The Thief

What was it that just crossed the street? A squirrel painted in black? A ghost? Or was it just a shadow?

It was so swift that no one noticed it, except a half-awake crow which let out a hesitant caw.

“caw?”
“caw!”

The road was shining after a monsoon drizzle and the moon had fallen flat on the pavement. And along with the moon, there was something else floating on the stagnant puddle. It resembled a pair of blue opals, a strange set of eyes, and a lot of blackness.

“Just.. just one more house. Maybe… maybe something big. I’ll be rich.” A quiet whisper in the air. The shadow had a form; he was dressed in black, a deep jet black covering every inch of his body, except those eyes, opal blue, like the eyes of a Viper.

He crept behind a stout tree and then under a post box, and then he was hugging a fence and then a lemon tree. His eyes baited for a building, a big large building. And as he crawled through the streets he did find one to his liking, a big building protected by an enormous stone wall.

“Must be a bank, who else has walls big as these. My time to shine now.”

He used a rope from his black bag and scaled the wall carefully so as to make no noise.

Slowly and cautiously. Quietly and precisely. Once upon the walls, he noticed sharp iron nails and glass pieces carelessly scattered throughout the whole length of the wall.

“You think you can fool me just like that?” He let out a burst of stealthy laughter, which was just as silent as his movement.

He placed on the wall what looked like a sheet of thick rubber or tar. Once he was up on the wall, he grabbed the other rope which he tied to a coconut tree nearby, and slowly climbed down. He landed on grass, wet from the night’s rain.

He rolled over to a shadowy corner and started to crawl towards the central building. A quiet rustle of the grass followed, crickets chatted and toads gossiped. It was a still night. He made good progress. A lone owl hooted in the distance.

Just as he crossed the lawn, he felt something sturdier, a hurdle. He looked up and noticed thick metal bars.

“It sure is a bank. I’m a rich man. I better be more careful. Banks danger.”

He slowly leaped and crossed the metal fence and landed next to many wooden crates piled up in a row.

“Is it some sort of warehouse? Still, I’m going to be a rich man.”

He felt that maybe the place wasn’t guarded and switched from his stealthy crawl to a slow walking pace.

As he walked, he noticed a pair of tiny dim headlights following him. He stood still and kept staring at it.

“What in the world?”

It was a pair of golden eyes and soon he could hear a growling noise of a hungry animal.

“Oh, dogs. Dogs bad, run run run” and up he scaled another metal fence that was closest to him.

And as he stood on top of the fence, he noticed that there were rows and rows of such cages all around and they all had glowing eyes of different colors which were starting to wake up.

When he looked up, he noticed a large neon sign in crisp Italic letters…
“Welcome to the Zoo.”