He had never been to Paris. He was far too poor to ever have even considered it. His dead girlfriend has mentioned it once, when they were snuggled up in bed one night flipping through channels. Maybe it had been a soap opera or maybe just a commercial about some overpriced, scented toilet water; Sleep couldn't remember. What he did remember, was his girlfriend's expression and the light in her eyes when a warmth suddenly cascaded over her and she sat up, pulling away from his embrace.

She remained seated in the bed, but twisted her torso and suddenly struck a powerful pose as though she had just been possessed by some ancient demon. Sleep, high as a kite at the time, lay there casually, smoking on his cigarette, enjoying the show. His eyes traced over her figure and found her face and wonderous expression as her hands cradled empty air like something out of a Shakespearean play and she exclaimed with all the truth in the universe...

"Oh, how I would just LOVE, to go to Parris... Parrieee, Monswaaaa... Moddameeee..."

As she said these last few words, shimming her shoulders and winking at him for emphasis of each word, it reminded him of something he had heard Gomez and Morticia Addams saying and Sleep couldn't contain his laughter as the commercial on tv ended and sure enough, Addams Family Values was what they had been watching all along.

That night ended in a smokey, drug-laced trance and the true details were all but lost in the abyss of his memories now. The one thing he did remember though, and worked hard to try and never forget, was her expression... and how her greenish brown eyes had lit up at the thought of one day venturing to Paris.

--
These memories tormented Sleep now, all these years later, as he now found himself in the very place she had wanted to go, alone...

He pulled another drag at the cigarette between his lips, his eyes narrowed, watching the girl closely. He had been for some time now, stalking her, watching her every move. In a way, she reminded him of his long dead girlfriend and Sleep wondered, studying this stranger's face, if this is what his girlfriend might've looked like, had she made it this far... had she lived to be here? He couldn't know and just the thought of it only fueled his undying depression. He refocused his mind on the girl.

It wasn't that he was a creeper, no. He could care little about her, in all honesty. He had simply caught a glimpse of the little keychain she was carrying, the one with gold glitter in it. The way the lights seemed to dance upon its surface and make it shimmer and shine; Sleep could hardly contain himself. But, he did, knowing he needed to wait for the right moment to move in and try to steal it.

He had lost contact, at least momentarily, with his soldier friend named Atlas, whom he had met during the tutorial. Now he found himself here in Parris of all places, preparing to rob some poor girl next to this big, beautiful river. As he once again got lost in his own thoughts, Sleep suddenly snapped out of it as he noticed the girl looked like she was preparing to get up and leave, as though she had grown bored of the evening's affairs.

"Shit..." Sleep thought, biting at his lip as he mumbled the word audibly under his breath.

Then, a stroke of luck, as some sort of street hustler suddenly wandered up and offered to paint her. Sleep rolled his eyes, the tip of his right index finger twitching instinctively as thought about pressing down on the nozzle of one of his spray paint cans. He was a true artist... this guy, was just trying to take advantage of this sweet girl and would probably paint up some shoddy caricature of her in five minutes and then try and charge her an arm and a leg for it.

"Bleh... whatever," Sleep chewed at his lip again.

He didn't care, did he? No, he was just going to rush in and snatch that damn keychain and never look back. Hell, he should be thanking this street artist, for providing this perfect moment of distraction! Yeah, that was it... be thankful, be grateful, this is an opportunity... or so the suicide therapists always used to tell him. One more drag, one more moment of watching to make sure, and then he made his move.

Sleep got up from the bench he had been seated on, flicked his cigarette into the river, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his ripped black jeans, and began strolling toward the girl and her newly found painter friend. He cast his gaze toward the river, as not to arouse suspicion as he approached them. Once he was within about five feet, he pulled his BIC lighter from his pocket, allowing it to slip from his grasp and fumble onto the ground nearby the girl.

Doing his best acting job, he tried to paint a surprised, dumbfounded look on his own face, as if to say "Oh how clumsy of me!" without words. He then moved in casually to retrieve his fallen lighter, knelt down to one knee right near the girl to reach and grab it and as he got hold of it and began to stand, his eyes ascended and looked into hers for but a brief moment, noting their beautiful bluish green, before his focus turned back to the keychain and he reached out quickly, snatching at it and then bolting off down the sidewalk!

He had no idea what his next move was, or where he was running to, but damn was he running!

He heard the girl calling after him to stop, but Sleep couldn't bring himself to do it. His heart was pounding in his chest and he could literally feel how out of shape he was. All that smoking was gunna' do him in, surely. But not now, not yet! He had just snatched this...

He shot a glance downward to take a look at what the hell he had just snatched from that girl, only to discover the golden, sparkling, super expensive item he thought he had swiped, was nothing more than a keychain of the Eiffel Tower. As he was already mentally preparing to slow down, stop, turn around and give the poor girl back her lanyard, he looked up instead to see a street lamp pole dead ahead, and ran smack dab into it.

DONG!!!

The sound echoed out and Sleep's teeth chattered, before he fell straight back onto his ass and then lay sprawled out on the sidewalk, staring up at the stars... and boy were there a lot of them... both in the night sky above and dancing around his head.

"Ugghhh..." he groaned, dazed and motionless.