The night air was icy-cold and it sent chills down Luffy's body. The black-haired teen was shivering but he honestly couldn't care less. It was refreshing.

He slowly and deliberately blew out the cigarette fumes - the only remedy for his overstrung nerves. It might not be the healthiest one but it sure as hell helped.

The boy could only be thankful to the cigarettes and the weed he had smoked through the years. If it wasn't for the intoxicating substances he probably would have gone crazy. Everyone needed some type of vice to take the edge off sometimes. People who would argue with that clearly didn't have that many problems.

He still couldn't shake off the nasty feeling the memories from his past had left. But it wasn't just the memories. Luffy knew he really was worthless and a monster. Honestly, if you would ask him why he hadn't ended it all, the teen most likely wouldn't be able to answer. Death didn't faze him. He wasn't frightened of it as every sane person out there would be. He was constantly surrounded by it thanks to his ability. However, even though he could see ghosts and interact with them, this wasn't the only reason the thought of dying wasn't scaring him. He knew he had nothing to live for, even so he wanted to live. He purely wanted to.

Luffy didn't hate life. He didn't hate the breeze, the sun, the forest and the chirping birds. Nor the cities or the citizens. No, he loved it all. And perhaps those same things didn't love him back, but it didn't matter. He understood it. He was abominable and deplorable. Nonetheless, those things weren't. The world was so unbelievably beautiful.

And maybe it was selfish, but he wanted to live. He wanted to breathe, contemplate and wander around. Feel the chilly autumn wind on his face. Get sunburnt. Walk in the rain. Make snow-angels in the winter. Go to a lake, sit down, dip his feet under the crystal surface and splash the water around. See the sunrise and the sunset - observe how the lights and colours will shift in the sky, showing new beginnings or ancient endings.

Hence for long time, the boy chose to stay alive. Even if it meant loathing his existence every single day, he wasn't going to give up the opportunity to experience everything the world had to offer. The beauty of life consisted of enjoying the simple things and he intended to enjoy them. He wasn't ready to kill himself.

Not yet.

"Not yet…" Luffy murmured quietly and crushed the cigarette's butt in a small plastic cup filled with ash-coloured water.

XXX

The black-haired teen entered his room, slightly calmer than he was a couple of minutes ago. Luffy had every intent to fix his disarranged sheets or maybe even change them and wash them for the upcoming day. They were sweaty and probably had blood stains from him digging his nails in his palms earlier. The boy had just grabbed the wood handle of the glass door of the balcony in order to close it, when he heard it.

No, not it.

Them.

The footsteps.

Luffy's breath got stuck in his throat. He froze on the spot. His feet felt as heavy as concrete blocks. The boy's dark orbs were carefully, yet rapidly, going over every single object and piece of furniture in the room. Over every corner, crevice and shadow.

Up.

Luffy fixed his gaze on the ceiling.

The loft.

The sound of footsteps was coming from the loft. There was someone there. And it wasn't a rat. Drops of precipitation started rolling down his back and the teen took in a deep breath. With a lump in his throat and shaky hands he closed the door behind him as quietly as possible.

He quickly scanned the room for something he could use as a weapon. His eyes stopped on the lamp on his desk. It wasn't ideal but it was his best bet. Yes, there were weapons downstairs but the black-haired boy didn't think it was going to be a good idea to make a run for it down two flights of stairs and risk getting jumped.

Luffy grabbed the lamp's metal body and quietly went to get his phone. He should call 911.

The teen pressed the power button but the screen stayed black. Luffy frowned and tried a couple more times. This was strange, he had plugged his phone into the charger before he went out. It should have battery-

The boy's eyes fell on the white battered adapter at the end of the USB cable that was innocently lying on the floor, a foot away from the electrical outlet on the wall.

You've got to be kidding me.

Luffy mentally face-palmed himself. He forgot to plug that part of his charger in. He was such an idiot. That was starting to look like some cliché horror movie and he wasn't even sure he was going to be the main character that makes it out alive. Nooo. The teen was sure he was the side character that dies in the beginning of the story.

The boy threw another miserable look at his useless phone after plugging it in and grabbed the lamp again. The device was so old that he knew there was no chance of it turning on in the next half an hour.

It crossed Luffy's mind that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to go searching for the intruder in the loft but this way he at least had the element of surprise. Nonetheless, he wasn't some damsel in distress. He had been taking beatings from Garp since he was 8.

The teen seriously doubted that the trespassing person X could do anything worse to him. Plus, Ace most likely had a lot of expensive and precious belongings in the house. He couldn't just sit still and let someone steal them. He could throw a punch. Or a lamp. Depending on the situation.

The only thing that was bugging him was how the intruder had entered the house. Pardon, the mansion. The whole place had security cameras and whatnot around. Let's not even mention the eye scanning device at the entrance.

Well, Luffy guessed that this wasn't that important right now. He could ponder on it later. Preferably with police officers around.

The black-haired teen started walking soundlessly towards the door leading to the hallway. The loft was right above, so there had to be a staircase or something nearby that would take him there.

Luffy slowly pushed down the door handle and looked around before fully exiting his bedroom. He moved quietly down the hallway, carefully testing the door handles to see which one was open and if there was a staircase.

After 2 unsuccessful attempts, he was met with a flight of narrow stairs made out of a very dark wood. Maybe it was about how narrow they were or just his imagination playing a number on him, but they appeared kind of ominous to him.

The boy eyed them suspiciously. It was a winding staircase so he couldn't see its furthermost part. Nor what was awaiting him at its end. Luffy gulped, hesitating a bit.

Oh, come one, you scaredy cat. Garp has done you worse than some rando EVER could.

Aaand that was the truth. Sad, but true regardless. The teen sighed and all his fear suddenly disappeared with that thought. His grandfather had tried to disembowel him with a cleaver knife when he was 12, practically burned off his nipples with a fireplace poker when he was 14 and ran him over with a military bus at 15. He could deal with a burglar.

Luffy attentively started climbing the stairs with bated breath. His eyes were gleaming with determination, gaze fixed on the very end of the stairs that was becoming more and more visible with every steady and well-thought step he took.

He could see that there were a lot of things in the loft. In fact it was crammed inside. Crammed but surprisingly tidy. Ace's OCD most likely.

The teen entered the room, gluing his back to one of the walls. His body was hunched forward, trying to keep himself as low as humanly possible. His dark eyes were roaming around the room, scanning for movement.

Barely audible sound of footsteps sounded at the back of the loft where a large circle-shaped window was letting in silver moonlight. It was a full moon tonight and there wasn't a single cloud in the pitch-black sky.

The room was being considerably well-lit by the moonshine for which Luffy was very thankful for because he had a great visibility of his surroundings. The boy started advancing towards the source of the noise.

The same faint sound filled the loft again and Luffy's grip on the lamp's metal body tightened. He was almost there. The black-haired teen made his way around a large storage shelf filled meticulously with all types of things: from pieces of clothing to strange wooden containers. For a second he wondered if he should ditch the lamp for one of them but deemed it too risky. The intruder was going to hear or see him for sure.

Luffy reached the end of the shelf and without making any noise he raised the lamp ready to strike whoever was lurking behind it. With a swift movement he went around the shelf's metal corner only to be met by an empty space. There was no one there.

The boy blinked a couple of times in confusion. He gave his surroundings a puzzled look, lowering the lamp. This wasn't possible. The room was fairly small and the tallest thing was the shelf next to him. It was the only place someone could possibly hide. Everything else was boxes which were too small for a kid to sneak behind, let alone an adult. There was no way somebody had slink past him while he had been advancing to the shelf.

Luffy scanned the floor trying to find mice or some small animal that could have made the noise but there was nothing there. Plus there was literally no bloody way in hell he had managed to hear a rat's footsteps from his room. At first there was some random noise of something falling or being dropped which was why he thought that the culprit was a mouse running around and knocking things down. But the sound of actual audible footsteps for God's sake wasn't something a rat could manage to produce. Or at least something the black-haired teen could possibly hear from the floor below.

Luffy scratched the back of his head sheepishly, giving the room another once-over.

The fuck?

He started strolling around the loft just to be 100% sure there was no one there.

Yup. No intruder. No anything.

No rats. No raccoons. And no whatever other animals there really could be. Just a little bit of dust and a lot of clutter that somehow appeared to be neatly organized.

How strange.

Luffy was just about to head back to his room when suddenly someone's shadow fell over him.