Prologue
In the present time, in a
city called Raven’s Peak, life appears to be no different than it is in any
other city. In the city-centre, there is a bustling business district, complete
with the usual hawkers and street hustlers.
On the outskirts of the city,
there is a network of apartment buildings and lofts. It’s here that all the
people who work in the business district make their homes. All of the buildings
are owned by a ruthless and wealthy business tycoon, Gabriel Cruz. Cruz holds
offices in the largest and most opulent building in the city, unsurprisingly
named The Cruz Complex.
In the east of Raven’s Peak,
there’s a place known as The Haunt, only vagrants, beggars, thieves and
criminals reside here. They are a community of outcasts that do whatever they
can to survive. They live by very few rules; in fact, the only thing that keeps
these people from destroying each other completely is their leader, Blackjack
Joe. He’s a man that would rather solve problems with a drink and a game of
cards than with a brawl, but if someone gets out of line, the smile disappears
and he shows them the darker side of his nature.
One of the apartments outside
the city is rented by Rachel Davis and her 21-year-old son, Raphael. Rachel
works as a waitress in a small diner near the harbour and Raphael makes money
by working on the docks.
The Davis family never had
much money and life was even tougher for Raphael because he had to grow up
without a father. However, throughout Raphael’s life, Rachel did all she could
to give him a solid upbringing, tempered with all the values, happiness and
love that are so vital in turning a sweet boy into a strong and honourable
man.
Rachel’s husband and
Raphael’s father, Tommy, also rose from impoverished conditions. He was born
and raised in The Haunt. His childhood was a harsh and difficult one, but when
he became a man, he worked hard and having escaped his birthplace, was able to
open a small but respectable tavern near his family’s apartment block. He named
it The Bird’s Nest.
One night while walking
home from a busy night’s work at the tavern, Tommy was attacked, beaten and
finally stabbed to death by someone the police described as a “street thief”,
but when Rachel was called in to identify Tommy’s body, she found that nothing
had been stolen from him. Raphael was five years old at the time and in all the
years since his father’s death, both he and Rachel have wondered why Tommy was
killed. Secretly, Raphael has a burning desire to discover who robbed him of
his father, and why...
A small
apartment outside the city
|
I
|
n the city of Raven’s Peak,
dawn broke much the same as it had on all the days prior to this one. Most
people were still sound asleep, but of the few that were awake, young Raphael
Davis was already in a rush. After all, he was late for his shift down at the
docks. The last time he clocked in late, Mr. Anderson, the surly supervisor,
threatened to have his job. So, after eating a hastily made jam sandwich, he
headed west, taking a shortcut through the back-alleys toward the docks.
If he thought about it,
Raphael could admit that he actually enjoyed the work he did. He felt satisfied
when he went about the business of loading and unloading the cargo of ships.
Raphael liked being part of a team, he felt good when he worked with purpose
and set things in their proper order. Raphael was never one to hang around
doing nothing. As a result, his tall frame was lean and muscular. He kept his
light-brown hair tied back in a loose ponytail, his skin had darkened from
hours of work in the sun and he was blessed with his mother’s fine features and
emerald-green eyes.
After finishing a
relatively light morning shift, Raphael walked across the harbour to a small,
somewhat dilapidated and dingy diner. The rusty steel sign hanging from an
awning stated, “The Fishhook, our great food and friendly staff will reel
you in!” The food was nowhere near tasty enough to be called “great”, and
the majority of The Fishhook’s staff had the people-skills of the utensils
they cooked with. No, the sole reason that Raphael visited the diner after
every shift was this; his mother, Rachel worked there as a waitress.
If what he did for a living
made him happy, it was also true that knowing where and under the kind of
conditions his mother worked made Raphael sad. He hated the fact that in order
to keep the roof over their heads, she was forced to spend ten hours a day in
this dump. The work was literally thankless, and the pay even worse. As far as
her son was concerned, a woman of such strength and unconditional love, not to
mention class, was far too deserving to waste her days in such a dreary
place.
The tarnished brass bell
suspended above the door gave a faint ring as he entered the diner. Rachel
looked up at the sound and smiled when she saw Raphael take his usual seat at
the counter.
“Morning Raff. Judging by the loaf of bread and bottle of jam
you left on the kitchen table this morning, you’re either watching your figure,
or you were late for the morning shift again.”
“You know me mom, I’ve got
to keep in shape, can’t disappoint my legions of adoring female fans.”
Rachel finished stacking
some plates she’d just washed, turned to face Raff with a playful smile and
rolled her eyes, “These legions of fans must be as discreet as they are devoted
to you, because I haven’t seen or heard of a single one, ‘til now that is.”
Raff put on an exaggerated
frown and let out a mournful sigh, “You couldn’t play along for five minutes,
could you mom?”
“And miss my chance to see
you make that silly face? Of course not!”
After Raphael finally gave
in and admitted to his hunger, he asked his mother for a cheeseburger with
chips and a side of onion rings. After the meal was finished, he spent the
remainder of the morning with her. At a quarter to twelve, Raff said goodbye to
Rachel, left the diner and jogged out of the harbour district, across five
blocks and into the bus station. He hoped he’d get there in time to catch the
twelve o’clock bus back home.
A little out of breath,
Raff walked through the entrance of the bus station. As he passed by its high
walls, he heard a deep and throaty sound. He knew what the sound was, had heard
it all his life and sure enough, when he looked up, an ebony coloured bird was
staring down at him with beady eyes. It was a raven, one of the creatures for
which Raven’s Peak had been named. There were thousands of ravens nesting all
over the city; they made their homes on window ledges, in stairwells, in the
shade of chimneys high atop large buildings and in many other populated areas.
The birds had no fear of humans and for the most part they caused no trouble
and so, were left alone.
The large clock on the
station wall told Raphael that he had five minutes to spare before the bus
started on its route back to the apartment building, so he sat on a bench while
he waited. Raff heard the engine cough into life and smelled exhaust fumes
before he saw it pull out of the big garage at the rear of the building. The
city’s bus line was made up of ancient, grey vehicles with rusted bodies and
faded paintwork. As he boarded it and
greeted the rather shabby-looking driver, Raff thought to himself, these
old rigs might not look so great, but they’re always on time.
After paying the ten-galleon
fare for a full trip, Raff took the last seat on the left side It appeared that
no one else was waiting at the station, so the old man drove out of the gates
through which Raphael had entered and into the road. Raff watched as other
vehicles, buildings and a dense mass of pedestrians passed by outside the
window. The first stop they made was near a construction site in the business
district where a new office building was being erected. Obviously, a shift had
just come to an end, because a group of tall and extremely muscular men in work
boots and faded overalls waited next to a bus stop sign.
As the bus wound its way
through the streets of Raven’s Peak, it slowly filled up many different kinds
of people. There were street hawkers, shop assistants, travelling entertainers,
and some scruffy looking youths on their way home from school. Raphael was
getting tired now; he really wanted to get home so he could grab a cold cider
from the fridge and maybe watch an old movie on TV before he started making
dinner. While it was true that being raised by a single mother made life tough
in many ways, the advantage was that Raff had become quite handy in the
kitchen. He was stirred from thoughts of food when the bus jerked to a sudden
halt and the doors swung open with a hydraulic hiss.
He looked in the direction
of the doors expecting to see an elderly person hobble up the steps, or a kid
with an MP3-player clipped onto his belt swagger onboard. What young master
Davis did see couldn’t have been any more different. Her long chestnut hair was
held in a ponytail by a glinting silver clasp in the shape of a dragonfly. Her
face had a calm and gentle beauty, with strong features, amber eyes, a button
nose and full, up-turned lips which told Raff that this young woman didn’t
hesitate to smile.
When he realised that he’d
been staring at the girl for far too long, he looked sheepishly down at his
knees, but as the bus began to move again, Raff was pretty sure she hadn’t
spotted his rather creepy behaviour. He then noticed that she was standing in
the gap between the rows of seats with one hand clasped around the railing
suspended from the vehicle’s ceiling. The bus was full and none of the other
passengers had enough courtesy to give her their seat. Without a second
thought, Raphael got to his feet and walked to the front of the bus.
“Excuse me, would you like
to take my seat?”
“No thanks, I don’t mind
standing.”
“Come on, you know you’d be
more comfy if you sat down.”
Her lips curved into an
amused and curious smile, “Why’re you so desperate to lose your place?”
“Well maybe I feel like
stretching my legs. Besides, my mom always taught me that I should never put my
own needs before those of a beautiful girl.”
Her smile widened and she
let out a joyful and bubbly laugh that Raff found particularly intoxicating.
“Well who am I to disagree with such sage advice?”
As he stepped back to let
her pass, the pure and floral scent of her perfume mounted such a powerful
assault on his senses that his mind was suddenly consumed by thoughts of this
casually seductive stranger.
Cruz Complex,
city-centre
|
I
|
n an office on the
thirtieth floor of The Cruz Complex, a man wearing a finely tailored black
business suit and a dark-green silk tie sat in a luxurious leather chair behind
a large and intricately adorned mahogany desk. Displayed on a slim computer
screen in front of him were columns of figures and names. After checking all
the data thoroughly, Gabriel Cruz smiled and leaned back in his chair. Now
nearing his 51st birthday, Gabriel’s overpaid doctors told him that
he should stop drinking scotch and that the Cuban cigars were destroying his
lungs. To Hell with all of them, he thought, what’s the point of life
without the little pleasures? He opened the third desk-drawer from the top
and pulled out his box of Cubans. After clipping the end off of one with his
favourite cutter, he picked up the gold-plated Zippo that he’d given himself
for his last birthday.
As smoke slowly rose above
Cruz’s head, he began to think about the things he’d done to achieve his goals.
He supposed that many people thought of him as a soulless power-monger, but he
didn’t worry much about that, because most of those people worked for him. Even
if he didn’t know it, the Average Joe hotdog man standing with his cart
twenty-nine floors below this very office was in the employ of Mr Gabriel Cruz.
He was always amused by the idea that the so-called “good people” of Raven’s
Peak called him a heartless profiteer and yet had no qualms about buying his
products, working in his retail chains and most especially, benefiting from the
numerous charitable projects that Cruz Inc. funded. Bleeding hearts, one and
all.
Having finished the cigar,
Gabriel got back to work. The day had gone quite smoothly. The deal he had been
working on to absorb a rival company had been finalised after months of long
and drawn out negotiations. Mostly due to the fact that John Adams, president
of Falcon Industries, was a stubborn fool who refused to accept that his
revenue stream had all but dried up. With this new acquisition, Cruz felt
supremely confident in the belief that he was now the most powerful man in the
city.
===================================================================
[Part 2 will be up next week!]
No comments:
Post a Comment