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 were given the appearance of endless towers of glass. As the rain bombarded the streets 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 soaking wet from 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, adding to the frigid fear he felt. The wall continued on endlessly, the darkness showed no end end in sight. The deeper down the alley he looked, the darker the world became. Hearing bashing footsteps bashing arriving closer to his position, with a hesitant glance into the blackness, he charged in.

Running harder and harder, Lucius’s heart felt like it would 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. Unsure how far he had ran, how much distance he had covered in his panic born from what he saw. Defeated and exhausted, he slumped down the rough brick wall, sitting forward with his head between his legs. 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 remains of human life, Lucius felt truly alone.

The voices however, had no given up. The echoes of their footsteps bounced off the wall like sonar, narrowing in and focusing on Lucius. As they got louder and louder, Lucius closed his eyes, accepting the fate he was given.

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, however his slicked back salt and pepper hair showed the gentleness of 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 towards the light ahead.

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

The three of them froze up as Lucius’s heart began beating even faster than before. 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 all,” 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. As a result of his quick motion, the pamphlet from that nights exhibit at the Gallery of Fine Arts came loose from his pocked and danced across the air as it fluttered to the floor.

The shadowed man groaned as he slouched down to pick up the wallet, “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.

“Lucilla take Lucius and ru…”, his bold voice was suddenly interrupted. The shadowed man had gotten his right arm free from the grasp, the wet fabric and continuous rain had created a slippery surface, a loss of control. 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.

“ADRIAN NO NO NO NO!”, Lucilla’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 in on the woman in silk. He quickly closed the gap between them, his left hand wrapping around the amber necklace decorating her neck as she tried to run, holding Lucius’s hand tightly. The necklace snapped amidst her screams, as 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. Her body floated to the ground peacefully, and finally rested face down next to her husband, their hands intertwined.

“Fucking bitch, all you had to do was hand it over. I need this money, all I needed was the fucking 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. The man’s face was covered by the shadow of his cap, only the stubble of his wrinkled chin was visible. His dirty clothes showed signs of age and long hours, a relic of 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 Lucius could see.

As the man stared down at the jewels lying among the dirt, the veil of the moonlight covered the area. Lucius, down on his hands and knees, crawled towards the body of his mother. His small child hands wrapped around the blade in her back, taking it upon himself to get revenge for his parents.

“Mommy…daddy…I will save you. I know what I need to do”, he quietly whispered under his breath.

Raising his frail body up with all the strength he could muster, he turned and charged blade first towards the shadowed man, determination and rage painted across his face. He felt responsible for his parent’s fate, and he would pay for his sins against them.

The shadowed man turned to Lucius and laughed, as he grabbed the small 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 nobodies watching, thats 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, eternal sleep alongside his parents. His sight began to dim, his heart finally slowing as numbness began to flood his body.

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 his shop. He brandished a baseball bat in his hands and was scaling down the steps towards the two of them.

“Ah fuck this, enough trouble for one night.” The shadowed man released his grip on Lucius, dropping his limp body to the ground, and ran off into the darkness.

Lucius lay flat on his back as he watched the raindrops descend onto him. The silhouette of his body was outlined with the amber gems, a final gift left behind from his mother, and the blood coated knife was still tensed in his white knuckled fist. He coughed and gasped for breaths of air, delirious and in shock. He thought he could hear sirens in the distance, but was unsure what was real anymore.

The man with the bat arrived next to him and picked him up off the cold ground, sitting him forward in a kneeling position. He held Lucius with an arm under his knees and under the base of his head, as the rain pouring down continued to show no mercy.

“You’re okay son, you’re okay,” the man continued to repeat, the sounds of sirens steadily approaching as Lucius weakly closed his eyes and drifted into slumber.

***

Lucius intensely jolted upright, his whole body drenched in sweat, breathing heavily and heart racing. His shoulders rapidly raised up and down, the weight of his struggles being carried in every breath.The sounds of heavy rain pouring against the glass sliding doors of his balcony brought him back to reality, as he headed out for fresh January air.

Nightmares were a common occurrence for him, always with the same subject matter, always bringing him back to that desolate night. Sliding the glass doors open and stepping out towards the railing, he breathed in deeply and peered out towards the city. Illumination from windows, streetlights, and advertisements painted the city a golden hew against the black of night. With his eyes he traversed the man made landscape, settling his gaze on a familiar building blocks away.

Whispering under his breath, just like he did all those years earlier, he spoke to himself saying, “I know what I need to do.”