3 Disgusting City

"Ugh…"

The loud sound of traffic and discussion woke Randolph from his slumber. The bright morning light only barely filtered by the clouds flooded into the alleyway. It was bright enough to shine even through Randolph's eyelids, eliciting a pained groan from him.

"The freak?!" Garbage scattered everywhere as the young man forced himself up, the vague memory still fresh in his mind.

Looking both left and right, there was nothing in the alleyway. On one end stood the residential street. People and cars could be seen occasionally speeding past.

On the other side was the deeper end of the alley, that led into the shopping district of the neighbourhood. The previous pitch-black darkness was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a narrow pathway that split into two directions.

"What…" Furrowing his brows, Randolph rubbed his forehead wearily. "It must have been just a nightmare."

Shaking his head, he let out sigh filled with mixed emotions. It wasn't difficult for him to brush it off, after all, his nights for the past several months had been filled with bad dreams.

The young man sat there for a little while longer, but eventually pushed himself back up. He didn't want to, but he'd have to come back to reality at some point.

"Fuck…"

A curse slipped from Randolph's mouth as a dull pain flooded his body upon standing up. The exertion aggravated his bruises, and it wasn't helped by his aching muscles from having slept on the solid concrete for the entire night.

He frowned as he inspected his body, but let out a sigh of relief soon after.

Despite being covered in trash, with a horrible number of bruises, nothing was broken. The only concern he had now was of his swollen eye, which needed to be treated immediately.

As for everything else? Life went on.

"…?"

As the young man stood up, his gaze was attracted to a small pile of black dirt that sat close to his feet. Upon a closer inspection, he realized that it was a pile of ashes.

The hell is a pile of ashes doing here?

He was slightly curious, but he had more urgent matters to worry about.

Throwing the question to the back of his mind, Randolph threw out his arms in a painful stretch before limping out of the alleyway. He travelled towards the residential area, his footsteps slow and purposeful so as to not aggravate his bruises.

Exiting the alleyway, Randolph was greeted with the view of his neighbourhood.

Apartment buildings lined the street, with small local shops sitting at its corners. The day was bright, but the atmosphere was a gloomy one.

There were only a few people walking by at this point of the day, indicating to Randolph that it was probably very early in the morning, when the happy and active ones weren't awake yet. It was times like these that the city showed its darker side, along with night. But it was a side that Randolph was quite used to.

Getting his eyes adjusted to the brightness, Randolph quickly began making his way down the sidewalk. His destination was clear, being merely down the street.

Cars sped by without stopping, but any people seeing him coming would subtly cross the street to avoid him. This was a pretty common occurrence in this city unless one was male or in a party of more than one. The people were innately distrustful of each other, and it showed in these small actions.

For those that didn't cross, their noses wrinkled in disgust the moment they passed by him. He knew that he smelled bad but couldn't tell how bad, having gone nose-blind to the smell after sleeping in filth for the night. The people didn't bring it up though, nor did he. Bad smelling people were also a fairly common occurrence in this part of the city.

Crossing by the apartment buildings, small little shelters could be seen with the occasional grimy man peeking out. Some of them were drunk off their asses, empty bottles littering the floor around them. Others gave Randolph a dirty look, turning away a few seconds later. They probably judged that he had nothing worth anything on him, or that he was one of them – a homeless man.

The sights reminded Randolph of the event yesterday, drawing an involuntary sigh out of him.

The thugs that had waylaid him the night before were hired goons from a gang of loan sharks. Though they were a small gang, they were vicious in their methods.

They had probably really only meant to threaten Randolph. They had roughed him up a little bit, probably to scare him further, but he didn't take very well to it. His temper had gotten the better of him, and so out came the fists. Despite his bruising though, the young man held no regrets.

Seeing his apartment building coming closer and closer, disgust came over Randolph.

It was shocking to him that he had been accosted so close to his home with nobody to come to his aid. Deep in his heart, he knew that he should have expected such a thing, but he was still shocked.

They had likely been camping outside for the entire day, or perhaps they had known his schedule and when he would come out from his apartment, as the moment he did was when they grabbed him into the alleyway.

Usually in any other neighbourhood they wouldn't have the chance, but here they did. The buildings were spaced incredibly close together, meant for the purpose of milking as much money out of the less wealthy people as possible. The apartment buildings would usually be lined farther apart, but this was one of the… poorer suburbs, for lack of a better term.

In essence, it was the slums. The police didn't even bother patrolling this side of the city, not even to fill their quotas. Even if they had caught the fight, they probably wouldn't have done anything to stop it.

Entering the lobby of his apartment building, he pulled his FOB1 out. Swinging open the door to the building, he made his way to the elevator, entering it slowly. Inside it, he could finally take a breather. The walk was short, only about three or five minutes, he was thoroughly exhausted due to his lack of proper rest and aching muscles.

This event had really woken Randolph up. He had thought that his home was safe, and while they wouldn't easily intrude, they could just wait for him outside. He had to go out eventually, one way or another.

The fact that he had lost all elements of safety forced the realization into him that he had to do something about circumstances.