𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 ( deadly class )

𝔦. 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄

Her grandparents, her own parents, the few friends she had made but never could keep due to her father's travel and work commitments... and then, to add to that list, Marcus had not wanted her either. When Liam had approached the girl, he did not realise she was in fact sad or had been crying, until he decided to walk around and face her seeing as it seemed she was not going to look at him if he continued to stand behind her. All of his training had told him not to care about the tears he saw glistening under the street lamp, but something in him could not help but feel for the girl, knowing that she quite literally had nothing and no one.

The walk to the location Nikita had guessed Marcus would be was mostly quiet, a few passerby's greeting Liam and Nikita and offering them candy. The teens had taken the sweets, not daring to eat them and instead throwing them into trash cans or passing them on again, knowing there was a high chance they were in fact laced with something or were drugs not candy. Perhaps they were both being a little too paranoid, but seeing that each other were doing the same thing gave them a sense of comfort and assurance.

When Nikita had stared up at the Coit Tower that overlooked the vast expanse of the city, Nikita swore that her heart had stopped beating as she saw a dark figure up on the ledge. She had left Liam behind and requested that he stay put, and the blonde made her way up the tower to its rooftop, praying that she would make it up in time. She also prayed that perhaps she had been seeing things... and if it was no figment of her imagination, she hoped that it was not Marcus standing up there. However, panic and disappointment had set in when she realised it was definitely Marcus, his trademark red and blue jacket giving his identity away.

When the two friends both stood on the ledge of the tower, making one another equally nervous, they both realised they only had one another—and seeing how desperate the police were to arrest them made it seem like having one person was not enough... Nikita's quest to find her father seemed like nothing more than a dead end to the girl, and the blonde wondered that if he was meant to be found, he would have made an effort for it to be possible.

Everything the two teens owned was now gone for good, memories being the only valued possession they now had and they could not be robbed of. It was some of those memories that had brought Marcus to the top of the tower, and how Nikita had tracked him down. The blonde could vividly remember crying the day Marcus had explained why he was at the home, and how he had witnessed the tragic death of his parents.

It was during the time Reagan had cut all the funds that helped the facilities catering for those affected with mental health issues, giving those facilities no chance of survival and no choice but to release hundreds of patients back out into the public and onto the streets before they were even ready to leave. Her heart broke even more as Marcus recounted how his father had told him wise words about life not being a dress rehearsal and making the most of each day... which ended up being some of his last words, ironically enough.

One of those released patients had been an older woman, named Barbara Salinger. She was both schizophrenic and suicidal, and on that fatal day, she had taken a swan dive off the top of the tower and had fell right onto Marcus' parents. They had died from the impact, and when the court had announced Marcus was to be put into the care of a boy's home, he felt nothing more than disappointment.

No one could ever replace his mother and father, but as a nine year old he had hoped he would be given a new family, one that could keep him safe... and that was just the way he thought the world worked. That someone would take pity on him and welcome him into their home, instead of being thrown into the deep end and stuck in a prison-like environment that had all the boys living in it working on a sweatshop line—and that was not even the half of it.