PROLOGUE: RUNAWAYS

He was just 14 years old but he already had a mind of his own. He’s been bred to be the way he is so you can’t exactly expect him to be a “good boy”. If anything, he had already decided that he won’t be the norm and will make decisions based on what he believed is right and for the greater good.

Even if it meant going above and beyond what is moral and ethical.

At least, that’s what his father had taught him…

But the thing is, he and his father has had so many differences in the past there is no love lost - nor left - between them now. And all he can think of is leaving the palatial home he grew up in so he can decide what he can do with his own life without worrying about anything or anyone else.

And this concept is so new to him he’s now fighting with himself up in his head.

What about your sister? And the man you call your brother?

They’ll miss me but they can live without me.

You make it sound so easy…

It is. At least when I’m gone away from them I won’t have to worry about people’s expectations of me. Right now, being free is what matters the most if I want to stay sane.

He had cash on hand. Good thing too, cause he couldn’t use any of his credit cards. All of them were connected to his father’s bank accounts one way or another. Earlier that day, he had already withdrawn money from the ones that functioned as debit accounts.

Even if he tried to trace when and where I made the withdrawals, paper bills aren’t exactly traceable. Besides, they shouldn’t have taught me how to make fake IDs. Since I look so much like an 18-year-old, no one’s gonna doubt my new identity. They’ll gonna have one helluva hard time finding me.

He went to the seediest part of the city to hide out that night after leaving his sister and his father notes that he’ll be at a classmate’s house finishing a project. He paid that friend of his a lot of money and he was very willing to cover for him.

Guess being good-looking does help a lot especially of some of your friends are secretly gay.

After ordering a meal from a nearby takeout, he locked himself up in the dirty and unkempt fourth-floor room of that dilapidated and hardly maintained motel. He had no intention of sleeping or staying long either...

Can’t afford to sleep in such a dump, and get a bug. I just need to wait for early morning before sunrise so I can ride this bike into the river. Such a shame but I can’t bring her with me. I’ll just have to choose the nearest spot to dump her then walk to the airport, buy my ticket and leave for a random country of my choice as an anonymous backpacker

Again, you make it sound so easy…

Believe me, it is.

Hey, is that a… what is that?

What? That shadow? Probably just someone walking down the road…

In the middle of the night and in a place not even robbers are afraid to get robbed?

Well, maybe it’s someone with a death wish or a suicidal tendency…

But that’s a… girl! A weak-looking and underage girl! What the hell!

No way am I letting her walk here alone…

Are you going to… what about your plans to run away from home?

Waiting ain’t gonna kill me… unlike her.

The youth opened the cracked and soiled window wide so he can exit through it. Like a gymnast, he expertly maneuvered his silent downward decent. Of course, he could have exited through the motel’s entrance but he didn’t want to take the chance of losing sight of her while he was on his way down the stairs.

What the hell is she even doing here at this time of night? That’s crazy!

The athletic teen reaches her within a minute of his monkey-like downward climb. Good thing he only dented one of the aluminum drain gutters lining each of the four floors as he swung himself to the ground. He had no choice if he wanted to land safely enough in front of her after a swift roll that ended with him half-crouching position.

The girl, who seemed like she was around ten to twelve years old, looked at him but didn’t even flinch. Her eyes were dark, blank, and almost had the same hue as his own blue pupils. Her clothes were a little disheveled and dirty but it was a decent enough dress for someone her age.

Nope, definitely not a whore like the ones at the Resort.

The slim but muscled male stood up straight and walked towards her and she still didn’t react negatively to his presence. It was just that straight unblinking stare that seemed to burrow into one’s soul while was seeing the scene that’s right behind you.

Son of a bitch… there is something wrong with her!

He tried his best to sound smooth and soothing, even adding a soft smile…

“Heya there, you going anywhere? Want me to go with you just so you’re safe? This isn’t the best place to be in right now, you know…”

The girl’s eyes sparkled for just a second as if it was giving him some sort of assurance that she’s not afraid of him but the light died down almost instantly. She turns away from him and starts walking back towards the direction from where she came from, her steps a little bit faster than before.

His curiosity now perked beyond his capabilities to control it, he steps in time with her pace. Realizing that she won’t be speaking to him until - maybe - they reach their destination, he focuses his attention on the ground and puts into practice his ranger scouting skills.

Just her footsteps here in the dusty road. Good thing this place is so backward, they haven’t even used asphalt on their streets. It makes her path easier to trace. Wait… what the fuck…

The girl stops at a dark spot in between an abandoned unfinished cottage and a dilapidated rusty van and just stands there. He kneels and takes out his handy pen knife that had a flashlight function and illuminates the spot in front of the unmoving female, reading the marks left on the ground by a recent incident.

The academy student feels his blood go cold and his jaw tighten. He takes a deep breath to control his temper - the one weakness he is well known for even before when his age was still in single digits - the minute he realized what caused those scuffle marks were on the ground…

Naw, fucking hell, this can’t be right. Shit, this is NOT right!

He was so furious that he almost missed his dirt-stained thin-as-a-rail companion leaving him all of a sudden. Within a few moments, he had already run after her and was making sure that he stays with her by placing her limp arm loosely around his.

A few more minutes later, he found himself in the poorest and most backward part of the slums, a place that he thought was part of urban legends that people of his status made up to scare their children into staying in their mansions and to always stick with their bodyguards.

And yet here it is… the smelly filth… the derelict spots for sleeping… the garbage that also poses as their source of food source…

The pale dark-haired lass walked up to a ramshackle home with large cardboard boxes holding the cement blocks together and a roof that looked like it belonged to a grimy pigsty. On the positive side, it was the only “house” there that had some sort of light coming from inside.

Since she was just standing there, the top of her head just reaching up to his chin, he took it upon himself to knock loudly for both of them.

He heard a worried motherly voice from the inside, acknowledging their presence and asking them to wait.

The door burst open and out stepped a teary-eyed pale woman who looked like a mature mirror image of the girl he just met. The woman in the clean flimsy and slightly torn dress screamed in utter happiness and relief while hugging the still silent child tightly to herself.

Above the slender mother’s bent form, the tall and sinewy boy’s steady and cold gaze meets the savage and unwelcoming look of a dirty and disheveled man a foot higher than him.

All it took for the youth to realize everything that has happened is just seeing a few more seconds of the sneering man shifting his stare towards the little girl’s upturned eyes…

The stepfather’s threatening gaze was very clear not just to the girl but also to him.

And he did not back down giving the disgusting male the same warning look as well.