Ever since his grandfather died he slowly started to accumulate a series of bad luck.

Especially after he had that emotion of rare pity for his neighbor.

He would've ignored the burdensome man had he known.

William had let the man spend the night on his worn leather couch. His snores rang throughout the apartment like a jackhammer on steroids.

William tossed and turned for god knows how long before he decided to leave the apartment. The elevator lights were dim and the music was grating to his ears.

He just wished he could escape from the city.

He missed the old house in the woods. A stream ran in the back and the yard was large. The flowers that grew around the house were what he remembered the strongest.

The house had two floors and was perfect for a small family of four.

His grandfather, father, mother, and himself lived there for seven years before moving into the city.

However, the city was a terrible place for people who knew nothing about it.

His father worked harder than anyone, having been fired from his old job with decline in needed firemen left an impact on his esteem. Their small town had lost many residents and were not in need of any.

His mother worked as a receptionist at a hotel. They closed down after thirteen years of business.

His parents struggled to find jobs in such an environment.

They somehow made it through, with his fathers experience as a fireman and his mother having an amazing singing voice.

The grocery stories lights shown. The puddles of spring water slowly started to fall.

The rain was so bitterly cold.

‘Of course I didn’t bring an umbrella.’

After stepping into the grocery store and taking a look around to his expectations he found no umbrellas. He could only laugh mockingly at himself.

He bought a bag of chips and left. The night slowly started to consume the city and usher in the bustling nightlife. The various movie theaters and other nightly establishments welcomed customers.

He actually preferred the city when it was nightfall.

The lights were brilliant and covered almost every dark corner, it was so bright that even a child scared of the dark would feel at ease.

It had its cons though, with the recent case of mugging and human trafficking on the rise even the shine of city lights couldn’t quell the peoples fear.

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He didn’t walk far before he made it back to his apartment. The rundown building had

vines running up and down its walls. Even some of the windows were covered with boards because the building owner couldn’t afford to fix it.

As creepy as it was to others it was as much as a home to him. He had grown up here since he was ten. Moreover, He didn’t even need to pay the owner since his parents owned that apartment room.

They had spent almost all their money they had saved and invested in the apartment.

It was nice and affordable.

The building owner last year offered to buy it from him, however he was trying to sell it extremely below the market value.

He didn’t expect the landlord to not fix the wall correctly because of it.

They went over it with a lawyer and since it wasn’t really his plumbing that caused the major issues but the next door neighbors, he was exempted from paying a large amount of money.

The other walls were sound proofed to raise the building's value, so by fixing his wall the building owner would be losing a bit of profit.

Now knowing this knowledge that the money he’d sent and the agreed upon wall installation was changed, he was frustrated.

As the elevator slowly opened he noticed a commotion at the door of his apartment, the neighbor he had let stay the night was restrained. A bloodied knife didn’t lay too far away, the blood had dried and now clung onto the knife.

The two men holding down the neighbor were his friends Asher and Troy while Dilly was on the phone with the police. They each had an anxious look on their faces.

Dilly caught sight of William at the entrance of the elevator, and motioned for him. William walked up and asked what had happened.

Dilly explained in great detail how they had come to visit to spend time with him but when they stepped inside they caught the neighbor hiding bloodied clothes and a knife under William's couch. The man attacked them when he had been caught.

William was sweating profusely after Dilly finished, if he didn’t give them keys he might have been murdered. Although his luck had been terrible, he wasn't expecting his life to be put on the line because of it.

The police arrived shortly after and took the man away, they informed William he had to visit the police station.

The police station at night was brightly lit and with his three friends following him in another car felt more at ease.

Once all three made it to the police station Asher smacked his shoulder.

“Man, it’s been a rough night for you. You look completely haggard, look at how soaked your shirt is. I could use you to clean my floors.”

Asher joked.

The other two glared at him.

Dilly looked at William and said, “Don’t mind him, you know he jokes to release stress.”

“Sorry man.” Asher apologized, he knew that was wrong of him.

“I don’t mind. Lightens up this dreary atmosphere.”

“What are you gonna do about accommodations? If you’ve got nowhere to go for the night you can stay at my place.” Troy offered. Troy's home had lots of guest rooms since his parents were wealthy. He let them sleep over and play games plenty of times when they were younger.

“I might just take you up on that offer, I seem to have lost my wallet on my way home.” William didn’t notice when he lost it. He was too busy rushing home to get away from the rain.

“Man you have terrible luck,” Asher looked him up and down. “Is that why you didn’t buy an umbrella?”

“They actually didn’t have any. I had to run home.”

“I think you should see a shaman, bro.” Asher seriously advised with squinted eyes, his dark brown hair stuck to his forehead.

They all looked like drenched rats.

A young police officer came by soon after, “It’s time. Please follow me.”