"You need to eat something, Lucille."

The sixteen year old groaned and rolled her eyes, before placing her backpack on the floor beside the table. Lucy propped her feet up against the kitchen table as soon as she pulled a chair out for herself, smacking her gum loudly. Without having to turn around, Aunt Janelle sighed, while stirring the pot of stew on the stove. "And keep your feet off the table. Honestly, what am I going to do with you!?"

This prompted another groan from the teenager before she did as she was told. However, this did not stop her from silently flipping off her guardian while her back was turned.

The elderly woman turned after pouring some soup into a small bowl and placed it in front of the niece she practically raised. She watched as the teenager reluctantly started to drink from the bowl, careful to make sure that the few strands of blonde hair she had left didn't fall into the soup.

After a few minutes of studying the girl with discernment, Janelle pulled up a seat at the dinner table for herself and cleared her throat. "The school called me today. Is there something that you want to tell me, Lucy?"

Not skipping a beat, the teen's fiery green eyes stared down her aunt's worn down brown ones. "What's the point? You already know."

It was Janelle's turn to sigh before she started to rant. "You've been skipping school again. Do I need to call the therapist again?"

The now empty soup bowl slammed down against the table as the teen growled. "No, you don't need to call the fucking therapist again. Christ, I am going to fail anyway, so I might as well just not bother with school and work at the shop full time. 'S all the future a bastard like me 's got anyway." She muttered the last sentence, almost to herself.

That earned her a slap on the cheek.

"Lucille Anne Hart, you know full well you are more than just a bastard. You may not have had proper parents but you know goddamn well that your uncle (may God rest his soul) and I did the best I could by you. Don't you even think about saying such things again. And watch your language."

The sixty year old woman frowned as her niece just stood there, not even phased by the slap. It barely felt like a tickle to the teen anyway.

"Are you done, or are you going to lecture me about trying more in school?"

The woman cast her eyes to the ground and shook her head in frustration. "Just go to your room. You're grounded for the rest of the month. And you aren't going to work at the garage during that time either."

Janelle's only response was the sound of stomps up the wooden stairs and a slam of a door.


All Lucy had to do was wait for the house to get quiet before she could open her bedroom window. The sound of crickets chirping and a light breeze had beckoned the free spirit to climb to the nearest tree branch. She only stumbled once before she made it to the ground, and started to run to the end of the suburban street, where she knew her boyfriend would be waiting for her.

The teen on the motorcycle was an average built eighteen year old brunette ,covered in tattoos that screamed "God Bless America" with a cigarette in his mouth to boot. Lucy rolled her eyes in an affectionate manner and took the cigarette from his mouth and stomped it out with her leather boot, in spite of his objections.

"You know this shit will kill you, Puddin'?"

Her beau shook his head and chuckled a little before pulling her into a rough kiss. When he pulled back, he answered, "You know we all die one day, right Luce? At least this way I get to choose which way I go to the grave."

She gave him a non-committal hum to his answer and climbed on the back of the bike. "C'mon Mike, Baby...please just take me somewhere so I don't have to think."

Mike started the bike and began to rev his hog towards one of their favorite spots.

"School called your Aunt again? You should probably get a G.E.D. and call it quits. At least that way you'd be done with all the bullshit. Maybe get that fancy therapist in on the idea." He yelled over the sounds of the motorcycle engine and the whipping wind.

Having fully well heard him, but didn't want to talk about it, she simply feigned hearing problems. "What?"

"Don't be such a bitch, Luce. I'm just lookin' out for ya." He yelled.

"I can look after myself!" She yelled back. "Your sweet ass is just a side bonus."

"Hey, not until you're legal." he teased in response before stopping at the local taco restaurant.

She got off the bike and stuck her tongue out ,stud and all for him to see. This earned her a laugh and a big bear hug from Mike.

As she walked in the restaurant, she watched as he started to order some food for them both. There was no argument, he was always the one that paid. It was one of the things that she learned when they had started dating. Despite her aunt's disapproval of his age, she could tell that he was one of the good guys. More than what she deserved anyway.

"And they say chivalry is dead." She thought to herself.

She walked to the cleanest table that they could find at this time of night, and sat down with disposable cup tops, straws, and hot sauce packets waiting for him when he got there.

"Hey, Puddin'? Tell me again what happens when we run away together?" she asked, feeling whimsical as he unwrapped his own taco with extra meat.

He smiled and took a large bite. After he swallowed, he answered. "On your eighteenth birthday, I'm gonna steal you away from that ivory tower, all two stories of it, and we are gonna go somewhere far away. From all the bullshit about therapists and high school, to someplace big, like Gotham maybe." He took another bite as a way of pausing for dramatic effect. "Then you and me, baby. We are gonna open up a little garage where you are gonna fix all the bikes and cars, and I can do all the books. We will live happily ever after, in a crappy little apartment, just you and me and the rats."

She giggled a little at his vision of their future and sighed wistfully. "Something's gotta change soon. I feel some sort of quiet desperation just staying in this town."

He nearly dropped his taco. "Wait...I thought you were failing all those classes."

She rolled her eyes. "It ain't because I'm not smart or anything like that. It's just boring to do all of that busy work."

The small chime attached to the door of the restaurant rang as a group of customers opened the door, and walked to the counter. One of them kept his hand in his pocket the entire time before another one whispered to the cashier, who opened up the register.

Lucy narrowed her eyes into slits and started to stand before Mike pushed her back. "Stay put." he murmured to his girlfriend before he walked over to the huddled group at the register. Lucy was strongly against whatever Mike was about to do, but the way he looked at her brooked no argument.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. I know the tacos are shitty here, but I didn't think you needed a refund before you ate some of their food-"

"You shut the fuck up, man. You stay cool, and we won't have to shoot up the place." One of the men answered with a low growl. The one with his hand in his pocket had shifted it slightly. The cocky rider chuckled and said, "Do you really want to do this? There's no reason to get violent over some chump change..."

There was the sound of a click. "I said shut the fuck up, man!" The first robber repeated. Upon closer inspection Mike could tell that his eyes were bloodshot.

"This isn't worth it, whatever it is you're doing this for, this isn't worth it, and you know it, just put the gun down, and walk away, like this never even happened. Can you do that?"

After what seemed like an eternity of silence and stares from both Mike and the robbers, the hand in his pocket seemed to drop into a more relaxed state.

Before Lucy or the cashier could let out a sigh of relief, another one of the robbers quickly grabbed the gun from his accomplice before yelling, "FUCK THIS ALREADY! I WANT MY FIX!"

Three shots were fired.

The cashier screamed and scrambled away from the register to dart to the manager's office where she could call the police.

Lucy didn't scream. Not yet.

Instead she ran to the aid of the man she loved, and watched him bleed out quickly.

The robbers quickly took the tray from the inside of the register before trying to flee while the police had not arrived.

Lucy slapped her boyfriend's face, desperately trying to wake him up. "Mike! FUCK! WAKE UP GODDAMMIT." There was no answer, only more blood pooling onto her hands and jacket.

"...Puddin'?"

They killed him. The only person in the world that truly made her happy. They took him. All for less than a hundred dollars.

Lucy clenched her fists, as the men were still scrambling out of the parking lot.

Then...

Everything...

Went...

Black...