Chapter 1

Footsteps echoing in the alley surprised Kyle, and forced him to retreats into the shadow of an overflowing dumpster. The thirteen year old watched, as an extremely dirty individual passed by, followed by members of one of the most dangerous gangs in this neighborhood. Three black teenagers boys, dressed in gang banging clothes, were so focused on the individual, that they passed by his hiding spot and when they passed by, he sprinted down the alley in the opposite direction.

In the three years since he shot three men, including his father, and vanished among the homeless on the street, he had learned how to hide very well, and he also learned not to trust anybody, especially after he was betrayed by Jake. Since then, he never let anybody get close, or let anybody know where he stays.

After escaping the alley, Kyle blended into the crowd and followed the current uptown, where he kept himself busy picking pockets. As the sun set, he headed toward the city park where he slept most of the time.

The park was a rectangle, about two miles long and a mile across, with about a quarter of it covered in forest. Mostly on the northern part, statues littered the entire park with paths leading to each one, and the joggers often used those paths. There also was a playground at the southern part of the park where kids went to play.

Kyle always made sure to stop by and watch the kids with their parents. The sight of happy kids with their parents always had an effect on him. While he was watching them he felt content, but the feeling afterwards always faded into bitter envy of their happy childhood. Despite that, he always stopped by, but today there were no kids playing, so he passed by on his way to his sleeping spot.

Several months ago, while he was exploring the forest, he stumbled across a mound of boulders dumped in such a way that it created a small shelter. A little bit of digging created a perfect one man shelter and this is where Kyle lives. After he had enlarged the space, he immediately went about gathering supplies to store in the "bedroom".

Today, as he was walking toward the shelter, he passed by a patch of bush that was popular with lovers and crackheads, he overheard screaming coming from it. He recognized the screams of fear and pain. Hesitating only for a moment so he could grab a tree limb, he dove into the bushes after the source of the screaming.

He came through the bushes, and the sight of a figure lying on the ground being kicked by the very same gang that passed by him this morning, met his eye. The visions brought back memories of his beating at the hand of his father, and instantly red covered his vision. He did not remember lifting the limb, nor did he remember using it against the gang members. Eventually his vision cleared, and around him laid the gang members, groaning and moaning in pain.

The figure that was lying on the floor was looking at him warily, and when Kyle tried to approach, it flinched. He wondered why, but when he traces the figure's eye to his right hand, he realized that he was still holding the tree limb in his left hand, and it was covered in the gang's blood. He hastily threw it away and wiped his hand on his jeans, before hold his hand out to the figure. It reluctantly took his hand, and Kyle gently guided it out of the bushes and toward his place.

During the walk to his place, Kyle took a closer look at the peculiar person he rescued, and realized that the reasons why he couldn't figure out the sex of the person was because its dreadlocks covered its head, and it was also covered in thick layers of clothes, which obscured its figure. He and the mysterious person reached his place where, he sat the person down just outside the entrance and reached inside to grab a First Aid kit.

He sat down in front of the person, and reached forward to part the dreadlocks to check for wounds, but it recoiled. He held his hand out,

"It's ok," he reassured, "I just want to check your face and make sure you're ok. My name's Kyle."

It cocked its head and replied, "Paoli."

"That's an interesting name, I like it. Will you let me check your face?"

"I don't want to scare you."

Puzzled, Kyle asked, "Why would see your face scares me?"

Instead of replying, Paoli parted the dreadlocks, and underneath was a horrible disfigured face. Every inch of skin was covered in scale-like scars.

"What happened to your face?"

"I don't know. I've had it for as long as I could remember."

"Well, I'll admit that it kinda creep me out, but it doesn't scare me." Kyle checked Paoli's face, and this time he remained still. "You don't seem to be bleeding, but you are sporting a few nasty bruises. Do you have any pain anywhere? The bastards back there were kicking you pretty hard."

"No, my clothes cushioned the blows."

"Um, yeah, about that, I just have to ask," Kyle hesitated, then blurted out, "Are you a dude?"

The question seems to startle him, then he burst out laughing, finally after few minutes, he managed to get himself under control. "You can't tell?" He asked, and continued after Kyle nodded, "Good, that means I'm doing it right."

"What do you mean?"

"I ran away from foster homes several times, and get caught every time. The last time I ran, I stole some clothes, grew some dreadlocks, and since then, I've never been caught."

"Why did you run away?"

"The foster parents only took me in so they could get the money from the government for taking care of me. They give me just enough to satisfy the social workers that come to check on me. The rest of the money goes into their pockets. I've never met foster parents who actually care about the kids."

"What happened to your parents?" Kyle was curious, Paoli replied

"Dead in a car crash, my mother was pregnant with me, and the accident forced the doctor to deliver me through caesarean. My father died instantly, and my mother lived long enough to name me Paoli. I was placed into foster care, and obviously I was never adopted. The parents would come in looking for the perfect baby, and my face just creep them out."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

Kyle and Paoli spent the whole night talking and getting to know each other. Even though it was hard for Kyle to get over his distrust of people, something about Paoli eased him. By the next morning, they were already best friends.

After Kyle and Paoli had got some sleep, they went to work enlarging Kyle's living space so Paoli could have a place to stay. By midday, they were covered in dirt, but they were done, and Kyle took Paoli to a small stream deeper in the forest. There they used the stream to bath themselves, and afterwards they went to a grocery shop, where Kyle used his profits from pick-pocketing yesterday to buy some supplies. Paoli looked at the money in Kyle's hand and asked,

"Hey, if you have money, then why are you still living in the park?"

"Oh this money's isn't mine; I lifted it from a few pockets yesterday."

"You're a thief?"

"Hey, it pays for food and supplies."

"I'm not condemning you. I'm just asking."

"Yeah, I'm a thief, but unlike others, I steal so I can eat, they steal for money."

"Isn't that same thing?"

"No, I steal money to eat, they steal money for wealth."

Kyle and Paoli walked out of the store with bags of food, and headed back to their place. Kyle could notice that Paoli was deep in thought so he gave him some solitude, but just before they reached the boulders, Paoli asked,

"Could you teach me how to pick pocket?"

"Sure."

Kyle spent the next few weeks teaching Paoli everything he knew, and soon Paoli was joining Kyle on his pick-pocketing trips uptown.

A few months later, Kyle decided to put pick-pocketing on hold because of increased police patrols in the uptown area. Paoli agreed with the decision. But after a few weeks when the food supplies were gone, and the police patrols haven't decreased, they decided to try an alternative method of getting money. It was Paoli who brought up burglary, but Kyle was apprehensive until Paoli suggested that they try burglarizing a small place as a trial run, and he agreed.

Paoli knew of a house that would be perfect for the trial run, so they spent the next several days watching the homeowners and learning their routines. One night, after the homeowner arrived right on time, Paoli and Kyle decided to do the run tomorrow after the homeowner left. They went back to the boulders to get some sleep in, so they'd be well rested for the tomorrow.

The next morning, they woke with the sunrise and headed over to the house. They arrived just in time to see the homeowner leaving, they waited a few more minutes to ensure that the homeowner didn't come back, and then they jumped the fence into the backyard. The backdoor was flimsy, and Kyle easily opened it with a little bump from his shoulder.

The door opened into the kitchen, which they crossed into the living room. To the left was a door that opened into the bedroom. To the right of the bedroom door was another door that opened into the bathroom. Paoli and Kyle spilt up; Paoli took the living room while Kyle took the bedroom.

Kyle ransacked the bedside table, closet, jewelry box and dresser, and he managed to find lots of goods. Once he got all of his goods together on the bed, he stripped the pillowcase off the pillow and stuffed the goods in them. He looked around to see if he missed anything, then he realized that he hadn't looked under the bed, so he shoveled it aside, underneath was some more cash, so he grabbed that and stuffed it in the pillowcase.

While Kyle was busy in the bedroom, Paoli were ransacking through the living room. He grabbed the Xbox 360, DVD player, and a wine gallon jar full of changes. He also found some camera equipment, and he took those too. Kyle came out of the bedroom carrying a full pillowcase, and Paoli asked if there was any case big enough to fit his goods. Kyle remembered a large equipment bag in the closet and told Paoli about it.

Paoli grabbed the bag and packed the goods in it, and they left through the backdoor. It was awkward carrying the bags, but they managed, and a half hour later they arrived at the boulder, where they deposited the goods just outside the entrance. Paoli suddenly thought of something and he turned to Kyle,

"I know this was my idea, but, um, how are we going to make money from this?"

"Well, you should've thought of that before" Kyle replied, "but fortunately for us, I happen to know a pawnshop owner who'll pawn it for us. But we'll have to use different pawnshops every time we do this, I don't want the cops to track all the stuff we stole to just one pawnshop."

"Agreed, should we pawn it now or wait until later?"

"Let's rest for a moment and eat something. Afterwards we'll pawn this stuff."

"All right." They sat down to eat, and Kyle brought out a bag of apples along with a jar of peanut butter and a knife. They sat there devouring the food in silence, both in deep thoughts about the act they'd just committed. They finished the bag of apples and then grabbed the goods. Paoli took out the jar full of change and asked Kyle about it.

"What are we going to do about this?"

"There's a bank nearby that has that coin machine that counts all the coins and you can exchange it for cash, you know what I'm talking about?"

"I think I do, are you talking about that big green machine where you put the coins in a tray?"

"Yeah, that's the one; we'll stop by there on the way back."

"All right, let's go." They stood and set off toward the pawnshop, chatting amiably along the way. Soon they arrived at the shop, and Kyle opened the door which set off the bell hanging from the top of the door.

The owner looked up and saw two boys walks through the door carry some bags. He immediately recognized the older of the two, and came around to greet him.

"Hey, Kyle, how are you doing?"

"Good, this is Paoli." Kyle introduced, "Paoli, this is Jim." Jim held his hand out and Paoli shook it.

"Listen, Jim, we need a favor," Kyle asked, "We need to pawn this stuff."

"It's hot isn't it?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to need to know all the other pawnshops I can go to with hot stuff."

"You can go to pretty much all of them except for the big and fancy one, they won't take anything without id, and the rest just don't care." Kyle handed Jim the bags of goods and he took a look at them. Muttering as he inspected the goods, "Xbox 360 ... Good condition ... worth 200 bucks..." While Jim was inspecting, Paoli explored the shop until Kyle called him over. Jim was done with the inspection and was counting out cash. "500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000, here you go. A thousand dollars." He handed it to Kyle,

"Thanks, Jim. See ya around."

"You too, Kyle, and don't be a stranger all right?"

"I won't, later." Jim escorted them to the door and opened it for them. While they were walking down the street, Kyle discreetly handed Paoli five hundred dollars,

"Here, your half of the booty. Do with it what you will."

"Thanks, I'm wondering, where did you meet Jim?"

"Ah, I first met him about a month or two ago. Some gang members had some stuff to fence, and I overheard them talking about killing him after he gave them the cash, then taking back the stuff and do the same at another shop. I didn't feel like having his death on my conscience, so I rushed to warn him. He was ready by the time they walked in, and before they even get within ten feet of the counter, he whip out his sawed off shotgun and told them to disarm. They did, then he called the police and they came to arrest them."

"Wait, he called the police?"

"Yeah, he has no problem fencing some stolen stuff, but when somebody tries to kill him, he'll call the police."

"Strange, I would have though that he would avoid bringing the police anywhere near his shop."

"Oh, he doesn't store the stolen stuff in the shop; did you see the warehouse behind the shop?"

"Yeah?"

"It's his, but not in his name. He owns it under a fake name, and he stores the stuff in there. The cops can look all over his store, but they won't find anything. At least, that's what he tells me."

"Sounds pretty risky."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I said; he just laughed, patted me on the back, and said 'don't worry, what's life without risks.'"

Paoli chuckled and said, "That's an interesting friend you have there."

"He's an association, not a friend."

"Why's that, he seems cool."

"I don't know, he's definitely cool, but something about him just sends my instinct screaming. Enough about Jim, lets get over to the bank."

"All right."

They walked over to the bank, and used the Coinstar machine to cash their stolen change and split the cash. Afterwards, Paoli and Kyle went their separate way for the day; Kyle went to visit Janelle's grave, and Paoli spent the day on the streets walking around and buying some luxury stuff, such as a new sleeping bag and sleeping mat. Later, they meet up at the boulder, where they discussed about the profits from the burglary. They sat there talking until sunset and they went inside to sleep.

One day after they had just deposited the cash made from the goods, from their seventh burglary, Kyle and Paoli were walking down the street chatting aimlessly. Kyle noticed that Paoli was acting a little differently today and inquired,

"What's up Paoli, you're acting more nervously today than normally."

"Um, do you remember that fifth house we broke into, the one with the baby room?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There was a picture of the family by the crib, I don't know, why but all of suddenly, I got this strong desire to look and see if I could find out more about my parents."

"There's nothing wrong with that." Paoli sighed in relief, knowing that family was a touchy subject with Kyle, and he surprised Paoli by asking, "What's your plan?"

"I was thinking about hiring a PI and have him look up my parents, and see if they have any living family left."