I don't even know why I'm doing this. Like an obsession. I just have to do it. I somehow tried to explain to someone, but the words are powerless here. It's kind of like a voice inside. He says: "Do it!". I do ... Of course, you first need to stock up on the necessary things.

The store has a very ironic name. "The joy of life." Interestingly, will anyone appreciate the joke? It is easiest to make the purchase I need. No queues, no questions. Behind the counter is some zombie fool from the current generation hired for the holidays. It's good. They have blinded eyes. He never looked up, he looked only at my hands, counting the bills. And no questions and profiles: "How are you going to use your purchase?" Here it is - today's youth.

I always choose my victims in big stores. As I said, the easiest way to do this is on the New Year. Even fun ... the more eyes around you, the less you are noticeable. No one stops you. No one grabs you by the sleeve when you quickly leave, having made a deal.

I'm hunting for old ladies. Well, you know them. Bent, small, they sit in their wheelchairs. They have wrinkled, sad faces. They are brought to the entrance and left outside, like dogs.

Do not scrape the heart, eh?

I chose my victim. I noticed her at the entrance to the shoe department. She was already the second today. I found the first one at the entrance to the souvenir shop. She sat, stolidly staring into space, stooping and leaning on weak hands. A scarf was tied on her head. I smiled, noticing her. Fine. Although a crowd was running around, no one paid any attention to us. As if the old woman was something of a taboo, or maybe people didn’t look at her for fear of recognizing themselves in thirty to forty years. I was only on hand. Hundreds of eyes, but everyone looks only straight. No one will see me do it. What I bought an hour earlier, rubbed my chest in the bosom. Just that size. And it does not bulge out from under the raincoat, and is not visible. I took a step in her direction and put my hand under the cloak. My heart pounded. I’ve almost pulled that one out, but ...

Just at that moment, as if in a rehearsed play, a policeman appeared from somewhere and began talking to an old lady.

Oh shit! I quickly put my hand back into my inner pocket, pretending to be looking for a wallet, and walked past. I do not think that this cop noticed me, and even more so he could not notice what was in my pocket. Yes, even if he saw, he could not stop me. I would still carry out my plan and get to the old woman, even despite his presence.

But it is not stylish. I do not like to fall. I'm like a ghost. I appear, do, disappear.

The mood is still spoiled. I had to look for another goal. I wandered about twenty minutes. Dozens of people were rustling around me with wrapping paper tightly clinging to themselves twisted, shriveled bags that always remind me of old skin. These are those who make purchases in the last minutes of the expiring year, hurrying home to fool one more toy at a fabulous price to a beloved child. Of course. The poor kid will catch a cramp and a heart attack if he doesn’t have the same thing as the son of a neighbor. Happy New Year. Damn.

I was almost disappointed in my plan and was ready to give up, but then I saw my second chance. She was sitting at the shoe store. What kind of sad idiots buy shoes in the New Year? What a difference to me. It is important that buying shoes takes time, and it means that this old woman will not return home soon ... There was more than enough time for me. I'll burst onto the scene, do my thing, and fuck! I was gone. No one will even realize that I have done something.

This madam was even better than that of souvenirs. Fragile, wrinkled, with a print of loneliness on the face, hair tied with a red scarf. A touching picture.She sighed and straightened the shawl on her lap. On her armrest was a handbag. This is bad. If she saw me too soon, she might have thought that I was a thief and scream. And this is not my style. I do not like to fall. This time will have to be even faster than usual. Time! and ready. Like lightning.

Adrenaline was walking in my veins. I had no choice, I already said. I can not do that. Without this, life would lose a big chunk of meaning for me. I reached out to the inside pocket of my cloak. Hundreds of eyes, but not one looks at me.

I moved forward in a gliding, quick step. The old woman continued to look at her shawl, fingering her edge with her slender fingers. She sighed again, sadly, hopelessly. I was almost there. Why hasn't she looked at me yet? She had to look at me and see her reflection in my eyes. I just have to see that they see my approach, they know that it is inevitable, like a descending glacier. Yes, yes, you need to act with such speed - let them see, do it and dissolve.

I almost hung over her when she finally looked up. Her look was the same as that of all my victims before that - puzzled, questioning. I think such a look at a frightened deer, who was blinded by the headlights of an approaching train. I smiled. I already knew that I would succeed. I slowly pulled out what I bought in the Joy of Life - a white rose, and stretched it out towards trembling, twisted fingers.

“Happy New Year to you, dear,” I said, then touched my hat with my fingertips, stepped aside and disappeared into the crowd.