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Lucius walked down the street, lightly kicking a rock with the toe of his boot as he went. He was out of inspiration and more importantly, out of a job. With a sigh, he thought about what he could have done differently over the past few hours.

The morning had started off perfectly normal. He got up, put on the cleanest clothes he had (the dirty laundry in his room was getting so high that he swore a new mountain range had begun to grow in his very apartment), brushed his teeth, and left for work. Everything had been fine until he had walked in the door.

"Please, don't. I've got a husband and a daughter. Please, stop."

Hearing the voice of Sarah, one of his coworkers, had Lucius instantly on guard. Sarah was a nice middle aged woman who worked in the photo development section of the store. She'd never said a mean word to anyone, as far as he could tell. Lucius could see her behind her counter, cowering slightly beneath the height of a male customer. The guy had Sarah's hands held down at her sides as he intimidated her.

"I think the lady said to leave her alone."

Hearing Lucius' voice, the man turned around, a cold sneer on his face.

"Yeah? And who are you?"

That's where the details began to get fuzzy. This type of occurrence didn't happen a lot to Lucius but when it did, he knew what it meant. He had lost his temper. Things didn't really clear up until he was sitting opposite of his boss, Sam.

"I'm sorry Lucius but we are going to have to let you go. We just can't have violence in the store...especially against paying customers."

Sam had looked truly sorry but it didn't make the situation suck any less.

And now here he was. Walking down the street--unemployed. With another sigh, Lucius took out a cigarette and lit up. Something else would come along.

Just then, he heard voice up ahead. Two big guys were standing near an alley. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying but they looked angry.

As he got closer to the two men, Lucius could more easily make out what they were saying.

"How about we knock him around a little to show him who's better? Just don't hit him in the face, boss'll notice that."

That was enough evidence for Lucian. Turning the final corner that led to the alley, he stopped just behind the two men. Framed between their burly figures was a thin boy with a look of terror on his face. He couldn't have possibly been more than 17 years old and was incredibly thin. The thought of someone hurting this innocent kid set Lucian's jaw on edge.

Taking advantage of his unnoticed arrival, he reached forward and grabbed both men by their hair, slamming their heads together, nose to nose. Blood gushed forward as the men cried out in surprise. As each man reached to staunch the flow of blood gushing from their face, Lucian took his opportunity. Bringing his right fist up into the solar plexus of the first guy, he knocked him on his back, grinning as he heard the air woosh from the man's lungs. His left leg came up and caught the other guy in the chin, sending him back against the wall. Lucian didn't straighten up until he heard the sickening sound of a skull slamming into brick.

"Leave the kid alone assholes."

The thugs both stood up and wiped blood off of their heads, looking Lucian up and down.



Their threat fell on idle ears as Lucian stepped forward and frowned at the kid, his brow furrowed with worry.

"Hey...you okay? Do you need help getting home?"

"s**t. You can't talk, can you? Okay, that's fine. We can work around that. My apartment isn't far from here. Do you want to come back with me? Get washed up and eat something? We could get...I don't know, a pad of paper and a pen?"

He felt bad for the kid. The young guy looked so scared and confused. He back up slowly and gave him a little room, gesturing down the street in the direction of his apartment.

With a sound of alarm, Lucian rushed forward, catching the boy against his chest. The poor guy couldn't even stand on his own. He needed serious help.

"If you are okay with it, I can carry you. It's only a couple of blocks. I promise that I won't hurt you."

He couldn't quite place why he felt the need to help this boy but he felt obligated to at least figure out his name.

Lucian fell to his knees next to the boy, his hand hovering over the young man's back. He wanted to be ready to steady the boy, in case he passed out of lost his balance.

"s**t kid. Maybe I should take you to the hospital instead. You're really hurt. Do you want me to get an ambulance? I'll even ride over there with you."