He was being chased again. He was always being chased, it seemed. He was too fast for the store owner and eventually got away with his prize. As the crowds saw him pass, some saw, perhaps, a young slight boy. Others thought perhaps, a girl. He was 5’5, barely 100lbs at 15 years old. He had golden blonde hair, delicate features, and the most stunning purplish blue eyes that most had ever seen. His name was Justice Winters, orphan runaway extraordinaire

He doubled around, and then again, to be sure no one could see him enter the abandoned bomb shelter. Once inside he felt safe again.

“Yummy!” declared a half starved Justice, as he unwrapped his prize. “Let’s see.” he thought out loud. “If I eat only one of the twinkies now and save the other till bed, I may just get to sleep tonight without too much pain. Now if only I could do something about my nightmares, I’d be golden.” he snorted, thinking of the golden twinkie in his hand. “No pun intended.” he said chuckling at the golden cake.

“Mmmmmmmmn!” This had been his first meal in 2 days. He had to be careful, and only go out at night. The orphanage would still be looking for him.

Justice Faith Winters had lived at the orphanage all his life. From what he could piece together, his mother was a very young girl who left him on their doorstep. They saw her through the window and rushed to the door to find him, alone. She had run off.

His first and middle name were pinned to his shirt along with age. He was almost a whole hour old. The matron declared him bad luck from the get go, on the account of, what he later found out, was some 30something year old loser, getting hit by a large truck just down the street, as they found Justice.

Growing up in the orphanage didn’t start off so bad when he was younger, but the older he got, the tougher it got for him, due to his size and looks. He had to learn to fight the hard way. He lost a lot of fights before he was good enough to start winning. He learned to use his lightening reflexes and agility to execute devastatingly quick and ferocious attacks directed at the weakest and most painful spots on their bodies.

They learned for awhile.

Then came the “Blanket Parties”. That’s when they wait till you fall asleep, grab your blanket or sheets, and hold you trapped in them while they beat you with pillow cases filled with bars of soap. That was one month ago today and also the day when Justice ran away, not for the first time.

Still, Justice kept a fierce sense of humor. He felt he had to. It’s what kept him going most days. All this and more passed through his mind until he finally drifted off to sleep, forgetting to eat his second twinkie.

****Dream World****
Justice looked around and recognized the tragic scenes about to; again, interrupt any chance of a good night’s rest. It was strange. He was detached from the dream itself but watched it play out right in front of him, helpless to stop the events. The people, whom, he was positive that he had never met, seemed oddly familiar. He also seemed able to feel their emotions.

“Holy crap!” exclaimed Justice as he saw her rip an actual hole in mid air. As she started to force her way through the hole, Justice could see what looked like asphalt streets. Then everything went black.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Justice woke to the sound of someone banging on his door.

“OH CRAP!!” he said, a little too loudly.

“I can hear you in there, boy.” said the voice. “You either come out or we will come in. If we come in…well you definitely won’t like it”.

Knowing he had nowhere to run, and was too hungry at this point to pass up the free meal that social services usually fed hungry runaways, Justice surrendered…uh….sort of.
Justice opened the door and said, “Ah good, you are finally here. I’d like to report a
crime, please.”

“You, Ms. Twinkie Thief, want to report a crime?” officer Collins remarked amused.

“Come on Collie, I’ve told you a billion times that I’m a boy. Careful I’m starting to think you are sweet on me.”

“Yea real funny kid.” Said his longtime partner Officer Mclean

“No seriously, I’d like to report a crime.” Justice pointed to the half eaten twinkie wrapper. “Yea so I was like minding my own business wandering around like I usually do…..and THAT’S when I saw it.”

“Saw what?”, asked Collins

“There it was sitting on the shelf, oh yea, I knew what was up. The store was holding my twinkies captive! Probably for some deviant type activity. So I told myself, you can turn the other cheek for the theft of your twinkie, but could you really live with yourself if you walked away from a dear friend in peril? So you see? I’m the hero of the story and “the store” is the evil twinkie sex trader.” He finished and looked up giving the officers the most innocent puppy dog eyed face he could muster.

Once they stopped laughing, Officer Collins managed to get out, “Yea well, your buddy looks half eaten to me”, and started laughing again

“Oh no Sir, we just didn’t like his friend much.” laughed Justice.
“Funs over kid, lets go.” ordered Officer Mclean.

The ride to JDH (Juvenile Detention Hall) was a familiar one. After being processed, which took half the day, Justice was finally served…uh, I mean fed (no pun intended=). They always put kids in solitary their first day here, so fortunately for Justice, he could have a safe nights sleep.

****Dream World
Completely out of her mind in pain, she ran toward the grove where she had first arrived on that cursed day. When she arrived, she fell to her knees and screamed. She tore at the ground and air. Her hands started to glow.

Then a truck came speeding around the corner headed right for the Pri……middle aged dude. Just before the truck hit….blackness.