BLACK STORM: The Abandoned Son

Chapter 1: The Orphanage

It's been seven years. This place is the only home I've ever known. The Dead End isn't perfect but it's where I belong. They call this place an adoption centre but I haven't witnessed a single adoption. Who would want to adopt from this place anyway, it's so run down. The rooms are small and overcrowded. The walls look like they're about to fall right off. The sound of buckets filling up echoes across the halls, because the ceiling's leaking. I haven't seen a dry floor in this place in months, why did we even buy a mop?

One good thing is that this place is not lacking in size. It's like a mansion, it gives me lots of places to hide from Mother. Mother isn't an evil person or anything, she tries her best. She's the only adult here, so things must be hard for her, but she's just really scary. And she has a strange way of dressing.

"Newt, is that you wandering around aimlessly again? Dinner's in an hour", Mother explained.

Hmm... one hour, that means I still have time to play. I'm gonna sneak up to my room for a bit. If I open my drawer, it should be right here. There it is Captain storm! The hero of the modern world. Too bad it's not the real Captain storm through, but this action figure is still cool. I hear footsteps creep up behind me. It startled me quite a bit.

"Newt what are you doing?", a child's voice fills the room.

Oh, that's my friend, Grid. His dark curly hair, and confident attitude, makes him very recognizable. He actually looks pretty cool; it makes me a little envious. Other than a few unusual traits, I've always looked quite mundane. The thing about me is that my loud mouth usually draws more attention than my plain face ever could. The thing about Grid is that he never seems to knock, how annoying. He needs to understand boundaries. 

"Knock next time, will you?"

"Why? This is my room too." 

"Yeah, but what if I wanted to be alone for a while?"

"You don't have such a luxury when you have a roommate." 

"Roommate?"

"Do you prefer the title of archduke?", he says sarcastically.

"It's just I've always considered you more of an annoying little brother."

"But we're not related, and I'm older than you."

"Don't sweat the small stuff. Plus, you're only a few months older than me so shut up.", I said that last bit under my breath.

"I heard that by the way."

"Anyway, have you seen this action figure? Some rich kid was walking by, so I conceived him to trade it.", I quickly changes the subject.

"What did you give him?", he said in a confused tone.

My eyes dart around nervously. "You know... stuff and whatnot."

"Newt, what did you give to him?", he begins interrogating me.

Dammit, he knows me all too well. Was it a mistake trying to hide it from him? It definitely was in hindsight. But the truth is often a very awkward thing. He's gonna be so mad at me. I don't even know why he's so attached to that thing, it was useless. It was more trouble than it was worth anyway. Mother would have literally killed us if she found out we had that thing, if anything getting rid of it was a good thing.

"Okay, you caught me. I gave him the gun.", I admit.

"Are you serious?! That was like the coolest thing we ever found."

"We live in the Outer Rim, Grid, we'll find another one."

"Yeah, but that was our gun. It was a memento."