Alvin was returning to his apartment a bit late in the night.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the city was never in shortage of late-night cab drivers, so he was able to book a cab pretty easily.
Although his heart ached at the overpriced fares, Cara was still there with him and she would surely nag at him for being stingy.
After saying goodbyes to each other, Alvin took the cab and left. The whole day was hectic alright, and he did not even sleep well last night.
It would not be an understatement to say that he was dead tired and sleepy. After a while, he reached his apartment complex located in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.
He quickly went over to his place with all the remaining focus he could muster up, and reached out for his key and turned it into the doorknob, only to find it already open.
Immediately, half his sleepiness vanished into thin air as his body tensed up. He tried to remember whether he locked the door when leaving this morning, and he could swear he did.
He immediately went on his guard and quietly opened the door, as slowly as possible to see if the cause was what he expected or not. Only to find his apartment bathed in darkness and a muffled sound of someone ransacking his bedroom.
His apartment was not large by any means. It was quite a small place with a living room, and a workable kitchen with a bedroom on the side.
He did not have any valuable stuff that could attract the attention of a robber here. So he was a bit confused about what that robber was searching for in his room.
The only things that could be said to have value were the medals and trophies that had just a small bit of gold in them...
He immediately called the police to let them know that a robber was in his apartment and asked them to come over as fast as possible. They assured him that they would arrive in a short while and asked him to stay put until the police arrived.
He did not want to deal with any of this at the moment. He just wanted to lie down on his bed and sleep. But this hateful robber just had to make his entry at the worst time possible.
He was very angry at the robber now.
So, he decided that rather than waiting here for the police to arrive, it would be a better idea to just go in and stall him until the police made their appearance.
"Yeah, that's a better idea. If this guy leaves now, he might just be able to get away. But first, I have to get some insurance in case things go wrong..."
With that in mind, he quietly went over to his kitchen without turning on the lights, took out the cooking knife from the counter, and made his way to his bedroom.
As he stared through the half-open door of his bedroom, he was able to take a good look at the robber who ruined his night's sleep.
The robber was a man in his early forties with a sickly pale-looking face, lean arms and legs, and a head shorter than Alvin.
"F*ck, what are these junk pieces!? Doesn't this guy have anything useful in here...?"
He was going through the box of machine parts that he was using for his semester project and looked frustrated at the minuscule haul.
'Bastard! Those parts cost me all my money!! Arghh...'
Alvin was instantly tempted to bash the guy's head in when heard him complain about his lack of robbable items.
"...Who's there!?"
The robber seemed to be on alert as he noticed him almost immediately. He visibly panicked after noticing Alvin arrive by the door of the room. Alvin calmly analyzed the situation and based on the robber's reaction, he figured the guy would probably run if he came in too heavy-handed.
'I need to seem a bit timid as well as stupid, so that he lowers his guard and wastes time with me till the cops get here...'
So, I decided to play the 'panicked' apartment owner to better stall for time. He quickly hid the knife he had taken from the kitchen and started to act like a scared teenager.
"W- Who are you? W-Why are y-you h-here...?"
'The stuttering alone is Oscar-worthy of me, the robber dude. You can't have a more stupid person to rob than someone who asks you that. Now dance to my tune, come on...'
The robber visibly relaxed upon looking at Alvin's scared expression and took on a confident and overbearing look.
'What a clown...' Alvin shook his head internally. This guy was the textbook definition of disappointment.
"Kid, don't try to be smart here, okay. Don't make a sound and stay right there, and I won't hurt you, alright?"
Alvin just nodded to his words.
'Sure, if you wanna dig your grave, I'm all in for it'
Looking at the scared kid abiding by his instructions, the robber suddenly had an idea to get a better haul tonight. He quickly said,
"Now, kid. Slowly take off your backpack and hand it over here, and your phone too. Also, take out whatever cash you have on you."
'Motherfucker.... Whatever, I'll do just as you told me to do. As slowly as possible....'
Alvin continued the scared act and just took out his wallet extremely slowly. His laptop along with his other important stuff was stuffed in his backpack, so although he took it off slowly, he had no intention of handing it over.
"Oy, kid! Hurry up and hand it over. I ain't got all day here."
The robber was clearly relaxed and even behaving arrogantly now. But the moment he told Alvin to hand over his backpack, Alvin assumed a difficult expression on his face and acted like he was hesitating. While inwardly, he was getting annoyed that the police were taking so long to come over.
'I can't just hand it over to him. If by any chance this guy gets away, I'll be finished. All my work is saved in my laptop storage.'
'What to do? What to do?'
Just as Alvin decided to see if he could plead to the robber and stall for more time, he heard the faint sound of a police siren that was becoming louder by the moment.
'Finally! Since they are already here, I can just drop the act, right? It's getting tiring for me....'
"B-but, t-this is v-very important t-to me. S-so..... How about a no?"
Alvin took out the kitchen knife he had hidden under his t-shirt and took on a fighting stance.
"How late can those police guys be? I got tired of acting like this. So don't even think of escaping...", Alvin mumbled with an annoyed voice. Still, his eyes were sharp as he attentively observed the robber's movements.
Seeing the young man change his attitude so drastically and even bring out a knife, as well as the siren noise that was getting louder every second, the robber realized he had been played.
The boy definitely called the police over before coming in, otherwise he wouldn't be acting cool now. He had to flee before the police came over to catch him.
"Kid, step aside now. Don't think you can do anything with that toy in your hand. Just step aside and don't do anything stupid!"
"Shut up and stay there till the cops come. You will have to pay the price for obstructing my sleep, dammit!"
"W-what?"
The robber couldn't wrap his head around Alvin's response, so he unconsciously blurted out a response as he narrowed his eyes.