"How the hell did I get here?"
Everything around me was so dark that I could almost see the green light shining off my emerald eyes onto the surroundings.
Well…maybe that was just proof that the silence and darkness was getting to me.
So much so that it prompted me to perch myself upward slightly, the rustling beneath me playing like sirens.
Soon, a thin streak of light pierced through the darkness, onto my eyes as I darted them back and forth.
"Hm, better give it a little more time."
I mumbled once again, the light disappearing as I tried my best to relocate the position I was previously in.
"Where was I? Ah, yeah. How the fuck did I get here exactly?"
I tried to recall the sequence of events that led to this.
It was hard considering I didn't completely understand everything, but I started to feel deja vu upon realising I'd already answered this question one hundred times over.
"Right…complete and utter ???."
As my eyes started to once again get used to the darkness, allowing me to perfectly see the black bags filled with trash I rested on, other miscellaneous garbage scattered around me, allowing me to better position myself to get comfortable.
Despite what one might think, it wasn't that bad after you got used to the smell. I've definitely slept in worse.
"Since now, I've lived by a firm Philosophy. Stay Invisible. Stay Useful. Stay Alive. The true ways of a cockroach. And it worked…Turns out it was nothing but a means to prolong a meaningless life before the world chose to play a cruel joke."
I sighed, soon leaping upwards as I pushed the cover off, watching it swing backward.
Leaping out, I immediately looked around.
The streets were empty for the most part. As expected considering it was night.
Standing under a railway, I looked for familiar sights.
Tall pillars holding up the railway defaced with graffiti. Metal barrels filled with burning junk, rough individuals surrounding it for heat.
Not to mention the frequent shady figures huddled together, seemingly exchanging things as they kept an eye out around them.
In other words…home.
This was my home. The Glades.
I took a deep breath as I stuck my hands in my pocket, heading down the street.
Contrary to what one might think, I didn't draw any attention upon climbing out of the trash.
No, that was a regular Tuesday here in the Glades.
Not to mention the fact that I blended in seamlessly.
With my bandana wrapped around my face, covering everything but my eyes and the hood I had on, I looked right at home.
"Deer? Is that you?"
I halted in my steps as I turned, witnessing a man with dreads and a large fur coat sitting on an obnoxiously large red sofa on the side of the street.
He sat in between four loosely dressed females, two on each side as two large men stood firmly beside each side of the coach.
"How you been, Reggie?" I replied, taking a step forward but not getting too close.
"Damn, man. The whole of Black Heron's looking for yo ass. I heard yo boy Pinkman got popped. I thought you were dead." Reggie leaned forward, clasping his hands together.
"Yeah, I was able to get away. Which reminds me, you've got your eye on the streets, where in the Glades is Black Heron's influence the weakest."
Reggie pondered for a moment.
"You going under? Well, Lakeside would be yo best shot. Black Heron doesn't meddle with those ends cause it'll result in turf wars."
I nodded as I looked around.
"Yeah, makes sense. Thanks a lot for your help, Reggie."
"Anytime, Deer. We boys after all. Good luck." Reggie nodded as I did the same, leaving and turning a near corner.
And as I did.
"Get Brick on the phone." Reggie, his expression dark, muttered, prompting one of the large men to his side to pull out a phone from his pocket.
In the next second, he raised his head, revealing a wide grin, leaning back as he swung both arms around the females beside him.
"Black Heron's going to pay a hefty amount for this intel I got for them. Jeez Louise, feels like christmas!"
Reggie cackled.
'Good.'
With my hands still in my pocket, I didn't even bother waiting to make sure he did in fact deliver the intel. I knew he would.
Therefore, I left the corner where I stood, leaving earshot of them as I continued down the road.
'Lakeside is far enough away that it should be a sufficient time for me to lay low while they go out chasing ghosts.'
I, of course, meant Black Heron.
They were once what I hoped to be my salvation, yet were always, in some way, the bane of my existence. Now even more so.
Despite my cockroach lifestyle, always finding a way to get by or stay under the radar, this time, there was nothing I could do, simply watching as I was struck with a stray bullet of misfortune.
A stray bullet in the form of my partner…well, former partner. Pinkman.
The complete opposite to me. Where I specialised in laying low, he had a knack for doing a little too much at times.
This time was no different.
In being nosy and learning integral details of Black Heron, it wasn't long until his curiosity got him noticed.
But not exactly by Black Heron. No, he would've gotten away with what he did if it weren't for…
'The Hood.'
My expression unknowingly twisted in frustration the more I thought about it.
To think everything I'd worked for was undone by a random man wearing leather and running around with a bow and arrow.
He hadn't been around for long, yet in the short time he'd been in Starling City, he'd made a name for himself for hunting the Elites of the city, exposing them for crimes like a modern day robin hood.
It was because of this that I was surprised that he chose to meddle with us street tier crooks.
Be that as it may, his interference caused Black Heron to catch onto what Pinkman had done.
It wasn't long until the idiot was caught and because I was his partner…
'Cut all loose ends. A frequent code Black Heron went by. I was too close to Pinkman and the crucial secrets he held, so I gotta go whether I know anything of them or not.'
Of course, I did. But that was only because the idiot wouldn't stop talking about it.
With these thoughts running through my head, the streets became quieter as I went.
Having waited for this, I unwrapped the bandana around my face, removed the cap I wore and slipped off the hoodie, dumping it all into a nearby trash pile.
Only did I take a moment to bask my bare face in the dingy air of the glades.
With rather smooth skin, boyish face and wild unkempt black hair falling onto my forehead, other than my rather young exterior and vibrant green eyes, not much stood out about me. As I preferred.
"I will say though…Pinkman really did change my view on this place…"
Not just the Glades, but all of Starling City.
There were two types of people in this city.
The ones at the bottom, born into the dirt, who learned to lie, steal, and claw their way through life because it was all they'd ever known.
And the ones at the top, polished and powerful, who lied and stole with contracts, not switchblades, and stepped on people like me just to stay there.
Different masks. Same rot underneath.
That's all Starling City is. A cesspool of criminals, some just wore better suits.
.How did I come to this conclusion?
"The infamous Kingpin of this cartel is no other than Elijah Murray. Hell if I knew who that was upon Pinkman telling me. But he's supposedly a Starling City Elite, known for his non-profit charities and service to the public."
This paired with some other things Pinkman had told him and the recent flurry of elites who had been exposed by The Hood, it was clear.
"So, I can't help but ask…what's it all for…"
"Hey!"
I stopped upon a sudden yell snapping me out of my trance.
As I turned, I witnessed a balding man with a rather unfriendly face, wearing a loose suit and most prominently fashioned a gold badge around his waist stomping toward me.
It was now clear why the area was so quiet.
But I expected this.
"Hey, Detective Lance." I greeted rather calmly, my expression blank as I watched the man approach me.
"Hey, my foot. Where you been, huh? Your mother's been worried sick."
Lance was a little taller than me, so upon him speaking with such intensity and looking down, he possessed a certain oppressive energy.
"School stuff. I didn't mean to be out so late."
"Mhm, you said that last night and the night before. But neither times have you gone so far as you have tonight."
I remained silent upon realising my words were doing me more harm than good.
Especially since I knew myself to be in the wrong.
On far more levels than Lance even knew. I couldn't help but think he'd shoot me if I'd told him I dropped out of highschool six months ago to pursue a life of petty crime.
"Let's go." Lance sighed. And as he turned, I simply nodded as I followed.
I'd usually avoid these lectures, but I needed the protection Lance didn't know he was currently providing to get home safely.
***
"You don't need me telling you about your mothers condition."
Lance started as we stood within a dimly lit hallway, a single loose bulb flickering above them.
It didn't help that light from the outside was almost all blocked out due to the boarded windows. Streaks of light were all that got past, casting a glow on the heavy graffiti on the walls.
"What's wrong with you, don't you care? You're never here."
I remained silent. I could understand how things seemed from his perspective.
But I had too much on my mind to endure it all tonight, therefore, turning I replied briefly.
"I understand. I'll do better, Detective…I promise."
Jiggling the handle to the door for a moment, a click rang out as it opened.
I slipped past, not looking back at Lance and closing the door in the next moment.
'I promise…after all…everything I do is for her.'
I thought but didn't say out loud, instead turning my eyes in a familiar motion as I usually did when I entered.
And like usual, they looked past the bare environment, the dried wallpaper that peeled off the wall like dried skin, the walls stained with neglect and water damage, the exposed brick and the crooked door up ahead, instead falling on a sleeping woman on a hospital bed, her nose attached to an oxygen tank and miscellaneous second hand medical gear I'd stolen.
With a rickety folding table by her side holding different bottles of prescription medication, I walked up, avoiding the spots on the ground I knew to creak.
Without getting too close, I stared for a second.
'The reason I dropped out was to pay these fucking pills, yet they dissappear each day quicker than I can manage.'
As a 17 year old highschool dropout from the Glades, naturally, there weren't many places I could go for work.
Despite having a somewhat promising future, between highschool, college and everything after that, it would all take too long.
'Yet, despite everything I've done, looks where its gotten me.'
On a blacklist for some of the most dangerous people in the city.
'I walked the straight line. I followed the path destined to me at birth, yet it has done me nothing. So what's the point?'
Despite trying my best to hide my identity and where I'd come from, there were members in Black Heron who had seen my face.
I'd sent them on a wild duck chase to Lakeside which was nowhere near my home, but I was only delaying the inevitable.
He was a dead man.
'So…fuck it…I'm going to die anyway…so I'll do it right then. I'll go out while setting her up for life.'
He stared at the woman laying on the bed.
At that moment, my brain began to pull everything that happened in the past few days together.
'The Hood hunts Elites. Apparently, the Kingpin who wants me dead is one of them. And after interrogating Pinkman, I'm sure he'll go straight for the top soon.'
But the question was when. Luckily for me, I knew everything big happening within the cartel now.
'The Auction. All the gangbangers, criminals and Glades crooks will be there. An auction selling a single item. A narcotic made by the Kingpin himself. That's where The Hood will appear.'
And where there was an Auction, there were people with money ready to buy.
'I'll use The Hood as a distraction, loot the bastards…and if I'm lucky, I'll take all those scumbags of the Glades and The Hood himself down with me.'
A suicide mission.
For everything he's ever wanted in one fell swoop.
Money.
His mother.
Everything.
'Tomorrow night, I will achieve it all. Tomorrow night, I get those bastards back…'
With this, I breathed in, taking one last look at my mom as I tightened my fist.
'Tomorrow night, I, Reed Bond, will die!'