Chapter 6
The Thief and the Hypnotist
"What was that?" cried the Thief. "Seriously, what was that?"
Right now, he was wedged in a gap between two buildings. He had been running left and right through back alleys and came to a stop to catch his breath and finally process what he had gone through.
Earlier today, he had been discovered by the son and secretary of the Wealthy Man he had stolen the pearl from. He had expected someone allied to the Wealthy Man to show up for the pearl. But what he didn't expect was a lady who could transform into a ginormous bird and a man who could conjure flames in his hands like a pair of superhumans from an American cartoon. It was an utterly insane experience, and one that made him wonder if he was still asleep and dreaming.
He pinched and twisted his cheek. "Ow!"
Nope, not a dream, he thought.
There was still a chance he had somehow gone crazy or got exposed to hallucination-causing chemicals, but he'll shelve the crazy for now and focus on the most important matter at hand: namely, what was he going to do now?
"I'm going to need to lay low for a while," he decided. "And then, once I find my chance, I'll skip town. Maybe even get out of the country."
He was actually planning to do that anyway and was supposed to be on a flight to South Korea this afternoon. And then from there, he'd buy a ticket to England, the birthplace of Harry Potter and Doctor Who. But now that he was busted, there was no way he was going to make the trip at all. There was no telling how far the Wealthy Man's control reached, but the police were sure to be on the lookout for the Thief now. He'll get captured right away the moment he step foot in the airport.
"So much for that European tour." The Thief grumbled to himself some more. "And there's no way I'm getting a refund for that plane ticket, so that's most of my savings down the drain."
He sighed while thinking to himself that he really bit of more than he could chew this time.
"Oh well. For now, I better head over to the Ghost Quarter."
The Thief had taken over one of the houses of that abandoned part of a residential area and turned it into a makeshift hideout. There was still no plumbing or electricity, and was possibly full of bugs, but he had stored enough nonperishable food there to last a few weeks.
"Hopefully, I won't have to be there that long. Just you wait, London Bridge! Big Ben! I'm coming for you!"
**********
Meanwhile, at that same hideout . . .
While exploring the house, the Giant came across a strange, transparent white crate lying in a corner of the kitchen.
"What's this?" he wondered as he picked it up to give it a look over.
He had never seen anything like it before and wondered what sort of material it was made out of. It wasn't until later when the Girl came to visit again, he would learn that material was called plastic.
The Giant put the crate to his nose and gave it a sniff. Judging by the smell, whatever's inside must be food.
He popped open the lid, breaking the lock clamps off and then took out a food bar. It was a bit hard for him to tear the wrapping off with his huge, beefy fingers, but he got it done and then popped the whole bar into his mouth.
"Hmm. Not bad."
He helped himself to another. And then another. And then another.
He would later share more with the Girl.
**********
Ever since she saw that vision of that shining mystical pearl, the Hypnotist had been on the hunt for it. She employed every form of fortune telling she had been taught by her grandmother, the most useful being a makeshift compass using a bowl of water and a random twig she picked up off the ground.
As far as Western sorcery went, the compass really wasn't much to look at, or anything at all really. It was just a twig floating on some water, after all. But the Hypnotist had used such a compass many times in the past, and they never steered her wrong yet.
With complete faith in the twig, the Hypnotist went wherever it pointed, going all over the city before finally reaching a restaurant that sat next to a red archway leading into a residential area, all the while her eyes were transfixed on the twig in the bowl of water she held in her hands. You can imagine the kind of attention that brought the Hypnotist from the people around her.
One child had pointed at her and asked his mother, "Mommy? What is that lady doing?"
His mother hissed, "Shush! Don't look at her."
The Hypnotist never noticed until much later when she saw her own photo on social media with the caption underneath: "Weirdo staring at a bowl of water."
Suddenly, the twig spun fast round and round, a sign that she had reached her goal. She looked up just in time to see a scrawny man walk to the archway. His face was completely covered by a pair of dark sunglasses and a surgical mask. The brim of the baseball cap on his head was pulled down, and over and over again, he looked left and right while hunched back, holding tight to the right shoulder strap of his black backpack.
Everything about that man screamed "suspicious!" So even without seeing the twig keep itself pointed at him, the Hypnotist could tell right away that man had what she was looking for.
With a small but wicked smile, the Hypnotist muttered to herself, "Time to get to work."
She quickly followed after the man, going through the archway and past around the gate arm. At the side of the road, she dumped the water and twig, and stuffed the bowl into her bag.
"Hey!" She called out to the man. "Excuse me!"
The man jumped and whirled around.
The Hypnotist quickly walked up to him while putting on her best fake smile. She made sure to look directly into the man's sunglasses. Everything turned pink for a moment before turning back to normal. That meant that her magic spell was activated and the man was in thrall to her.
"I believe you have something of mine," she said. "Do you mind opening your bag and bringing it out?"
"Sure," said the guy. "Let me just - NOT!"
And then he jumped away.
The Hypnotist was stunned. This was the first time ever her magic failed her. What's going on? Why didn't my hypnosis work? She wondered.
Her answers were quickly questioned by the man, himself.
"Nice try!" he shouted. "But I know your game. I saw how you bamboozled a few guys out of their wallets with just one look in their eyes. You ain't pulling that hypno-trick on me!"
Blast! He's seen me before! The Hypnotist realized. He must've passed by during some of her scores and saw how her hypnosis power worked. Since he never did anything to stop her before, he must be a Thief himself. That may explain why he'd have that pearl, something so extremely valuable, on him right now.
The Thief turned to run away, but the Hypnotist wasn't about to let him go.
"Oh no you don't!" she shouted. She managed to grab hold of the Thief's backpack and pulled. The Thief pulled back and the zipper somehow came undone, spilling everything out. Food bars, the Thief's cash, his phone and, of course, the pearl.
It rolled past him and went down the road. The Thief abandoned his backpack and chased after it. So did the Hypnotist, but the Thief was closer and got to the pearl first. He scooped it into his hand after it bumped to a stop against a wall. When he turned around, he found the Hypnotist standing with her knees bent.
The Thief and the Hypnotist glared at each other, striking poses as if they were about to engage in a Kung Fu fight. But the thing was, neither of them knew any Kung Fu. So, instead, this happened:
While reaching her hands as far as they could to grab the pearl, the Hypnotist screamed, "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
The Thief screamed back, "No! It's mine! Mine, mine, MINE!"
He held the pearl as high up as he could away from the Hypnotist with one hand while using his other hand to push her away at her right cheek.
Nearby, a girl asked her father, "Daddy, what are they doing?"
Her father quickly turned her around and hissed, "Shush! Don't look! You'll catch their stupid!"
While walking by, another man was talking on his phone and said into it, "It's nothing. There's just a pair of idiots here fighting over what looks like a Pokeball."
Needless to say, for the Hypnotist and the Thief, this moment would become a bit of dark history in both of their lives.
With one final push, the Hypnotist managed to grab hold of the pearl and take it out of the Thief's hand. The Thief quickly clamped his fingers back around the pearl before the Hypnotist could get away and tugged. The Hypnotist tugged back.
"Gimme, gimme, GIMME!"
"Mine, mine, MINE!"
They went back and forth, trying to rip the pearl out of each other's hands. Neither side would give up and they appeared to be evenly matched.
"MINE!"
Suddenly, long, dark and shriveled fingers wrapped themselves over the Hypnotist and Thief's hands, making the pair stop.
Slowly, they turned their heads. Their eyes followed the fingers up the long sleeves of a trench coat to see who those fingers belonged to and found themselves looking at an unmistakably mummified corpse.
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