Menace

Prologue

It's raining again.

I don't like the rain anymore. The sewers flood and this city starts to smell. It wasn't always like this.

I didn't use to live here. I didn't walk around at night by myself. I didn't have to plot my actions weeks ahead.

I used to be that kid.

I wanted to go to college on a sports scholarship. I wanted to party with my friends like there's no tomorrow. I wanted to fall in love.

I wanted to be normal.

But normal is a lie. It's the lie everyone pretends to live.

I found out. It wasn't pretty. And I got sucked into the darkness. I fell and fell and fell.

I stared at the dark for a long time.

It started staring back at me.

So I learned to play the game. To survive this world, you've got to play dirty. The strongest prevail. For awhile. The most cruel are powerful. Until they lose themselves.

The smartest survive.

I walk down an alley. I haven't been here before. The new space gave me something to think about other than tomorrow. It reminded me what was at stake.

Tomorrow was important.

But to know tomorrow, you've got to know what happened yesterday. And everything that lead up to now. You've got to know. Cause everything is at stake tomorrow.

I walk to the end of the alley and came up short. I felt the ridges of the wall before me with my hand and leaned my forehead against it.

The darkness taught me something.

I'll show the world what it taught me. Tomorrow.