Run

Prologue

Who in their right mind walks alone at night in a town full of nothing but trouble?
The answer: a man who is too scared to run.

It was two minutes until midnight. Dark, both outside on the streets and in every house on the west side. Everyone knew, when the sun left, so would their lights. For every single member of every family knew to fear the night and shadows that loomed in the day.

Everyone on the west side knew to fear the Man of Fire. He was one of them, a Wester, but also one of their leaders. Yet he was of higher status than any leader there ever was. Because every bad thing relating the west side was now assumed gang influenced because of Him. And usually, it was.

How the Man of Fire became was merely one of those unusual, gang targeted, incidents.

***

The Man of Fire was born on the seventh day of the eighth month. He was born with bright blue eyes and hair the colour of dried mud. Like every baby, he was born crying. But unlike every baby, he never stopped crying. In fact, he almost cried for the whole first hour of his birth. He cried when his mother gave birth to him and he cried when she died. He cried when he skinned his knee when he was only six, but made others cry at the lonely age of sixteen.
On his third birthday the Man of Fire went to Disney world with his family. The Man of Fire was only scared of one thing, Mickey Mouse. He had loved that mouse for forever, but that day, he couldn't even look at him. On his fifth birthday there was fireworks. He loved the sparkles and how all the pretty lights fell. But, out of all his birthdays, his seventh one was is favorite. On his seventh birthday the Man of Fire's family got a puppy. A tiny black and white mix with big doe eyes and collared with a big red bow.
The Man of Fire named him Rocky, after his favorite ice cream of the day.
He was loyal and perfect for the Man of Fire. They fit together like glue. Rocky was there whenever the Man of Fire was down and the same the Man of Fire to Rocky.

The day Rocky died was the fifth most saddest day of the Man of Fire's life.

How I know all of this is merely because I was born exactly two minutes and twenty-six seconds afterwards. But the west side doesn't know that. No one on the west side knows of the Woman of Fire do they? No one knows that the Devil Himself has a twin. Or at least, not anymore.

He made sure of it. He made sure I was safe. He made sure I could live free.

But it was his life at risk. He was the only one who raised me. He raised me strong though. He raised me brave.