Crying City

Prologue - Garbage Children

It was late in the evening, a light drizzle came down from the skies. Somewhere in the Merchants Alley, Angeline District, A boy with a jet black coloured hair was running away from a towering figure. Expertly, the boy swiftly weave himself through the huge crowd of people. On the contrary, The man who was giving chase to the boy kept on stumbling as he could not navigate himself very well though the mass of bodies that separates him from the boy. The man yelled loudly, ordering the boy to stop running and face him. The boy ignored the towering man's demands, as he knew what will happen to him if he surrendered himself to the man. He kept on running, even though it felt like his heart could burst out at any moment. Gritting his teeth, the boy inhaled deeply and kept on running, his scarred hand tightly gripping a loaf of bread.

Slowly, the pursuer gained on the young thief, he himself not showing any sign of fatigue or weariness. Unexpectedly, the boy took a detour from the streets by changing his course, he made a sharp left turn and sprint up the stairs at the side of a worn out house. The boy had half expected the man to follow his trail and run up the stairs to the rooftops as well. But, the man had learned from his previous mistake, he would not be fooled by the boy again like the last time. Instead of blindly following the boy, he kept on chasing the boy from the streets, carefully monitoring the boy's movement and accurately predicting the direction the thief was headed.

"Well, well. He is not going to fall for the same trick, huh? I guess even gorillas could learn a thing or two..."the boy muttered to himself.

Soon enough, he was running out of rooftops as he was nearing the river that separates the Angeline districts and Rosario districts. All he had to do was leap across the river and disappear in the Rosario districts, something he had done plenty of times. "Good bye, you stupid gorilla. And thanks, for this delicious looking bread,".

Spontaneously, he increased his speed, as he prepared himself for the long leap. He ran swiftly on the plank that he always used to jump across the river. Subsequently, he placed his whole weight on the tip of the plank so that it would act like a spring to help make him jump further. Unfortunately, the wooden plank was unable to cope with the pressure the boy had exerted and it breaks. Caught completely by surprise, the boy fell down to the cold, hard cobblestone pavement.

He let out a painful gasp as he tried frantically to stand back up. Instantly, he realized that his legs must had been broken because there was an unbearable stinging pain coming from both of his lower limbs. As if on cue, a mighty kick landed on his left rib. He grunted forcefully as he spiralled across the streets. Weakly, the boy lifted up his gaze towards the towering man who was walking towards with a satisfied smirk displayed on his face. "Damn it..." he cursed under his breath as he prepared himself for his impending fate.

All along the crowded street, the sound of sickening thuds could be heard clearly. The bystanders would just gave them a quick glance, then carried on with their respective activities. This was due to the fact that theft was a daily occurrence at the Merchants Alley. Most of the times, the perpetrator was one of the Garbage Children. "Garbage Children" was the nickname given to the homeless children living at the streets of Crying City. It was given to them as they were often seen scavenging the dumps for food. Usually, the thieves got away, but some rarer occurrence was when one of the many thieves was caught. The fate of any captured thief was never fortunate, they were usually never seen again. So, as it had always happened, the boy was beaten mercilessly until he was half dead. Then, he was left sprawled on the streets in a terrible shape to die slowly and painfully. As a Garbage Children, there was no one that was to take care of him, no one would even defend him from the brutal beating. Just because he was one of the Garbage Children.

The boy's eyesight started to become more obscure, he could barely make out the outlines of the surrounding buildings, stalls and people at the Merchants Alley. Time seemed to move slowly as all the movement he saw was in slow motion. The moment felt like it lasted for an eternity. Somehow, as he was losing his consciousness, he spotted an average height, feminine silhouette walking to his position from a distance. Since his eyesight was too blurry, he could not identify the girl who was making her way towards at him. Soon enough, the girl stopped dead on her tracks when she had finally she reached him. While holding what seemed to be a navy blue umbrella, the girl lowered her gaze at him. The boy could had sworn that he saw the girl giving him a sympathetic look with her pair of clear, ocean blue coloured eyes. Somewhere inside his head, the boy could hear a faint voice calling for him. The voice was so soothing, that it had made the boy felt all warm inside. He knew that the girl was the owner of the voice, and she was trying to talk to him. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the girl's voice suddenly disappeared from his head and everything went black.

*****

"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day,"

"Are you awake?" the question was asked by a familiar voice, there was a hint unease in her tone. "If you are in fact conscious, please give me a respond," she demanded anxiously. The boy tried to open his eyes but it was to no avail. So, all he could do was to listen to the girl's muttering that seem to be endless. She sometimes talked about how was her day, what had happened to herself. She always talked as if he was already wide awake. It was really annoying at first, but he had gotten used to it as time passed by.

*****

The bright light stung the boy's eyes, but it had not mattered to him at all. He was finally able to open his yes. One of the first thing he saw was the blinding white fluorescent lamp at the ceiling of the room. He tried to get up from the bed, but his body was really sore that he had decided to remain laying on the comfortable bed. He then realized that both of his legs were plastered. He was also covered in bandages, just like a mummy. Instead of getting up, he scanned the room by only moving his head. It was a fairly small room with one rectangular window at his left, it was also filled with dark brown coloured wooden furniture. The walls were coloured beige, a really dull colour from the boy's point of view. There was also a dark brown coloured door directly opposite from his bed. He wondered where he was, since the last thing he remembered was being beaten to a pulp at the streets of Merchants Alley. Suddenly, while he was lost in his own thought, the doorknob turned.

"Oh, looks like someone is finally awake after slumbering for a few weeks." she had said excitedly. She gave him a friendly smile as he stared at her with a puzzled face. "Hello there, my name is Catherine Chase." She said brightly with a cheeky smile.

"Hi," he had said awkwardly. First of all, he did not recognize Catherine, at all. But he could had sworn he had heard her voice somewhere before. Plus, he knew it was her clear ocean blue coloured eyes that had gaze upon him at the Merchants Alley. Secondly, he as a Garbage Children, he had never experienced a comfortable atmosphere, like a warm house for example. It something new to him, an alien environment.

Catherine lifted an eyebrow and said with a demanding tone "Just 'hi'? After all all the time you had been asleep, just a 'hi'. Do you have a name? Something for me to call you,". Her eyes glared, telling him that she would not take a silence for an answer. She folded her arms as she waited for his reply.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally responded. "It is Jamie. You could call me Jamie," he stated plainly. That was his name, just 'Jamie'. He had no last name, a Garbage Children rarely had any last name. He glanced at her but he could not meet her eyes, so he retreated his eyes and decided that his bed was interesting to look at.

"Do you have any last name Jamie?" she asked sincerely. Jamie just shook his head sadly, he had always wished he had a last name. Slowly, he raise his head to meet her gaze. Then he realized that she was giving him a sympathetic stare. "Well, how about we give you a last name?" she suggested simply.

She pulled out a book from a bookshelf right next to her and she flipped through the pages. Then, she randomly stopped and scanned through the selected page. Her eyes lit up when she read the name of main protagonist of the book. "How about Marshall? It sounded honourable and classy. Don't you think?" she stated hopefully as she met his pair of emerald coloured eyes.

Jamie thought about it for a few moments, but then he decided it was a good name for him. He sighed and nodded "Jamie Marshall it is," he said happily. Catherine smile widen as she closed the book. "Well, hello there Jamie Marshall. Nice to meet you, I hope we can be great friends,".