They called it The Avenue, a lot of things went on their, it was the popular part of town, but popular for all the wrong reasons. The street hadn't seen light since the streetlights were now old and weary and only flicker now and then. It wasn't just the lack of working streetlamps, most of them had been shattered by stray rocks or target practice. To the police, it was a "no-go zone." To the residents, it was a cage. To the predators and criminals, it was a banquet, a paradise even.
Matis sat on a rusted coke crate outside Big Sal’s Liquor store, though Sal had been dead for a decade and the store was now just a shell for something darker. Matis was the closest thing The Avenue had to a watchman, though he wasn't there to protect anyone. He was there to observe the toll, everyone left him alone, never bothered him and respected him. The hierarchy was simple: those who had the nerve, and those who had the debt. Around 2:00 AM, the "Black Sedan" usually made its rounds. It moved without headlights, a ghost. It would stop at the mid-point of The Avenue, near the remains of the old library. A door would open, a heavy bag would be exchanged for a nod, and the car would vanish back into the darkness. It was the tax paid to the underground kings who ran the city from high-rise penthouses miles away, but whose wealth was built on the misery of these few blocks.
As the sun rose everytime, The Avenue didn't get brighter, it just turned a sickly shade of bruised purple. A new set of criminals (daywalkers) had their dealings. The predators of the night retreated into the hallways, and the "day-walkers"the exhausted souls who worked three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads in this hellscape emerged. They stepped over the broken glass and the discarded crates and drug addicts without any remourse in their eyes. To live on The Avenue was to accept a deal with the devil, stay quiet, mind your business, and maybe, just maybe, you’d make it to the end of the week.
The Avenue was the citys greatest failure, it had been abandoned for far too long, it feeds of off negativity, crime and neglect and so a society emerged within a society.