When was it that he started to feel that living alone wasn’t so bad?

　　Maybe it was because of Emily Bolton. The first time he saw this girl, he knew she was probably the same kind of person as him. It was said that she was also from a single-parent family. Unfortunately, they weren’t in the same class, and had very little interaction—even during morning exercises, there were several rows between them.

　　At this moment, he didn’t know where he should go, but he had 500 yuan in his hand, so there were plenty of places he could go. Maybe he’d go to an internet café first. He thought, even if he had nowhere to sleep at night, he could curl up on the sofa.

　　Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a loud shout: “Stop!”

　　Before he could react, he suddenly felt a gust of wind behind him. Someone grabbed his collar from behind and yanked him off the bike. The bicycle lost control and crashed into the roadside bushes, while he landed face-first on the ground.

　　“Dad?” That was his first thought. What’s going on? Dad caught up? Could Dad actually be the Flash? Did he argue with Mom just to hide his identity?

　　Before Eric Bennett could figure it out, he was lifted up and dragged into a small alley by the road. Only then did he realize something was wrong and started struggling desperately. Eric Bennett played soccer, but he wasn’t particularly strong. The man was incredibly strong—no matter how hard he struggled, it was useless. Soon, he was dragged deep into the alley.

　　The alley was pitch dark, with only a single incandescent streetlamp. He was thrown into a corner, and immediately shouted, “I have 500 yuan, you can have it all, just don’t assault me!”

　　“Don’t move!” a man’s voice came from the darkness.

　　Eric Bennett looked up, but couldn’t see the man’s face against the light. However, he could clearly see that the man was covered in blood, head to toe. The man collapsed almost at the same time, but his hand still clung tightly to Eric Bennett’s collar.

　　Seeing this, Eric Bennett was surprisingly calm. His dad often came home drunk, bleeding from falling over, so at this moment, all he felt was disgust, desperately trying to pry the man’s hand off his collar. But that hand was like an iron clamp—no matter how he tried, he couldn’t get it off. The man grew impatient and slapped him hard, making Eric Bennett’s head buzz.

　　A robbery!

　　Eric Bennett had often heard about robberies near the school, but since he usually dressed shabbily and walked with David Clark and the soccer team, he’d never encountered anything like this. He never expected that just a few times alone, he’d run into trouble.

　　Thinking of the 500 yuan from David Clark in his pocket, he felt indignant. When he had no money, no one came to rob him, but now, just a few hours after getting some, someone showed up. What kind of intelligence sensitivity was this? Were these robbers all CIA informants?

　　Thinking this, he shouted, stared at the man’s incoming slap, and bit down on the man’s hand. The man cried out in pain and immediately let go.

　　“Good chance,” Eric Bennett cursed inwardly, scrambling to his feet to run. Almost instantly, he saw the man pick up a brick from the ground and smash it onto his head. His vision went black, and before he could even feel the pain, he collapsed to the side. Before he could get up, the man hit him with the brick again, this time knocking him senseless.

　　Eric Bennett lay on the ground, feeling nothing. He didn’t know what was happening. He drifted into unconsciousness, vaguely aware of some pain, but it didn’t seem that bad.

　　Am I going to be killed? he thought regretfully before losing consciousness.

　　But, maybe that’s all there is to it.

　　Eric Bennett lost all sensation.

　　“Sorry, I didn’t want to drag you into this, but I have no choice.” The man who attacked him coughed a few times, wiped the blood from his eyelids, shakily pulled a dagger from his pocket, turned Eric Bennett over, and began to cut open the back of his shirt.

Sand Sea I: Phantom Shadows in the Desert

Chapter Two: Scars

　　Headache.

　　It felt like a stapler was driving nails into his head, waves of stabbing pain. He seemed to hear again the harsh sound of glass shattering during his parents’ arguments years ago.

　　“Have you ever cared about your son? All these years, all you do is drink. Can you take care of this family?”

　　“Family? Who bought this house? Who bought this furniture? Damn it, you only remember my payday, never where my salary comes from.”

　　“I don’t care about any of this stuff!”

　　“Don’t care, huh? I’ll smash it! I’ll smash it! Don’t care, right? I’ll smash it! Don’t want any of it, I don’t care either!”

　　Bang! Bang! Bang!

　　Go away, all of you, go away!

　　Eric Bennett clutched his ears tightly and suddenly woke up, immediately seeing the white canopy above and the fluorescent light at the side.

　　He panted, struggling to breathe, and the sounds of arguing gradually faded away. He forced his eyes wide open, keeping them open until he could hear nothing at all.

　　A nurse was changing the IV bottle and was startled by his movement. “Do you have to open your eyes that hard? You look like a corpse coming back to life.”

　　Eric Bennett squinted, thinking: What a disaster. It’s been so long since I had a nightmare like that, and it still felt so real. Am I never going to escape these nightmares in my life? No, I absolutely can’t let that happen.