13elieve (Short story collection)

Francis

Francis Moddoe was born in a hospital room, to his father and his mother, who were both very excited about this, but his mother was also nervous, for she would get abused by her husband, and feared that he would abuse Francis too, which unfortunately was correct, and she felt like there was nothing she could do, until she found the courage to divorce him, and move far away from her ex, and to protect Francis from him, and it worked, until she got hit by a drunk driver, and died, and this not only upset Francis, now seven years old, but also meant that he had to go live with his father, who he did not remember, but heard bad things about from his mother, which he found out to be all true, and much like his mother feared, Francis was frequently abused, for the next eleven years, until he was old enough to legally move out, which proved to be difficult, because Francis had no job, nor money, and since his dad homeschooled him, to hide Francis' injuries, he also had little education, but Francis needed to escape, so he lived on the streets, and soon fell into drugs as a way to escape the pain and troubles, but instead it created much more trouble for himself, and he kept this up for three more years, when he started drinking, which like drugs was very expensive and addicting, and also like drugs, he could only afford them by selling things he stole, which made him think of himself as a master thief, and this made him constantly think up plans, on where to steal from, what to steal, and what time to rob the places, since he lived on the streets and could always see when the stores were empty, but he never actually went through with any of these plans, until one day, when he decided to do a small robbery at the food store, and much to his surprise, it worked, and he made off with a couple of apples, which, since he did not have money to buy food, were like gold to him, but since it worked once, he repeated it everyday, and in no time, he was no longer starving, and he also gained confidence in his ability to steal, and soon he took on bigger tasks, like pick pocketing people's wallets for all their money, which he spent on alcohol, and on drugs, which he could go back to affording, and he had enough money to buy an apartment, but, since he was addicted, he decided that drugs and alcohol were more important, and decided to move his "camp", where he lived, to just outside of town instead, and he would spend all day walking around town, pick pocketing a few people each day, in order to fuel his addictions, and get necessities, like food and water, and he kept doing this for around two weeks, until there were so many reports of thefts, that there were police on basically every corner, and Francis knew that this was not worth getting arrested over, so he had to find other ways to make money, but the only thing he felt good at were robberies, but with all of the police, he was unsure if he wanted to do that anymore, but as he ended up using almost all of the money he stole, he knew he needed more, and seeing how he would have a hard time getting a job, since he had little education, he knew stealing was his only option, which he knew was dangerous, but that didn't scare him, instead, it made him plan the entire robbery in advance, and seeing how he needed money, he started planning immediately, first he found a bank to rob, then he observed it, to see when and how he should rob it, and he spent every waking second planning it, and soon he had the ultimate plan, and he had planned out as many possibilities as he could think of, including several escape routes, and how much money he could escape with, along with several different paths from the bank, to where he lived, and the more he planned this out, the more dangerous he realized it would be, but he also knew, that he needed the money, not only for his addictions and necessities, and he knew he needed to put this plan into action, sooner versus later, and he figured, despite planning being very important, the longer he would wait, the more nervous it would make him, so he decided to get some sleep, and rob the bank in the morning, and when he woke up, he was very alert and awake, and knew if this robbery was going to be successful, he would have to do it today, so he started heading to the bank, but then he realized, he didn't have a gun, but then he remembered that his dad kept several guns growing up, and knew exactly where he kept them, but he was unsure if he wanted to go back to the place that ruined his life, but it was on the way, so he stopped by and broke into the shed, where of all places, his dad kept the guns, took two, and ran to the bank, and he got there a little later than he hoped, but thought it would be fine, so he went into the bank, asked the teller at gunpoint, for all of the money, and ran as soon as he got it, knowing the police were called, and he ran through the streets, hearing the sirens, unsure if he would make it, but just kept running, knowing that it was his one chance to survive, but as time passed, he grew tired, and he heard the sirens getting closer and closer to him, but he was motivated to survive, and to keep the money, so he kept running, until he turned a corner, saw a police car, and before he could turn and run away, he was shot. Dead.