Stolen

Carter kicked out the wooden boards that covered the window, grabbed the remaining boards and started to climb. He kicked up with his feet and stretched out with his hands, grabbed the third story window ledge. He pulled his foot up onto the sill and stood up, reached the roof and pulled himself up.

"Erika!" he called. His girlfriend was climbing up behind him. He held out a hand for her, and she took it. Carter puller her up, and they both ran.

"What were those things?" Erika asked. They both leaped off the roof and onto the next one.

"What are those things, more like. They're not going to stop. And they're Stealers"

"Stealers?"

"Bad time" They dropped down a story, onto a wooden plank that bridged two houses. Erika turned her head as she fell, and she saw them. The Stealers. There were two of them, they were tall, heavily built, and they wore black robes with hoods that hid their faces. Gold bands strapped fastened the cloak to his limbs, so that it would not rustle.

They ran along the bridge, into a building with no doors. Carter took a sharp left up the staircase, Erika followed. Stony scenery blurred past her, she ran quickly, to the floor above. They entered a residential area, a floor with some blankets laying on the floor. A gang of thieves, backs against the wall, counting money and laughing, turned to look at them.

All parties froze for a moment.

"Cheskov?" said one. He was asking for an order. One, with a foreign face, stepped forward.

"Grab them" he said, in a heavy accent. Two of the gang advanced across the small room.

"Please" Erika said. "We have no time for this, just let us by"

Cheskov smiled. "We can have fun with her" One of the gang reached to grab her arm. Carter stepped in front of, and stared the older boy down.

"What's the matter? Grinkov will be gentle to your little girl. She will have no cause to dislike what I can do" He started laughing. Carter's fist swung into his jaw, and brought his forehead into his face. Grinkov staggered back, Carter swung his big toe into his chest. Grinkov's friend came to help as he doubled over in pain.

Carter put his weight on Grinkov's frame, swung himself up off the ground and kicked the friend in the jaw. He swung his weight around, placing both his feet onto Grinkov's back. He pushed with his feet and went soaring through the air, upside down. Grinkov collapsed under the pressure and Carter crashed into the friend, slamming him to the floor.

And Erika saw them, the Stealers, rushing up the stairs. As Carter brought his knee to meet a gang members jaw, Erika slipped up to him and grabbed Carter's arm and turned him around.

"Four, maybe five seconds" she said. The two sped away from the stairs, and Carter barged through the gang, clearing a path to the hall. Before his foot touched the first step, Cheskov made a move for him. Carter grabbed his arm, ducking as he pulled the gang member over his shoulder. Cheskov smashed into a wall, bones broke.

Erika stepped over him as she ran up down the hall. screams of pain emanating from the room behind her. Their was a strange, terrible, unrecognisable sound as death rebounded violently toward her. Carter came to a window, looked outside, and leaped.

Erika climbed up on the window ledge, and saw what Carter was jumping to. Normally, she might pause a moment to judge the jump, see if she could make it. But Carter had jumped, and she trusted him completely. She bent her knees, flexed her muscles, and leaped. She blurred through the air, rolling as she landed on the nearby roof.

A gloved hand broke Shane's knuckles with a crunch, and he was swung into a wall. The hand clasped around his throat and pinned him to the wall, a few inches above the ground.

"If you ever threaten me again" warned Markus. "I will squeeze until my fingers burst through your throat and blood and whatever else will pour out of you, and leave you here to die a slow and agonizing death, unable to scream. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yeah yeah" Shane gasped. "And" he saw his friend Danny from over Markus's shoulder. He had a knife, and winked at Shane. With newfound confidence, the street boy continued. "And, I tell you what. I don't take orders from albino emo freaks who-"

Markus' foot snapped into the chest of Shane's friend, who dropped the knife. The guy doubled over, and Markus grabbed the back of his neck, letting go of Shane. Markus shoved the guy's neck down hard, and he somersaulted violently, crashing into a slumped Shane.

"Idiots" Markus muttered.

And then he saw her. She leaped from the three story window, soared through the air, and disappeared from his view as she landed on the building beside him. Markus stood there, stunned. A cloaked figure climbed onto the window ledge, and it jumped as well. Markus gasped as the blood rushed to his head. He knew, he just knew, that there was something inhuman, unimaginable about this jump. To others, it looked like a jump, but Markus felt it in his gut: the laws of reality had just been cheated.

Space had been bent. As another, the same stature, same clothes, leaped, and again Markus felt the space bend. This figure had leaped only centimetres, but space had warped together, bridging the gaps. As it fell to the building beside him, it looked at him. He knew it knew he knew, and he knew it knew he knew it knew.

Markus jumped, and started to climb.

Erika caught up to Carter and overtook him. This part of the city, all the houses were one or two stories. There was nowhere to hide-but plenty to run. She leaped from the roof, to another. This roof had wooden bridge, too, but it didn't go all the way. It only bridged half the gap. Erika leaped.

It snapped as she landed, and she jumped before it fell. The wooden bridge fell to the street, Carter couldn't continue. He broke right, finding another rout. The Stealers were closing in. Erika leaped to the drain pipe of a two story building, clasping it tightly with her hands and shimmying from side to side as she scaled.

As she climbed to the top, she saw one of the Stealers. It stood, quite still, on the roof, awaiting her. Erika jogged lightly to it, then shifted into a shock sprint to its left. It didn't even react as she flew by, only; she didn't. She was a meter away, but somehow it gripped the back of her shirt and swung her around. It lifted her off her feet as she flew off the roof.

The ground was rushing up to meet her, Erika prepared to roll, knowing that even if she did this was going to be extremely painful. However, the glass hit her before she reached the ground, she slowed down considerably as she hit the first floor of the nearby building with a smack. She bounced off the floor before rolling into the wall.

She was winded. and had hit her head, lights danced between her eyes, so she got up slowly. There were thuds, grunts of pain: Carter. Erika stumbled to the window, cradling her head. Her boyfriend slammed into her.

They rolled, and before Erika could open her eyes Carter was pulling her to her feet. Even with her eyes only half open, Erika could see his nose was broken.

"We have to run" he mumbled, and staggered to a nearby door. Erika surveyed her surroundings, bookcases, a desk, some sort of study. Just before Carter was in range, the door swung open, violently. The Stealer kicked it to the floor, the hinges snapped.

Carter went in with a sucker punch, but the Stealer didn't move. The fist arced over its shoulder.

"Huh?" Carter asked, surprised, then quickly moved in with a left elbow, but the blow didn't come close. He punched and kicked again and again, missing every time, the Stealer didn't seem to be moving at all. It looked completely calm. Carter came in with an extremely accurate and deadly punch; but it swung inches from The Stealers' nose.

Carter fell of balance, and The Stealer kneed him in the stomach. The force of the air sent Carter feet into the air, gloved hands grabbed him before he could even fall. The Stealer held him over its head, flexed its spine and threw him. Erika ducked, but Carter still slammed into her.

Erika got up, but Carter didn't, by the way his ribs seemed to be jutting into the skin, Erika could tell they were broken. He was almost immobile, there was no running now. Erika rose, and jet kicked the Stealer, though her heel missed the face just by inches. The Stealer grabbed the foot and swung her. She flew through the air, until she slammed into the desk, and went limp. She lay still by the shattered wood.

The Stealer knelt by the near-unconscious Carter, and produced a knife from inside its cloak. It spin the knife in its hand, gingerly, and began to make an incision. Erika took a sharp piece of wood, and sized up the distance between her arm and the Stealer's head. Erika never missed, not from this close, anyway.

The wood took flight, went straight for the head. It whisked through the air, whistling as it went. The jagged splinter aimed for the soft material of the cloak, it was going so fast the wood would probably snap once it hit the skull, making it all the more deadly.

It missed the head entirely, shattering into the wall.

The Stealer didn't even look up. It made the first cut.

Markus shattered the wooden beams of the ceiling as the second Stealer strolled through the door. The Stealer rose, slowly, as Markus fell in front of it. It whisked the knife in its hand, and stabbed. The palm of Markus' hand skimmed along the smooth blade face as he made a grab for the wrist. The Stealer let him hold its wrist in a vice, uncaring.

Markus reeled back his fist, but the Stealer was unperturbed. As the fist flew like lightning, The Stealer bent the area around him, warped the space. It understood that space was not an object, but a coalition of an infinite number of objects, that to touch just one could bend and warp a chain of others. It felt these chains, these links, these curves, and knew which ones would affect others under different pressures. However, Space cannot be changed, and the warp works only for seconds. It is only a perception, not a physical fact.

Markus didn't know this, but he felt it and could counteract it. His fist flew unhindered into the Stealer's face. There was a crunch, and a snap, and the Stealer screamed an unholy scream before staggering back. Surprise ripped through the Stealer, it had not been hit in millennia. However, it came quickly, blocking Markus's second fist and ducking under his third punch.

The second Stealer ducked and swung a low kick at Markus's feet. He jumped to evade the strike, lashing out at the Stealer's face. It ducked, then swung its weight up with an uppercut, but Markus grabbed the arm and twisted, putting it off balance, and he struck out. The fist was blocked with a forearm, which slipped forward and abraded Markus' nose.

He staggered back, and sensed the First Stealer's strike. He blocked it with an elbow jab, before spinning away. Markus raised his fists, boxer style, keeping both attacker's in sight. One came at him, Markus came with some quick jabs, forcing it to retreat. Markus came in with a strong fist, but pulled back as The Stealer blocked with its forearm. With the arm busy, Markus jabbed it in the stomach with his free fist, then again, and again, before kicking the ankle.

The Stealer back flipped, snaking his foot into Markus' jaw. Markus kicked at its leg, but it leaped into the air, lashing at Markus face. Before it fell, it caught Markus in the stomach with its fist, and rolled to avoid Markus' kick.

Markus jabbed at a Stealer repeatedly, not backing down for a second, relentlessly. The Stealer blocked with his own fists, but was forced to retreat. It came up against the desk, where it grasped some papers and tossed them, blinding Markus. He was slammed into the ground.

"Your sneaky" said Markus, rising to his feet. He feinted a punch, and when the Stealer moved to attack first, he ducked and spun, snatching up a chair.

"But I am too"

The chair slammed into the Stealer with such force it shattered. The Stealer flew through the air, Markus snatched up a piece of shattered wood and stabbed it in the neck. Deep blue blood seeped down the throat, and Markus turned to the friend.

The second Stealer tossed its knife, and Markus caught it and whisked it around, so it lost none of its momentum, and tossed it through the air. The Stealer again tried to bend space, but the shadows that clung around it slashed through the curve, and the knife embedded itself inside the Stealer's skull. The Stealer screamed its horrible scream, and burst into flames.

"That's what you do when you die?" Markus wondered, then spun around. Where the other fallen Stealer had been, now only a pool of blood lay.

"Carter!" Erika shrieked.

Markus spun to the fallen boy, who's chest had been cut open. The Stealer, bloody hole in its neck, was reaching inside. Markus started to run as light shone through the eyes and mouth of the victim. The Stealer looked into Markus' eyes as he dived for it. He slid along the floor, they were almost with his reach.

With a flash, they were both gone, Markus skidded through nothing.

Erika started to cry.

Minutes had gone by, the two remaining teenagers were still in the room. Markus slammed his fist into the wall, again, leaving a sensible dent. Erika had stopped crying, and sat on one of the remaining pieces of furniture. Markus kept trying to break the silence, but he had nothing to say. She did, though.

"What were those things?" she asked.

Markus turned around, surprised. "You don't know?"

She shook her head.

"I don't. I just....felt it"

Erika looked up. "Felt what?"

"The....warp. They were altering space. teleporting, bending reality. I could feel it"

"How?"

"I don't really know"

Erika rose.

"What's your name?"

"Markus"

"And, Markus. Are you human?"

He cocked his head, smiled slightly. "Human? I don't know. Kind of. Almost. I don't want to be"

"Why? You wanna be one of them?"

"No!"

Erika walked to him. "You don't want to be human. Why?"

Markus punched the wall again. This time, his fist went through it.

"Because your cruel. Your sneaky, and your greedy, and you make the world a harsh place to live. You take what you can, bleed people dry. It's sick. I don't want to be a part that."

"That's only one face. There's so many faces we have. We can be kind" Erika pulled her hand tentatively to his hood, and pushed it down off his head.

"We can be beautiful. We can be compassionate."

Markus reeled back. "No. Beauty hides the ugly. Kind hides the cruel. Compassion hides the hate. That's what's at your core. Hate."

"I don't hate!" Erika cried.

Markus leaned back. "Yeah you do. You hate them. For taking him. They were cruel, and your going to be cruel to"

"We don't know, okay? What I'd do to them if I had the chance. Because I don't have the chance. And okay, there's hate in the world. But you only add to it by acting the way you do. Your not helping. And I can be kind. Because I'm just going to walk away. And move on with my life. I can't save him. He's gone"

"He doesn't have to be. I know someone who may know where he is."

"Who!"

"Before I tell you, promise me something."

"What!? Come on, no games, just-"

"This is not a game, Erika."

"How did you-"

"Promise me, that when you find him, you'll let me help. Let me be there, when you see the ones who killed him. Let me see you lie. Let me see you hate."

"You say there's no good in the world, no compassion. And here you are, looking for the hate, ignoring the good."

"Is that a promise?"

"Yeah. Now who can help me?"

"I'm going there myself, right now. I'll show you. I'll show you Gypsy Aris."