3 Starving To Death

Carson's eyes opened wide as he took in the world around him. He saw broken down houses and tattered clothing on himself. When he was above the city in his soul form he had already taken in his surroundings. So Caron knew he was in the slums. There was no one around him. People in the slums rarely went out after all. There were no jobs the best you could do was hope to rob and steal from some sucker who came through and flaunted what little wealth they had. Everyone in the slums was a hardened criminal. It was the only way to survive. Even the child he had just taken over was an experienced thief. It simply that all his hauls were stolen away by his abusive father or the older boys that he had ended up starving to death.

( I need to find something to eat fast before. If I don't I might just end up starving to death again)

With that thought, Carson picked himself up and dusted himself off before venturing out for food. The only ways to get food around here were during the weekly church gatherings where the church hands out food or if you had money to cross the bridge and enter the town to purchase it. But it had just been a day since the church had given out food and Carson couldn't wait. But neither did he have money to purchase any food. So it only left the riskiest option of theft. Being caught was a death sentence. No one around here would care if you were beaten to death for thievery especially right now he was just a child of the slums with no value. If he was perhaps the servant of a noble someone might follow up and give the offender a light punishment just for show. But with no one to file a claim you would be lucky if the officer didn't give you swift kick for blocking the road. So stealing from town wasn't quite an option especially since with the tattered clothes he had on Carson would stick out like a sore thumb. He racked his head thinking when some of the leftover memories of the boy brought up a local pub. The only one in the slums. It was backed by all the slum lords. The most powerful gangsters around. They all collectively looked after the pub. It was the only establishment that was completely off limits to the thieves in the slums. Even if they had a thousand lives they still wouldn't go for it. But right now it was the only option. It was relatively close and with everyone as dishevelled no one would really pick him out for being dirty. The protection they had also might make them a bit complacent believing that no one would ever steal from them. It was do or die. If Carson didn't steal from these guys he would starve to death soon. There wasn't enough time to think about another option. He started walking towards the Pub as he swept the streets with his eyes looking for anyone nearby that might give him trouble. But he couldn't find anyone. As he had said earlier if there wasn't a need to be no one would be out in the streets. It was just begging to get robbed wandering the streets for no reason. Carson reached the end of the street and cut through an alley before the Pub came into view. It was a two-story building barely held together by all the repairs done to it. It had a wide front entrance and an even larger back entrance perfect for smuggling all sorts of illegal goods in and out. Carson had beaten up enough gangsters to know what this kind of place would be used for. The place hung a worn sign above the door. The sign featured a picture of a rat in a cup of beer the words below it said the Scrounging Rat. Carson scoffed at the name of the bar. He found it quite appropriate considering what kind of people entered he paused for a second with that thought though. After all was he not he gonna be one of those people entering in a second? With the fact that he was entering with the intention to steal only made it more ironic for him to laugh at the patrons.

Even from outside as Jason was walking by scouting it out he could hear the raucous laughter from inside. Jason decided not to enter through the front entrance it would be too noticeable. The body he was in was only around 6-7 so for him to appear in a pub would be weird. It was likely that everyone who entered the Pub was a member of the gangs and would be acquaintances so if he entered without thought they would single him out. So Caron quickly circled to the back. He took a peek from the alley trying to get a look at the back. The back was a loading dock there were doors the size of barn doors on the back. Several crates stacked up on the side as the door remained closed. For a loading site of several large gangs, Carson was rather let down by the security or the lack of security. Cause there was no one around...

Carson had prepared for a tough fight but it didn't seem like there was anyone around. The only voices he could hear were from the men in the front of the pub but there wasn't a single man in the back. It seemed like they truly had become complacent in the idea that no one would be daring enough to rob them. That worked for Carson. He wasn't the kind of person to look for trouble. Giving one last look to double check that there truly wasn't anyone around Carson made a dash for it. He quickly dashed over to a stack of crates and hid behind it while looking around for any sign someone had been alerted. But there weren't any signs. So Carson moved up to the large doors he opened the door open a peek to get a look inside. The area through the doors was simply a wide open bay area with a table to the side. There was nobody inside as well. There were simply more crates inside. Seeing that Carson opened up the huge door just enough to squeeze his thin frame through.