Prologue - 1

On a cold December night, just outside commercial district of the big city, was a small apartment complex like any other, devoid of any adornments or coloring that would draw the interest of any average bystander. In fact, if one did not notice the beat-up car turning into the parking lot this night, you might not even know it was there.

The damaged car with scratched paint and broken taillights swerved into the lot with what could only be described as dramatic flair as it silently hummed into an open parking spot, a masterful display of driving that was left unseen in the dead of the night.

After minutes of silent vibrations in the now taken spot, the car suddenly turned off, and the driver side door burst open in a cacophony of noise and terrible, sweaty smell, as a man clambered out his seat and fell straight to the asphalt, scraping his left hand which held up his torso and kept his body from more grievous harm, while also deftly holding a bottle of cheap vodka in his right hand.

After recognizing his position to the ground, the man eventually had the faculties in his drunken stupor to push himself off the ground and correctly stand up straight as the adult he claimed to be, and then starting giggling madly to himself as he went to close the car door and take a swig of his swill.

Upon closer inspection in the moonless night, the man appeared to be of decent height approaching 6 feet tall, and had a little bit of a gut, yet did not seem out of shape. If anything, the man seemed quite youthful in his blitzed stupor, something that even redness of the alcohol on his face could not diminish in combination with his short brown hair and sharp, lidded eyes.

This man was James Patterson (no, not that one), and despite what potential witnesses may believe, he was having a great, if "off" day. After all, it is not everyday that people can claim that they are one step closer to their dream.

Just shy of 30 years old, James's life was troubled, though by no means unique. A divorced family at a young age where he felt left out compared to his younger, more talented stepsiblings, with no talents to carry him through life besides above-average grades. He struggled with poor personal relationships as he grew older, got into drugs for a bit, and was often in a bad way. While he had peers and family that did indeed love him, he never felt like more than an outsider in their presence, and as such shunned the affections and charity offered to him, as foolish as that was.

Self-inflicted or otherwise, life was never particularly kind or easy to James.

But every person has a limit, and James was when he was working an overnight at a big chain retailer that he decided his life needed to change. Specifically, it was when he walked into a storeroom and witnessing the female overnight manager having relations another male coworker. For whatever reason this made James question his entire life on the drive home and prompted his transformation to do something that wasn't just "existing".

So, James decided (oddly enough) to go to college and become a teacher, an old fantasy job of his, so he could help the next generation find out what they wanted to be and not sputter out like he did, and perhaps never come back. Sure, the pay was bad, but this "new" James believed that life was all about passion and drive now.

This is a good time to remember that James was barely 30, and already fatalistic to this extent.

As James collected himself, he shambled into the complex with unusually deft grace, hoping to reach his apartment while he was still conscious and mobile; he did not want to spend the last moments of his last (and biggest) bender of his life on the ground or in a planter, that just seemed like a bad way to start his new life after getting his bachelor's degree and starting his teacher certification process.

This drunken dance continued for some time as he weaved through the endless, monotonous buildings made of stucco and despair, looking for his comfortable abode. This ended abruptly as he suddenly stopped in front of his building, the one with the most depressing and stagnant aura of them all. The two-story building had a unit on the bottom floor beside a staircase that led up to the next floor where James's home awaits.

Still smiling to himself, James starts to ascend the staircase unable to hold onto the right-side railing as that would interfere with him gripping the vodka bottle, while simultaneously fishing for his house key with his left hand in his right pants pocket.

And, after taking only 9 steps up the staircase, that's when it happens.

His drunken mind, juggling too many tasks at once, put his body out of sync just long enough for him to miss his step up the stairs, causing James to fall backward, hitting his back on the other steps, and cracking his head upon the concrete ground.

Pain wracked James and his drunken body as blood flowed freely from his head onto the ground, making a red blossom upon the gray floor. It despite the dark scene, barely visible by the flickering of streetlamp some feet away, any witness would believe this scene to be out of a horror movie.

And so, this scene persisted for what felt like hours in the draining darkness of the night, until finally a gasp and gurgle could be heard from James and his now deformed spine and fractured head. With noises that can only vaguely resemble breathing, he eventually rolls onto his stomach, and forcefully pushing himself off the staircase using his feet, while using his hands to keep his spine as straight as possible. Once fully on the ground floor, he tries to collapse as straight as he can.

Gasping for air and losing vision, James can only look on into the dark night as any attempts to yell are silenced by a grinding feeling in his body, which he can only assume is something being horribly broken on the inside. Even the strength in his legs and feet seem to have left him, as he now lays upon the ground looking into the black emptiness.

His only hope for help is his neighbors, but he doubts they heard him and his crash this late in the night.

And so, James lays in a pile of pain and blood as everything around him goes dark, and he can only blame himself. He was so close to his dream, so close to changing his life.

And so close to making it to his room.

"How embarrassing…" were the only articulate words James made the whole night, as he lay upon the ground, closing his eyes to partake in the gentle coldness of the concrete, as his body felt like fire on the inside.

And like that, James fell asleep on the ground, just shy from happiness and contentment, something he felt like was always the case since he was born.

Only this time, he did not wake up.