Lucien sighed upon hearing the sarcastic-toned question. Forcing a smile on his face, he turned around, only to see 3 much taller, older boys with the familiar, cruel grinning expression on their faces.

"What is it today, Billy?!" He asked the tallest, blonde-haired, chubby teenager in the middle with a cold tone. Although he tried to force a kind, friendly outlook, he couldn\'t control and hide the emerging annoyance in his tone. After all, this scene wasn\'t a new one, it repeated way too often over the years. He knew that he should have tried his best to remain calm, and smiling, but it was just too early for that. Lucien was aware that this mistake of his, will earn him some extra \'attention\' from this bully and his gang.

"What is that tone, Wretched One?! Do you not appreciate my kindness anymore? Is this any way to greet your one and only friend? After all, who would want to interact with someone like you?!" Billy, the leader of the trio of these boys, looked to be hurt by the coldness of Lucien.

However, before Lucien could have had the chance to respond, his theatrical smile returned to his face, he stepped next to him, leaning his arm against his shoulders as he continued.

"Don\'t worry about your food, we have already taken it for you. Today, we even decided to allow you to sit and eat with us! What do you say, aren\'t we the best friends you could have?" Billy grinned, forcing the cruelty behind his glinting eyes to the back. Still, this only gave him an even worse visage.

While forcing the smile to appear on his face and doing his best to mask the increasing annoyance he felt, Lucien responded slowly. He was aware that he was no match to them physically, the best he could do was to ease the suffering he will surely receive.

"Sure, that is indeed very nice of you, Billy."

"Perfect! Come on then Wretched, let\'s eat breakfast together, amongst friends!" Billy spoke with a giddy tone, his two lackeys nodded with elated looks on their faces. Today seemed to be turning out especially good as it seemed.

As he followed along with the three bullies, Lucien lamented his luck today. Today of all days he had to run into this fat pig and be tormented for the next couple of hours. He had to \'enjoy\' his friendship and get beaten up. Today, of all days!

\'Some birthday, huh…\' He ridiculed inwardly. Today, just for this one day, he wanted to be left alone. Not ridiculed, not tortured, not beaten up for the amusement of others. He just wanted to be by himself, maybe enjoy the garbage that he would probably receive as breakfast. Survive through the daily lecture and attend the animals.

It wasn\'t much, nobody really bothered to wish him \'Happy Birthday\'. Not that he would have expected anybody to know or care. This was only special to himself. This day marked his progress of getting ever so closer to his dream of leaving this hellish place once and for all. After today, he \'only\' had to survive five more years!

But no, even this little respite was denied from him. Even this small peace was something he couldn\'t enjoy. He turned thirteen today, a number that was often referred to as the cursed, unlucky number.

Throughout history, many civilizations feared this seemingly harmless two-digit numeric. In ancient Mayan culture, the end of the calendar, the thirteenth Baktum was superstitiously feared as the harbinger of the end of the world. For the catholic church, during the famous and just as equally famed Last Supper, there were 13 people sitting at the table. On the thirteenth day of October of 1307, France\'s current ruler King Philip IV ordered the capture of the Knight Templars who were then horribly tortured and killed.

In fact, the number is famed that it even has its own phobia in psychology, named triskaidekaphobia.

Still, despite that, for Lucien this day marked that he now only had to suffer for 5 more years before he would be finally free. To him, this day, the beginning of the final countdown was a joyous occasion, something he wanted to enjoy with the only creatures in this hell that didn\'t shun him just because of some superstition that surrounded his very being. The animals.

Reminding himself of this fact, Lucien clenched his fists and stopped in his tracks causing Billy and his gang to take a halt as well. He looked at the fragile figure of the dark-haired boy with a wondrous gaze.

Before Billy could inquire about the reason, Lucien spoke with a much colder, impassive tone. His figure was slightly trembling, but it was uncertain if it was due to fear or maybe something else.

"Listen, guys. Today, I really don\'t want to spend my morning like how I do usually. Can I just take my food and eat it at peace? Just this once?"

"What\'s the matter Wretched One? Are you not enjoying our friendship anymore? That really hurts you know…" After listening to Lucien\'s request and his change of tone, Billy\'s friendly facade also faded for a moment. However, a moment later he forced the same theatrical expression back to his wide, oval-shaped face.

"You know, Wretched One, I would have expected you to be a bit more grateful than this. Not just that we are nice enough to take your meal without you having to go for it yourself and then allow you to be in our presence and eat it with us, we are also kind and generous enough to be your friends! Yet, you have the gall to be this ungrateful?!"

Every time he could, he put emphasis on Lucien\'s nickname, with an even wider grin stretching across his puffy face. Towards the end of his theatrical speech, he played the part of a hurt, offended youth, even going so far as to crumble a teardrop just for added effect.

"Yeah, just like Billy says! Why are you being so ungrateful?!"

"We spent a lot of time, making sure you got a decent meal and even got you the best table! Yet, you are so arrogant! Are you looking down on us?"

His goons joining in chimed their own verbal insults loud enough for the entire canteen to hear, causing all eyes to be focused on them. Smirks and expectant glints could be seen in almost all of the childlike faces, knowing full well that a good show was about to start and the Wretched One would receive a good and well-deserved beating again.

"Yeah, how can you be so cruel, Wretched One?!"

"This is why nobody wants to befriend you! Annoying little sh*thead!"

"Beat him up! Give him what he deserves!"

Curses flew left and right from Billy\'s friends and the audience as well. Nobody seemed to be on the small, weak little boy\'s side…

Billy, just like many times before, knew how to play to the audience\'s wishes. He waited with an increasing smile on his face for a while, listening and nodding to the various insults flying left and right.

After a couple of minutes, he suddenly raised his right hand in the air, silencing the expectant crowd.

"Just so that nobody can say we aren\'t generous, and forgiving, we will give you a chance to explain yourself and consequently apologize for your rudeness, Wretched One. Tell us, why do you want to leave us after you were offered the chance to enjoy your meal with us, your ONLY friends\' presence?" As he spoke, Billy kept his attention on the crowd, slowly turning his gaze from left to right only looking at the boy in question as he finished with his question.

Being the victim of yet another of these little plays, Lucien just couldn\'t take it anymore. Not today of all days. His annoyance, his anger was reaching dangerous levels, critical heights. He was visibly shaking, seething, trying to keep his boiling emotions down.

Unbeknownst to him, a faint black saturation began to creep up to the outer edges of the visible parts of his eyes. His pearl white sclera now had a thin outer black, ebony border. This, however, went unnoticed by Billy, his lackeys, and even the nearby audience.

Lucien clenched his hands even tighter, forcing the blood back, turning his already pale fists even whiter.

"I will ask you again, Billy. Let me enjoy my meal alone. Just for today. We can resume this little play of yours tomorrow." He seethed, almost spitting out the words one by one.

His request, however, didn\'t seem to reach Billy\'s ears. His smile that previously looked kind and friendly, was now clearly one of those that you could expect to see on especially cruel and savage homicidal maniacs. Whatever he planned to do with the little punchbag today, was now only further enhanced. He glanced at his lackeys, nodding imperceptibly. Upon his command they surrounded Lucien, cutting off any possible routes for an escape.

As they slowly approached Lucien, with their hands balled into fists, looking at him as if he was the sheep and them the wolves, they were already expecting Lucien\'s knees to buckle in fright and to start begging for forgiveness…

"If you want to survive this without any injury you should kneel and apologize to everyone here for wasting their precious time. If you do that, we might just be generous enough to forgive you…" Already expecting how the scene should play out, Billy spoke up, the grin on his face reaching almost ear to ear at this point. He was clearly enjoying how the events played out, even if it was not following the usual script.

The smile on his face was as vicious as it could possibly be, he was looking at the weakling, the Wretched One with a face full of contempt. There was no facade, no theatrical display anymore. What he wanted to see, to hear was the suffering of this boy. He wanted to hear his painful cry, follow the tears as they rushed down on his annoying little face…

---

At an unknown location, in an office at a particular skyscraper, the back of a feminine figure jolted as a familiar sensation reached her. She jerked her head towards the direction where she suddenly felt a familiar presence for the first time in more than a decade. Her long blonde hair swayed in the air, her azure, deep blue eyes turned blurry, tears began to threaten to escape from the corner of her eyes.

With a trembling voice, she whispered.

"I-is it finally time?"