Chapter 1
The cold was excruciating as women scurried to arrive at their destined location grabbing nothing but newspapers and scraps of furniture for their kindling. Children playing dictator at a garbage heap that was once a magnificent theater. Dogs fighting other dogs for morsels of rotten food became normal entertainment as men drank tainted beer found in obscure places cheering them on. A man walked past the dog fight scanning it over to see if it piqued his interest.
It didn’t.
A drunk man stepped into in way swaying and singing the national anthem hitting the man in the process.
“Watch where you’re going, dumb fuck,” the drunk man said.
The man said nothing. He bowed his head and continued walking. He could hear the drunk man tripping, falling, yelling, and laughing.
The man kept walking, seeing families huddling together in the open street trying to warm up and others attempting to steal scraps of food and clothing. He looked over to see a piece of moldy bread on the ground buried in the snow and picked it up. His stomach started growling but he placed it in his pocket.
He went into a tattered shack outside of the town that had a cardboard sign with illegible handwriting saying “Ledwin Bar” He entered and saw barely five people seated at tables, all with insufficient pieces of clothing for this particular weather, shivering and clicking their teeth attempting to eat their rat soup, the tails sticking out of the broth. He reached the counter and the bartender handed him a napkin stating what was there to order. The man looked at him in cold countenance.
“Look buddy, this is all we got. It is either eat here or starve out there, your choice, because as far I know, this is the only store that provides decent food,” the bartender informed.
The man kept looking down at the napkin and pointed at what he wanted. The bartender nodded and went to do his job. The man sat down and sensed men staring at his uniform and clean-looking attire.
“What makes him so special?” said one man.
“He probably stole them off some rich punk that survived and kept his money,” said another.
The man said nothing and waited patiently for his food. “Here you go, rat broth with maggot on the side, enjoy it or toss it, I don’t care. Just throw it outside. I like my establishment to be as clean as possible.” the bartender chortled with sarcasm.
The man lifted the bowl and took a sip. Then he began to take another sip, then another, then another until the whole bowl was empty. The bartender raised his eyebrow in amusement and astonishment. The man then took the maggots and tossed them all into his mouth. “Wow, I never believed I was a good cook. Thanks for that,” said the bartender and took his empty bowl.
The man placed his hands together and slightly bowed, reaching into his pocket and handed the bartender a hundred givos.
“What the fuck,” the bartender gasped and began to laugh, “Wow, stranger be careful where you show your cards.” The bartender kept laughing but held his mouth to silence himself.
The other men looked at each other in shock and greed. The man walked to leave and so did three men.
As the man left, embracing the cold air, the three men interceded and stepped forth in front of him. The man up front was a skinny man with a scar across his face stemming from the left side of his neck who had ill-equipped clothing. His face was unkempt with his beard coming to look curly. The other two were skinny as well, to the point of death, but both resembled twin brothers.
“Hey, so what with the large number of givos you gave to the bartender there? And from the looks of you, it looks like you have some to spare. So would you kindly hand it over?”
The man shook his head no.
“Oh come we don’t ask much, and think about how our families are currently starving in the streets and broken homes, so it would be a great service to them”
The twins looked at each other and snickered with the man noticing the scarred man swinging his elbows back to shut them up.
The man stared and shook his head again.
The scarred man changed his tone, getting impatient, “Look here you son of a bitch, give us the money or we gonna have to force you to,” The brothers pulled out rusty broken knives. Rusty, but still useful in harming a person. The man sighed and the scarred man raised his tone of voice again,
“There see, that wasn’t so hard now was it,” the man reached into the back of his cloak. The scarred man continued, “We gonna making a fucking fortune boys, the sluts are gonna what they deserve-” The scarred man stopped talking and looked at the brothers in front of him with open eyes.
“What’s wrong man, let’s go,” said one of the brothers.
The scarred man swayed back and forth managing to take a step but collapsed on the ground revealing his split skull. The scarred man’s body was split in two, ending at his chest. His brain matter oozed marking the freshly made snow with his blood. Behind him stood the silent man holding a blade in his hand as the scarred man’s blood dripped down.
The two brothers looked in horror as the man stared at them with empty eyes. They didn’t move but only shook, letting go of their knives and dropping to the ground, backing away from the man holding a sword covered in blood running across the blade. The handle was wrapped in loose bandages unraveling in some areas with the blade having an etching of diamonds ranging from the hilt to the tip.
“Hold on mister we meant no harm, we just want food, so please spare us,” pleaded one of the brothers. “Yeah,” continued the other, “We were just confused with hunger, that’s it, no harm.”
The man raised his blade with the two brothers beginning to cry, but the man only swayed the sword to release the blood then sheathed the sword in the scabbard behind his back. He hid his sword, placing the cloak around himself. The man then reached into his pocket pulling a moldy piece of bread, placing it in front of the brothers before proceeding to walk away.
The crowd that formed moved out of the way to let the man pass. The crowd looked at him with the same blank stare the man gave them. They had seen enough to realize what the man did was doing them a favor. Before leaving the near end of the town, the man looked back only to see the crowd gathering around the scarred man, each taking a piece of him for themselves. Some hid the pieces in their ragged clothes while others swallowed the pieces not even realizing what they had just eaten.
