IN PROGRESS - SUBJECT TO TWEAKS:
As far back as I can remember, I've wanted to be a guard. Growing up on the streets of Wicken, my friends and I would play Guards and Thieves, and I was always the guard. It seems weird, I know, but a city guard saved my mom when she was pregnant with me from a couple of muggers who didn't seem to want to leave any witnesses. She told me the story growing up, about the copper who just happened to be patrolling the streets, rounding a corner just as they drew blades, even after she'd thrown them all her money. He took a mortal wound during the fight, but three men lay on the ground, and my mother didn't have a scratch on her. She never even learned his name, and I'm alive because of him.
I'm alive because of a guard, and I figured maybe, when I'd grown up, I could help other people in the same way. I also figured by moving to a bigger city, I would have more opportunities to actually help people.
I pretty much figured wrong.
Three years I've been working these walls, these alleys, these dark, disgusting streets of Castorhage. Damn do I miss Wicken. The Blight is hell, only without the warmth and personal attention from that which is slowly killing you. I've seen rape, murder, prostitution, slavery, and more walking these streets. I know the corners they occur on, and they know me - because they know, unlike the other guards, I will turn them in. Yeah, my career has suffered. I'm still a lowly grunt after all this time, even though I'm working harder than those around me...and yeah, ultimately, bribes go in the right hands, and these disgusting monsters are back out on the street in no time, but really, what else can I do? I can't just turn a blind eye, can I? My captain seems to think so. He's practically said to do so in those exact words.
I'm pretty sure the only reason I haven't been sacked, or worse, is because nobody really >wants< to be a guard in this town, so they keep who they can. That and the lieutenant seems to have a similar mindset to my own, even if she's better at the politics of, you know, not having other guards beat you senseless after you turn in someone who was lining their pockets. I will admit, those beatings have grown farther apart since she said she'd take care of it.
I'm tired of it. Something has to break, the system or me, and I'm worried that one day it's going to be me. I just pray I can save a few more lives before I finally snap.
