At the top of the stair case was a door. It was unexpected, but she slowly began to turn the knob. It only turned so far before stopping short. Locked.
Faye found herself at a loss of what to do now. She wasn't a lock picking expert and Ryder had only given her one key. If there was a need for a key to keep things stealthy, then now was it. She might have been able to get away with sneaking into the house undetected without a key, but the bedroom? Where the guy was probably sleeping right on the other side of? Doubtful.
Faye bit her bottom lip as she tried to find a solution. She sighed and pulled out the key she'd been given before. She figured she'd try her luck.
The key slid in, but wouldn't unlatch the lock. Faye pulled the key out, feeling defeated. She stood for a while, listening for any sounds on the other side of the door. Silence greeted her.
At this point, Faye felt maybe she should head back, meet back up with Ryder and ask him what he thought was best. She slowly made her way back down the stairs. Unfortunately, it seemed she was distracted with her situation and her thoughts were not on keeping herself as quiet and nimble as possible.
She felt her foot miss a step. Her eyes widened as time seemed to slow around her. Despite it seeming like time slowed down, she couldn't react as quickly as she wanted. She fell down the steps. Her hand reached out to grab the wall beside her, slamming into it heavily. She landed on her backside and slid loudly down the steps.
Dazed, she lay at the bottom of the steps for a moment, before she heard cursing and movement from above.
In a panic, Faye stood and began trying to run.
Unfortunately, she'd dropped her small lantern, causing it to extinguish. With the small amount of light offered from the partially obstructed windows, Faye tumbled over a nearby chair. She cursed at the darkness, as she heard the door above slam open. Hurriedly, she crawled to hunch behind a large stuffed chair nearby.
She listened with her heart in her throat.
She'd been in a number of combat situations, been in a number of fights. She was confident in her fighting ability. But, in that moment, Faye was more terrified than she'd ever been before. Her heart beat pounded in her ears and her hand shook. Instead of planning the next move, instead of trying to figure out the best way to beat her opponent, she found that her mind was blank. She couldn't think, she couldn't move. She felt more helpless at that moment than she ever had before. Even when she died she hadn't felt so useless and frightened.
She decided that if she made it out of there, she'd never try stealing somethin again....
She listened as the sounds of heavy footfalls came from the steps. A light poured into the room. She tried to make herself smaller, harder to see. She held her breath.
The light moved quickly alongside a man's voice.
"Fucking son of a bitch! Who's there?!" The man seemed to stop in the room, glance around, then hurried to the steps. He seemed to think who ever came into his house must have made a run for it. Faye furrowed her brows as she listened to the man running down the stairs. For a micro second, she froze, not sure what to do. Then, she hurried to get up the stairs. She needed to take the purse, it was unlikely the man had brought it with him to chase after the imaginary burglars.
She reached the top of the steps within seconds, not caring to be quiet anymore. Her breathing was hard as she strained her eyes, looking for anything that looks remotely valuable.
Not seeing what she thought the coin purse should look like, Faye hurried to grab a few items. On a desk nearby, there was a small box. She grabbed it along with a few cloth items, hoping they were either valuable or what she was looking for.
She hurried back down the stairs, this time trying to do so quietly. As she made her way, she heard a ruckus outside. She wondered if Ryder had been caught creeping around the house and if the occupant had 'mistaken' him as the one that had broken into his abode. Sure, he wasn't the one that did it, but...it's not like he wasn't involved.
Faye wondered if she should try to hide the things she took, then help Ryder, or forsake them if Ryder was in trouble. The problem with this area, was that the guards didn't police it much. Those that did were usually easily paid off. There wasn't much justice that was meted out legally. she worried the home owner would take the law into his own hands, rather than waiting around for a wandering guard to show up. Or trying to apprehend Ryder and drag him all the way to the guard post. It was faster and easier just to deal with thieves on your own. With a blade.
After reaching the first floor, Faye slowed down in her pursuit of the homeowner. She could hear a number of voices outside now and she wasn't entirely sure how safe it was to exit. Slowly, she approached the door to the stables. Thankfully, it seemed no one was standing in them. She slinked out, hurrying to take cover behind a horse. The horse flinched, but with some words of encouragement from Faye, it calmed easily.
She slowly made her way around the horse, trying to peek out to see what was going on. There, she could see the street was far more lit up than before. This was due to a number of people seemingly having been awakened in the night and heading out to try to find out what happened. They all looked confused, but were preoccupied for the most part with trying to figure out what was going on.
Faye waited until it seemed none were looking and tried to stealthily make her way down a nearby alley. She quickly entered the dark alley and disappeared from sight.