A dark and stormy night. That's how it all started. That's how this all began. This silly little stupid story all began on that one fateful night. I remember it as clear as day, because I can't ever think about forgetting it...
The rain fell heavily onto abandoned streets, and bright lightning flashed violently in the night sky. The loud patter of large droplets pelting the earth, coupled with the occasional sound of a stray car were the only things that could be heard in the city air.
Out in one of the backalleys of the city, a poor unfortunate soul wandered, lost and afraid. His heart was racing, and panic was causing him gasp in terrible pain. The cold rain ran down his face, but it couldn't wash away the blood that flowed out of the hole that was once his left eye.
Stumbling across the slippery ground, the man couldn't find the strength to go on anymore, and collapsed into a large puddle. His clothes were already soaked, so he didn't even notice. The only thing his mind was on was the blinding pain that raced through his head every time he took a quick breath.
The scene that took place only moments ago reeled over and over in the man's head. The choking grasp around his neck, and the tip of a cold blade as it sliced it's way into his eye. The sickening rip as his eye was pulled right out his head seemed to echo in his ears, and he couldn't help but cringe at the thought.
As if the world wanted to cause him more suffering the wind began to pick up, and chilled his rain soaked body to the bone. He pulled his legs up to his chest to try and conserve some warmth in his body, but it didn't work well. His muscles were begining to cramp from all his shivering.
Blood pounded in his ears, and his head ached from the loss of blood from his wound. He held onto it with his shaking hand to try and stop the bleeding, but it was all in vain. Nothing he did could stop the blood from gushing out.
He was so focus on trying to stop the blood that he didn't notice the splash of a puddle as someone stepped through them. It wasn't until the steps came closer that he noticed them. He snappd his head up, but instantly regretted it since it cause the pain in his head to increase.
Standing in front of him was a young woman that looked slightly older then him. Her light brown hair stuck to her face from the rain, and her light pink eyes bore deep into his own wine red ones. She was looking at him with a look of both shock and sympathy.
"Excuse me sir, are you alright?" The woman asked him. Her voice was filled with concern which the man couldn't understand.
"Go away," answered the man angrily as he let his head fall back to his knees. "This isn't any of your business, just leave me alone."
The man heard the woman sigh and say, "I'm not going to just leave you here to die." He looked up at her with his one good eye and saw that she was staring at him with determination in her eyes.
"Well you should," he retorted. "It's not like I'm going to be missed." His voice trailed off as a lump formed itself in his throat. He tried to stop them, but the tears didn't listen as they formed around his eyes and dripped down his face, mixing with the rain. "Anyway, you don't even know who I am. For all you know I could be a murderer just waiting for you to drop your guard."
The woman kneeled down in front of the man and placed her hand on his, causing him to flinch away, but that didn't stop her. She looked him dead in the eyes and said, "You can call me naive, but from just one look at you I can tell that that isn't true." When the man didn't say anything in response, the woman simpy smile and then said, "Hello my name is Shelly Rainsworth, what's your name?"
The man started at her in confusion and asked, "What are you trying to do?"
"Well you said that we don't know each other, " Shelly replied. "It's just a start, but if you want to know someone you really should know their name first."
His gaze fell to the ground as he answered. "My name... is... Xerxes Break."
"Xexes Break hmm... well that's a very unique name. I can't say that I've ever heard one like it before," said Shelly.
"Now that you know my name will you just leave me alone," said Break angrily. "I don't want your help." Break tried to push Shelly away from him, but the woman was latched onto him tightly and wouldn't let her grip on him go.
"There's a difference between want and need, Xerxes," Shelly answered. Break glanced up at her and saw a compassion in her eyes that he had only seen from one person in his life. It was familiar but foreign at the same time. Memories rushed into his head, and they caused the tears to fall from his eyes once again.
Shelly noticed them, but didn't ask him anything about the matter. Instead she pulled out a soaked rag from her pocket and began to dab it on Break's injured eye. His entire body froze at the touch, but he let her finish what she started. It was painful, but it wasn't bad enough to make it unbearable.
"This is a serious wound you have here," Shelly said quietly. "If you don't get it looked at, it could get infected, or worse you could die from blood loss."
"I don't care," he scoffed. "There's nothing left for me to live for anyway."
Shelly stopped what she was doing, and looked at him angrily. "There is always something to live for. You should never say something like that." All of a sudden, Break shoved her away violently in a fit of rage, causing her to fall back into a small puddle. Her gaze was filled with surprise, and his was filled with anger and sadness.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" He shouted. "YOU COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND!" His voice began to crack, and he started to cry once again. "YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE. YOU DIDN'T LOSE HER. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE PAIN OF BEING HELPLESS, OF BEING THERE AND NOT BEING ABLE TO DO A SINGLE DAMN THING." Suddenly he began to clench his chest tightly with his hand, shoved his head into his knees, and cried out in despair.
While he was having his outburst the only thing Shelly could do was sit there and take it. He was right, she didn't understand his pain, but that didn't mean she was going to just walk away and leave him in the state he was in. She crawled on her knees so that she was closer to the poor man, and then pulled him into a tight embrace. Break was so consumed in his agony, that he didn't even try to wiggle out. It was almost like he was so lost in his head that he didn't even notice at first.
"You are completely right, but that doesn't mean that I'm just going to walk away from this," Shelly whispered to him. She almost thought that he didn't hear her over his screams, but when she said this his shouts died down and became quiet sobs.
"I'm not the type of person that just leaves broken people to die and waste away on their own," she continued. "The wall of unfamiliarity won't stop me from help you, so you can either tell me what's wrong, or I can drag you to a hospital if that will make you feel better."
Break didn't answer her immediately since he was still choking on his tears, and was unable to give an answer. Shelly did the only thing she could, and tried to help calm him down. She ran her fingers through his silky white hair, and rubbed his back gently. She could feel his heart beating quickly in his chest, and his body was shaking furiously.
After a few minutes, his breathing began to slow down, and his sobs had died down. "Emily," Break said all of a sudden.
Shelly pulled away from him, and looked him in the eye. He looked so tired, and his eyes looked so dead. "Who's Emily?" she asked.
"A little girl," said Break. "She was... a little girl that I lived with. We both had no where to go, but the streets, so we sticked together. She was the only family that I had." His voice cracked slightly, but he continued. "About an hour ago, we were just sitting in an alley way when a group of thugs came out of nowhere and attacked us. They wanted money, but we didn't have any. They weren't happy with the answer, so they... so they..." He began to sob again.
"It's ok you don't have to go on if it's too painful to remember," said Shelly as she hugged her arms around him tightly again.
He shook his head and leaned it on her shoulder. "They killed her," he said bluntly and emotionlessly. "They killed her and took her body with them as payment." Through clenched teeth he said, "They took her away and then ripped out my eye."
"That's awful," Shelly said softly. "Xerxes, I don't think there is anything I can say to make things better, but I'll say this anyway. I didn't know Emily, but I believe that she loved you, and if she were here right now she wouldn't want to see you waste away. She would want you to live and be happy. Now I know that things seem bleak right now, but things won't get better unless you try to make them better.
"Do you really think so?" he asked through his tears.
Shelly cupped his face in her hands and said, "With all my heart." Taking his hands in her she said, "Xerxes we need to get you to a hospital to get that eye looked at now. Don't worry about costs or anything, my family can pay for it. After that I want you to come and live with me, my mother and my daughter Sharon. She's an only child and it can get lonely for her sometimes so it would be good for her to have someone like you around for her to play with."
"You want me to live with you?" he asked in confusion. "But you barely know me? How do you know you can trust me?"
Shelly chuckled and said, "I know enough." She slowly got to her feet, and then held her hand out to Break. "But in the end it is your choice. So, will you come with me or not, it's completely up to you."
Break stared at her hand for some time. He was unsure. Unsure of what would happen if he took her hand. Unsure of what would happen if he didn't. His gaze moved up from her hand to her face, and he saw the sincerity and kindness in her eyes that made him feel safe and calm. He saw an escape to the painful world that he found himself in. Then, without hesitation, he reached up and took her hand in his and let himself be pulled to his feet.
"Don't worry Xerxes, things can only get better from here on out. I promise.
A dark and stormy night. That's how the life I live now started. That's when it all began. My old painful life ended on that day, and gave birth to a new one. I remember it as clear as day, because I will never forget.
A/N: Hello there everybody :D . First of all I would like to apologize for not writing as much as I should. I've been busy with life, and also sick with a case of writers block. As to why I've suddenly come out with a random PH Oneshot all of a sudden, it's because I'm part of this thing here on Tumblr ( .com ). To sum it all up, there are two teams, Team Pandora and Team Jury. Pandora is canon things while Jury sticks with the AU's. There is a prompt every day and we have to make something for it. It can be either writing, drawing, a video, an edit, anything. I'm part of Team Jury so I'll be writing a lot of AU oneshots for a month.
Also, I'm a part of another thing ( .com ). This is a really cool thing that someone is putting together and I decided to join up. There are a lot of details, so if you want to know more about it then you can check it out. There is a shortage of writers, so if you are interested sign-ups are still going, but end on the 23rd, so you don't have that much time.