Opening my eyes from a dreamless night. The crust that formed at the corners of my eyes painfully fell off. The ones that stay being even more painful seeing how I have to pick them out of my eyes.

The zippers on my grey jacket being the only source of warmth I had, seemed to have had scratch at my exposed skin. It also didn’t help that every fiber of muscle in my body was crying for me to lay back down.

Ignoring the cries of my body, I lift myself up. My eyelids slowly losing to gravity.

It was strange, for some reason, I can never go to sleep early. I don’t think I’m an insomniac, just that whenever I’m close to falling asleep, strange images of cars and the face of my caretaker Sofia pops into my head. Maybe it’s caused by all the dust particles that are floating around my room. Or just the face of Sofia is scary enough to stop me from sleeping.

And believe me, if you got a face full of my caretaker Sofia, you would wake up screaming too. Although if I did that, I would instantly hear heavy footsteps slamming against the concrete floor and the smooth sound of my skin getting bash into my bones. What I’m saying is that someone would beat the shit out of me.

Stretching my tired muscles, I stand up straight for a couple of minutes trying to stop my eyelids from falling. I once tried doing a handstand to get rid of my fatigue, but that option hurt. Also, I somehow fell asleep during the handstand which resulted in... an event.

Rubbing my eyes and softly slapping my cheeks, dispersing all the dust that has accumulated on them, I look at my only source of light. A window that was half the size of a normal one, letting the moonlight shine through the glass.

It wasn’t much but it was the only source of light I had, and, those few seconds were the only moment I look forward to every day.

It was the only time my mind was at peace. No thought about school, about Sofia, my reputation, and my parents. Well, not like I have many thoughts about my parents.

It’s hard to think about something if you don’t even know what they look like.

“Haaah. Looks like my moments of peace are over.” Now I just feel sad and depress.

Turning away from the window, I walked over to the stairs that led to my room’s exit.

I couldn’t actually see where I was going, but after living in this house for so long, I got everything memorized. Well, my room that is.

Slowly walking up the wooden steps, each step creating a creaking sound loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.

Reaching the door, I twist the knob. Again creating a very loud noise that could wake everyone in this building.

Stepping out of my room, and quietly closing the door behind me. I finally leave my room, the only place I feel safe in this godforsaken building.

Although I call it my room, there’s another name for it. The proper name of my room that many prefer to call it by, the basement.

So, after leaving my dusty room, I go into a mode I like to call cat mode.

I would call it ninja mode, but that sounds stupid.

The reason I developed this cat mode of mine, is for a couple of reasons.

One being that I need to sneak into the school when it’s dark out, but the other reason is that I need to grab my phone.

You see, I don’t have an outlet in my room/basement, so I have to charge my phone in the other parts of the building.

This would be a simple fix, just find an unused outlet and plug my phone in there. But because of my caretaker Sofia, it’s been a process.

Let’s just say Sofia doesn’t really like me and refuses to buy me a cable. So, needing to charge my phone, I had to steal one. So, that was a whole thing in itself, but what really made this a whole experience was the amount of effort Sofia gave to just be a bitch in my life.

Every time I found an unused outlet, I would plug in my phone, that’s normal right. But this woman would just come along, see it, and unplug my cable and make sure she turns it on to drain my battery. And since I have an iPhone, the next day I got like ten percent left on my phone. It’s really annoying.

A few times, she actually cut the wires just to force me to buy a new one. But I don’t have money, so in reality I have to steal a new one every time.

But, being the genius I am, figured out a way past this a few months ago.

After… stumbling on the floor plans of this building, I was able to find an outlet that nobody knew about.

Sofia must have not noticed this outlet and moved a couch over it. But after looking at the wires of this house, I was able to notice that this certain outlet was nowhere to be found.

Of course though, things can never be too easy.

When I finally discovered this treasure, Sofia took plenty of notice. She knew I was charging my phone but didn’t know where, so I had to be extremely careful when getting to the outlet.

And I couldn’t just get to the outlet when Sofia was out of the house, the other children that live here would tell her where it was. So I had to do it when everyone was asleep.

Somehow that was the easy part as I already memorized Sofia sleeping patterns and knew how long it takes for her to fall asleep and how long it takes for her to fully wake up years before this problem showed itself.

And after learning how to memorize the sleeping patterns of a woman that goes out of her way to pour hot coffee over your face every other night, it was trivial to figure out everyone’s patterns.

With only the tips of my toes touching the cold wooden floor, I was in a form that poorly resembled that of a cat stance. I don’t really know how to do it, but I saw the picture and overheard a couple of, let's call them nerds, talking about it.

It’s supposed to silence your steps, but again, this is a wooden floor, meaning every step I take will create a creak.

To avoid this, I did plenty of testing.

Through my experiments, I found that going too slow will make the floors creak due to your weight being pushed down onto a single point. But if you're too fast, you’ll create a thumping sound, so you have to go between the two speeds. Not too fast, but also not too slow.

The exact speed isn’t known, not even to me. I’m just able to do it after years of practice. And yes, I mean years, I’ve been doing this sneaking around since I was around six.

Using my cat mode, I silently move around the building, dodging all furniture and random toys that were scattered around the floor.

Entering the hallway that connected the downstairs to the upstairs. I quickly move past the stairs, entering a room featuring dark silhouettes that resembled objects.

Moving past all of them, I reach the opposite side of the room and the silhouette of a coach fills my eyes.

With one swift motion, I jump to the right end of the couch, crouching so that my shoulders would be below the armrest.

Grabbing the ends closest to the wall, I slowly pull on it.

This in itself was the longest process in my morning routine.

Moving this couch for my phone took an entire ten minutes. I just couldn’t speed up the process of moving it.

I’m not weak by any means, it just. I’m scared alright. I don’t want Sofia to find where this outlet is, otherwise, I might have to start stealing cables again.

It’s not like I’m the perfect thief. If I try to steal from a man and I’m caught, they will start beating me up. If I get caught by a girl, either they or they will ask their boyfriends to beat me up. Most of the time it’s both.

That’s actually the reason why I mainly steal from guys. I’d rather get beaten up by one person instead of two.

Finally adding enough distance from the wall and couch, a small black box with a cord attached to the bottom. And at the very end of this cord, a phone could be found.

Grabbing a hold of it, I rip the cord out of my phone. The default logo pops up with a beam of holy light shooting from its screen.

Within this dark room, the light was like that of the sun. I had to cover my eyes. It was so bright.

I almost moaned in pain, completely forgetting why I had to stay silent. Lucky whatever voice or instinct that was holding itself to the back of my brain kept me from doing just that.

Instantly turning it off, I was once again returned to the bliss of darkness.

Letting my eyes adjust to the sudden change in light, I placed my phone into the large pocket at the side of my jacket as I got up to my feet. Changing back into my cat mode, I hastily run towards the kitchen, no longer caring for the amount of sound I create.

Reaching the kitchen, I quickly spotted the door that led to the backyard.

Going through the door I was embraced by the cold night air.

If I wasn’t always sneaking out of the house during the night, this cold wind would be freezing my testicles off.

I’m not even wearing shoes. All I got on me is my phone, my PE shorts, a grey shirt with red stripes on it, and finally my grey jacket that I like to leave open in the front.

I’m not really into fashion, since other than a pair of long pants I have hidden, these are my only set of clothes. But I really think I look good with this open grey jacket, but it’s freezing tits out here.

Against my will, I close up my jacket, so while my upper half is a little warmer, my leg’s hair are freezing.

“Well, it is winter. Should probably get over to my stash.” A clear white mist bloomed out of my mouth with every breath I took.

Getting a running start, I dash towards a brick wall, jumping mere feets away from it. Grabbing hold of the top, I pull myself up.

As I lay my feet at the top of the brick wall, I keep myself low to help with balance. Afterwards I zoom over the wall, running towards the open street.

Jumping down to the front lawn, I could hear my knees crack as they collide with the ground below. My unprotected feet landing on the once warm wet grass now felt like I was landing on spiked ice, “Well, that’s one way to start the morning.”

Without wasting time, I run down the street. Usually at this point I would walk around the city until the sun decides to reveal itself, but it’s way too cold at his point. Also, I don’t have shoes, so every step I take feels like I’m stepping on glass shards.

Turning the corner I went into a dark alley. Going to the halfway point, a large trash bin sat there with a number of trash bags inside and around it.

Moving to its left side, I began to dig underneath all the trash until I came upon a yellow trash bag.

Wanting to use it in the future, I carefully open it, trying my hardest not to rip it apart.

Opening the bag up, the contents displayed being a red backpack having three zippers for three different parts of the bag, a pair of black and white running shoes that were a little big for me, a pair of black pants that could actually cover my whole lower body, a few dollars, and a couple pairs of socks.

Everything in here could be called junk, hell one of the zippers on the backpack broke and had to be sewed up since it wouldn’t close, and the left shoe’s bottom could be folded away from the rest of it. Overall, everything here was junk, also most of it wasn’t mine.

Yep, other than the backpack which the school provided, everything else here is stolen. Actually, even the PE shorts I have on me are stolen since my last ones were ripped because of… a certain individual.

I was just about to pull my black pants over my PE shorts until a certain thought came to mine.

Today’s monday, and usually I would wash myself and my clothes during sunday. But I couldn’t do it yesterday, or the sunday before that, or the one before that.

Bringing my pants up to my face, I give them a quick sniff.

Immediately after I bent over to the side, nearing throwing up in the process, “Shit! When was the last time I washed this?!”

My brain paused for a moment, trying to bring back any recent memories of me keeping proper hygiene, “Huh? It couldn’t have been that long and even then, it shouldn’t smell that bad.” People think that by not washing yourself or your clothes for one day will make you smell like a barrel of dead fish, but it takes way longer to get to that point.

“Hmm, now that I think about it, last thursday, those assholes forced me to eat a dead rat.” Which I was actually happy about since I haven’t eaten anything for a while. It was quite hard acting like I hated it before them, “But that’s not enough for my clothes to smell this bad. Yeah, when I hate that rat, lots of it’s blood got on me and my pants, plus there was monday where they kept throwing spoiled milk at me.”

My mind wandered a bit after that. Trying to think of anything that could explain this smell, “Then again, this is an alleyway where I store my stuff in a trash bag next to other people’s trash. Plus, I’ve seen plenty of homeless people taking a shit and pissing…”

…

“Meh, I’ve smelled worst.” I think I’m starting to understand why my clothes and I always smell bad.

* * *

Walking around the block, I had a lot of time to think about stuff.

I say stuff because, nothing I thought about were important, just news ways for me to avoid getting harassed at school. Though, those thoughts made me sad.

So I tried to steer away from that topic and go over to those light novels and those shows and anime I watch on my phone. Those types of thoughts make me happy.

Thinking that one day, I could go on an adventure where I would travel the land, or go to another world where the logic of this world doesn’t apply, and... meet new people. Become the characters in the stories and be respected by others, have them notice me and not just as the piece of shit I am. Maybe as a...

“No, can’t think about that. I have a good life. I usually have a roof over my head when I sleep and I sometimes get one meal a day. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s a good life... I can’t complain. I can’t be selfish” I can’t be selfish, I don’t have the right to be selfish.

Not wanting to sadden myself anymore, I quickly took out my fully charged phone and quickly found a bench to sit on until it’s time to go to school.

Just going through the apps on my phone, I found a manga app that lets me read manga for free, but I have to pay for it. That pay part brought back a terrible but exciting memory.

Remember, Sofia won’t even buy me a cable for this phone, so why the hell would she get me a phone to use. In reality, I stole this phone from a classmate.

It was a girl that I see everyday but I don’t remember the name of.

I’m a bad person but not a terrible person. I'm just bad with names and I only remember the ones that pick on me. Well, seriously pick on me, like breaking bones and stuff. Well, with her, she’s popular I guess you can say, but one day I saw her using an app for reading manga, and I don’t know. Something broke inside me, and I just stole it. She never found me out, plus she got a new phone, so, no harm done.

“I really should delete those pictures of her though.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pervert, I just keep forgetting to delete her pictures.

If you want me to go through the trouble of stealing your phone and then masturbating to your pictures, you got to be way prettier. Not like this girl wasn’t pretty, it was just, I only ever liked one girl. But that ship has sailed, and I don’t think I’m ever getting back on.

“Should I delete them now? I don’t think I have enough time considering how many photos she took on this thing.” Getting the time up on my phone, I was glad to see that I still had a couple hours until school started.

“Only 5:47 huh. Might as well start walking to school.” Getting up to my feet, I begin my march over to the school where the second worst part of my life begins.

School starts at 8:00 AM, meaning I got around three hours to get there.

Taking my sweet time, my mind wandered back to the idea of being the main character in one of those light novels or even anime stuff.

Honestly if we’re being realistic, I don’t think I could be the main character. In most anime and light novels, the mc is a character that is handsome but doesn’t know it, a sweet talker that can sympathise with all the characters, mainly the female characters.

They’re insanely strong, have incorruptible morals and unlike me, got amazing social skills and have the power to call upon an army of women to their side at any time.

If the mc is a woman, the same applies just that the army of women is changed to an army of men.

But for me, it’s different. I’m not handsome, I’m average, no, below average. I got this condition called, mob-face, which means no matter what, I will always look like a background character. Trust me, I don’t got the looks.

Plus, there’s the whole living condition I’m in. I always smell since Sofia won’t waste her precious water on me, and the same goes for her food.

I’m not strong, everybody even the freshmen can kick my ass. I’m a junior by the way.

I’m completely corruptible and I’m not a good person, there have been plenty of times I let others take the fall for my mistakes. And don’t even get me started on social skills and anything to do with girls.

I can’t speak for my life. I once threw up the little food I had during freshman year when I had to introduce myself to the class, and everything just got worse from there.

For girls, they don’t even approach me. Not even the guys do unless they plan on beating me up.

I actually don’t know why they beat me up. I don’t got money for them to take, so why are they doing this to me? Is it for stress or…

Before I could finish that thought, the view of the school gate that separated the school from everything else came into view.

Checking my phone once again, I find that the time was currently 7:23. Thirty-seven minutes to spare.

Might as well go to my normal hidey hole until school starts.

Walking past the gate, I carefully surveyed my surroundings, trying to find if those assholes actually came today or just decided to skip school again. I’m wishing for the latter.

My hidey hole is very special since I spent a few weeks picking out the best dark corners in the school and experimenting with them to see which one would suit me best.

Coming up to my hidey hole, which is just a dark corner that’s to the right side of the school and is under a large pathway meant to go to another section of the school. And it’s behind a bunch of dumpsters and a pile of leftovers from lunch. I’m quite proud of it.

Entering into a secret hole only I know, I see the most perfect spot in this whole school.

A dark room filled with broken chairs I manage to get in here, a few bottles of soda, and a cable that ran from one of the schools outlet that allows me to charge my phone.

This would have been perfect, if my eyes didn’t adjust to the lighting.

But as they did, my eyes caught hold of the three biggest idiots in this whole school.

“Leon. Why didn’t you tell us you had such a nice place? Smells a bit, but nobody ever comes here.”

Shit, it’s him. Kyle Bush.

A six foot four twig since he got no fat on him, just bones. I’m actually worried for him, I can see some of his ribs popping out.

With deep sunken cheeks, dirty skin which has lost all of its original color, twig like wrists, filthy nails and a body much skinnier and taller for his age, nothing about him looked normal.

It’s not helping that he’s smoking and giving himself lung cancer and making this place smell terrible.

And behind this tall skinny man were two others, a man and a woman who were so insignificant that I don’t even know their names. They just help Kyle beat the crap out of me.

As Kyle came closer to me, the rest followed. Their presence alone was enough to root me into the ground. I could probably out run them, I’m faster than almost everybody in the entire school since everyone wants a piece of me.

But that’s for them, for Kyle I coould’t move in his presenses. The things he made me do, the things he did to me, their all engraved, burned into my mind. I can’t get them out.

As Kyle was mere feets away from me, his oder blinding my eyes. I’m actually happy about that. with him around nobody will complain about my stench.

“Leon. Look me in the eyes. I want you to tell me why you never showed us this place.”

That wasn’t a question, that was a statement.

My head shaking at fifty miles an hour, my eyes slowly stared into his.

Opening my mouth, saliva building up inside. I try to say something, but only sounds like that of screeching animals came from my mouth.

I forgot what to say, what I wanted to tell him. I already had this amazing excuse lined up, but why can’t I just say it?

Kyle must have gotten tired of waiting for me to answer. This happens everytime we meet. He would ask me something and wait for me to answer, but I never do. I just can’t.

In a deep emotionless voice he asked me his final question, “Leon, we’re friends right?”

Here it is. I just have to say yes, then either his beating will be light today, or he’ll leave me alone. Most likely the first option.

But anything to lighten my sentence is a must.

Gathering everything I had inside me, pushing out all other thoughts I focus everything into saying this one word. And, in a high pitch voice I slowly answer his question, “Y-Y-Y-Ye-Y-Yes!”

I did it, I finally said something in front of him. I actually said a complete word in front of Kyle.

Looking up at him, my eyes filled with excitement. But, the eyes he had were not the ones I was hoping for.

His arm became a blur, in one swift motion, he brought his arm down low enough for it to bash into my soft stomach.

All the air came out of my body as his fist drove straight into my stomach. And every ounce of saliva I had building up in my body started to burst out of my throat, falling down like a waterfall.

I was about to fall down on all four, but before I could Kyle grabbed a handful of my hair, pulling me up to his level. Ripping a few strands of my hair in the process.

Without saying a word he bashes me right in between my eyes. All I heard was a loud crack as his fist slowly left its spot on my face.

Finally letting me go, my nose bleeding rivers, I fell down on all fours.

I’ve already been in this situation before, so without further delay I hastily curled up into a ball. Covering my neck with my hands, not even caring for my testicles.

Not like I’ll ever use those things.

Staring at me for what felt like years, Kyle finally said something, “No. We’re not friends.”

There was a moment of quiet with the only sounds being the two other idiots walking over to my curled up body.

With no order or rhythm, they each take a shot at my body. Kicking, bashing and I even felt someone biting my fucking arm.

Each plow to the head would shake my teeth. Every kick to my spine would result in it cracking. Every attack to my body would tattoo on my body another bruise.

Bruises that never heal, bruises that just keep getting bigger with each passing day.

Knowing them, they’ll keep going at it until school starts. I swear the only reason they come to school is to beat me up. They picked on me in elementary school and middle school, why not here too.

It hurts! That’s all I have to say about this experience. Everyday, the pain gets less and less as I deal with more shit. And after everything that’s been done to me, the only thing I can think about during this whole process, was where my next hidey hole would be.

* * *

“Well, school’s about to start, and I don’t want another lecture from that loliwe got for a teacher. I swear one day, I’m going to have my way with her small body.”

My whole body was swollen red. I could barely see through my eyes, and yet, I could still see the figure of those three assholes. And the one most prominent being the man himself.

I watched as he moved from corner to corner. Seems like he’s looking for something.

After sometime, he finally found what he was looking for, he came back to my broken body and started to pour something thick onto my body.

As the liquid started to drip from my eyelashes I got a feeling I knew what it was.

It was milk. It’s pure whiteness filling up my eyes, feeling the milk being absorbed into my clothes. It was a terrible but also nice feeling considering the beating I just went through.

“Alright Leon, we’re going to go now. But remember, I want you to come back here during lunch, I got something I want to barbecue but I don’t know if it’s safe for me to eat. So I need you to do it alright. Don’t worry, I’m feeling generous today.” He crouches down, grabbing a handful of my milk soaked hair, bring my eyes up to his. “Trust me, it won’t be the worst thing we had you eat. So for now, just enjoy your nice cool milk.”

He started to laugh with his two assholes friends as they all walked away. Leaving me here soaked, beaten and humiliated.

Well, jokes on them, I actually wanted this milk poured on me. I haven't drank anything since waking up and I’m extremely thirsty, so hah.

Taking a sip from the milk that was dripping from my hair and slowly consumed it I realized, “Huh. This is spoiled.”

Welp, my day is going well. Honestly getting beat as soon as school starts is nothing new to me.

Besides, it’s ok, I understand why he’s doing this.

Looking at his skin, his clothing and just how skinny the guy is, you can immediately tell that his family isn’t doing too well. That’s why I can’t complain about my life when someone’s life is way worse than mine.

I can’t complain, I mostly have a roof over my head and I sometimes get one meal a day, my life is good. It’s still better than Kyles, so what right do I have to complain?

Yeah, his life is way worse than mine, which gives him the right to do these types of things to me. I shouldn’t complain. I shouldn’t.

The little strength I had were all transferred over to my fingers as they gripped the cement floors. I could hear the cries of the joints in those fingers.

They already stepped over my fingers, now I barely feel them, but I knew there was pain in them. I couldn’t feel it, but I knew pain was there.

And you want to know what the worst part is? I know I can’t do anything. I know that no matter what I do, this will never end.

I won’t move from the city, I don’t have the courage to do that. I’ll probably forever be picked on by these idiots. And the worst part is, I’d rather be picked on by these guys rather than having to deal with Sofia. At least with them, I don’t have to fear for my life.

Sofia... The thought of her made my blood boil. I shouldn’t complain, but I can’t control how I feel about her. I think that’s fine, it’s okay to have opinions about things, just that you shouldn’t complain. Yeah, I can’t complain. I just have to roll with it.

Even though I said that, my thoughts never strayed from the thought of her. Every second she was in my mind the more veins that would pop in my head.

And all I had to say about it was, “I was fucking three.”

* * *

Entering the classroom, everyone's eyes pointed at me, and yet not a single one of them would look me in the eyes.

Even Kyle, the guy who did this to me is staring. At least his two idiot friends aren’t here so I don’t have to deal with them staring.

Reaching my desk, I painfully sit down. My thighs tensed up as it was about to make contact with anything other than my pants, then instantly relaxing as it made contact with the chair.

Not saying a single thing, I just sit there silently.

“Leon, you're late. Anything to say about it?”

Looking up, the teacher was staring straight at me. Her face seems serious and concerned, but inside she’s scared like a kid.

I wonder why Kyle called her a loli. She’s not that small, well she’s half my height, but that’s not that small to be considered a loli. Right.

She continues to stare at me like a little kid, maybe that’s why she’s known as a loli. I guess I have no choice but to answer her, “I-I-I-I-I-I…” Shit.

I feel sick in my stomach, I hate talking to people, especially after my jaws have been punched in and I have to talk infront of so many people.

“I see? Well then, let's start with today's class.” Even though she said this, everybody was still staring at me. I wonder why, there’s nothing new here. Usually I look much worse after one of Kyle’s beating.

They may think that I hate them but I really don’t. I understand why they do nothing but stare, I would do the exact same thing.

Another reason why I can't complain is that I'm not a good person. There have been plenty of times where I have been selfish and would actually pull people who want to help me into the fire. Letting them be beaten up instead of me.

I deserve this. This distance that I have created from myself and the rest of the world. Nobody likes me, and that’s ok, I understand why. But it still hurts.

* * *

Nothing else really interesting happened today. I went through class being stared at or hearing very loud whispers about me from others. Then, without my hidey hole, I got jumped by Kyle and his idiot friends. Went back to class, pretended to actually care about the subject and then got another beating after school.

By the time I was done healing up, the sun was already going down.

Checking my phone that was still not cracked I remember I still had to delete those girl’s pictures. But that can wait.

Walking down the street to where my legs will take me, I didn’t really feel like going back home. Well, it’s technically my home but, I don’t really see it as that.

Anyways, I just don’t want to go back.

Walking down a random street, the wind bashing against my side. My open jacket traveling with it.

I continued to walk without delay, I didn’t look up, just staring at the ground. I did almost hit a few poles, but I didn’t care. Hitting my head on something sounds therapeutic at this point.

But before I could carry through my therapy of hitting my head on something hard, I heard a low whimper to my side.

I seemed to have walked next to an alley.

Within the darkness a group could be found huddled up in a ball. Wait no, this group, they're too small to be adults or even teenagers. Staring at them for some time I could tell from their height that they were either midgets or children.

Children abandoned. Tired, cold, hungry. They were huddled up together to try and stay warm, I could see the ribs of these tired children. They had nothing but the little scraps of literal shit to eat.

Each one of them reminding me of myself when I...

Welp, they have nothing to do with me. No point in worrying about some random kids, just worry about yourself, that’s the rule.

As I lay my eyes elsewhere, I was about to take a step away from this sad sight, but before I could, I felt a small hand grab hold of my jacket.

Fuck, I knew this would happen. Looking down, I see a smal girl with sunken eyes and cheeks, staring at me with her clear blue eyes.

Her hands smearing the dirt onto my clothes. Her smell, like the smell of a farm house filled with horse shit.

I knew this would happen because I used to do it.

It’s a tactic created by children with no homes. They will use these sad scenes you would see on the internet and try to get people like me who feel sad about them to buy them anything they want. It’s actually pretty smart really. Taking the advantage of people's feelings and stuff like that, although it only really works for small young children. Unless you grow up and become really hot.

But sorry kid, I’ve already done this sort of thing. Even if it hasn’t worked for me before, but it sure has for others. Don’t even try.

Staring into her eyes, an image seemed to have reflected back at me.

It was a dark haired child with lines of dirt running along his face. With scars all over his body and a hole on his side that had filled up. Looking like something was impaled in there.

“...Fine! You little shit, don’t think I don’t know what you're doing. I did the exact same thing you're doing right now you shits.”

A large smile appeared on the girls face. Her bright face smile alone seemed to have brighten not only her own face, but the rest of the children as they got up and started following me to the closest place that would sell cheap food. Remember I don’t have much money.

Hopping into a random convenient store, I just started buying random stuff. I don’t even remember what I bought them. I didn’t care at all. The only thing I was paying any attention to was how all my money was wasted in a couple of seconds.

“Welp, I’m out of money.”

About to walk away from those succubus you call children, I felt once again a small hand grab a hold of my jacket.

Not again. Looking down, I see the same girl who was holding onto me until I agreed to buy her and her little friends something to eat.

Once again she was staring at me like she wanted something. But I already wasted all my money. What more do you want from me, “What? I don’t have any money, I can’t pay for any more food you brats. Now Leave me alone, I need to go cry in a corner somewhere.”

She didn’t let go, just kept staring at me. What does she want, to mug me for my clothes. Trust me kid, I’m a coward, I’ll give you my clothes if you threaten me a little.

Finally after minutes of her staring at me, she finally started to open up her mouth. But as she did, a scene straight out of a horror movie came to life.

Her teeth, they were all missing. No, not that. There were shards of teeth still sticking out of her gums. It looks like they were punched out.

It was terrible to look at. She had the mouth of a grandma, but those little teeth that must have been punched out. They looked like little spikes. What the hell happened to her.

With a soft but very strange voice she said two things, “Thank you.”

And just like that, she left with her group. I saw them go back to the little alley way I found them in and started to huddle up again.

I stood there for what felt like days. I realized that I didn’t stuttered once when I was talking to those brats. Usually I can’t speak, adults, teens or children, all of them I can’t say a word to. But those brats I could talk to. What makes them different?

I decided to continue trying to answer that question while I walk home, instead of wondering what happened to that little girl. It was way easier to think about.

I never really came up with an answer I was proud or sure of. But, I think it’s because they remind me of myself.

“Nah, that can’t be it. It’s probably because I don't see those kids as a threat. Yeah, that must be it…”

Walking into the street of my home, I walk up to my front lawn.

The sign that was put up mocking me as I walked past it. Those words remind me of what I am. Especially that last one, Orphanage.

Gritting my teeth at the site of that word, reminding me of my parents.

It’s already kinda dark, but I can’t sneak back to my room. It’s not possible.

Sofia and the others will be awake until like midnight, and while I have tried staying up until midnight, the police or someone else will always find me and try to do something to me. Either it be mugging, raping, or just escorting me home, none of them seem all that good of options.

For this, the only thing I can do is just man up and go inside through the front door. Although, it’s kinda hard to man up, when you're a coward like me.

Walking up to the door, I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down before entering, but to no avail.

A light was up in the corner of the door. It held the extra key needed to come inside. Using that, I open the door and slowly walk in.

The screams of children entering my ear as I try my best to quickly but also silently enter my room.

Reaching my door, I was so focused on opening it that I didn’t realize the little trip wire that was installed at the bottom of my door.

Wanting to just enter into my room, my foot tripped over the wire. It’s sharp edge cutting into my skin, lining the wire with red.

Falling down the wooden stepps, I could see at the bottom of the steps, a wall of shards sharp enough to cut skin, and nothing more than skin.

As I rolled down the wooden steps, each roll filling my exposed skin with splinters, my face and body neared the wall of shards that awaited me at the bottom.

As I near it, the only thought I could use to describe what I was about to feel was, this is going to hurt.

I couldn’t stop myself, so I had no choice but to let my body fall into the shards.

As my body fell down to the surface of the basement, the shards started to tear its way through my clothes and into my skin. A small blood pool started to form under me, it’s color dark. Mixed with the dirt and dust of the basement floor.

Welp, that’s one way to come back home.

Wanting to get back, I get on all fours and push myself up with my hands. But obviously doing that would result in the shards getting deeper into my body. But I don’t give a shit.

Now on my two feet, I look at the condition of my body.

My jacket and clothes had hundreds of holes that were both dripping with blood and were soaked in it. Well, that’s going to be an hour of picking out shards from my body.

Smelling something terrible, I looked up to see the scariest woman alive. Sofia.

Despite being such a bitch, she was actually quite beautiful and had plenty of men trying to court her.

With a slim body, shoulder length brown hair, and emerald colored eyes. She used to keep her hair long until apparently my mother’s death, at which point she permanently cut off her long hair, keeping it short.

She looks like she has a calm demeanour and very wise and motherly, but for god knows reason, she seems to only hate me, and instead seems like a saint in front of everyone else.

But that didn’t matter, I already knew her true personality for a long time. Also, near her feet right now are a couple of beer bottles and her right hand is holding a knife long and sharp enough to stab straight through me.

It’s going to be another one of those days huh.

Sofia was mumbling something. Unlucky it was just loud enough for me to hear it in her bitchy voice, “You took her. You took her from me. You and that bastard, you all took her from me.”

God dammit, this again. Getting out of the shards, I bring my arms up like a boxer. First thing to do when someone has a knife and is ready to attack you is to tell yourself that you're going to get cut.

If you keep telling yourself you won’t get cut, then when you do actually get cut you won’t be ready for what happens next.

Then after that, is just the basics. Keep your eyes on her, your arms up so she cuts your arms instead of your chest.

We stare into eachothers eyes, or more like I was staring at her hair since she was looking down. This goes on for mere seconds, until Sofia just jumps into action. Running at me like a crazed bear, she brings her arms up and strikes down at me.

The blade of the knife is coming from my right. When a knife comes down on you from the right, you don’t want to go to the left, instead go against the knife and dodge right. Otherwise the blade will just follow you, it’s best to just get it over with.

Swinging my head down and up, creating a U shape I move to the right, narrowly dodging the blade.

This would be a good time to attack, but I don’t know how to do that. I just dodge.

Moving to her back, she swings in complete 180 and strikes at me again.

In this situation, you don’t want to move right or left. Instead, just jump back.

Doing just that, I immediately jump backwards to the wall. Her blade narrowly cutting the tip of my chin.

Blood started dripping there and it stung. But I was bleeding everywhere; it didn’t affect me at all.

Seeing her first two attacks have failed, the rage she had kept in her had exploded in a mad fury.

Swinging randomly infront of her, she charges at me.

My breath is heavy. I’m scared, I don't really know what to do at this point.

She would swing left then instantly stop in the middle and swing right. And because it’s a blade, even if it has no power behind it, it’ll still cut through flesh like a fish.

If I dodge to the left she might stop half way and strike at me. The same goes for moving to the right. I can’t jump back, I don’t have much space, I’m literally on the wall.

Fuck, I don’t really know what to do, but fuck it. I’m going to do something really stupid.

As she neared me, I counted the number of steps it took for her to get to me. It was a weird thing to do but I was pretty good at it.

She needs three more steps to get into striking distance. I was scared I was going to die, but I still waited.

I stared into her chest, and as she tooker her second step I moved forward. Not backwards, right or left, I moved to her right side, where the knife was.

Sofia was shocked at my decision and because of my sudden weight pushed onto her, she was off balance. I hoped she would have tripped but she was able to catch herself with her back foot.

Alright I don’t have much time, creating another U shape, I duck under her armpit and jump over to the other side.

Pivoting my foot 180 degrees and after taking a few steps back, I stood there, staring at her back.

I did something really stupid, but hey, it worked.

I did this since I can’t go left, right or back, so the only thing I could do was go forwards. Also, she wouldn’t have expected me to go forward.

Also, I had to go to her right, she may be drunk, but she’s not stupid enouigh to let me rest there in her shoulders. She would have stabbed the shit out of me, so going to her right armpit would have made her stabbing me way harder.

But hey it worked so who cares. But I still don’t recommend anyone to go into a fight with someone with a knife. I just got lucky today, she seems way more drunk than usual and can’t swing straight.

I thought I would have been safe for a few moments as it would have taken her some time to realize where I went in her drunken state, but she can’t even let me have that.

Spinning around, she tried to swing her knife to cause me to be intimidated, but instead she let go of the knife.

I watched in slow motion as the knife left her hand and traveled at me.

I don’t think she even meant to throw her knife, she’s not an expert knife thrower. I don’t know if I got lucky or not, but the knife lodged itself straight into my shoulder, “GAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

I intensely grabbed the handle of the knife, trying to pull it out of me.

As I did, the blood started gushing out like a fountain. I was already bleeding a lot, but none of it was life threatening, but this. I could die from blood loss.

Normally a person would stand there shocked, but this type of thing has happened to me before. Without wasting time, I put my right palm down on the wound and started to put pressure on it. I need to stop the bleeding.

I was going to turn around and grab some bandages but realized I still had a crazed woman trying to kill me.

I completely forgot about her. I looked up just in time to see her jump into the air and pin me to the ground.

I don’t know if it was instinct or not, but I quickly blocked my face with my left arm. I still had my right palm over my wound, so I placed my left arm over my forehead and let it rest on my right elbow.

It was mere seconds after this that I felt the weight of Sofia as her fist came down with frightening speed and power.

Each plow would hit my left arm and make it jump which would then instantly be hit back down into my head.

This went on for hours, by the time she finally stopped my arms were about to give up. They were both numb.

We looked into each other's eyes for the first time today, and all she said afterwards was, “You took her from me. You deserve this.”

She got up and just walked away as if nothing had happened.

I don’t know if it was helping but, she would sometimes hit my right elbow and push it down, adding more pressure onto my wound. I don’t really know.

I was tired and deprived of energy, but I still had something to do.

Getting up, I crawl to the corner of my room. There, a cardboard box laid.

When I opened it, rolls of bandages, cotton and wires meant to stitch up wounds showed up.

Removing my clothes I immediately grab the wires and start stitching up my wound. That was the first priority since the rest won’t kill me for a while.

Once that was done, I started removing all shards still in my body and bandaging everything. I wasn’t a pro at it, but hey I was ok.

Once I was done, I looked like a mummy. Or I feel like one, I don't have a mirror and I sure as hell won’t go outside.

While I was cleaning my body, with any cloth I could find to rid me of the blood I realized I still had my pants and shoes here. I guess I forgot about returning them to the dumpster for tomorrow.

“Those brats, making me forget.” Whatever, I’ll just sleep with it on. I’m going to wear them tomorrow anyways.

I look down at my naked bandage body. Using my fingers I trace over all the scars I have collected over the years.

Also, I don’t know when, but at some point I got myself a six-pack. I don’t work out, but I guess having a crazy woman and a bunch of idiot bullies constantly beating you up everyday will get you this type of body.

I continued to trace over all my scars, and then I got to the big one. It was on my left side and it looked like a volcano of skin. Something was impaled there, and it was the first life-threatening scar Sofia gave me.

I think I know now why I could talk to those kids so much. That reflection I saw in thoses girl’s eyes, it was me. As a kid, I was forced to live on the streets by Sofia.

I rather not go back to those times. So I just went back to thinking about Sofia, and the things she did to me.

After a while, the memories I had of her all came back to one thing. She always says that I took something from her.

That woman Sofia was talking about was my mother. I don’t know what type of relationship she had with her, but I’m sure that Sofia was in love with her.

But my mother chose my father.

I still remember it. I was three at the time, but I remember how my parents died. I was with them when they did, and later I was given to Sofia since she was friends with mom and she ran an orphanage.

Obviously that was a terrible mistake.

And with that, I end this day by going to sleep the way I always do. Crying.

Nothing new happened today. Other than those kids, everything that has happened today has happened before.

Today was just a normal day in the life of me, Leon Smith.