10:47 P.M.

The rain poured down hard, basking the world into a sea of gray. Droplets bounced off every surface, cascading down windows and filling every crevice with its cold touch. The air was foggy and blurred, skyscrapers taking the appearance of endless towers of glass.

As the rain bombarded the city and came down like lightning, Lucius moved even quicker. He had no plan or destination to reach, he was not running to as much as he was running from.

Dashing down the busy streets, his shoes soaked from splashing puddles and the continuous downpour, he ducked under the side of a building for some temporary shelter.

“Lucius! Lucius where are you!?” Panicked voices rang through the air, their vocals creating a song against the rain’s instrumental.

Lucius heard their cries but stood frozen against the concrete wall, the cold water dripping from his body.

The deeper down the alley he looked, the darker the world became.

Hearing bashing footsteps bashing closer to his position, with a hesitant glance into the blackness, he charged in.

Running harder and harder, Lucius felt like his heart was gonna explode and paint the walls a crimson red. The darkness of the alley had consumed him now, he felt fully engulfed in the black of night.

Slumping down, the wet gravel under his body meant little to him, he didn’t even feel it. Among the trash and rot, piles of garbage and remnants of human life, Lucius felt truly alone.

The voices however, had not given up. The echoes of their footsteps bounced off the walls like sonar, narrowing in. He closed his eyes, accepting the fate he was given as the shouts grew louder.

Huffing hard and attempting to catch their breath, a man and a woman came out through the darkness, their light illuminating the whole alley.

Lucius’s father stood strong, his tailored suit glistening in the moonlight. His dense build was intimidating, but there was a gentleness on his face. His left arm was wrapped around the waist of Lucius’s mother, her body draped with a pearl white silk dress.

She sprung forward and knelt down in front of her son, holding him tightly against her.

“I’m here baby, you’re okay. Everything is going to be okay.” Her voice soothed his fears, and a calmness began to wash over him as he tried to speak.

“That- I saw something- I-”

“Shhhh, don’t worry about it now. We’re here, we will always be here for you.”

Lucius’s father gave a docile smile, and placed his hand on both of their shoulders in a warm embrace.

“Let’s go home, it’s getting late. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

Together, they began leaving the dark alley, moving out towards the light ahead. Lucius felt secure in their embrace, safe between the two people he cared for most.

“Wallets, now,” a voice gruffed from behind them. “Empty your pockets. Don’t turn around.”

The three of them froze up.

The rain drops thumping off the gravel floor suddenly sounded slowed, as if time itself was coming to a halt.

“Here, you can have it,” Lucius’s father calmly stated, reaching his hand into his inner suit pocket. “Take it.”

With that remark, he threw his wallet over his shoulder towards the shadowed man, hearing it splash against the damp terrain.

The shadowed man groaned. “The lady too hand it o-”

He was interrupted as Lucius’s father spun around and lunged at him, tackling him to the floor. Attempting to pin him to the ground, he reached to secure the attackers arms.

“Luna take Lucius and ru-” His bold voice was suddenly cut off.

The shadowed man had gotten his right arm free from the grasp, the wet fabric and rain had created a slippery surface.

The man’s right hand was tightly gripping a spear point blade, and he thrusted the edge into the father’s throat, letting his body limp and fall to the side.

“SERGIO NO NO NO NO!!!” Luna’s shrieks cut through the thick air, turning the attackers attention to her.

The shadowed man gruffed again as he rose to his feet, eyes focusing on the woman in silk. He quickly closed the gap between them, his left hand wrapping around the red amber necklace decorating her neck.

The necklace snapped amidst her screams, and the man drove his blade into her back, softly letting go of her son’s grasp.

Lucius watched all this frozen with fear, the amber stones slowly falling in rhythm with the raindrops. His mother’s dress had begun to turn red as blood poured out from the abrasion, painting the innocent shade with the colour of greed.

“Be strong…Lucius, be…strong.” His mother’s voice echoed in Lucius’s ears like a siren, although it was barely more than a whisper.

“All you had to do was hand it over. I needed the money, all I needed was the damn money!”

The shadowed man’s figure was now right in front of Lucius, and he was able to get a proper look at him for the first time.

His face was covered by the shadow of his cap, only the stubble of his wrinkled chin was visible. The dirty clothes he wore showed signs of age and hard times spent in the back alleys of the city.

He was no different than anyone else, no devil horns or big bad wolf claws anywhere that the scared little boy could see.

Down on his hands and knees, Lucius crawled towards the body of his mother. His small child's hands wrapped around the blade in her back, a misguided effort to avenge his parents.

“Mommy…daddy…I will save you,” he quietly whispered under his breath.

Raising his frail body, he charged towards the shadowed man, determination and rage painted across his face.

The shadowed man turned to Lucius and laughed, grabbing the insignificant boy by the throat and raised him up.

“You got some fire in you kid, I’ll give you that.” The man cackled at the feeble attempt at revenge, bringing Lucius’s face right up to his own.

“Who we are in the dark, when nobody's watching, that's the real us. That’s who we really are, kid. Be proud you showed such strength in your final moments.” He began to tighten his grip on Lucius, as the boy scratched and flailed for an ounce of breath.

Lucius’s short life flashed before his eyes, every event that had led to this moment tormented him as a reminder of his failure. Every action, every misstep, every sin. And now, he would pay the toll and accept his fate, accepting eternal rest alongside his parents.

His sight started to dim, his heart finally slowing as numbness began to flood his body.

CCCRRRAAASSSHHHHH

Abruptly, a glass jar shattered against the brick wall behind them, just by the man’s head.

“Let him go now! The police are on their way!” yelled a man standing in the back doorway of a shop. He brandished a baseball bat in his hands and was scaling down the steps towards the two of them.

“Ah enough of this, more trouble than one night’s worth.” The shadowed man released his grip and ran off into the darkness.

Laying flat on his back, Lucius watched the raindrops descend onto him.

The silhouette of his body was outlined with the red amber gems, a final gift left behind from his mother, the blood coated knife was still held tensely in his white knuckled fist.

He coughed and gasped for breaths of air, delirious and in shock. The sounds of sirens could be heard far off in the distance, but he was unsure what was real anymore.

The man with the bat arrived next to him and picked him up off the cold ground, holding him in his arms, the pouring rain pouring, continuing to show no mercy.

“You’re okay son, you’re okay,” the man continued to repeat, the sounds of sirens steadily approaching.

Lucius weakly closed his eyes, and drifted into slumber.

***

Drip, drip, drip.

A recurring stream of water droplets fell down from an overhead concrete beam, splashing against the damp ground causing an echo to dance throughout the unfamiliar structure.

The sound of nature’s clock worked just as intended, as Lucius opened his adjusting eyes.

Concrete surrounded his immediate area, the rot and decay acting as evidence that his current position had been abandoned long ago. The only remembrance of life was seen through the weeping masses of greenery, displaced amongst every surface.

The silence was deafening, the green called out for a reply but received no answer. Sunlight rayed through the cracks of the structure’s edges, but only the cold remained. The green had survived off nothing but instinct, alive in catalysts draped over the gray like a blanket of snow over an abandoned landscape, a sheet placed over a long forgotten corpse.

What the…what happened? Dammit, that same dream again, but my head’s killing me. Why can’t I remember anything?

As Lucius’s eyes adjusted to the blinding glimpse of the graveyarded plateau, his confusion only multiplied as his mind raced to recall the moments that lead up to this miserable place.

Dropping down to his knees in an ankle deep puddle, he cupped his hands together and drank, hoping for some sense of rejuvenation.

Reflected in the rippling water, black strands of hair lay matted to his forehead, with the face looking back at him appearing more like a ghost than a living being.

Of course, you’re still here.

Through a cracked opening that resided between incongruent walls, golden rays beamed through and painted large shadows behind him.

Gathering his concerns and confusion, and riddled with fear, he stood up and made his way to the light.