While I prepped the next morning, I had the news on as usual for background noise.

It was background noise until one story took my attention the hard way.

"Breaking News!" The TV yelled.

I put down the bag I'd been holding and turned to the screen.

"New masked criminal at large! At 6 o' clock this morning, a local jewellery store was robbed and destroyed by a masked gunman."

The screen changed to a security feed.

I watched as the glass door was shattered, and a thin figure with an animal skull over their head marched through the broken glass and into the store, holding a loaded 3 pulley crossbow.

The bottom part of their face was covered completely with a scarf of some sort like Louve wore, and their right arm was 100% mech like my left arm. A galaxy pattern crossed the shoulder piece.

A deep, slightly mechanical voice bellowed from the skull. Auto tuned for identity protection.

"All your most valuable pieces and cash go in my bag or everyone in this store can say goodbye."

Just to accentuate the point, the person grabbed a hostage and aimed their crossbow.

The staff scrambled desperately to pull everything together.

Someone tried to call the police.

In a split second, the hostage was dead and the phone line was cut.

"And DON'T try to call the police again."

They tossed aside the body carelessly and clawed for another hostage.

The staff handed back the bag, now full, and one braved the question.

"Who are you?"

The masked robber turned unmistakably with white fangs bared to the security camera the news was using.

"I am the Dance of the Dead. And I invoke the presence of The Ghost tomorrow night atop the Empire State Building. 2300 hours and not a second later. No media, no police, no friends. Just you and me. And if you don't show, well," deep hollow laughter, "don't keep me waiting."

They pushed away their hostage, jump kicked an employee of the store, and disappeared, leaping through the shattered glass door.

The screen cut back to the reporter.

"No one knows if this gunman is serious, or if The Ghost will show, but one thing is for certain. This new criminal is loose and ready to kill. Proceed through your day with caution, dear viewers. And pray you don't run into this criminal."

I felt hollow and shell-shocked.

I was getting called out.

Louve burst in moments later, out of breath and looking startled.

"You saw-?"

"Yeah."

"You can't ignore that summons. We don't know how powerful this person is, nor what they're willing to do, but they're certainly prepared to kill for it."

"Guess I have a date with the Dance of the Dead."

Louve changed the subject.

"You have everything ready to go?"

I jumped and shook my head.

"Yeah. Yeah I got it."

"Good. We need to head out. Shake out those nerves, bud. We got a job to do."

We slipped into the shadows with our masks secured and our supplies prepared.

A few miles off our target, Lou convened with the distributors. I stayed back in the shadows. The distributors weren't to know of my involvement in any job until it began as to keep people from blabbing about my whereabouts.

"Dom and Terry, keep traffic still. We can't have anyone getting hit. Sash, keep the police distracted. Call them with a fake crime, cut their power, hack their servers, do anything to keep them away. G, Make sure there is no way the establishment can call the police. Either redirect the lines or cut the power. Our helicopter arrives AT 11. If you are not there, you're getting left behind. If you get left behind, what do you do?" Lou commanded.

"Converge at the warehouse." The distributors responded almost simultaneously.

"And if you get hurt?"

"Contact you." Sash answered, whom was the only distributor with us long enough to know this by heart.

"Correct. We are in and out. No deaths are to happen unless you are threatened with a weapon. This is a janitored deal, so we can't slip up."

They nodded.

"Ok. Meet up at the bridge of 46th and Derrison. Break!" Lou whooped, clapping her hands once to startle everyone into moving, then disappeared.

I fell back into deeper shadows and tracked Lou up to the bridge.

Thank god I learned advanced tracking. Lou is difficult to track. My only saving grace was that Lou constantly stinks of beer. It's like a cloud that just exists around her and never goes away.

I'd never tell her that unless I wanted to get demolished, but it was definitely there.

I met up with her at the bridge before the distributors showed.

"Ready to show them the meaning of wealth draw?"

"Hell yeah." She responded.

I dropped back into shadows as the distributors arrived.

"The location is just above me on the other side of the bridge. Dom and Terry- you ready to move? We need traffic at a stand still."

They high fived and laughed.

Twins like Lou and myself, they definitely knew mischief and troublemaking.

They slung themselves over the side of the bridge. We all listened as car horns shrieked and brakes squealed.

Though people kept honking, we knew traffic had stopped.

Then the honking stopped.

Dom and Terry had drawn their rifles.

Lou looked back to me.

"Start the raid." She said cheerily.

I jumped up, wrapped my claws into the brickwork, and hauled myself up the side of the bridge with the white of my mask and gold chain glowing in the moonlight.

The distributors left on the ground cheered when I appeared, and followed in rally.

I flipped up into the street between the twins and startled them.

But I bolted through the cleared streets and into the building.

I caught the staff by surprise, making 4 of them drop a large armored box filled with cash.

The distributors came in behind me and whisked that box away.

Lou brought up the rear, firing three rounds into the ceiling.

"Bring me your stock! Now!" She screamed.

Employees ran to the back room.

They pulled out huge containers of food and medical supplies.

The distributors took it all away.

No one moved.

Everyone was just frozen in fear.

I locked eyes with the manager, and in a fit of unnecessary and surprising rage, I slashed my left hand claws through the desk he stood behind.

The manager stepped away from the demolished desk, his pupils small and terror clear in his expression.

I backed out of the building as Lou hit the stairs, and clawed up the side of the 3 story building.

Vaulting onto the roof, Lou was getting into the helicopter, the loot secured, and it was lifting off the roof.

I took a running leap and caught the door just in time, holding onto the handle with my left hand and with one foot resting on the landing gear.

The rest of my body hung loose to the wind.

I watched the skyline carefully, feeling like something was off.

I pinpointed a small glint of metal and a shine of bone at the top of the Empire State.

And as the helicopter turned away, breaking my gaze with the tower, one thing solidified in my mind.

I'd just seen the Dance of the Dead.

Lou released the distributors to the poor sectors with the loot while I stormed past her into the back room of the warehouse, shaken by my experience.

After Lou was done and the warehouse was cleared out, she came to find me.

"Hey what's wrong?" Her mask was already off and under her arm. Her hair was up in a tight knot, but thin curly strands hung around her face, soaked with sweat.

I pulled my mask off and set it aside.

"Lou I saw the Dance of the Dead. They were up in the Empire State."

"That's impossible. It's after hours."

"Lou I know what I saw." I snapped, suddenly irritated.

She hesitated to speak again. Her jaw tightened.

"I'll make dinner. Now sort yourself out and don't EVER yell at me again." She responded, her voice clipped and tight. She was angry.

Lou left the room.

I put the base of my palms on my temples and wrapped my claws around the back of my head, shivering slightly.

I felt unhinged, unnecessarily angry and irritated. Almost feverish. Where was this anger coming from? I'd never been so angry in my life.

It took almost an hour to calm down, and by then, dinner was ready.

"What happened tonight? Why'd you break the desk?"

"I don't know," I answered quietly, "I just got really angry for some reason and attacked the nearest object."

She gestured to the TV on the far wall.

"They're calling you out on public rampage. Not to be dealt with."

"Are the distributors-"

"They're too smart to leave our team. Too loyal. I don't think they'll ever leave."

"Good."

"Do you think this Dance of the Dead person is causing this anger?"

Such a random question, I hesitated.

"Maybe. Never in my life have I been cracked enough to show my anger like that. Or even be that angry in the first place."

She looked at me sideways, a lopsided grin on her face.

"Well, you should get some rest. You know they're gonna be broadcasting this event live. Especially with such a public challenge."

"Yeah. Okay. Goodnight Lou."

"Night, kid."

~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~

Hey y'all! Hope you're enjoying this... feeling a little unsure about posting this bc it's one of the stories I don't usually share with anyone.

So if y'all could give me some sign that you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful :)

As always, stay beautiful and thanks for reading!
~Percabeth1Jackson