Beautiful Thieves

Chapter 2: Escape to Mexico

His head snapped up and he stared his roommate down. He fought the urge to punch him, but just barely. 

"You know what, man?" He faked a yawn, "i'm dead tired. I'm turning in early." 

"Dude, it's nine." He looked incredulous, "You don't sleep until three A.M. usually." 

Fallon didn't like the tone he was receiving. "Well all the sleepless nights of doing cocaine off of your girlfriend's stomach really tired me out. Now if you don't mind-"

"What did you say about my girl?" His roommate's lips curled into a snarl, and Fallon could have sworn he was rooming with a werewolf. 

Dismissively, Fallon rolled his eyes. "It's called a sense of humor. Apparently you've lost yours. Now go find it and let me sleep." He fluffed his pillow as if to show how serious he was and flopped onto his stomach. 

A few seconds later he heard the door slam behind him. For a second it dawned on Fallon that he was good, almost too good at pissing people off. 

They must all have sticks shoved up somewhere, he thought. 

He suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and with a quick mumble of what those people could do with those sticks, he climbed out of bed and began packing his belongings into his backpack. His backpack was fairly large, with a seemingly endless amount of pockets and zippers, and Fallon was surprised by how easily all of his belongings fit into it. Then again, he didn't own many things. Three pairs of ripped pants, four cut up shirts, some socks and underwear, one pair of shoes, a small set of daggers, one jacket, and a bracelet his parents gave him when he turned thirteen. That was it, that was al he owned. There was a pile of textbooks by the door, but all Fallon used them for was a doorstopper, and occasionally keeping the window open during summer. He had no use for books. 

Quicker than he thought possible, Fallon did a scan of the room and found it bare. He ran to the bathroom to throw all of his four toiletries in his bag as well, just to be sure that absolutely nothing of himself was left. Sorcerers could wield some intense magic, and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of it. 

Fallon ran out of the bathroom and took a moment to collect his thoughts. Which way out would be best? Should he walk casually out and hop a fence, or should he scale the building and then hop a fence? 

He could hear footsteps coming down the hall, and within seconds he knew it was his roommate. That left him only one option. He threw his backpack on, and opened up the nearest window. He popped the screen off and looked down. They had moved him from the second to the thirteenth floor after he'd been caught sneaking out of his window, and the Administration officials had figured moving him up eleven stories would stop him. They told him that even someone as stubborn as himself wouldn't risk breaking his neck just to defy their authority.

The officials had been sadly mistaken. 

The footsteps were louder now, just three doors down Fallon guessed, and he knew he had no time. He swung one lanky leg over and then the other. The distance seemed staggering now, but he had no other choice. Slowly so as to not lose his balance and fall to his death, he turned around and found his footing on the ledge. He gripped the window frame and started scooting his way over away from the window to the nearest thing he could grip onto. He could hear the jingling of keys and knew that his roommate was going to catch him if he didn't move quicker. 

Heights and risk taking had never been an issue for Fallon before, and he was determined to not let them become an issue now. He started gripping at the walls just tightly enough to hold onto the crevices of the old brick, but loose enough that he was allowed the freedom of scaling down the wall. Soon the twelfth, then eleventh floors went past him, and he heard his roommate swear as he figured out what was going on. That meant the officials would be patrolling soon. He had no time to waste. Fallon picked up the pace and soon the floors were going by in a blur, sixth, fifth, fourth. And then he jumped.