“There’s no getting away from your daily treatment,” snickered Seth. “Maybe it will help you walk again.”

The boy grabbed Max by his shaggy red hair and yanked him off of his wheelchair and threw his body to the ground.

They kicked him and stomped on him as he lay there helplessly on the ground.

“Take your treatment,” they laughed.

Max closed his tear-strewn eyes and let the beating take over.

They wouldn’t stop until they thought he couldn’t take any more. The best thing he could do now was let them have their sick sadistic fun and hopefully it would all be over a little bit sooner.

Then something different happened.

The kicks stopped.

A hand caressed his leg, slipping inside the right pocket of his jeans.

They’d never done this before. What were they doing?

The hand pulled out Max’s wallet.

“We’ll be taking this as a souvenir,” said Seth.

Max’s shoulders straightened at those words. He was no longer passively taking the beating, but very much alert.

They can’t take my wallet, he thought.

Elle’s note is in there.

The bullies walked away, leaving Max on the floor with his aching bruised body and tears.

“Should we go shoot some pool?” said one of the goons.

“Maybe the arcade?”

Their malicious beating of Max from mere seconds ago was already a far away memory to them.

“Agh—what the—”

Max clutched onto Seth’s leg and dug his nails into his calf.

“Give...me...my...wallet...back...” said Max.

Max had dragged his pained body across the hall to catch up with Seth and his gang. He wouldn’t let go until he got his wallet back. Until he made sure his letter from Elle was safe and secure.

“Ugh,” said Seth, repulsed, trying to shake Max off his leg. “What are you doing? Get off me you psycho cripple!”

Max didn’t let go.

“GIVE ME MY WALLET BACK!”

Seth looked down at the boy with drool and blood leaking out of his mouth. He pulled the wallet out of his own pocket, drained it of the few measly bucks that were in there, and then tossed it down the hall.

“There you go, psycho cripple,” said Seth. “It’s all yours.”

Max let go of Seth’s leg, only for the boy to give him another walloping kick to the gut. Pain coursed through his whole body.

“Next time,” said Seth. “Stay down.”

The bullies walked away.

Max slowly dragged himself across the empty school hallway.

He pulled himself towards his black leather wallet on the ground and clasped it with relief.

The late afternoon sun shone through a nearby window. The city and its skyscrapers stood stoic and apathetic to the life that swirled around them. So too did the tower at the center of the city, shooting out beyond the clouds and as far as the eye could see.

The tower.