When There Is Nothing Left But Love

Being a scatterbrain, I had walked further than I had originally planned. Soon, the roads began to look foreign to me, so I headed back.

“You ugly devil! You look like an illegal immigrant. You stink like the trash you belong in!” A chorus of jeering voices came from an alley nearby. Curious, I inched forward for a closer look.

I caught sight of a gang of delinquents surrounding a man on the floor. They looked to be dropouts, around fifteen or sixteen years of age.

One of them held up a bucket of unknown contents. “Make way, make way. The main course is here!” he yelled excitedly.

The boys scattered as the bucket-toting boy emptied its contents onto the man on the floor. In an instant, he was drenched from head to toe.

The boys shouted with laughter.

I frowned with disapproval. The man on the ground had his head between his knees. He looked to be of a strong build, but his clothes were torn and ripped. His most striking feature was the darkness of his skin.

He looked like a harmless, homeless man to me. The kids appeared to have more plans to drench him, so I yelled out “The cops are coming!”

They were children, after all. At the sound of my voice, they bolted.

slowly looked up. His

 Danny again! How

I walked in to the

footsteps, he turned to look and froze in surprise at the

I asked as I don’t know what

out of his shirt. “I am

took a deep breath as I felt some sorrow in my

the money that I had. It wasn’t much, but I gave it all to Danny. I’d even included my phone number. “This is for you. My

on me. I placed the money and

but during my time in Venria, Danny had aided me and allowed concessions despite not doing them so openly. Without him and his kindness, I may not even have

the villa, where I found Ashton reading in the yard.

was noon. I wandered to the kitchen and found lots

up a quick meal for myself. After that, I went upstairs to the bedroom. I originally planned to do some light reading but I

groggily that it was already late afternoon. The remnants

returned upstairs soon after. I’d been sleeping