Crestfallen: The Masked Thief - Part #1

By R Kain

Sometimes you did what you had to in order to survive in a world where superheroes and villains thrived. By day Joshua was a high-school student running games on classmates. By night he was a masked thief that robbed from criminal underbelly of Nightingale City with the help underfunded genius willing to look the other way.

He wasn’t an overrated hero or crazed villain. Just a nameless and unknown thief looking out for himself and a few others by playing a dangerous game. But when a crime boss went wild and threatened one of his own, he took on a name: Crestfallen.

Now he has a covert operations team after him, one of their members being a classmate named Clare and holds powers of her own. And her assignment is to catch him and bring him in for what he stole, before the secrets he’s learned changes the world.

The first part of the Masked Thief Arc and the first entry of the Crestfallen Series, this novelette contains over [14,000 words] and a bonus excerpt from Flux Zone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R Kain
• Release date: Mar 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301102709

R Kain

Author:R.Kain is an author of various short stories and novellas centered on Urban Fantasy in contemporary settings. These tales tend to be dark, where good may or may not triumph over evil, but the price will be high, and sometimes the line between them is non-existent. Heroes may be just as dirty as the villains, but in the end, the only one they must answer to is themselves.Hobbies:* Reading* Writing* Playing Videos GamesFavorite Genre Book: FictionFavorite Genre Game: RPG

Book preview

Crestfallen: The Masked Thief – Part #1

By: R.Kain

~~~~~~

Published by R.Kain at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 R.Kain

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The characters and events portrayed in the book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons—living or dead—is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Warning: This ebook contains content that is considered unsuitable for those under the age of 14 and adult language that may offend some readers.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

Ebooks are an economical pleasure that can be enjoyed time and time again at a low cost, so please support the author by legitimately purchasing a copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

About the Author

An indie author that writes Dark, Urban, Low and High Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Superhero genre stories that started out in 2012. These various short stories and novellas tend to be dark, where good may or may not triumph over evil, but the price will be high, and sometimes the line between them is non-existent. Heroes may be just as dirty as the villains, but in the end, the only one they must answer to is themselves.

Table of Contents

Two Paths

Thief in the Night

Doing Some Good

New Priority

The Chase

Bonus: Excerpt from Flux Zone

[—Two Paths—]

[—Clare—]

The chattering of young men and women split into clusters stirred awake the sleeping brunette known as Clarissa Bisel (or Clare for short).

She fought back the blurred vision and focused her eyes on the classroom during lunch at Nightingale High, where she attended. The students used the classroom as a place to get together while class wasn’t in session and have fun. Broken into cliques, the two major ones had a group in one corner playing games of chance while the other had a group gathered around a television, the rest sprinkled around.

Clare looked over to the gathering of gamblers with weary eyes, passing silent judgment on them as she envied their carefree behavior. Of the ten there, one was running a game of three-card Monte and another was staring intensely at his hands, as if he could see through them.

The one making the wager was a redheaded classmate named Royce. There wasn’t anything too special about him, besides the fact that he was a hero-enthusiast, and he just didn’t learn given the sheer amount of money he had lost to Joshua, the other boy. Let’s go again—and no funny tricks with those hands of yours!

Joshua ran his fingers through his short, black hair and smirked as he started the next game. "Follow the hero and keep your eyes on the prize. Lose sight of it even once and your money is mine."

Under the guidance of his fingers, the three cards danced a beautiful dance on the top of his desk. Clare could see the skill in his technique, evidence of years of practice. Then the cards stopped. Hidden within three identical card sleeves was the sole hero sandwiched by two villains.

Royce chewed over his decision for a moment, before pointing to the one on the left. Show me the hero.

Joshua’s smirk grew deeper as he revealed the card. The face of the card was one of the lower-tier villains, one Clare recognized from her job. Thanks for playing.

One more time. Royce reached into his pockets for more money when his twin sister grabbed his hand to stop him. Let go, May. I can win it all back!

Let someone else lose their money for once,