Hungry, tired, and cold that was how Magnus felt roaming the old run-down part of the city. It was a late autumn night, four months since he got kicked out of his aunt’s house. Four months of wandering the streets, begging for food, and sleeping in the cold.
He was currently looking for a place to stave off the cold. His old place got taken over by a group of local delinquents that took to terrorizing the homeless. He tried scaring them away but all he got in return was a black eye and a wound on his pride. No matter, he had worse.
His piercing blue eyes scanned the moonless night sky.
“Not good,” Magnus mumbled to himself as he saw the telltale blue sheen of lightning. Slowly then faster and faster cold raindrops started falling. He raised his old tattered jacket he got from a dumpster, over his head and started running.
After a few minutes, he saw it. A worn-down-looking 2-story family house with boarded-up windows and a leaky roof. It would have to do. He climbed the patio stairs that were more hole than stair at this point and said, “Better be safe than sorry,” and knocked on the rotten door. When he got no response, he pushed down the handle and the door opened with a whining creak.
Standing in the hallway with stairs right in front of him and a doorway to the living room on his left Magnus decided to check if the house really was abandoned. A relatively solid roof over your head hardly comes without a resident in this city. Pulling out the knife he got from his father when he went fishing with him for the first time, he sneakily searched the living room. After finding nothing suspicious on the first floor he went up to the second. With the stairs groaning under the weight of his malnourished body he thought, “If anyone’s here they already know about me.”
After checking all the rooms, he decided to settle into the one that didn’t have holes in the roof. He lay down on the floor and returned his knife to his pocket. “I’ll sleep for just a minute,” he said to himself and closed his eyes.
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Even though he hadn't slept for more than a day, he found himself awoken by the rhythmic sound of the floorboards creaking. Reaching for the knife in his pocket he found himself only with empty air in his hands. He opened his eyes and saw a dark figure standing a few steps away from him with the knife in their hand.
“Shit,” he whispered. He needed to get that knife back. It was the only thing he had from his father after he passed away alongside his mother. He was lucky to only get away with a scar on his right cheek.
The unknown thief stood with their back to him and didn’t seem to notice he was awake yet. He did the first thing that came to his mind and lunged for the thief’s legs. It worked too well. With a surprised yelp, the thief came crashing down next to him. The thief’s face made contact with the wooden floor and with the floor rotten through and through it couldn’t take the impact and broke.
The knife fell out of the unconscious thief’s hand and stabbed right into Magnus’ stomach. With a loud crash, Magnus crashed down onto his back and blacked out.
When he regained consciousness, he tried standing up, only to find that his feet weren’t responding so he just crawled to the closest wall to rest against it. He looked down at his feet and found his knife still sticking out of his belly. Having been tossed around thanks to the fall it was bleeding profusely.
Magnus looked around the room but the thief seemed to already have escaped. Help wasn’t coming.
He snorted even through the growing pain “It was a miracle I made it this long. My luck was bound to run out sooner than later.”
NO!
He survived through worse. He would make it this time as he made it when the shrapnel hit his face, as he got beat down again and again on the cruel streets. Try as he might to stop the bleeding, he felt his lifeblood slowly seep out of his hands.
Looking out the window on the wall opposite of him to see the stars one last time, he only saw the light reflected by the rain as they fell near the streetlights. A thousand balls of light rocketing down to the ground. It wasn’t the starry sky but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Taking one last look to soak it in, his vision slowly fading he saw the sky light up gold. “It must be the blood loss,” he thought and closed his eyes one last time. Unbeknownst to him right at the moment his eyes closed, thousands of gold lightning bolts radiating regality and glory seemed to rain down all around him.
[System Integration Phase 1 Complete]
[Initiating Phase 2]