Nancy

“Don’t get yourself laid!” Nancy murmured to her partner as a farewell as she broke away from her, so Stephane Yussuff wouldn’t spot them together if he coincidentally were to look out of one of the half-blind windows.

As Syd continued down the cracked footpath, Nancy briefly checked her surroundings once more. The neighborhood was almost freakishly deserted. She guessed that a good chunk of the old houses stood empty, but here and there she could see lights inside. Deciding that the safest way to the backside of Steph’s house would be through his neighbors’ gardens, she quickly jumped the chain-link fence of an obviously deserted ruin and hunched down into a crouched stance as she scurried towards the back, avoiding the copious amounts of litter, dead shrubs and old garden furniture.

Finding a hole in the big picket fence, she peered through, finding herself looking at one of the larger properties of the neighborhood. Briefly checking, she realized that if she climbed through, she could follow the edge of the garden along several other properties and reach the back of Stephane’s house without having to cross any other properties. She briefly scanned the large mansion that sat in the middle of this huge estate, but couldn’t detect any lights in any of the windows. A brief look over her shoulder told her that Syd was about to reach Steph’s porch.

“Alright, McKenna, let’s do this!” she whispered to herself, taking one last deep breath before taking the plunge.

The old garden soil felt soft below her sneakers as she hurried along. Occasionally, a tree branch snapped beneath her feet, but apart from that she made it in absolute silence to the point where Stephane’s property bordered on the mansion’s. As she approached, she became more and more certain that her cautiousness not to make a sound was a wasted effort. Yusuff seemed to be blasting music, the heavy beat of some new age hip-hop blaring through the neighborhood. She briefly pulled a face in distaste at the clumsy rhythm, but in the end, the noise would really help her make her way into the house unnoticed. At that rate, she could likely smash the entirety of the man’s dishes with him blissfully unaware in the other room. With Syd as a bonus, her chances of completing her mission without detection seemed pretty decent…

Finding several boards of the high fence missing, she didn’t waste another second and quickly slipped through, finding herself standing in Stephane’s backyard.

It really was only slightly better kept than the other houses in the neighborhood. The grass was dead and yellow, a small flight of stairs led towards a backdoor that looked to be more than ready to be pushed out of its frame by the next strong gust of wind and two half-broken folding chairs stood next to a half-broken table with an overflowing ashtray on it.

“Charming,” Nancy muttered. She had expected little else. While the door was a legitimate point of entry, if she damaged it at all while picking it, she’d leave obvious traces that could give away her little stunt to any suspicious criminal. Taking in a deep breath through her nose, she took a moment to get a full grasp of the situation. Two of the ground floor windows were boarded shut, but on the first floor, one of the windows seemed to be left a crack-wide open. If she climbed the rusty, old rain-pipe she could easily reach it to sneak inside. Provided the pipe held her weight.

Finally, she spotted a basement window, all but hidden in the shadow of a large, overflowing trashcan. At knee height, the small sliding window appeared to be stuck in a half-open position, offering a decent gap to the inner parts of the house. However, while the narrow opening would be easy for a child to squeeze through, Nancy wondered whether she would be able to fit…