He thought he heard someone in the house. He froze mid-step, knowing that a few minutes ago he had been alone. His heart rate began to rise, beating faster and faster in his chest. He heard more noise from below, someone stumbling in the darkness.
He exhaled, releasing the breath he had held. In a rush, his brain resumed its normal functions, the situation becoming clearer to him. He closed the metal door quietly, replacing the painting that had hidden the safe from view. He checked to make sure the painting looked straight. A light turned on, a faint glow making its way upstairs. His head turned towards the slightly opened door.
Suddenly, the glow became a glare; the lights for the hallway had been switched on. He heard footsteps, heavy and careless as they ascended the stairs. He grabbed his tools and glanced around the bedroom, searching desperately for an escape, a place to hide, some sort of refuge. His eyes settled on the bed and he bent down to check the space beneath it.
The footsteps came closer and he scurried under the bed as fast as he could. He readjusted the covers he had disturbed while crawling under the bed. He heard the door open more, softly scraping against the carpet. He forced himself to slowly and calmly breathe, so as to reduce the noise he would make.
The light in the room was turned on and his heart began to race, the fear of being discovered increasing with every second that he lay under the bed. He as a pair of feet made their way around the bed, approaching a dresser and then stopping. A drawer was opened and his mind imagined a gun being retrieved and fired in the bedroom. He inhaled slowly, but was suddenly hit with an urge to cough. It took all his effort to contain this urge.
He heard the drawer close and another open. A pain grew in his lungs, the lack of fresh oxygen taking a toll on his body. The tinkle of small pieces of metal was followed with the closing of the drawer. Time seemed to slow as the feet crossed the room, heading towards the hallway. The lights were shut off and the sound of someone descending the flight of stairs reached his ears. He waited, holding the cough longer still to ensure that no one else could hear it. Lights began to dance in front of his eyes. A couple seconds later, he coughed and began to breathe.
Nothing had felt as wonderful as that breath and he doubted anything in his near future could come close. From under the bed he crawled. He stood, grabbed the night vision goggles on his forehead, and brought them down over his eyes. The ink black room turned green and he could now see its features. He silently padded across the room, exited, and walked to another room.
This room had a door to the second level of a wraparound porch. He exited the house, taking care to leave all as he had found it. He climbed down a support post and walked towards the woods he had come from. He hopped over a small fence, looked back at the house, and smiled. Stealing a couple million dollars worth of uncut diamonds and successfully escaping would make any thief smile.