I walked down the street trying to keep my head low. “No regrets,” I told myself.

It was getting dark. I had almost two hundred dollars in cash, but I was no where near enough delusional to believe that I would be able to find a hotel room for near that cheap. Not in this city.

I noticed an alley with a stack of boxes. I turned and tried to decide what to do. Should I hunker down here? Or see if I could find a park bench somewhere?

Suddenly I heard a noise behind me. Then a rough voice, “Well, what we got here?”

I turned around to see a gang of punks glowering at me. “Hey kid,” the leader said, “don’t you know that there’s a toll?”

“I didn’t realize that you had to pay a toll to stand in an alley.”

“Well, not just any alley. But you’re in our territory now,” he looked me over. “Of course if you don’t have any cash, then there may be some other way you can pay us.”

On instinct I grabbed a glass bottle and smashed it on the dumpster.

“So that’s how it’s gonna be huh?” He asked grinning. “Fine then, let’s go,” he pulled a switch blade out of his pocket.

{-+•+-}

I sat against the wall with my head buried in my arms, trying not to look at all the blood. And there was just so much of it. Never had I thought that I’d be able to do something so horrible.

“Well Damn.”

I looked up to see a gruff man looking at the bodies littering the alley.

All I could think to say was, “I-I didn’t mean to.”

“For some reason I feel as though the authorities would beg to differ.”

My head was spinning. I couldn’t be handed in, I would just be carted back to my dad and I could NOT let that happen.

“Please- don’t...”

He looked at me for a moment before letting out a side splitting laugh, “And waste this golden opportunity? No way.” He extended a hand to me, “How’s about you come with me kid?”

I was baffled, “What?”

“Listen, that thing that used to be a person over there,” he pointed in a direction that I would rather not to look at, “that was my mark, but you saved me the trouble of taking care of him. You’ve got some skills, I wouldn’t want them to go to waste in jail.”

“And if I say no?”

He sighed, “Listen, you’re young, dumb, and I’m guessing pretty strapped for cash. I’m your best bet.”

“Actually, I was just headed to my aunt’s house-“

“There’s also a cop car parked just down the street.”

“I’m coming with you,” I decided.

He grinned, “That’s the spirit.”

No regrets, I thought.