Deadly theft

Nathan covered his face with an old scarf he had found in the rubbish a few weeks ago and walked through the dark streets, looking carefully around him.

There were several people lying on the street or walking around aimlessly, some just glancing at him and going about their lives without caring about the others. That was life in the suburbs, where the only thing to worry about was yourself if you wanted to live.

Nathan had learned this the hard way in his first few weeks on the streets, and he had also learned that there were different laws in the suburbs than in the cities.

The government didn't usually have much to do with the suburbs, they just saw them as a dumping ground for society, so they didn't bother to intervene much.

So those who lived in the suburbs had to make their own laws. There were groups that controlled everything, but Nathan had never met any of their members, but he had heard of the laws.

One of them, and perhaps the most important, was not to steal. Everyone's life was too difficult to fight each other, so stealing was strictly forbidden, whether the thief was a child, a woman or an old man, the punishment for stealing was death and public display.

So, he had never considered stealing for food, but now it was different. He wanted to help Kiru, who was very sick, and to pay the doctor he needed money... and the only way a boy like him could get money in the suburbs was to steal.

Nathan looked at the people around him and saw that they looked as bad or worse than he did. It was very likely that they didn't have any money, so there was no point in exposing himself and trying to rob them.

For this reason, Nathan decided to walk out of the town for almost an hour without entering the city.

There was an old village where the inhabitants were elderly, making them weaker and perfect targets for robbery.

Nathan had heard of this small town through dark rumors that anyone who entered it would never come out again.

He was not the only one with the same idea of preying on the weak elders, so others had probably come with the same intention, but those people never returned.

Still, Nathan paid no attention to the rumors.

What could be so dangerous in a city where the average age was around 70?

Nathan arrived at the entrance to the village and looked at the dilapidated houses, they looked the same if not worse than the houses on the outskirts, the only difference between the two places was that the streets were clean and there were no homeless people in sight.

There were even paved roads leading into the town, so Nathan assumed that there might be people who had money to go into the city and buy things.

With that in mind, Nathan entered the town and began walking silently through the streets, looking for someone to steal from.

He was nervous, he didn't feel good about stealing, but it was out of necessity, and he had no other choice. His hands were sweating, even though it was cold, and he swallowed saliva nervously from time to time.

A few minutes after walking through the empty, dark streets of the village, Nathan saw a person at the end of the street.

His heart stopped as he knew he was going to rob this person, but when he remembered Kiru, his thoughts became clearer and he crept towards the figure at the end of the street, taking advantage of the darkness.

Nathan didn't know how to steal, he had no idea if the person would even have money on him, but he didn't have time to think about that as he got closer and closer to the figure.

When he was about five meters behind him, Nathan noticed that it was an older man, his white hair shining in the moonlight, as did his trimmed beard.

The old man was dressed in an elegant but old brown suit and walked with a black cane. His back was slightly bent, and his eyes seemed to be closed.

Nathan hesitated, it was unusual for someone to be standing in the middle of the road late at night, but seeing his clothes he thought it likely that the man had some money.

From a distance, he checked the old man's pockets, and from the bulge in his back pocket, he realized that he might have a wallet.

It didn't take Nathan more than 5 seconds to mentally prepare himself to rob the old man.

'I reach over, grab his wallet, and run... I reach over, grab his wallet, and run... yeah, that sounds good'

Nathan swallowed once more, took a deep breath without making a sound and ran towards the old man as fast as he could.

His footsteps made a lot of noise, but he was so close that he calculated that the old man would not have time to react before he could grab the wallet and run.

To his surprise, as he was about to reach into the old man's back pocket, he saw the old man turn, stare at him with black eyes darker than the night and raise the cane before his head exploded with a single blow.

Everything went dark in a second, it was instant death.

As the vision returned to Nathan and he saw the old man raise his cane, he quickly ducked to the side and fell to the pavement.

The old man's staff stopped millimeters before it hit the ground, creating a cloud of air from the pressure it had just exerted in its attack.

The old man slowly turned his head to look at Nathan, who was holding his head with both hands, gasping for air.

There was a hole in his coat, revealing a gash he had made when he slipped on the pavement. But none of that mattered as the old man moved towards him and struck him sideways with the cane, killing him in an instant.

A second later he regained his senses and crawled backwards, narrowly avoiding the old man's cane.

This time Nathan didn't think twice and quickly got up to run, not caring that his head felt like it was going to explode from the pain.

Nathan ran, gasping for breath, and turned to see the old man standing next to him, lowering the cane again towards his leg.

As the cane touched his leg, the entire bone instantly shattered into dozens of pieces, rendering his leg useless.

Nathan cried out in pain as he felt his bones and muscles completely shattered, waiting only seconds to jump backwards, but that moment never came.

Nathan lay on the ground with his shattered leg, bleeding profusely and moaning in pain.

He held his leg, oblivious to the presence of the old man, who had once again remained silent as he watched him suffer.

Nathan did not know what to do, he despaired, he cried, he went mad. At the sight of his own blood, he began to shake, the pain seemed to increase as the blood spread across the floor. Slowly, several arms began to emerge from the pool of blood and cling to his legs.

Nathan lost his breath, the air just wouldn't get into his lungs, he felt as if these arms were dragging him down into a dark and painful place.

At one point all the arms suddenly disappeared and there was only the pain and a small pool of blood, nothing like he had imagined.

The old man had hit him on the head, this time gently, just to bring him out of his thoughts.

Nathan looked at the old man and remained silent, still gasping for air.

The old man looked back at him and spoke a few seconds later.

"Who are you?"

Nathan did not answer, he just stared at him in silence. He was in shock from the two times he had seen himself die, plus his shattered leg and the visions he had just had.

"Answer me, who are you?" the old man asked again.

For some reason, Nathan felt a pressure from the old man that dispelled the remnants of his negative thoughts, clearing his mind and making him answer.

"N-Nathan..."

The old man remained silent, staring at him. Instead, Nathan stopped looking at him and concentrated on his mangled leg, the blood had stopped spreading on the floor and if it wasn't for his trousers Nathan felt like he would have fainted at the sight of his leg.

Turning his attention to the old man, Nathan swallowed.

'H-he's not a normal person... he must be one of those heroes...'

Before Nathan could finish his thought, the old man knocked him out with a final blow of his cane.

His body fell to the ground, unconscious, and the old man closed his eyes as he straightened his suit as if nothing had happened.