Prologue

Alberta, Calgary,10:38 pm

A man in his mid-twenties with short, brown hair that hasn't been brushed in a few days, wearing a light grey suit and brown dress shoes is running, with his briefcase in his right hand, to the train station, in order to catch the last train of the day. He makes it to the entrance and runs as fast as he can inside. He raises his left wrist to look at his watch, as he runs towards the direction of the platform for his train. He sees the time and raises his eyes in surprise and runs a little faster than before. 'I only have a minute left.' the man thought.

He arrived at the gate and swiped his pass, and started running again to catch the train. He managed to get to the platform and saw his train still there. He stopped and let out a sigh of relief, and put his hands on his knees, and was panting, then he used his free arm to wipe his forehead. 'Oh thank god I made it. That was close.' he thought, with a smile of relief on his face.

He looked back up and saw that the train doors were still open and walked towards them. He then stepped on the train, only to see two people working on a panel on the train. The sound of the man's steps informed the workers that he was there, making them both turn around and look at him. They both had the same uniform but one of them had brown hair with a hat and the other had short black hair. "What are you doing here? Didn't you see the out-of-order sign?" the worker with a hat said to the man. The man shook his head. "No, I didn't see any signs out. I guess it won't be fixed until tomorrow?" the man said

"Yeah, it won't be up and working until tomorrow." the worker without a hat said. "Alright well have a good night." the man said. The man walked out of the train and walked back the way he came from and another worker carrying an out-of-order sign passed him. The man could faintly hear the workers talking as he walked away from them. The man got outside onto the sidewalk and tiredly walked towards his apartment.

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The man is still walking towards his apartment, but more slowly than before. He lets out a big yawn then rubs his eyes tiredly. He then pulls out his phone to see how much longer he has to walk and when he sees the estimated time he lets out a sigh. He searches for an open convenience store near his current location and finds one about a block away. He puts his phone away and starts walking towards the convenience store. As he's walking towards the convenience store, he hears a loud noise coming from an alley that was in front of him.

Not wanting to find out what caused the noise, he takes a step back and looks both ways making sure the road was clear before he crossed the road. Once he did he continued on his journey to the convenience store. He then made it to the end of the block and crossed the road and walked to the entrance of the convenience store. Once he was inside he was greeted by the convenience store doors making a ding noise and the convenience store clerk and started to look around. He got to the drink aisle and found some energy drinks to keep him awake. He also went to another aisle to look for food to bring home.

As he was looking at the different kinds of instant ramen and frozen dinners, the store's entrance dinged again. The man decided to get instant ramen and grab four ramen cups. "Excuse me little girl, but what are you doing up past your bedtime?" the convenience store clerk said. The man looked down the aisle to see a little girl with blonde hair, and with caucasian skin, wearing a long white and blue stripe t-shirt, and a blue skirt and red shoes, looking at the food in front of her, ignoring the clerk. The man thought it was strange, but he dismissed it, due to his eagerness to get home. As the girl is looking at the rack full of candy, the man takes his items to the counter and places it on the counter for the convenience store clerk to scan.

The employee scanned his items and put them in plastic bags, and told the man the total. The man pulled his credit card out of his wallet and paid for the items and put his credit card back into his wallet. He grabbed his bags and carried them outside to the front of the door and he put his bags down. He went into the bag that had the energy drinks and grabbed one. He opened it and began drinking it for a couple of seconds before stopping for air, before drinking some more.

The man drank the rest of his energy drink and looked around for a recycling bin, only to not find any. He decided to put the empty can into the plastic bag. As he picked up his bags he took a few steps towards them before hearing some noise from the convenience store and he turned his head to look back. He saw the little girl walking straight out of the convenience store with some chocolate bars, and the clerk leaving the counter and going after her. "Little girl, wait!" the convenience store clerk said, trying to catch them. The man drops his bags and walks up to the little girl, who doesn't see him.

She ended up bumping into him and fell on the ground and dropped her candy. "Whoa there little girl, you have to pay for that." the man said. The convenience store clerk caught up to them and grabbed all the candy as the girl got back up and looked at the convenience store clerk. "You have to pay for the candy little girl, do you have the money?" they asked. The little girl tilted her head a little to the left and put a finger close to her chin. "What's money?" she asked.

The man let out a small quiet sigh, knowing that the little girl didn't have any money. The man looked at the convenience store clerk. "Here, I'll pay for it." the man said. The three walked back inside and the man paid for the sweets for the little girl and the two walked out of the convenience store, with the sweets in Michael's bag. As they did the man look at the girl. "What's your name?" he asked."My dad said I'm not allowed to talk to strangers." she said. "I'm not a stranger, my name is Michael, but you can call me "Mike" for short. Okay? Now what's your name?" he asked. "It's Hannah or Anna for short." she replied.

"Now what are you doing this late at night?" Michael asked. "I was sleeping at home, and I woke up because I was hungry. I went to the kitchen to find some sweets but I couldn't find any. I thought I could find some outside, but I ended up getting lost." Anna said. "You must really like sweets if you walked out all this way for some candy." Michael said. "Yeah, there my mom's favourite snack." Hannah said. "Well Hannah I need you to come with me to the police station, so I can find your parents. They're probably worried sick looking for you." Michael said. "Okay" Hannah said. She then grabbed his right hand and looked at him warmly. "Lead the way!" Hannah said.

Too tired to care, Michael uses his free hand to pull out his phone and uses an app on it to find the police station. Once he did that he put his phone away and carried his bags and told Hannah to put her candy in it. She does what she is told and the two quietly walk down the street to the police station. As they were walking towards the police station, a guy jumped out of nowhere and pulled out a gun. The man was rough-looking and seem ready to kill at any moment. " Wallet now! Or else!" the thug said while pointing a gun at Michael. "O-okay take it easy alright? H-here" Michael said nervously. Michael drops the bags, one of the bags spilled out some candy and an energy drink, while the other exposes the contents inside of the bag.

As Michael was getting out his wallet, Hannah was looking at the thug and back at Michael, wondering what's going on. "Who is this?" Hannah asked Michael. "Hannah I need you to be quiet okay? I will explain when this is all over." Michael said as he had his wallet in his hand. The thug then grabbed the wallet out of Michael's hand. He then looked down at one of the bags and picked up some candy, while still having his gun pointed at Michael. Hannah, seeing the thug take some candy, took a step forward. "Hey, that's mine." Hannah said.

The thug then pointed his gun at her, trying to scare her. However, Hannah slowly walks toward the guy unfazed by the gun, unlike Michael. The thug took a step back. "Don't come any closer little girl! *click* "Don't make me do something you will regret." the thug said, trying to intimidate her. "Hannah, listen to the man okay? Now get over here!" Michael said, trying to persuade Hannah to forget about the sweets. "No! He can't take my candy! He didn't ask, and he's being a bully." Hannah said, standing up to the thug. Hannah walked up to the thug and the thug raised his arm up and brought it down on Hannah, hitting her with the butt of the gun.

Crack

Though the result was completely unexpected, as a loud crack sound was heard from the man's arm. When he had hit Hannah, it had no effect on her and instead hurt the thug. The impact made the thug drop his gun and the candy, as he held his wrist in pain. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!" he screamed in pain as he held his wrist. In the heat of the moment, the two grabbed what was important, Michael grabbing the gun and holding it in his hand pointing it at the man, and getting out his phone to dial 911.

While Hannah grabbed the candy that the thug had held captive. Michael called the police and after 7 minutes the police arrived. There was one police car and two officers there at the scene. One was treating the thug with the injured wrist and the other was asking questions to Michael and Hannah was watching the police officer give medical attention to the thug. "So just to recap: You found a little girl all alone at a convenience store, found out she was lost, bought her some candy to cheer her up, you then decided it was best to bring her to the police station to help her find her parents. Then the thug appeared from nowhere, tried to rob you and threaten to shoot you both, and you disarm him and break his wrist in the process. You then took his gun and called the police. Am I correct?" the police officer asked.

"Yes." Michael said. "It wasn't him, it was that girl!" the thug said, getting everyone's attention. "Really? A little girl broke your wrist?" the other officer questioned him. The thug remains silent, realizing how stupid he sounded. "That's what I thought." the police officer responded. The first police officer looked back at Michael. "We can take it from here, you can go home now Mr. Holbrook." the police officer said. "Thank you, officer, have a good night." Michael said.

He starts walking away, towards his original destination. However, Hannah saw Michael leave and went after him, but was stopped by the police officer that was talking to Michael. "Come with us little girl, we will take you back to the police station and find your parents." the police officer said. Hannah didn't listen to Michael and hugged him tightly from behind, refusing to let go. "No, I want you to stay with me. You said that you would help me find my parents." Hannah said. " 'Sigh' Listen, little girl-" "It's alright officer. Hannah, could you please let me go." Michael said. Hannah then let go of Michael and they both walked to the police car and they got into the back of it, with the police officer at the wheel. "I'll take these two to the police station, call another car to pick you up. I see you soon." the officer said to the other officer with the injured thug. As the car was turned on and began to drive down the street, Hannah was looking out the window, while Michael pulled out his phone.

To: Akio, Head of HR

Subject: Absence from work

From: Michael

Hi Ako, I apologize in advance for my absence tomorrow, but something unexpected came up and I have to go to the police station tomorrow. I don't know how long I will be there, but I believe that it's better if I take a day off tomorrow. If anyone asks for the current project, tell them to check their email. I have sent a link to what I have done so far for the project. Thank you for understanding.

Sincerely

Michael

Email sent. undo?

Michael sent an email to his work and then put his phone away. He then closed his eyes and nodded off.