“I’ve never seen anyone with features quite like yours before. You see, I’m a collector of sorts, and oddities like you fit well into my collection.”

Gryff could feel his heart pounding, he hadn’t thought this far ahead. He thought that if he could just see the boss directly, he could ask for something other than the few pieces of bread runners were often given in exchange for their scrap. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea.

{Fuck, when did my wig hook come undone?} Cold sweat rolled down his neck as he fiddled with his hair, a sense of dread squeezing at his heart.

“I-I’m not for sale,” whispered Gryff, suddenly Ryzen’s eyes seemed even more dangerous than before, as if they were staring underneath his flesh, making his skin crawl.

“A shame. Can I see the watch?” asked Ryzen, holding his hand out, however his eyes never shifted from Gryff’s hair.

“Y-Yes.” Gryff handed over the watch, a tingling sense of loss washed over him as its weight left his hands.

Ryzen inspected it, his fingers gently tracing the intricate lines that were engraved at its center. “An enforcer second grade, not too bad,” he murmured to himself, before his eyes went ablaze with a purple light.

The quiet whining of metal gears trickled into the silent room, before the watch opened with a click. A yellow light shrouded Ryzen’s entire body as the watch began ticking, illuminating the room to a considerable degree.

{So you need magic to open it,} sighed Gryff, another spark of hope extinguished within his mind.

“It’s an interesting piece you’ve brought me here. Calen, I suppose he’s one of the runners right? Have him report to me from now on, even if it’s just daily scrap, I want to see it,” ordered Ryzen -his words ringing with the certain finality expected from the boss of a group of thugs- before closing the watch, the yellow light disappearing with that motion.

As Ryzen walked back to his seat, Gryff couldn't help but feel that something was odd. Sure, some religious colored hairs would usually visit the districts in an attempt to stroke their self-righteous beliefs, to make themselves feel like they were above the rest because they were doing something, but Ryzen felt different.

There was no way he was here on something as pious as that, but that’s where it ended, Gryff didn’t care enough to investigate it. All that mattered was that he was finally noticed, he had become an exclusive runner, one step closer to freedom.

“Here are the vials. You do want to be paid in vials, don’t you? After all, I doubt you went through all this trouble just to get a bigger share of food,” asked Ryzen, holding two crimson red vials in between his fingertips.

“Y-Yes,” nodded Gryff, reaching out for the vials.

“These are dangerous you know, someone as young as you shouldn’t be using them. It would be a shame if someone as… unique as you were to meet an untimely end,” warned Ryzen, placing the vials into Gryff’s hands with a little too much contact.

{Huh? He’s just going to let me go?}

Gryff was both impulsive and paranoid, two traits that helped him survive up till this point. And the fact that Ryzen was paying him fairly without asking too many questions about his hair struck him as something odd. However, he wasn’t going to let this chance go by, as soon as he put the vials into his pockets, he dashed out, grabbing his wig along the way.

“B-Boss, s-surely a second-grade enforcer watch can’t be worth two Red-eye vials,” stuttered the massive man, beads of sweat dripping down his face as he shrunk in his very skin just looking at Ryzen.

“Calen, what’s that boy’s name?”

“B-Boy? Oh, you mean the rat, his name is Gryff. He often brings in high-quality scrap, just the other day h-“

“If anything happens to.. Gryff, you’ll meet a fate far worse than death.” Ryzen said this almost nonchalantly, it didn’t sound much like a threat, more like a promise.

****

{I can’t believe that actually worked,} thought Gryff as he fixed his wig, weaving through the hunger-stricken residents of the district. The hot arid wind lashed at his face, making it hard for him to run fast while keeping his wig in place.

As he ran deeper into the districts, the spaces in between the buildings became narrower, the sharp edges of scrap material they were composed of protruded so close into the paths that they nearly cut him a few times.

After running non-stop for at least two minutes, he finally reached a high-rise metallic building. The scrap it was made of radiated a foul smell that no matter how long he had lived there, he couldn’t seem to get used to.

“Gryffy, where were you man? The enforcers already brought in the new scrap, by now you’d probably be lucky to find anything metallic,” shouted a young white-haired boy from behind.

“I told you to leave me alone, Nicolas.”

“Yeah… so you say. It’s just that, me and the others were wondering… where have you been getting your scrap lately. I mean, obviously you’ve been eating since you don’t look like old man Jacob,” said Nicolas, laughing towards the end in a sort of awkward manner.

“I haven’t been doing scrap runs, now if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.” As Gryff said this, he began climbing up the metallic building, using the individual pieces of scrap as platforms.

“Tommy and the others haven’t eaten in two days. Things have been hard since you left us Gryffy, I can’t make enough runs to feed the whole group alone. And lately, the older folk don’t allow us to go to the scrap yards anymore, they’re back at their stupid gang laws again. Please, just tell me where you’re getting your scrap.”

A group of boys came out of hiding as he said this. They all seemed small, whether it was due to age or stunted growth was uncertain, however among them was a very small skeletal boy who seemed younger than the rest, holding a ravaged woolen doll in his hands.

“That… that isn’t my problem anymore.” Gryff tried to climb away, however a hand grabbed onto his ankle, keeping him from climbing any higher.

“Dex, what are you doing?” The little voice came from the boy holding the woolen doll, it was faint, nearly a whisper.

“If this bastard won’t tell us where he’s getting his scrap, we’ll just have to beat it out of him. It’s six versus one, even Gryff can’t beat all six of us alone.” The boy seemed determined, he tightened his grip around Gryff’s ankle tugging at it without too much force, it was as if he were contemplating whether to go ahead with it or not.

“Dex, leave him alone. We’ll find another wa-“ The piece of metal that Gryff was holding onto came undone, sending him to the ground with a thud. A red fluid dripped to the ground from his pockets, the dry sand swallowing every drop of it.

“No, no, no, no!” shouted Gryff, clawing at the sand in desperation.

“Sorry Gryffy, are you okay?” asked Nicolas, running to check whether Gryff had gotten any serious injuries.

“Get the fuck off me!” Gryff pushed him back, his head downcast in defeat.

“Apologize Dex.” Nicolas’s voice was stern, it was the same way a mother would talk to her child when they had done something wrong.

“W-Why should I? The bastard suddenly left us without so much as an explanation, and now when we ask him for help he acts like we didn’t spend all those years together, like we’re just another group of strangers to him.”

As the two continued their quarreling, Gryff stared at the red stains left on the orange sand in silence, his vision becoming blurry as tears fell to the ground.

{That was my ticket out of here. How am I going to steal another enforcer watch again? They know my face.}

“Gryffy, are you oka-“

“Get away from me!” Gryff’s hand went swinging in a blinded rage, knocking the owner of the voice to the ground.

“Gryff, what have you done?” Everyone stopped their quarreling, their attention turned the the frail boy who laid on the ground with a bloody nose. Nicolas rushed to him, trying to place him on his back, however he was doing a poor job of it. He was too flustered to keep his hands steady.

“Tommy, are you oka-“

“Don’t touch him!” Nicolas clenched and unclenched his fists, seemingly deciding whether to hit him, or leave it be. The rest of the group looked on, glaring at Gryff in a mix of anger and confusion.

“D-don’t look at me like that, I-I didn’t mean to.”

“What’s gotten into you Gryff? Did we do something wrong? Was it us, or is it just you? I don’t understand.” As Nicolas said this he began walking away, his back turned towards Gryff as the rest of the group followed him.

“I-It’s complicated Nic.”

“Then explain to me, explain to us, we can help.”

“No you can’t, nobody can,” sighed Gryff, touching at the wig on his head.

“Fuck you Gryff… fuck you.” The group left, their figures disappearing into the perpetual dust of the districts.

“You guys wouldn’t understand,” he whispered to himself, playing with the sand.