I don't move, petrified and frightened. Why do I always have to be exposed doing things I'm not allowed to? It seems like luck is never on my side.

"Avelyn?"

I close my eyes, taking deep breaths and trying to find a believable answer to his question. I turn around and a confused Johnathan stands next to the stairs. I look at him, smiling like an idiot. I'm pretty sure he knows that he's caught me doing something I shouldn't do, and from his exigent expression, I have a feeling he won't leave until he knows what exactly I was doing up here.

"Mmh.. Hey, Johnathan! I'm so happy to see you. Look, something terrible just happened! I was cleaning these dusty books, when suddenly the stairs started to shake and I was about to fall! But, thanks to my smart and developed instincts, I thought that if I put one leg to the left part of the stairs and the other leg to the opposite part, my body could be balanced! Am I not sly as hell!? I mean, can you even-"

"Avelyn?" Johnathan's voice stops me.

"Yes?"

"You're not good at telling lies."

"Oh, okay." I say, with the innocent smile still painted on my lips. "But can you imagine if that really happened?"

He just stares at me, with his right eyebrow raised up and his arms crossed. "No, I can't, since it didn't happen. Now, please come down and explain to me why I've found you looking at those books, that I'm pretty sure you've seen what section they are part of." He pronounced every word slowly, making every word clear.

I open my mouth, but I close it right away, wordless. "That's a really great idea." I murmur, scratching my head.

I start getting down the stairs in slow motion, in order to gain time to find a believable lie. Maybe I could say there was too much visible dust on them, and I couldn't let something like that be in such a precious place, but he would still ask me why I was looking at them. Well, I could justify it saying that I was just trying to put them in the right topic order. Wait, I can't say it, since the books are empty. Ugh!

"Could you please move faster?" His voice stops my thoughts.

"Sure." Good, now how am I supposed to justify my action? Even though I'm not that worried. I mean, Jonathan seems an understandable guy, and I'm quite sure he won't tell anyone.

As I step off the last stair, I move towards him, posing my wide eyes to his, still confused and curious. I start to play with my fingers and bite my lips, anxious about how he will react to my response. When I was a child, I used to be a good liar and with my puppy blue eyes I was able to enchant everyone, especially my father. He always defended me when my mother was scolding me, and that's why they used to argue so much.

"So?" He asks, expecting an answer right away, but I hesitate for some seconds, having no clue of how to start.

"I..", I stop, afraid to keep talking, " please, don't tell anybody! I swear I had no clue of what-"

"Hey, hey. Relax, I'm not going to say anything to anybody." He says, immediately, seeing my anxiety.

"Can I trust you?" I ask, doubtful.

"Of course you can trust me." He says, as if it was obvious.

I don't trust people easily, because of many betrayals. I've always asked myself why people swear and make promises for then breaking them so rapidly and effortlessly. Promises are not made to be broken, but to be kept and to mean them. Never promise anything to anyone if you don't mean it, it will just damage your soul.

"Okay," I take deep and long breaths before starting. "I was just relaxing and looking around the library, when I came across to that section. Since I'm curious as  a cat, I moved up to check it out." I stop, looking at him and trying to detect an angry reaction, but all I see is curiosity and attention to my words.

"I opened the first book I came across, and I started to leaf through the pages, but.."

"But, what?" He asks, exigent.

I look away, not knowing if he will believe me. "There's nothing in it, as in the other books."

I pose my eyes to his, afraid of his reaction. "Nothing." He repeats my the word, almost laughing.

"Yeah. Nothing, nothing at all. All white, empty, no words, like literally no visible-"

"Okay, I got it." He stops, again, my senseless and rapid talk. I blush, embarrassed. Why do I always have to talk like that? I ridicule myself.

"But, there's something else", I add, letting the suspense kill him slowly. "As I was walking down, I noticed a hole under the shelf, and once I have checked it out, a piece of it fell down, followed by a.. hand lens."

"A what?!" He almost shouts.

"Shh! Do you want them to hear us?" I exclaim.

"A hand lens." He repeats, ignoring me.

"A hand lens." I confirm.

He starts breathing heavily, thinking about my words while he moves his blonde hair repeatedly. Well, it looks like I'm not the only one suspicious about this. I look down at my black sneakers, and I've never found them so interesting until right now. I wait for him to say something, but he seems lost in his thoughts.

"Okay." He says, more to himself, as if he's just made a decision.

I move my eyes to his, and I notice a bright, but insecure look in them. I don't know how, but I feel like he wants to know more about it as much I do, and I've never been so excited in my life.

"I have an idea, but you have to promise me not to tell any word about this to any living creature. Do you understand, Avelyn?"

I froze, astonished my his exigent and desperate request. Oh, dear Jonathan, you have no idea how glad I am to finally have a partner in crime. I've been waiting for you all this time, dear.

"Look how our roles switched so fast." I grin, not being able to resist, but I add immediately, "I promise on my life", as soon as I see his exasperated expression.

"Good."

*

Jonathan has had the wonderful idea to take one book from the section, included the hand lens since it has aroused suspicion to both of us. He suggested that it was better hiding them in his office, at the fifth floor, so that no one could find them. Since the day was full of incessant work, we have decided to meet tonight, after my duties are finished.

I've always hates waiting, and sure enough my patience is thinner than a hair. Working has never been so stressful, and getting Anne's reprimands for my lack of attention and concentration wasn't helping at all. The girls tried to help me out, but they gave up soon, noticing my couldn't-give-a-damn attitude.

As we've finished cleaning the last part of the Palace, we headed to our main rooms, exhausted. Actually, they were the ones tired and sleepy, not me.

The excitement to finally meet Jonathan and find out what hides in that empty book and what that hand lens does was killing me. I waited for the girls to fall asleep, before getting dressed in some black leggings and a black sweatshirt. Since it's dark, wearing black will help me to be unnoticeable.

I'm such a good thief.

Silently, I step out my room and I put my sneakers on before sneaking out of the building and heading to the Palace.