Prologue

From the towering buildings and skyscrapers, to the busy and noisy streets of New York, a particular guy could be seen walking on the crowdy sidewalk, dressed in a simple attire comprising of jeans and a green oversized sweater.

He has a slightly long messy hair, an unkept stubble beard, large round eyes and sharp pointed nose, with a small glimpse from him, you could tell that he was a very handsome person.

As he walked down the sidewalk, he occasionally bumped into people as some of them were too busy with their phones.

"Watch where you're going, punk!" an office worker with glasses angrily said as he bumped into the guy with the green sweater, which in turn caused his phone to fall on the ground.

Luckily, the office worker didn't make a big deal out of it since he just picked up his phone and with a fierce glare, continued walking down the side walk.

The guy in the green sweater meanwhile turned his head from the office worker and sighed, before continuing his walk.

'What is it with these so-called 'smartphones' that people would have their eyes glued to it the entire day?' the guy in the green sweater thought to himself while making an annoyed expression as he continued walking.

It is clear that the guy in the green sweater grew up in a relatively poor environment since he doesn't know the reasons why people get deeply addicted to smartphones so easily.

After a few minutes of walking, his attention was suddenly caught by a siren blaring police vehicle speeding down the road, seemingly in the middle of a pursuit of something.

But due to the large amounts of vehicles tightly packed together in the streets, the police car was having a difficult time navigating it's way on the crowded streets.

After a while, the guy in the green sweater lost interest in the entire commotion and turned his head forward, continuing his walk down the sidewalk.

After an entire 20 minutes of walking or so, he finally reached his destination.

What stood in front of him is a cheap looking restaurant, with a sign above reading 'Nola's eatery', above the restaurant also stood another building, a three floored brick apartment.

The entire building has a relatively medium sized height, it was not too tall, nor too short, compared to it's neighboring buildings around it which stood at least a few hundred meters.

After silently admiring the structure in front of him, the guy in the green sweater then pulled the glass door open and stepped inside, there was always the ringing of the bell attached to the door who creates noise whenever a customer comes in, in which he is already used to since he had already been going here ever since.

"Oh hey Mitch, they're already waiting for you at the back." an old woman suddenly came up behind the counter and said something at the guy who is now known as Mitch.

Mitch nodded at the woman and glanced at the interior of the restaurant, there were multiple tables and chairs lined up at the left side of the interior, with only a few people numbering three or so eating their lunch insides.

Yes, and as for how the food was referred as lunch, not breakfast or snacks, it is because it's already 12:20 noon.

"Yeah, sorry I was late, I had to do some lifting at joe's." Mitch nodded at the woman and began to make his way towards the back kitchen.

"I understand, now don't forget to throw those trash after you're done." the old woman reminded.

"I will!" Mitch responded before finally stepping inside the kitchen.

There were stoves, ovens, and different kinds of cooking furnitures that lined up inside the room, not to mention the multiple counters, cabinets, and shelves that contained multiple cooking materials and wares.

But the thing Mitch's eyes were really focused into was the dish which was located at leftmost corner in the room, along with the large number of dishes stacked one after another.

But instead of sighing in defeat, Mitch smirked and began to make his way towards the dishes, enthusiastic of the thing he was about to do, and eager to receive his pay after he'll finish the job.

"Alright" And just like that, Mitch started to wash the dishes one by one.

The sound of the running water from the faucet and the scrubbing of sponge against silver could be clearly heard outside as Mitch continued to wash the dishes.

"Poor boy, he doesn't deserve this kind of life." The old woman muttered to herself as she silently listened to the eager Mitch washing the dishes up while humming a song to himself at the same time.

It was only after an hour or two did the sound of running water finally stopped, and the clanking of dishes settling down could be heard.

"Are you done?" Mitch suddenly heard the old woman's voice back at the front counter.

"Yep" Mitch replied, while also in the middle of wiping his wet hands using a towel cloth nearby.

After placing all the dishes back at their respective places, Mitch then began to carry the two large heavy plastic bags containing garbage and leftovers towards the back alley of the building.

"Don't forget the garbage!" the old woman reminded him one last time.

"I'm already on it." Mitch responded before making his way out outside and towards the back alley of the restaurant, he then placed both bags near a dumpster before wiping the sweat on his forehead.

After stretching both of his arms for a bit, Mitch took his time observing the buildings, skyscrapers, and the vehicles speeding down the road through the narrow gaps in the alley.

His eyes then moved towards the tip of the empire state building, due to the height of the building, it is still clearly seen even from his viewpoint.

After staring at it for a while, Mitch's eyes began to wander as he reach his arms up in the air and pretending to grab the tip of the building as if it were in his own reach.

"I want-" he was about to finish his words when the backdoor leading towards the inside of the restaurant suddenly opened.

"Mitch? Oh I was looking for you!" the old woman's voice suddenly reached Mitch's ears, surprising him for a bit.

"W-What?" Mitch quickly put his hands down and shakily stared at the old woman.

"Your pay?" the old woman extended a small bill of cash towards Mitch.

"huh?" Mitch finally returned to his senses and stared at the bill in front of him before casually grabbing it.

"Thank you.." Mitch said as he silently counted the cash in his hands.

"9, 10, 11, 12... 12?.. huh? I think you must've put too much money than you've intended, madam.." Mitch said before handing the 2 bills back at the old woman.

The old woman however, pushed the money back towards him and shook her head.

"The extra 2 dollars is just bonus, you've worked hard today Mitch, you deserved it." the old woman smiled at Mitch.

Mitch was about to say something when the two of them heard a shout from inside the building.

"Hello? anybody inside?" the voice said, irritation clearly audible on it.

"I better get back inside, there's more costumers waiting in line for me, you go and get yourself a nice meal okay? see you tomorrow." the old woman said, waved at Mitch, before heading back inside the building.

Mitch meanwhile, just stared at the closed door in front of him before smiling happily.

"Thank you madam." Mitch muttered under his breath before turning around to face the exit of the back alley, ready to return home to share his parents the money he earned in the last few hours.

But he was suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw three shady looking people standing in front of him, one of them has a small knife on his hands.

"Time is up dog, where's the money you owe us?" the biggest of them, a bald man in his thirties took a step and pointed his finger at Mitch.

"W-What are you talking about? the date we agreed upon is still due t-tomorrow!" Mitch retorted in fear, with both of his hands shaking nervously.

"Don't give us that shit!" one of them yelled before kicking one of the plastic bags containing garbage on a nearby wall, spilling it's contents out.

Overwhelmed with fear and panic, Mitch lose control of his body and tried to run for the backdoor before shakily stumbling on the door knob.

"C'mon!" Mitch screamed in panic as he tried to pull the door open.

Unfortunately, the three guys darted after him and managed to catch him.

The biggest of the three tried holding Mitch down, while the other one placed a hand on Mitch's mouth, preventing any sound from coming out from his mouth.

"Mmmph!" Mitch desperately screamed for help, but to no avail.

Unfortunately, the last one with the knife has already plunged the blade at his throat, causing Mitch to slowly gurgle and drown in his own blood.

Afterwards he pulled out his knife and stabbed him once again at the back.

Then again, and again...

After an entire minute of stabbing and slashing, there were already a total of 34 stab wounds on Mitch's body.

"Let go of him, he's already dead." the biggest of them said as he let go of Mitch's body, causing his body to fall and slump on the ground below.

"He's dead the moment they borrowed the money in the first place." the one who held his mouth said before searching Mitch's body, pulling out his wallet and grabbing the bills Mitch has earned this past few hours.

"32 dollars?" he said as he spat on the ground below.

"Bastard owed us a thousand dollars, let's get a cleaner down here and chop his body into pieces, maybe his heart and lungs would fetch a good price." the one who stabbed Mitch said in a casual manner as he played with his knife.

What the three guys didn't really know about.. was that Mitch was still alive and was quietly listening to the conversation of the three people who murdered him in cold blood.

Tears streamed down from his bloody cheeks as he recounted how was his life been in these past 20 years.

'All the efforts, the pain... I was never really close at... achieving.. it.' was the only though Mitch could've ever think of before everything finally went dark

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CHAPTER DONE!