to new beginnings

Mallory was the greatest professional thief to walk the earth, or that's what he liked to tell people. He had never failed a job and never worked without pay. Mallory stole for many reasons: money, he wanted something, he thought it would be funny, to take what wasn't deserved. If Mallory wanted something, it was his. He had clients in Hong Kong, Sydney, Tokyo, even Washington DC. He was known for his professional attitude; it was just business after all. Mallory could have retired years ago but refused simply because he enjoyed his work. There was just something so satisfying about stealing something, thrilling even. Mallory's latest job had been to steal schematics from some private military-type company, mercenaries or something. The object Mallory was stealing was Schematics to an automatic security system that was supposedly completely silent. Mallory always loved tech stealing jobs. It gave him ideas for better gadgets of his own design. Mallory approached the facility through the street and walked through the front door, bumping into someone in a lab coat and stealing their security card. Mallory walked into an elevator, swiped the security card and pushed the button. He fidgeted, trying to find something to occupy himself with. He took out a coin and flipped it into the air. Mallory always considered himself extremely lucky, even considering it one of his greatest assets. He liked to show off by flipping a coin and always telling its face without looking, without fail. Mallory caught the coin and smacked it against the top of his hand, grinning to himself.

"Heads," he whispered to himself. Mallory moved his hand to see the coin's tail side. Mallory instantly felt anxious dread fill his mind. The elevator stopped and opened. Mallory looked out into the empty hall and heaved a sigh of relief. He walked out into the hall, the door closing behind him. Mallory continued down the hall, noting how eerily quiet it was for a research lab that specialized in weaponry. Mallory felt a nagging feeling, as though someone was breathing down his neck. He turned to look down the hall and came face to face with a gun barrel that had descended from the ceiling, completely silently. Mallory smirked. "Just not my lucky day I guess."

Mallory felt his a cold numbness cover his body as his vision went black, his body felt light as though he was floating in the ocean. Mallory lost track of time in this dark void, years seemed to go by without so much as a sound, until there was suddenly light, bright light so bright Mallory thought it was the sun. Mallory quickly attempted to go toward the light, desperate to see anything but darkness. Mallory felt himself move as the light got brighter and brighter until it enveloped his vision and he felt cold air against his skin. His body felt strange; both sore and numb at the same time. Mallory could see figures, hear sounds, and feel the air but none of it made sense, like it was on the tip of his tongue but not quite there. Mallory attempted to look around but found he had difficulty moving his head or any part of his body. "Am I in the hospital? In a cast maybe?" Mallory's vision slowly got clearer over a period of weeks and then he could turn his head and move his limbs. He brought his hands to his face to see that they were small and pudgy like that of an infant's. "Why am I so small? This doesn't make any sense," Mallory thought to himself. Mallory laid there for some time, occasionally seeing people in strange outfits coming and going from his vision, speaking to each other in a language he couldn't understand. Mallory looked through his memory, trying to find a explanation, eventually drawing to the conclusion that he had been reincarnated, like the Buddhists wanted. Was it the Buddhists that reincarnated? Mallory couldn't remember but it didn't seem important at the time. Mallory tested his tiny body's capabilities before screaming in frustration when he couldn't even lift his head properly. He looked around as much as he could but could only see the interior of his wooden crib and the ceiling above it. He screamed in frustration again. This time a woman appeared above his crib speaking words in a language he couldn't understand in a soft hushed tone. Mallory assumed she was attempting to quiet him and screamed some more out of spite. The woman picked him up and began patting his back. "Are you trying to burp me? I can burp on my own thank you very much," he thought to himself as he squirmed and kicked to no avail. Mallory burped despite his protests and felt much better despite his best efforts to continue being angry. He looked around while he was held aloft. The room was decorated with white wallpaper and filled with bookshelves stock full of books. The room itself seemed huge to Mallory, but in actuality it was only slightly larger than an average bedroom. The woman placed Mallory back into the crib. He scowled at her with all the muscles in his tiny baby face but couldn't manage more than a neutral looking expression. The women pinched Mallory's cheek and left. Mallory sat alone, staring at the ceiling contemplating his new life. He resolved to once again become the greatest thief and become even greater than he was previously, although, he decided it was best to worry about training his tiny body and learning to walk again. Not the proudest moment of his career, he admitted.