Towards the South

I robbed a bank today. It wasn't my first time. Nor wasn't my second. I lost count after hundred. 

Robbing and stealing was something I was good at. Or it was something I had to be good at. After staying on the streets for half of my life, eating the leftovers and praying for death every night before sleeping, I had to be good at stealing. It was the way of surviving and I do not have to struggle to live everyday. 

Taking out a bottle of water from the fridge I took a sip and then moved towards removing my lenses.

Green eyes or more specially green pretense.

I had only taken out my left eye lens when I felt a movement behind me and then I was turned around on my heels. The bottle that I had kept on the kitchen island became my weapon as I took in the appearance of the intruder. 

My eyes widened a little as they met the pair of familiar eyes, a little too familiar as he stood in front of me with a small smile.

“You can always change the color sweetheart but not the look and expressions in them,” His voice was still the same. Crisp, hearty and young but confident. He had looked first into my right eye which still adorned the green lens and then flickered to my left one, my real hazel one. “Since when a bottle's a good weapon?”

“I swear if there is police outside I'll kill you,” My voice was steady and threatening enough but was he threatened? No! Not at all. Some part of me was happy that even though I was shocked to find him here I had managed to keep myself calm but other part was in constant worry. He chuckled. He chuckled over my threat and maybe I wanted to smack that bottle over his pretty face. “How did you come here?” 

The place I was at wasn't any apartment or a big mansion. It was an old rundown home which had turned into a warehouse and now I had turned into a living place. It was my hiding from the past five months. The gang I work for had finally let me live alone. The gang. I had started to work for them last year and even though we have a mutual trust, I still don't know who runs that gang. No one knows except the few high ones. Probably the closer ones.

“I'll let you know if you decide to come with me,” He was still looking me in my two colored eyes and the smile on his lips hadn't faltered. It never faltered during the time I knew him, too. 

He had become someone I started to love six months back. 

Mark… Mark Archer. 

Archer was not his real name. It was the name given to everyone who lived in the orphan he grew up in. He didn't know what his real surname was. Like me.

Amelia… Just Amelia.

“In my job, I do not trust anyone like that,”

“We both know, Mia, that I am not just anyone,” His voice dropped a few octaves as he spoke and my heart seemed to like it.

Heck you!

He was someone I met during my tenth robbery. It was the time I was new and naïve. 

I was running fast, not even looking back. Looking back means dying. I did wish to die back then but now I love what I do and I do not want to die before I at least hit my century.

“Drive. Fast,” It was rather a stupid decision to spot a car and dash right into it scaring the hell out of the owner. What could I possibly do if he pushes me out which he would certainly do. I was weaponless. “Please,”

The man stared back at me with his black eyes, his lips parted slightly as he tried to push out some words from his mouth. 

“Look, you can stare at me all you want but right now I need you to rush,” I reminded the stranger again and he nodded igniting the car. His car was soon roaring on the road and I released a breath I didn't even know I was holding. 

I looked into the side mirror and found no one following us. 

“My name's Amelia and I haven't paid my rent for the last month and my nasty owner has involved the police and I had no chance but to run,” I had to prepare the lies beforehand because if caught red handed you must know how to prove yourself innocent. 

“Okay…” It was a mere whisper that escaped his mouth and I couldn't stop the smile that formed on my lips. He was actually scared of me.

“It takes a second for a person to change and we had six months between us,” I had started liking him from the moment we talked. I knew I shouldn't be this careless but it was a liking. He helped me escape, bought my lie and he was a smooth driver. 

“Mia for once,” He was good at the staring game and I wasn't. I was tired of keeping my eyes open and then they blinked once and then twice. I don't know why I let him hold my wrist and walk me towards the door. I removed the other lens from my eye and threw it in the dustbin. The gun was still stuck in my waist belt and I could take him down if I wanted. 

His car came into my view. It was the same he had all those months back. He opened the door for me and I slid in. You are foolish! A complete idiot.

Maybe I am that because I was letting a person who was in the bank I just robbed. An eye witness.

I had frozen when I saw him in the bank. He was the branch manager there. Why didn't I know? It was the question I asked myself as the other members who had searched and sent the information of all bank employees didn't tell me this. When we befriended he worked at some restaurant as a manager. 

I had stilled and I knew he had recognized me as well. My mask and my different colored eyes didn't create any difference to me as I thought they would but I had seen the way his eyes widened. I have seen the familiarity in his eyes. 

My thoughts came to a complete end as I realized where we were going. This road leads to the… 

I chuckled garnering his attention and he gave me a side glance. 

“You did not bring the police. You are the police,” I spoke darkly. Branch manager, my foot. He was there in cover. Did they know we will rob this bank? Was there a leak in the gang? “But remember Mark I won't confess so easily,”

“Who said anything about confessing?” His question was strange and it gave me an eerie feeling. What does he mean? “Just say you saw the gang run towards the South,” As if he could hear my thoughts he answered me and I ran the map of the bank.

We all had remembered the ways that surrounded the bank.

South… South… Sou-

I stopped breathing for a second. The south of the bank was the road that does not lead towards nowhere near my warehouse, house nor any of the other members. We all had to stay at different places in case any single one is caught. But south was something none of us agreed to go. South was the road to the highway. South was the road that led to the jungle. Towards the South was not us. South was the home to another gang… another gang. 

Realization dawned upon me and I gasped, rather loudly and I saw the smirk on Mark's face from my peripheral view. 

He was not the police. He was not the manager. He never was. All of it was a cover as to what he really was.

And I realized what he was as we drove on an interstate.