"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
-Frederick Douglass

Lucas didn't tell Nora or anyone else that he was planning to rob his own house. In the thirty minutes he had between the time his mother left and the time Nora came by to pick him up for school, he managed to take Brian's laptop, both iPads and the jar of cash he knew his mother kept high in one of the closets. The cash, about two grand, was an emergency savings in case the world went to shit and access to technology was gone. He made sure to wear gloves so no one could identify him as the thief.

He raided all the medicine cabinets. Sarah had removed every trace of opiates from the house last year after finding out about the Oxy, but he did find some Phentermine, a diet pill she had taken for a few days before complaining that she couldn't sleep. Lucas figured he could sell it off to some speedfreaks somewhere. And, of course, he took Brian's Klonopin again.

In fact, Lucas hit Brian harder than anyone. He tried not to take too much from his mother, but he took just about everything he could get his hands on in Brian's office: handfuls of dollar bills and change, fancy awards made of gold and crystal, a pair of pricey cuff links, even the nice pens. Then he trashed the place, throwing neat stacks of paper all over the room, ripping the leather chair open with a kitchen knife, breaking the glass on the pictures and certificates. He stopped short of graffitiing the room with spray paint even though he wanted to. His handwriting would get him caught.

As for the rest of the house, Lucas didn't trash it too much, just opened every closet, drawer and cabinet, knocked over tables and chairs, cut a few cushions open and smashed a couple of vases that he knew his mother had no attachment to. He stored all the goods upstairs in his closet just as Nora knocked on the front door. He was glad he had thought to lock it. She was jiggling the door handle as he ran down the stairs, out of breath from setting the stage for the robbery.

"Hey, baby," she said cheerfully when he opened it.

"H-hey," Lucas stammered.

"You seem surprised to see me."

"No I just lost track of the time."

"Well are you ready?" Nora asked.

Lucas shouldered his backpack, which he'd strategically placed by the front door. "Yep. Let's go."

As he dug for his house key, Nora asked, "You still up for that party tonight?"

It was a Halloween party that Jack had invited them to, an actual college party. He'd described it as a "rager". Mostly they were going to score more dope from someone who sold cheap shit. Jack's prices were becoming increasingly impossible to pay. They were going to have to settle for some heavily cut product, at least for now.

"Yep," Lucas answered.

He locked the front door just like always and didn't look back as he walked to Nora's car.

———————

After school was over, Nora drove them home, and as she turned onto the familiar street they saw two police cars in the driveway of Lucas's house.

"Oh my God," she said softly.

Lucas did his best to look shocked and horrified.

"You think it's Sam?" Nora asked with fear in her voice.

Lucas shook his head. "Can't be. He's in daycare for another hour."

"Should I come in with you?"

"Yeah," Lucas said.

Once inside, they saw Brian chatting with a rotund police officer as three other cops looked over the crime scene, searching for fingerprints and clues.

"What the hell happened?" Lucas exclaimed, pretending he was seeing the trashed house for the first time.

Brian looked at him and Nora. "Just stay there, guys. Don't touch the crime scene."

"What's going on?" Nora asked shakily.

"We were robbed this morning. They took iPads, the emergency cash, my laptop and God knows what else," Brian said, his face red with rage.

"My guitar?" Lucas asked hurriedly.

"Mysteriously, the upstairs seems okay. They took some drugs from the medicine cabinet but left the master bedroom and yours and Sam's room untouched." As he said this, Lucas thought he saw a shadow pass over Brian's face for a moment. Then it was gone.

"You had a guitar up there and they didn't grab it?" the officer asked Lucas suspiciously.

Lucas shrugged. "Maybe... maybe it was too big to carry off?"

Taking the small stuff had been his own idea and the reason he hadn't attempted to swipe the TV or anything else heavy. To his relief, the officer nodded.

"From the looks of it, they were in and out quick. Took stuff they could carry fast. "

"Then why is my office trashed?" Brian demanded. "They even took my pens! Who the hell does that? It's like they were out to get me personally!"

At this, Brian again looked at Lucas with a sharp eye. Lucas held his gaze steady, refusing to show even a hint of guilt.

"They might have been drunk or high. Sometimes people who commit these crimes just grab stuff without thinking. Like the change that was laying around," the officer explained.

Brian still looked doubtful, but the officer spoke again before he could ask another question. "I think we're done here for now. I'll take all this back to the station and see if we can catch whoever did this. We'll also be asking your neighbors if they saw anything suspicious. Thank you for your time."

When the cops were gone Brian went back into his office. Lucas and Nora started picking up a few of the items off the floor. Lucas tried not to look satisfied. The truth was it had felt good, damn good, to tear shit up and destroy things, his anger and rage satiated for a few moments at least.

"Nora, you can go now," Brian said tiredly as he emerged from the office. He was holding a broken clock and sat down on the split sofa in the living room, stuffing frothing out of it.

Lucas looked back at Nora and shrugged before giving her a quick kiss.

"I'll text you when I'm on my way over for the party," she said.

After Nora left, Lucas attempted to straighten up a few things in the living room as Brian watched him from the sofa. He could feel Brian's eyes digging a hole into his back.

"So... took everything but your guitar, huh?" he asked after awhile.

Lucas shrugged, picking up pieces of a shattered vase. "I guess."

"And my office... that shit sure does feel personal."

"It's not. You heard what the cop said," Lucas said.

"But that cop doesn't know you like I do. Come here, boy," Brian said coldly.

Lucas walked very slowly to the sofa, keeping his guard up, anticipating several blows to the face. But no fists came. Instead, fast as lightning, Brian grabbed his wrist and yanked his hoodie sleeve up, revealing the constellation of needle marks on his arm.

"Heroin, huh? I figured. That shit costs a lot of cash," Brian said with a smirk.

Lucas pulled his arm back and immediately hid it inside his sleeve again. "It's bug bites," he said.

Brian threw his head back and laughed. "Save the bullshit for your mom. She actually wants to believe your lying ass. But I know better. You staged this fucking robbery."

"No I didn't," Lucas said calmly. "Besides, I was at school all day!"

"Yeah, you covered your bases. Not good enough though. You did it before school."

Brian held up the broken clock for him to see, and Lucas realized his mistake with a plunging sensation.

"It says seven fifteen. It couldn't have been seven fifteen in the evening, right? And I happen to know for a fact that you didn't leave for school until seven thirty. I saw it on the door camera."

Lucas felt his face grow hot even as the rest of him went cold. How could he have been stupid enough to overlook something like that?

"Your mom's been crying nonstop since I told her. She'll cry even more when she's seen the place. And if she finds out you did it? God, just imagine how that would break her heart! I hope you let that sink in nice and deep," Brian said.

Lucas shook his head and tried once again in a desperate last attempt. "I didn't do this."

Brian leaned back on the ruined sofa, sighing.

"Here's the thing, stupid. We both know you did... but no one else has to know that. If you do what I want."

Knowing he was found out, Lucas finally caved.

"What do you want?"

"First I want everything back. We're gonna say to your mom that the cops found the guys and we got it all back. I'll tell the officer I just spoke with to drop the case. Do it for your mom if nothing else. You know she's put up with a ton of your bullshit, especially lately."

Lucas nodded. That wasn't surprising. He'd already figured he would have to give up the goods. But Brian wasn't done.

"Then I want you to get your guitar," he said.

Lucas swallowed. "Why?"

"Just bring it down here with the rest of the stuff if you want this to remain a secret."

"What are you gonna do?" Lucas asked in a small voice.

"Even things out a little. Just go."

Lucas hesitated, and Brian picked up his cellphone. "Or I can just give Officer Rowe a call. Tell him I've got a full confession from you. Then it's off to jail, little buddy."

"No, don't. I'll go get everything," Lucas said quickly.

Upstairs, Lucas gathered all the items he had so triumphantly snatched this morning. Last of all, he picked up his guitar and walked very slowly downstairs.

"Put the stuff on the coffee table. Except your guitar. Let's go for a drive," Brian said.

Lucas held on tightly to his guitar, his most beloved possession, the thing that had kept him alive for years when Nora wasn't around to hold him through the dark times as Death whispered in his ear. It had been a present from his father for his thirteenth birthday, the same year that everything started to fall apart.

Once outside, Brian looked at Lucas. "Put the guitar on the ground in front of the driver's side tire."

The massive SUV was the only car in the driveway. Holding his breath, Lucas did as he was told.

"You drive," Brian said, tossing him the car keys.

Without a word, Lucas climbed up into the driver's seat. He knew begging was pointless and would just make Brian enjoy this even more.

"Turn it on and press the gas," Brian said.

Lucas did. Very slowly, painstakingly, he drove the car over the guitar and then back and then over and then back each time Brian commanded him. There were horrible crunching and scraping noises. Lucas closed his eyes.

When it was over, Brian picked up the smashed pieces of the instrument and handed them to Lucas.

"Consider us even now. You destroyed my stuff, I destroyed yours. Now you're gonna help clean this house from top to bottom before your mom comes home. Then you're free to go to your little party with your girlfriend like nothing ever happened. But first, throw those pieces in the trash," Brian said.

Lucas was trembling, tears in his eyes as he looked down at what was left of his guitar. He fought to keep them inside. When Brian saw he said,

"Don't be so upset. You sucked at playing it anyway. Just like you suck at everything except shooting smack. That's all you'll ever be, just like your father. Worthless, lying, stealing junkie."

Lucas tightened his grip on the broken pieces before walking to the trash can and dumping them. Standing there, looking at his shattered loss, for the first time ever, he realized he couldn't win against Brian. It was pointless to fight back, pointless to get revenge, maybe even pointless to care. This was his life. He was a perpetual loser in an endless war, the outcome of which had been decided long before the first punch was thrown. The only thing left to do was get high. Being high made nothing important, made nothing matter. He'd lost his one healthy outlet, his music. Now there was nothing left but heroin. He gave himself to it in that moment, gave himself fully, surrendered to the Dragon. He knew he was still alive, but in every way that mattered, Lucas was gone.