Tenebris

Chapter 1

"XAVIER, oh I swear to God when I get my hands on you!!!"

"Oh come on Teo, This was my package run okay? I got it fair and square from the boss man" Xavier replied while sliding down the railing.

"It doesn't matter if it was your run if I'm the one that brings it back, does it?" Teo shouted back.

"Oh come on Teo, you know I need the cash from this, tonight's important". Xavier slid under a worktable still trying to find a way out.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a date. Now hand over the package and I'll rough you up some, give you a valid excuse to skip your date"

"Oh, I can't do that man. She's special"

"I have a feeling we've had this conversation before. Oh yeah wasn't that what you said about Carol or was it Zoe"

"Oh come on, I can't always be right"

Now if someone had walked in on this conversation, said person will probably be shocked as to whether the big guy, currently bowling everything over looking for the other guy, was looking for him because he was his friend or because he wanted to beat the crap out of Xavier. It could be a little bit of both.

"Hey Teo, let's call a truce why don't you let me have this one and I won't compete for the next run okay ?" Xavier asked

"Sure"

"Sure?"

"Yeah I mean it's not like I plan to use the cash prize for anything and you obviously need it more than me"

"Seriously man?" Xavier asked while he got up from his hiding spot

"Nope but I knew you'll fall for it" 

Xavier heard the swish of something fast coming from behind him and instinctively tucked into a roll. Unfortunately for him, the roll led him straight into a metal desk.

As he blinked away the stars that were clouding his vision, he realized that his satchel was surprisingly missing.

"Hey Xavi, I didn't even need to hit you, Thanks for the drop though. Oh, and you're in trouble with Elizabeth when you get back."

The sound of a slammed door filled the room as Xavier processed the last part of that sentence.

"Holy shit, I'm dead, she's going to kill me"

He hurriedly rushed to his feet as he ran out through the window. Outside he ran up the fire escape to where he stashed his stuff before the run. Thoughts raced through his mind

It sucked that he wasn't able to get out with the package. He mostly succeeded on his runs, the times he didn't succeed were either due to another runner gunning for the prize or if he got caught. The latter only happened once and caused a lot of noise, leading to Tim having to come to bail him out.

Tim was something akin to The CEO or boss to the runners. He gave out all the contracts and trained up most of the runners. The runners he didn't train, he either found and rescued or hired them to give them a sense of purpose. Most runners had a deep sense of loyalty to Tim. Without him, they would all be nothing, LITERALLY.

After he had grabbed his stash, he ran back to the orphanage. He had to run across rooftops so he could avoid the questions people would ask if they saw him as he was now. I mean an almost-18 year old with fiery red hair dressed in all black would certainly draw some looks.

Elizabeth was essentially his mother. She refused to tell anyone where she had found Xavier, but she loved and cared for him like he was her own. She didn't know about his current occupation. She knew that he did some stuff and was always concerned but never pushed too hard, especially with his upcoming 18th birthday. He loved her for it and had promised himself to quit a lot of times but it never really worked out. Maybe this time, it will be different.

As he got to his window, he realized that he had fucked up. From his window, he could see that the door to his room was left ajar, as well as his window. His blinds had been swaying, quite noisily, to the breeze. He paused, trying to figure out what he was going to do about Elizabeth

"I know you're back there, just step in already" Hearing the voice that he dreaded the most, he stepped through the window into his room.