I suppose I could start by sayin' that sometimes the things you do can getcha in real deep shit real quick. In the past year, I found out I had a darker half, got kicked from the force after that beatdown I took, gained and lost a wife after my darker half got 'er, been in and outta the hospital and my hair got longer. I don't suppose I can fuss, hell, what good would it do? I suppose I can say I'm lucky to be alive but things ain't exactly been roses.
 
For starters, I got a drinkin' habit that goes well past the point of "Hey Buddy, Ya Got A Problem." Ain't like I gotta have it, I just like it...maybe a lil too much. Started smokin at some point and still can't figure out where. Did I mention I found out I had an older brother? Yeah, ain't life a bitch sometimes. There it is again...the start of the potty mouth I been gettin lately...and a real mean streak.
 

They say when you die...you see a white light at the end of a dark tunnel.
 
They say that when you go toward the light, it's supposed to be happy, peaceful and a state that's almost comparable to sumthin' like what happens when you had yer best day.
 
Hey, hell if I know, I just remember bein in the dark. Lotsa music and the music was about as bright and cheerful as the fuckin' scenery. I'd scream out for a Stevie Ray Vaughan request and get nothin' for my trouble. These songs were sumthin' awful in my opinion. Whoever sang 'em lost all hope for livin' and I was beginnin' to believe the same thing was happenin' with me. I spent a lot of time in a funk...or maybe it was just a blink. Like I said, hell if I know.
 
Next thing I know...pain in my nugget all over again and it felt like...well, pain. The same kind of excruciatin' pain I'd felt before but this time...no pain in the jaw and when I came around, there was the scene. Just what I'd expected. Heaven.
 

It all started awhile back. I'd been talkin' to Miss Ally tryin like hell to duck Cap'n Morrisey again. That woman reminded me of Diana from the V series and I'd let her know in a roundabout way. I'd been wonderin' if maybe there were reptile scales underneath that skin o' hers. I'm digressin' sumthin' fierce, ain't I.
 
Would it help if I told ya I didn't know where the hell I'd been? Hell, I'm gettin' further off track here. Damn. Okay....get a grip, D. You got a long way to go ol' boy and you ain't out the gate yet.
 
I'd been talkin' to Miss Ally in the hallway of the hospital. There was a commotion goin' on out in the waitin' room. Some woman accusin' a guy of rapin' her. The guy wouldn't shut his damn mouth for two seconds. Tryin to convince the woman to come to the station and give a statement wasn't helpin' either. So, no more Mr. Nice Cop, I arrested her. Took her in and finally got her to calm the hell down.
 

First damn day on the job and our Cap goes missin' like a fart in a tornado. I didn't figure the Dead End P.D. would exactly be getting cats outta trees but now I can see just how bad things really are. Place has a few, good, honest hard-workin' souls out here that just can't seem to catch a break while others are drownin' themselves in whatever they can get their hands on.
 
Talkin' to people in that state is bound to turn up nothin' anyway and a big fat lot of it. In my travellin', I'd seen some places that look nice on the surface and have this Texas Chainsaw thing goin' for it underneath but at least people didn't live in fear of degenerates. This place sorta looks like everyone that ever lost hope just kinda gathered in one spot and waited for the other shoe to drop.
 

After a few years of wanderin' around, I walked into this town. Rough-lookin' joint with barely a single damn road sign that doesn't say "Dead End."
 
Passin' the hospital and the police station while I was just lookin' around pretty much confirmed why. Seems people thought that this town really was a dead end.
 
The whole place looked like a movie I'm sure I'd seen. Pretty bleak and desolate but the main difference is that there aren't any cars with armor jerry-rigged to it  and all these tribal types fightin' tooth and nail over feul.
 
Plenty of vacancies in the apartment buildings. Streets are broken and about the only two bustling industries in town are the law enforcement type and thugs.
 
Walked by this place called "Lulu's" and stepped in. Whole buncha unsavory characters doing a whole lotta unsavory shit. Bikers hanging around wearing colors and it didn't look good. I didn't hang around too long. All those guys gathered up like that could only mean one thing. Someone was going to get beaten down or some shady deals were going on.