...”
I wondered what the hell was that interesting, before I saw the big picture on the front page. The headline was a big ‘The Sapphire Phantom struck again!’ and the picture... well... it was a pretty good shot of me.
Surprised?
Yeah, I’m the so called ‘Sapphire Phantom’, ‘Prince of Thieves’ or whatever they come up with. I actually prefer Yuri - my real name, you know? - but it’s not as if it’s a good idea to tell the newspaper and the police my real name I guess, since I really don’t want to be captured. I mean, I’m doing this flashy stuff for a few month already, would be stupid to get caught now. But I’m good enough, as long as I don’t do something really stupid, there won’t be any problems.
Oh, and if someone is wondering why I’m blond while ‘Sapphire Phantom’ has blue hair... well, ever heard of wigs? And Lily is an awesome makeup artist, hairstylist and whatnot. She made my whole thief-outfit, including all the accessories, the wig and of course the mask. And it’s a real help, because no one would think it was me stealing all that stuff as I don’t have blue hair.
Lucy on the other hand helps me out differently. She’s the best hacker I know, so she is the reason why I’m that good informed considering illegal activities of rich guys. And we have many rich guys here, especially the ones with some dark secrets.
And I mostly steal from the ones with the really dark secrets. It’s their own fault I guess.
Anyway, back to the newspaper. Like I said, the front page was a big shot of me as the Phantom, followed by an article about how I stole that mans jewelry, how awesome I looked, that the police still had no clues and that I was getting more fans.
“Nice!” I commented as I finished reading and grinned. Which caused Alec to roll his eyes.
“You should try not to draw that much attention to you... one day they’ll catch you.”
I shook my head. “Nah, not with Lucys little toys. And even if they would, I still have you to help me, right?”
He grumbled something and I took it as a yes.
“Great!” I turned to look at Lily. “What’s it for lunch?”
“Spaghetti. But we don’t have that much stuff anymore, I wrote missing things on the list. Try to get them as soon as possible, kay?”
I nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll go looking for it today.”
“I added some new tools, too. Could you also look for them, please?” Lucy then added from behind me. “I got another toy for you in exchange.”
I laughed and nodded again. “No problem, will do!”
And if you’re wondering what ‘the list’ was: It’s simple some kind of to-do list with things we still need. But I don’t like stealing money (mostly because rich guys probably have the numbers noted somewhere and I don’t wanna steal from other people) so instead I simply grab my stuff from the markets. I mean, not like those teenage pickpockets, I’m a professional! But I’ll show you later, as I just promised to go out today.
Now it was time to eat though, as Lily just finished cooking!
And maybe I can get some explaining done while enjoying that tasty meal of my big sister.
First, about my family: It consists of us four, Lily being the oldest with her 26 years, followed by Alec and me being 22 (though I was slightly older) and then Lucy, who was 20. Our parents… well, our father was an asshole and our mother died when Lucy was about four, so let’s leave it at that. We live alone now and pretty much like our life, though it might be strange for an outsider to understand why we live this way. I mean, having a master thief as a brother and everything.
But it’s actually not that confusing once you know the details. Back in primary school we all had our problems. And I don’t mean the simple problems of six or seven years old kids, but real problems. Because we are different.
I don’t know why or how it was even possible, but it’s reality and back then I hated it. All four of us have abilities which are not exactly normal.
Lily is the most normal of us I guess, since her ‘special ability’ mostly consists of the fact, that she is able to make any wig, outfit or mask look real without problems. And she’s doing it fast. On good days, she can sew two or three complete outfits. And I mean complex ones. Also, she’s our medic as she knows a whole lot about medicine. Especially healing plants, because none of us likes doctors at all. Bad memories, you know?
Then there is me, whose ability is a bit more physical oriented. I’m able to run surprisingly fast and jump really high. Like about five meters and more if I’m doing a running jump. I’m also able to move surprisingly quiet, but I think that is something I’ve gotten through my training, just like most of the martial arts stuff I can do.
The next one is Alec, who is probably the strangest one of us. He’s actually able to use telekinesis! At first, I didn’t really believe it, but he showed me. He really can move things from far away just with his thoughts, without touching them. Cool thing, but he doesn’t like to use it often because it seems to drain his powers pretty fast. Though I’m sure he trains it secretly. Also, he always stays near me when I steal, if one day I’ll get caught - something that simply won’t happen, just hypothetically - he’ll save my ass.
And Lucy has the most helpful ability for my thefts I guess. It’s not really an ability, but her IQ is the highest I’ve ever seen. She understood the theory of relativity with eight. And now, she has learned to hack. She’s able to get into any system at all, probably even without leaving any traces so, like I said, she’s the one providing me with information. And that she’s a great inventor is awesome too, as she always has new ideas for toys I could use, being able to build nearly everything from scratch. I guess I’ll show you some later when I go shopping.
Though I kind of dread that and the reason is Lily. Easy to see once I’ll want to go, just wait.
But to explain why I’m stealing: After we finally got that we weren’t made for society, we somehow started our own not-quite-legal business. We bought a house in a big city, where Lily is paying the monthly bills by selling her self-made stuff online on a website designed by Lucy. It looks really awesome and as the stuff isn’t cheap – though the quality is great too so it’s okay – it pays enough for the bills. But life is simply better if you’re not normal I guess. So instead of doing normal jobs, maybe even with a low pay as we don’t have any graduation (Lucy taught us everything we needed to know) instead I steal stuff, Lucy invents interesting new toys and Alec helps me spotting out the locations. Like that, everyday life is an adventure. Nice, huh?
And while I’m talking with myself in my mind, we finished eating in the end. So I guess I have to go shopping now…
And as to why I’m dreading it: Since my stealing method would be pretty obvious if they would always see me before something get’s stolen (after some time even the biggest idiot would probably get it) I’m shopping disguised most of the time. I mean, Lily has more than enough stuff.
The bad thing? Every few times I have to go as a girl. Because ‘switching’ genders helps confusing and shattering any distrust. But it really is stupid.
On the other hand, I’m even kinda familiar to it now, so… I’ll just do it and then get over with business.
And just like that, about twenty minutes later I was a perfect young lady with a bag in one hand and a shopping list in the other.
Time to get criminal!
