Liam stood at the front desk of the hotel and impatiently tapped his fingers against the polished desktop. There had been some commotion at the hotel that left Liam standing there alone while the receptionist was hiding somewhere. Well, the whole lobby area was deserted and he had started to wonder if the world had ended while he got dressed and missed that joyous event.

But when no one came to check him out he decided to leave. As he didn't want anything to stand in the way of him leaving this district, and its people.

As he left the lobby of the hotel he saw that there was a large gathering of people outside and of course, the front clerk stood there talking to a guard. So he had left his post in the hotel to laze around outside but then again, he was not that surprised about it. Not at all.

But he realized that he had to walk into the gathering to get to the other side of the street and with a sigh, he did just that. He tried to listen to why all the people were here but he could not make sense of the fragments of conversations. But he saw a cart that had been destroyed and someone had poured red paint on it, such weird people they were.

As he got to the other side of the street he heard an old lady sobbing and acting, well, hysteric. He felt a headache lurking in the back of his head and he was doing everything he could to ignore the crazy women that just stared at everyone. Was she a mental case?

He had heard about people that broke from the pressure of society, but he had never seen one. So it was out of pure curiosity he took a step forward to the women and got hit by something. As he looked up from his place on the ground he saw a sweaty man dressed in only cotton pants and a pulling harness, so a coach had run into him. Normally he would get that man arrested and fired from his job but now it felt more like a fated encounter.

“You will take me to the station and I will pay extra if you make it quick”

He proclaimed to the coach as he got up from the ground. The driver just gave him a nod and Liam could see that he let out a sigh of relief at his demand. As the man had caused the accident to happen, he was liable for the property he destroyed and in this case it would have been Liam's rather expensive clothes.

The journey from the hotel and the station were very pleasant, no hurdles and the coach driver were aiming for a new world record to get that extra pay.

And the driver had earned his extra money, they arrived at the station well before the time Liam had planned for. So he paid the man that bowed and scraped while ha tanked Liam so much for his patronage. Good men deserved to get a reward he thought to himself as he entered the almost empty station.

Even the platform was empty but that did not bother Liam at all. The knowledge that he would soon leave this place and get on to an air-conditioned speed rail made him feel, happy?

But he could not relax fully until he sat in his seat in cart 1, the place where he belonged and no slum rats could ever enter.

The platform was slowly filling up with people but at the end of the platform where Liam stood, there was plenty of space to breath. Most of the people were going to get on the other carts so there was no point in standing were cart 1 pulled up. He only hoped that no annoying acquaintance would show up and disturb his peace. Like they had on the ride to Paris.

And as he sat down in his seat it seemed like that four-hour trips to Denmark would be rather calm and he let out a sigh of relief. He was finally out of this place and would travel to a more unknown part of the world. When the rail started moving he decided to check his social media, for the first time since he came to Paris.

When he had left the British islands many of the girls in his school had told him how they would die without him and other dramatic things. But they all seemed to be in good health and went on with their lives like he just were just a side character in their lives. He had, of course, knowing that it would end up like this.

Even if they had pulled on him to follow them to a secluded area to proclaim their love for Liam Eidler. He felt free for the first time of his life, out in the world he did not have to be that person.

He saw there still were a bulletin out to warn the upstanding citizens about the discom robbers. What the hell did the bug hunters do? Would they just leave these slums to continue to rob and harass good people?

As he pondered about why the system even felt the need to warn people about slum rats. Someone sat down next to him and Liam looked at the newcomer with obvious scorn.

“Well, Is that the way to greet an old friend?”

A blond and rather handsome boy said to him and gave him a smile. And to be fair the boy was an old school friend of Liam so he did not lie about his rather rude greeting.

“Micheal! I am sorry for the poor greeting but I am so tired”

He exclaimed and returned the smile.

“I heard that you were going around and seeing the world, rather stressful right?”

“If you only knew how messed up Paris are right now”

As Liam told his story Micheal burst out in laughter several times, but it felt more like a friendly banter then heckling.

“So now you're going to that festival in Denmark right?”

“Yes, have you been there?”

“Two years ago, I meet my soulmate there and it was super fun”

Micheal continued to tell him the story about how he had met Lisa while taking shelter from a sudden summer storm under the canopy of a small stall. The weird thing was that he sounded so lovey-dovey and had a weird expression on his face while he told the story. Liam wondered if he was constipated or something.

“And where is Micheal going then?”

“The factories in Sweden, there seem to have been some accidents and they wanted management to come and fix the cause”

Liam had hoped that Micheal was going to Denmark but of course the daft people of the slums made a good man like Micheal come and fix their stupid problems. Cant, they solve anything on their own?

They continued to talk about school and friends as Micheal had left school last year he wanted to catch up on things. But the school had not changed all that much, same boring teachers and the same boring drama.

But it felt good to have someone to talk too for a while, even if Liam wanted to explore the world alone. Micheal told him about Lisa even more and Liam felt that his interest was running out.

“You can sleep, I will wake you when we reach Denmark”

Micheal told him and Liam took him up on that offer. He had not gotten that much sleep the last night even if the hotel bed were comfortable but something had felt wrong. So sleep took over fast as Liam felt safe and he knew he could trust Micheal.

They had been on friendly terms for an early age, even if he were two years older than Liam.

His last thought was that he missed his own room at the mansion, he even missed the scuffing from the maids sneaking around outside his room.