Nico sat with his back pressed against the damp concrete of the pillar, hands cradling a tiny cupcake. The single candle’s flame flickered with barely any life, struggling against the drafts that whistled beneath the bridge.

  Looking down at the pathetic thing, he felt the surge of everything that had been ripped away over the last few days. Mom and Dad, dead without explanation. The bank account, bled dry. And now, a birthday celebrated as a vagrant in the dirt.

  He tried to blow out the candle, but his throat felt as if it were being crushed by invisible hands. All he could manage was a few miserable drops of spit.

  Frustration boiled over. His fingers tightened until the cake squished between them, and he flung it with every bit of strength he could muster. It hit the opposite pillar with a dull thud.

  He pulled his knees to his forehead and collapsed onto his side, a jagged, shaky breath escaped him. The first sob was a dry, ugly sound, tearing out of him before he could choke it back. Then his eyes landed on the cupcake, it had somehow rolled into a dirty puddle.

  That was it. The dam broke. Heart-wrenching cries of anguish poured out of him, and violent tremors, having nothing to do with the cold, racked his body as he clutched his head. Memories flashed behind his eyes. Mom laughing in the kitchen while he messed up a recipe, Dad showing him how to solder electronics. Each image made him howl louder.

  After pouring out all the sorrow in his heat out into the uncaring world, Nico stilled.

  He managed to claw himself into an upright position, clinging to the pillar like a drowning man grabbing a savior’s leg. He sat there, letting his eyes wander, though he pointedly ignored the puddle where the cupcake lay. Looking at it again might break him completely.

  His gaze fell on a miraculously clean patch of water. In the reflection, he saw a boy with matted black hair, pale skin, and tired hazel eyes. The boy looked like a stranger.

  Eventually, the wind and rain drowned out his sobs. The grief subsided into a dull ache, and he dusted himself off as he stood up. No point in weeping, he told himself. This isn’t what they would have wanted.

  He had wandered here after the landlord kicked him out. He’d been given a good while to scrounge up the rent, but he might as well have been trying to reach the stars. For days, his mind had felt sluggish, as if he were wading through the sands of the Great Nothing outside the city walls.

  He’d even considered walking out there—letting the sands embrace him and closing his eyes forever, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  He blinked, scrubbing the salt and grit from his eyes, and looked out at the heavy rain. His gaze snagged on the cupcake one last time, and his jaw tightened. He had to do something, anything to stop the gloom from swallowing him whole.

  Then, an idea sparked. The coin.

  He began rummaging through his pockets until his fingers brushed against something cold and hard. He pulled it out, its silver surface catching what little light bled through the storm.

  His parents had been so strange that day. He remembered Mom’s trembling hands and the look in Dad’s eyes, the look of a man on death row. They knew, he realized, a bitter chill settling in his gut. They knew they were going to die.

  Nico could still hear Dad’s voice, thick and cracking, telling him not to lose this coin. He’d told him it would help him remember "Papa and Mamma." He hadn’t called them that since he was eleven. It had been a goodbye, and he’d been too blind to see it.

  Heart attacks. Both of them. At the same time. That’s what the officer had told him. He wanted to spit at the memory. The world was a cruel place, but it wasn't that coincidental. Something was up, but he was powerless, he didn't even know where to begin or who to blame.

  He decided that staying here would lead to nothing but a beating from a local gang. He needed to move.

  His stomach gave a low, hollow growl. Great. Even his body was against him now. Pangs of hunger began nibbling at him as he fished through his pockets, praying for some creds to magically appear.

  He let out a sharp, self-deprecating huff. He really shouldn’t have thrown that cupcake.

  Gathering the meager amount of resolve he had left Nico ventured out into the heavy rain with his jacket over his head.

  The city outside of the little bubble he had been in earlier was bustling with life, low-lifes, crooks, thugs and who knew what else prowled the dark edges of streets, corpo drones rushed back home after working all day, everyone was busy.

  He stood out like a sore thumb here, wasting not a second more Nico began moving, there no specific goal in mind. GROWLL. Maybe there was now.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Walking like what he hoped would look like he was busy and not to be disturbed, Nico scanned the surroundings like a hawk trying to find some way to get food.

  Maybe in the past he could have tried calling his relatives, friends, somebody, but no one had picked up his calls, it seemed like everyone had cut him off.

  Nico spotted a very drunk man stumble out of a bar, a few creds were poking out of his wallet, Nico had never entered the world of crime, but he knew if he wanted food he’d have to do something, working wasn’t an option, no one was hiring after all.

  Trying to look as inconspicuous as he could Nico began heading towards the drunken man, he decided to act as if he bumped into him and then pocket some creds.

  Getting closer he acted as if he tripped and fell on top of the man. “UGhhhh Gehh ooffah” The drunken man slurred while Nico’s hands reached into his pockets and pulled out all the creds he could get his hands on.

  “Sorry” Nico whispered and got up and began walking away, “HEY get back here you little . . ”, Nico didn’t stand around to listen to the man who had began sobering up.

  He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, trying his best to lose the man, he didn’t know if he was being chased, though Nico wasn’t taking any chances.

  Eventually his legs gave out and he leaned on a dumpster, gasping for air, his head pulsed with each beat of his heart and it’s thump traveled through his ear.

  Covered in sweat, Nico managed to stabilize his breathing and calmed his heart. He took a look at his plunder, Joy bust forth, only slightly tainted by grief.

  With a pep in his step Nico began looking around for a vending machine, a bit of searching he came upon a beaten up vending machine that displayed pictures of a disgusting looking protein bar.

  Going up to it, he fed it a few of his creds and pressed one of the buttons it highlighted and out popped a protein bar wrapped in plastic.

  Tearing open the wrapper and tossing it aside he bit into the the protein bar, he immediately wretched at the foul taste it left in its mouth, he thought of looking at the ingredients list but thought better of it, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

  He had an intuition that there wouldn’t be any more such vending machines for a distance, corpo’s were strangely territorial like that, also the fact that getting good food in this part of the city is really difficult.

  So he bought a few more of the foul protein bars, “E-Bar enough to power through anything !” He read as he threw away yet another wrapper to the side and gobbled up another bar, whatever bad taste it had was far outweighed by the hunger he was feeling.

  Putting some E-Bars in his pocket away for good measure, his hands touched something cold and metallic, he was once again reminded of the silver coin.

  He took it out, he began flipping the coin, the neon lights around the dirty alley fell upon the coin and revealed some engravings he had missed earlier.

  Stepping away from the small alley he was in, Nico walked towards one of the stores and let it’s neon light shine on the coin.

  “To Nico, From Papa and Mamma

  Press the coin against your forehead and wait”

  Nico had long stopped paying attention to his surroundings during all this, a very dangerous thing to do in this part of the city, regardless he pressed the coin against his forehead and waited.

  The part of the coin that was in contact with his forehead began heating up. Nico saw movement in the corner of his eye, BAM. Someone tackled him from the side. The coin slipped from his hand fell on the ground. “Got you now thief” Nico hadn’t seen who it was that had tackled him, it was too quick.

  “Le- Go of me ” Nico thrashed around. Nico and the man wrestled around on the ground for some time, nobody around them paid their little taekwondo match any attention, it was just another Tuesday for everyone here.

  Nico managed to scratch the man’s face, who pulled away with an angry sound and clutched his face, it was the drunken man from earlier. Nico cursed his own carelessness at getting caught up to like this and his wrong judgement that he had lost the man.

  Nico took a look around for his coin, he found it very close to gutter, he quickly pocketed it and began a mad dash away from the man.

  This time around the man was sober, perhaps he had taken a sobering shot, one of those rich people things Nico had heard his dad talk about once. He immediately gave chase to Nico.

  As he ran Nico began looking around for something that might help his situation, tragically for Nico, it was just city blocks stretching on and on as far as the eye could see, perhaps only his eye though, if he got some better cybernetics he could probably see further.

  Nico jumped over a few wet concrete patches, bushes, cats and whatever else was on his path, his follower did not seem to be as athletic though and simply went around them.

  Sweat had begun to pool up on his eyelashes and the thump of his heart was getting ever louder in his ears, Nico decided to try to cross the road. He dashed towards the road and began running across it.

  In hindsight dashing across a road was probably a very bad decision, luckily no car hit him, he was hit by a motorbike though, there was a sickening crunch as Nico went flying.

  Thud. Nico had landed a slight distance away, white hot searing pain passed through him as he lied on the floor, he tried moving his legs, there was pain but not as much as there would be if a bone was broken. The crunch was from the bike. Nico breathed a slight sigh of relief.

  The biker got off his bike and approached Nico with worry in his eyes, “You alright ?”, Nico waved him off, there was no point in wasting more time, he saw the silhouette of the man chasing him closing on him.

  With sheer strength of will and a healthy helping of adrenaline Nico got on his feet, blood dripping from his right thigh, began to try and once again escape from the man. At this point Nico was really panicked and could no longer see any way that he was getting out of this situation.

  “HERE’S YOUR MONEY” Nico dropped the creds on the street, it was no longer worth it. “LEAVE ME ALONE ”. His first crime had gone spectacularly, horribly wrong. “PLEASE” He was pleading at this point.

  Nico collapsed on the grimy sidewalk, “It’s the principle of the matter boy” The man loomed over Nico, he began dragging Nico by the scruff of shirt towards a casino.

  “Please sir” Nico had begun hyperventilating “I’m sorry, I'm really sorry”

  “Shut up dammit” The man delivered a kick to his ribs that knocked his wind out. A gasp escaped Nico’s mouth.

  When the man and Nico arrived at the casino, the door opened by itself with a dull rattle, they entered the casino and the door closed behind them with a heavy thud, sealing Nico’s fate.