At night

Everyone is back home now, Trevor, Tony and Evelyn just came back home and are entering the house now. "You seriously wasted our whole day by making us "spy" on Scott. Like seriously? You can literally sense idiotic energy from him, he even destroyed my plan," said Trevor.

"You know looks and actions can be deceiving. Also, I didn't ask you to join, you are the one who joined us, right Tony?"

"Right... but really Eva, we kind of wasted our whole day, we found nothing."

Evelyn gasped. "Y..You too Tony? I didn't expect this from you."

"Okay, your plan didn't waste our time, now stop being dramatic," said Tony. She gave him a bright smile.

Trevor looked at both of them. "You guys already became best friends, huh?"

"Yeah, we are not the type to change teams after knowing our teammate sucks," said Tony.

"Two things, I didn't change the team, and my teammate is great," said Trevor.

"Right, then why doesn't she have any leads till now? She has been investigating since day 1 and she hasn't gotten any leads yet."

"Hey Tony, stop getting on his nerves," said Evelyn.

"C'mon, it's fun to mess with him."

Trevor sighed. "I'm going to my room, I want to take a bath." He walked a few steps forward and stopped midway. He then turned around and grinned at them. "By the way... She's at least better than two people who wasted their whole day spying on an innocent old man thinking he is related to some mafia or something like that."

Tony laughed. "Looks like we are not the only ones who made strong bonds here."

Trevor smiled. "Okay, let's talk later, guys." He went inside.

Evelyn couldn't help but smile seeing these conversations. Tony looked at Evelyn. "I'm gonna go eat something, I'm starving. You get inside too, it's cold outside," he walked towards the entrance.

"Yeah, I will," she said in a soft voice.

She stood there out in the cold, spacing out. ‘It's fun being with them, it feels like they care about me more than you, Jodie... Oh I accidentally called you by your name instead of "Boss" in my mind, huh? You are not the same anymore.’ She noticed the moonlight falling upon her. She turned back to look at the moon. ‘You again... I just remembered that Jodie wasn't the first friend I had, it was... You…’

12 Years ago in Las Vegas

It was night and Evelyn's mother came back home late, Evelyn ran to her mother in excitement. "Mama, you are back! Eva is hungry, can you make some food for me now?" said Evelyn.

"Later."

"But mama you said the same thing the other day..." Her mother didn't pay attention to her words and went to her room, "...and the day before too and..." The sound of a door slamming shut was heard. Evelyn went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, there was nothing inside. "It's the same as before." She closed the fridge and sat on the floor leaning towards it. Her eyes became teary, her voice cracked. "I'm hungry."

She went to the balcony after a while, she looked at the sky to see the full moon shining bright. "Oh, you are not broken today, I'm so happy for you. I want to be full too," she laughed hysterically, "you get it right?" The smile on her face faded away quickly. "Four days..." There was nothing but silence for the next 30 seconds. "Right, I could go ask for food from others, there are many people living in this apartment."

She went outside and knocked on the neighbours door. An old woman opened the door, she was shocked to see Evelyn's state. She gave her food and asked a few questions. Evelyn said thank you and left.

She got to her apartment and went to the balcony. "Do you know, moon? I can finally sleep well after a while today. Today, you and I are both full." She heard the doorbell sound but she didn't bother about it and continued to gaze at the moon, then her mother called out for her after a while. She went to see what was up and found the old woman in the entrance facing her mother.

She looked at her mother and saw that she was furious. "Why would you go outside and ask for food from others?" her voice was rather calm.

"It's because I was-" her mother slapped her and she fell to the ground.

"Why are you trying to live?! Why can't you just starve to death?"

The old woman tried to interrupt, "hey, why are you-"

All of a sudden she heard a woman's voice. "Mom? What are you doing here and what's going on here?"

"See dear, Tina has a daughter and she has been neglecting her child all these years. Like, look at her."

"Let them be, whatever it is, it is their problem, don't interfere and come with me." She dragged her mother away with her.

"No, she needs he-"

Evelyn started crying. "What do you mean by that mom? Why should I starve to death?"

Tina walked past her. "Oh, so you want to live? If so just go away from this house and stop bothering me, you can live a long life this way."

"But I have nowhere else to go....."

Tina turned back. "Come with me," Tina took Evelyn to the streets with her, she threw her in an empty alley. "I don't care if you have nowhere to go. Don't show your face to me ever again," she walked forward, she slowly faded away from Evelyn's eyes as she walked further and further away. Evelyn sat there for the rest of the night.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

When morning came, she got up and wandered the streets to get help or to figure things out, she stopped in front of a bakery with a poster saying 'Looking for workers.' She got inside the bakery, the Shopkeeper saw the little girl and confronted her. "What are you doing here? What do you want? Do you need pastries? Where's your mom?"

"I... I want to work here."

"Huh? What kind of a joke is that? Get out of here!" She did as she was told, she asked for help from many people, many did want to help find her mother, but when they learned that her mother abandoned her they also abandoned her. The night came in what felt like seconds to her. She found shelter under a shop. She decided to sleep there that night.

She felt somebody calling out so she jolted awake, she saw a shady looking Man in front of her. "Hey little girl."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Ken. Today, I saw you wandering around the streets looking for a job. I will give you a job which will give you food, shelter and money."

"Really?"

"Yes, but for that you have to come with me." She followed the man to an underground basement, where she saw many other kids and teenagers. The man took out a whistle from his pocket and blew into it, everyone went silent and looked at the man. "Kids, listen! This is your new friend, treat her well and teach her what to do and what you have learned so far." The man left the basement.

One of the older girls came to her. "Hey, what's your name and how old are you?"

"My name is Evelyn and I am 11 years old."

The girl's eyes softened. 'The same as me when I started.' "Anyways, I'm Riya and he's Oliver," she pointed at a boy standing in the corner. "We are kind of the leaders here, we are the oldest after all."

The boy walked towards her. "You will be here for the next 4 years, after that you are free to choose what to do. For now, we will tell you what's your job here. He took out a small see-through sachet with some white powder inside it. "You go around and give this white powder in this cover to the place assigned."

"What's that?"

"It's called cocaine, it's basically illegal to carry it around and selling it is beyond illegal. Also, you will be taught karate by Ken here," said Oliver.

"I think that's all you need to know for now. You can go play with the other kids here," said Riya

She sat there in the corner and looked at the kids running around and playing, suddenly she felt a hand touching her shoulder, she looked up and saw a girl of her age.

"Hey, why are you sitting here? Come play with us."

"Maybe later," Evelyn gave the girl a smile.

"What's up?"

Evelyn's eyes started to get teary. "I'm scared."

"Oh that, it's fine, just face your fear and go forward, we have nowhere to go after all."

"That's not an effective way of cheering up."

"I know, but it's the best I can do. Anyways, what's your name? I'm Vanessa," Vanessa gave her a smile.

"I'm Evelyn."

"Hm, from today onwards you and I are friends, okay?"

"Okay..."

She did her assigned work with precision for the next two years, but...

"What happened, Ken?! Is... Is Vanessa okay?!"

"She was killed by that bastard. He didn't pay for the goods we gave him, so she insisted on getting the money, then he hit her on the head. We can't even... file a complaint."

"Give me his location."

"What are you going to do?"

"Just give me the location."

She went to the location given to her, she pressed the doorbell and waited, a man in his forties opened the door. She stabbed him in the guts the moment he opened the door and got inside to take back the stolen drugs. She heard the police siren while she was collecting the goods, she tried exiting through the door but the police were already there. "Aren't you the same girl who was riding a motorcycle without a licence that too as a minor? You got away that day," The policeman said. They took her to jail and locked her up. The stabbed man revealed that she was a drug dealer.

The police interrogated her to know more about their organisation. "Tell me who do you work for, how many people are with you?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, I work alone."

"Hm, what about your organisation then?"

"I only get orders from them, I don't know anything about it."

"Where do you get the drugs from, then?"

"They hide it in random public places and I get it from there." The police kept on asking questions but she didn't say anything about anyone else being involved, eventually the police gave up. They looked up her name and found that she is involved with many other crimes. She was sentenced to four years in juvenile prison for all the crimes she did.

8 years ago in Las Vegas

Evelyn was able to get released two years before her sentence finished. She decided to live normally from now on, so she decided to find a job. Unfortunately, she was not only rejected but also humiliated wherever she went. Being frustrated, she decided to go back to the criminal life, so she called Ken.

Ken: Hello, who's this?

Evelyn: It's me, Evelyn. I need your help.

Ken: I don't know what help you need from me, but whatever it is, my answer is no.

Evelyn: What do you mean? You said I can choose what to do when I'm 15 and I'm way past 15. I want to get back to drug dealing.

Ken: That's true, but that doesn't apply to you. You have a criminal record now, we need safe people for our job and you are not safe. Please don't contact me again.

Ken hung up the call on her. Evelyn went to her rented apartment and sat there thinking. She looked at her phone, it's not actually hers, it's the memento of her friend.

She remembered Vanessa's words. "I have finally saved enough money to buy this."

"What's this?"

"You don't know? Well yeah, we kinda live in a cave and this is a new thing."

"It's called a smartphone, we can use it to make calls, message people, play games and many more. Also, there's this thing called the internet, I have this application called Reddit....."

'Reddit, I should make a post about job searching,' she thought. She found a community to post, there she found a link saying 'join our Discord.'

She started talking a lot on that server, she made a few friends there, the one she was the closest to was "Jodie". Months passed by and she was still not able to find any job, 'the money I have saved up from all the drug dealings is slowly disappearing. I have to find a job sooner,' she thought. She got a notification on her phone.

Jodie: Hey.

Evelyn: Hey, what's up?

Jodie : Nothing, wbu?

Evelyn: Well, just got back after getting rejected from a company after an interview.

Jodie: That sucks. It's about time you work up on my advice.

Evelyn: I know it will be easier to just leave this place and start a new life somewhere else, but where can I go? It's true that I'm a criminal but I don't know left from right, I will get in trouble wherever I go.

Jodie: I have been thinking about it.

You can come to my town Nishille.

I will be there for you if you need any help and you can find a job here.

Evelyn: What are you talking about?

Don't trust an internet stranger and invite them to your place.

Plus, I'm a criminal.

Jodie: You became a criminal because of your circumstances as a kid. You were abandoned by your own mother, being a naive child, you decided to become a criminal.

Evelyn: I was going to go back to being a criminal, it's just that I wasn't able to.

Jodie: Again, it's because of your circumstances as a teenager, you were frustrated because of your state. So tell me, are you coming?

Evelyn: I need to think about it.

Evelyn thought about it alot and finally decided to leave Vegas for Nishille.

Present

"Evelyn?" Evelyn heard a voice from behind, she looked back, it was Catherine. "Wait, are you crying?"

"No, it's just dust."

"Dust, huh?" Catherine laughed, "anyways get inside, it's cold outside, I'm in charge of gates and doors."

Evelyn got inside, Akbar saw Evelyn. "Are you okay?"

She got mad. "Of course I am, don't be ridiculous."

"Don't get near her, she's upset, she was crying just now," said Catherine.

"Crying?"

"Anyways, I'm off to sleep."

"Mm." 'Really "boss" what are you doing? Even your biggest fan has a guilty conscience, she's about to give up. It's time to stop this silly game, I am... Worried about you and everyone around us,' Akbar thought.