"Tell me... how does it feel?
How does it feel to stand before Phoenix Wright, the Forgin' Attorney himself?"


"Polly, get over here!" someone squealed with excitement right behind me. "Polly!"

A calm spring breeze whipped my hair as I continued to ignore the little pest. I was relaxing quite contentedly on the grass field around other children who were just like me. Of course, I felt as if I was the most mature.

For a fifteen year old.

"Polly dammit! Stop ignoring me and get over here already!" A clump of grass was tossed and hit me on the back of my head. Some of the fresh grass went down my crisp white shirt and I stood up to shake it off. I then sat back down again, getting more and more annoyed at the little creep.

Next thing I knew, I was bombarded by a rain of grass.

I turned around angrily. "What the hell?!" I shouted at him. "And stop calling me Polly! My name's Apollo!"

The kid just pointed at me and laughed.

"You're such a loser, Polly!"

He gave me a raspberry and ran off.

Stupid kid.

To think I was being bullied by a frikin' ten year old.

But I didn't care.

To be honest, I've gotten used to people calling me Polly, but it's nice to pretend to be pissed off at someone every once in a while.

I continued to sit and relax, surveying the view before me.

To be honest, it really wasn't much of a view.

Think of it like this... calm field... then polluted crowded city.
That's what I'm looking at.

I watched as the cars passed by the small orphanage building where I and the other children around me resided. Every day, I sat on this same spot by the shade of my favourite oak tree watching the cars, praying that a car will come to the orphanage.

And even when THAT happens, the people never adopt me.

I've become too old right now and for some reason, the wanna-be parents that did come never picked me, even when I was younger. Maybe it was because of my hair?

It was miserable thinking that my own parents would abandon me like this.

It was torture watching yet another set of parents leave off with some other child.

Misery and torture.

My life story.

I've given up trying to make new friends. I can still remember the times when I was always in search of one. Throughout the course of my life here in this orphanage, I've made tons of friends (though it's pretty hard to believe by the looks of things right now). The only thing is, my friends would always leave me.

Why?

Because they were adopted before I was.

While new people come and go, I remained, getting older and older with each passing year. I'm fifteen right now.

My fifteen years of life were miserable.

All I have now is this nice view, this nice tree, and the kid that keeps throwing grass at me.

First off... most people don't think staring at a highway is a good view, but to me, it gives me hope. It tells me that there is still a chance that there is someone out there willing to adopt me.

What false hope.

Now... this tree, well, it's bound to wither away eventually. Now that I think about it, this tree IS pretty old.

It'll probably die before I get out of here.

Lastly, the ten year old kid that persists on annoying me every single opportunity he has. I don't even know his name! In my inane sense, he is a sort of acquaintance in a way. He is the only one other than me that never gets picked. In other words, he is the only one I've known that has stayed in this orphanage for about as long as I've been here.

If only we were friends.

But who wants to be friends with a creepy violent ten year old anyway?

I sighed as I realized that it was getting dark. I proceeded to the orphanage for my dinner and then catch a nice shower, then sleep.

And in that time, I was going to realize that there was finally more to life than just this same pattern over and over again.


Chapter One: Routines Kill

It's true.

Watch any corny action movie and you'll realize that assassins kill people easier if they find a routine in their target's day. Then they can set up an ambush after being able to predict what their target will do next.

Technically, that would mean that I would make a very easy target for an assassin.

It was dinner time and of course, the people in charge were tending to our wants and needs and the loose discipline in the dining hall. I would sit by myself, but there was usually too many children in the dining hall, so sitting at a table would mean sitting with other children I don't want to be sitting with.

I took my dinner away after wasting 20 minutes of my time standing in line for it. Usually, the dinner isn't really that good, but some days, the dinner is actually rather decent. Today was one of those days. I actually had steak for dinner, which is rather surprising because steak is pretty expensive. I guess one of those health inspector guys was coming tomorrow or something.

Anyways, only the older kids ended up getting the steaks, only because to eat steak, one requires a pointy steak knife. If the evaluator were to see three year olds holding knives, well, that could end up rather badly for Mr. Dundyl, the founder of this 'fine' establishment.

"Apollo." Mr. Dundyl called out to me just before I stepped outside as I usually did. Mr. Dundyl was a rather nice person, but I felt as if I couldn't trust him. He knew about my habit of eating outside every day and usually greeted me on the way out.

"Yes, Mr. Dundyl?"

"Apollo, take care tonight. The health inspector is coming tonight and I don't want something bad to happen, alright?"

"Yes sir."

Before, I was surprised at how much someone like him would be concerned for someone like me, but I guess it's just normal. However, I knew that there was something suspicious about what he had just said, but I didn't put too much thought into it at the time. I just wanted a relaxing night, health inspector or not.

I took my dinner outside to go back under the oak tree. I'm rather used to eating my meals here, even when it's raining outside. If there's some form of weather, I would just bring something along with me to protect myself as I eat. In this case, that was unneeded as the night was peaceful and calm. I just brought a flashlight along with me for a source of light.

I don't know why I like to hang out around this oak tree. I guess it's because I can never get used to being around so many people I don't really know. Maybe it's because I enjoy the peace and quiet the oak tree brings. Otherwise, it just makes a rather nice place to eat every day.

I took out the small blanket I snuck out a while ago from this small crawl space I stumbled upon in the oak tree. I felt around for it and ended up touching a surprisingly smooth root, then the blanket. I really didn't want to get dirty, so I hid a blanket from the laundry basket one day and kept it here since then. I also happened to stumble upon this crawl space in the tree about six years ago when my old friends and I played hide-and-seek. No one could ever find me because I think I'm the only one who knows about this hidden space.

I started to eat my steak dinner, actually enjoying it for once. There was just something in the air that night that made me want to relish this meal. I ate the steak to the bone, almost tempted to lick off the remains of the sauce off my plate. Of course, that would be rather awkward. After thirty minutes of steak, I felt stuffed. I took a sip of my water, but only a sip. The water was frigid cold. I took my steak knife and casually drew my name out in the pool of steak sauce on my plate.

A. P. O. L. L. O.

There.

I smiled to myself because my writing was surprisingly neat for someone using a steak knife to write with. I clutched onto the knife afterwards, surprised at how sharp it really was (no wonder I didn't struggle at all with cutting my steak into bite-size pieces). I then held it as if I was ready to stab it into the ground, but then my flashlight suddenly went out. At the same time, the lights in the building went out as well.

"What? It's curfew already?" I asked myself, but I knew I was wrong. A large simultainious scream emitted from the building, meaning the children in there hadn't been expecting for the lights to turn off. I stood up from my position, concerned as to what was happening. I started to rub my wrist, anxiously awaiting what would come next.

I'm still not sure what happened next.

I suddenly heard a voice I recognised. "Polly!" With that, I heard the footsteps pounding.

Next thing I knew, I felt dizzy.

I collapsed onto the ground, something overtaking my senses.

The last thing I felt was a cold shock on my wrist.

Then a warm splatter onto my face.

Then everything went dark.

A/N: Well, here's my new fanfic and I know it's crap right now, but it's all I can do.

I mean, I really stuck with my other fanfic 'The Literal Turnabout', only because I just finished GK (in English) and I realized that Edgey is nicer than I previous anticipated, thus destroying the fragile storyline I had. Gotta pick up the remaining pieces and start from scratch.

Alright, that's enough about my other fanfic, but for this new one, just wait and the 'excitement' will come. (Umm... excitement is said loosely.) I'm also pretty sorry that Apollo is such an emo kid, but that's just what I think he was like back then...