Thief

By Kris Alex

After a painful and costly divorce, Faith has moved back to her hometown in Oak Falls. After living back here in less than a week, her house has been robbed and her car has been broken into – twice. Fed up in living in such a crime infested area, Faith grows angry. After filing her third police report, the police reveal that the crime is high because young people in the town have grown addicted to heroin and they are looking for money to support their drug habit. Faith takes it upon herself to not only become her own crusader against crime, but confronts the very beast in which is against her – the beast of morality.Through a roller coaster of emotions, Faith begins her courageous journey to not only reflect against why the world has taken such a sudden turn for the worst, but why she feels such anger towards the very instinctual thing that makes us all human - CHOICE. Buying a gun after her last straw is broken, Faith has to make a very difficult choice. Fight for the rights of herself to become finally free of crime? Or surrender to the heart of the human condition? Which would you choose?

NOTE: This is a short novella of 30,000 words

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kris Alex
• Release date: Oct 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311593900

Kris Alex

Kris Alex has been writing ever since she was born with an imagination. Engaging in her first love of poetry, Kris Alex has published poetry worldwide during her adolescent and 20-something and 30-something years. Short, fictional stories came next in her 30-something's - being published in numerous e zines, magazines, periodicals, and university presses. Then the 40's came. Kris Alex began to explore, deeper, darker, and more thoughtful places that exist in the world. Thus, "THIEF" was born.Kris Alex is currently working on several more projects she hopes to get out in the near future. These include paranormal young adult novels with werewolves, vampires, and other shadowy, dark creatures. Stay tuned!

Book preview

Thief

By

Kris Alex

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 @ Kris Alex

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 return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

eISBN: 9781311593900

Photo design by KDG Designs

Published by KRIS ALEX at Smashwords, Inc.

To D., K., and N,

Always live in your existence, whatever that may be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dear Reader

10 Rules to Live By in this Mad, Mad World

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE– Thieves Among Us

CHAPTER TWO – Breaking Up is Hard to Do

CHAPTER THREE – Morning Sickness

CHAPTER FOUR – The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back

CHAPTER FIVE - Guilty as Charged

DEAR READER

Dear Reader,

I’ll make this brief. This world is going mad!

Never before have I been so scared for not only for the lives of my kids, but for their accompanying generation as well. Drugs are being used more than ever, and the crime that goes along with that horrible fact is spinning out of control.

T H I E F is a fictional story of work. However, this novella is loosely based off my experience of having my car broken into twice after moving into a house in my old hometown within the period of three months.

Heroin is very much alive and well as an addiction. Because of it, many druggees have turned to a world of crime in order to financially feed their bad habit. Not only is it my intention to make the world more aware of what an awful nightmare this has become in many small hometowns, but also challenge those who have been robbed themselves on finding courage to fight the evil that has diseased our youth.

Best,

KRIS ALEX

10 RULES TO LIVE BY IN THIS MAD, MAD WORLD

Rule No. 1

Don’t trust anyone

Rule No. 2

Lock your vehicle at all times.

Rule No. 3

Always lock up your house

Rule No. 4

Never carry cash with you.

Rule No. 5

Watch your back at all times

Rule No. 6

Place a security camera on your house.

Rule No. 7

Always be aware of suspicious people around you.

Rule No. 8

Have a motion sensor spotlight on your house

Rule No. 9

Keep your ATM card close to you at all times.

Rule No. 10

DON’T TRUST ANYONE!!!!

INTRODUCTION

Hi. My name is Faith Harris. I am being taken away in handcuffs. I can't believe what has just happened. I have shot a thief!

This is the true story of everything that has happened right before I was busted. You decide. Am I criminal? A victim? Or a hero?

CHAPTER ONE

Thieves Among Us

My car had been broken into. Second time in the past week. Money stolen from the glove compartment box. The total? $152.36. Cash. $$$. Dollar Signs. Cash from my paycheck. Cash from working a suck ass job as a cashier at Apex grocery store. You know that kind of grocery store - where dirt bags come to shop in their pajama bottoms and filth. Yeah, that kind of scuzzy grocery store. It was a horrible job, with even more horrible pay. But in this economy, a job was a job and I worked it as if it had a million dollar paycheck.

I had visited the bank earlier at exactly 3:00 p.m.. I had known the time precisely because St. Luke - the church across the street - had just chimed three times. I had managed to squeeze my slum car through the tight drive-through. The cashier was rude, and the bank teller window that stuck out its steel arm, was even ruder.

Have a nice day, the bank teller snapped her gum, and rolled up her buggy eyes. It was as though she was sarcastically dismissing me with her piss poor attitude.

'What a horrible job she must have', I had thought, 'giving out money that people really don't have.' I could understand how she would have such attitude and hate her job, but did she have to be so rude? I guess in this kind of town, it was just normal to behave that way.

I grabbed the bank envelope, giving myself a paper cut from swiping it so quickly clean. You too, I replied with a forced half smile. The bank teller might have been rude, but I didn't have to be rude too. You always have that choice of what to be, and what not to be.

I cashed my puny little check with the teller, but I had nothing put in savings nor checking for that matter. Every single penny of my paycheck I had cashed out instantly – to the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter.

You see, I needed every penny, nickel, dime and quarter. I was piss poor. Every single penny, nickel, dime and quarter counted. Every value of money excrement counted towards everything. This particular cashed out paycheck's money was going to go towards paying for my groceries for the next couple of weeks. I had a family of three to feed. $152.36 didn’t seem like a lot of money for groceries for a couple of weeks, but at least it was something. A few coupons to help relieve the high price of groceries, a few Ramen noodles to offset the lack of food, scramble to buy whatever was on sale, lots of cereal and breakfast stuff to eat on dinner nights, and that $152.36 could at least keep our hungry stomachs from growling too much.

As I was shopping, I couldn't help but admit I was jealous of those other woman who had their shopping carts full of food, their wallets full of money to pay. Even though this town was 99% full of poor people, there were the 1%'rs - just like the economical consensus reflects in the United States. I was shopping at the better grocery store today, and some of the woman that shopped there, echoed that. They wore their hair neatly in shades of light colors, mostly blonde, and their clothes and purses and shoes and accessories mirrored that of a much higher pay status.

I had seen Brooke Thomas, with whom I had grown up with, checking out the cans of fancy, chunky soups and busy with thought as to decide exactly which ones she should stock up her cupboards with. We used to be friends and hang out back in High School, but now, I wanted to avoid her as much as possible; going as far as eluding her as if she had the plague.

Brooke Thomas ended up marrying a guy who made some big bucks working his own construction company, and she had done quite well herself commuting up to the local big city working as a big shot lawyer. Nope, wouldn't talk to her. Avoid, avoid, avoid! It hurt me to see her from a distance as she pushed her cart full of the good crap like New England potato chips and imported chocolates – all the luxurious food that I wouldn't even dare to waste my money on. Back to my Ramen noodles and discounted breads. My eyes temporarily wet with tears. I remembered how I used to be her. I used to be the suburban mom filling up my cart with fancy soups, New England potato chips and imported chocolates. But here I was, just trying to stock up on the basics, praying that we would just get by the next couple of weeks. It was all about surviving just one more day – one more hour – one more minute – one more second.

When I went to go pay for the groceries, I fearfully realized something. I had forgotten to take the money I had just retrieved from the bank and relocate it into my wallet!!! How could I be so damn stupid?!? My cart full of the cheapest food that I could every possibly find and coupons in hand, I was now stuck with the realization that I had forgotten my money inside my car. Money that was still kept hidden in a bank envelope along with my bank receipt that read a measly total of $1.27 left in my account. That end balance was enough to