The Jewel Thief

This is a translation of one of the literary challenges I have made this year. For the Spanish story, click here.

Foto de Anna Nekrashevich.

Tomasso had been dubbed “the Prince of the Night” by a cheesy TV commentator after he had been involved in some of the biggest jewel robberies in recent times. He had never been arrested and the police were at a loss to track him down because he left no traces.

However, after he had almost stumbled upon that serial killer when he went to steal a spectacular ruby ​​surrounded by diamonds, he had had to be protected for months, first, until the trial and even afterwards because that individual had threatened to kill him if anyone found out who he was.

Four years had passed since then and he had come to terms with the fact that he would never steal again. There had even been rumours that he had been involved in the arrest of the serial killer, because no other valuable jewel had disappeared since then. But that night, he turned on the TV and, in the cultural section of the news, they announced that the big blue diamond that the famous singer had worn when she was given the Oscar for best song, hanging from her neck, would be on display for the next few months in a museum in his city. The hunt, the danger, the difficulty... came together and the tingling returned. He thought that if he rested for a while he could overcome the urge to go back.

But it was worse: when he fell asleep, at first, the dream was peaceful and without problems. At midnight, however, he began to see that faceless woman in a dark dream in the middle of a gale and the jewel was first dragged by the rain and the water that circulated on the ground and then by a strong wind. He didn't know how or why the place in the dream sounded familiar to him but he couldn't remember it. He didn't recognize the woman because he couldn't see her face. The rain, the wind, the cold... all of that was a warning or so he believed while he awoke from the nighmare, sweating heavily and with a severe headache.

When he got up, it was already dawn, but he had a terrible taste in his mouth and had not completely left the nightmare behind: so vivid it had been. His head still hurt and his mind was a whirlwind. It was surreal, but something was happening that had not happened for a long time: he could not get that jewel out of his head. Objectively, it was a wonder, although not more than others he had seen and obtained. He got up, half asleep, and went to the bathroom. There, he looked at himself in the mirror and, although he saw his face too pale from lack of sleep, he heard himself say:

- "That jewel has to be mine. I don't care if they know I'm back."

All that was left was to plan it... But he knew that that obsession was not going to stop with just knowing hot to do it. The long gone feeling of invincibility returned. He told himself that it was not likely that what he had seen in his nightmare would happen and downloaded a plan of the building where it was going to be shown, to begin thinking about the possibilities...