Ignited

     The sun gave everything a brighter color. She could imagine it warm on her skin, the wind whipping around her as she stared lazily at the clouds and other things. Like say boys at the skate park who go shirtless to escape the heat. But sadly that thought was interrupted by the sound of the teacher’s voice closer to her than normal. In fact he stood over her desk holding a disapproving grimace that could only mean he had asked her a question which she had failed to answer.

"Well the answer to that particular question that you asked would be..." She said stumbling and stalling for time. She threw a quick glance at her neebjohor who was mouthing what looked like the word ivory at least. "Ivory, the answers ivory." She said with fake confidence.

 He smiled, "Your better at lip reading now then at the beginning of the year I see, thank you who ever helped Miss. Kernohan." The class snickered and Misa felt her cheeks go red, but it was true she had been horrible at lip reading but gotten substantially better. Mr. Lucas launched into something about the exports from China seconds before being interrupted by the intercom asking for ironically, her.

Smiling she shoved the papers scattered on her desk in her bag streaking the plaid canvas and headed out the door leaving the envious students to continue their riveting lesson. But it left her to wonder why she was being called to the office. She hadn’t done anything to deserve award or punishment, had she? Having nothing better to do, she went on pondering about reasons why she could have been called down as she made her way to the office on the opposite side of the school from her class, letting her feet walk mindlessly.

She had almost reached the office when she remembered that her mom had she was going to pick her up from school today, but she had managed to forgot for what. "Hey look -," A shout called out as she slammed into something jerking her from her daze and throwing her to the floor. She realized that she had walked into a wall, and with substantial speed. A boy kneeled down beside her; she guessed it was the one who had tried to warn her.

"You ok," He asked only looking mildly concerned and more like he found this humorous.

"Yea I'm fine, and thanks for the warning but could you of called any sooner?"

 "I assumed you were sane and were going to stop before you mad you aquatence with the brick."

  "You know what they say about assuming," She said picking herself up taking an outstretched hand from the mystery boy. She noticed his voice was low for a boy in high school and his black hair fell into his eyes which were a startling green with scattered gold flakes. His high cheek bones and defined jaw line shaping his face made her realized how shockingly handsome he was.

"You don’t go here do you," She asked as he helped her up with rough calloused hands. His hands and tanned skin made her wonder if he worked on a farm.

 "No, I don’t. I thought I would kill some time by visiting your school. But maybe I should leave if my mesmerizingly handsome face is causing girls to walk into walls around me, which by the way was very graceful. But if you want to get my attention all you have to do is ask." Had he really just said that?

"How mind-numbing and I also had to take in you modesty and shyness I didn’t want to scare you off," she said only slightly saturating it in sarcasm giving him a sweet smile as they stood up. He gave her a gin back as if he didn’t usually get snarky comments back but found it an interesting change.

She noticed he was a little taller than her, which was unexpected since she was one of the taller girls in her grade and boys for that matter. He was dressed in a loose fitting tee that still hinted at the muscles underneath and worn jeans. Like real worn jean with holes from climbing fences and doing work not from a machine.

"After all that hard work you’re not even going to ask if I’m interested."

“You’re not as hot up close.” She said hopping to make even a small dent in the ego he carried.

She opened up the office door and walked in, away from mystery guy. The spacy room held a winding desk that went from one side to the other and seem to trap the assistants like animals in cages. They paced back and forth from printed to fax to computer like a lion would pad across his cell in captivity.

 She noticed her mom talking to the office assistant, her mom had waist lengthy brown hair that shined in any light and tan skin that barley faded in the winter and killer baby blues. She always thought her mom was beautiful. They looked nothing alike. Where is she moved as if every step was part of some elaborate dance, she was still trying to get some bearings on her new lanky features as she had gone from 5’5 to 5’10 in only a summer.

"Bye Lucy," Her mom said ending the conversation with the office clerk.

"Bye Amanda, bye Misa," The office assistant waved goodbye and the opened the door to the gray concert parking lot. They walked to the car which was parked next to two vicariously parked drivers’ edd cars. Shimming to the seat they carefully pull out and get on the road.

"So where exactly are we going," She thought to ask as they took some back roads trees blooming overhead with the flowers of spring filled the air with a sweet perfume she smelled through the open window.

"I told you yesterday, you have a dentist appointment. Where did you think we were going?"

"I don’t know, Disney land maybe."  Her mind flashed to the last time she went to the dentist, the screeching drill in her teeth and the awful Novocain shots she seems to be so happily resistant to. She might of preferred going to math.

 Chapter 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

They pulled into the small parking lot of the office building that was actually connected to a building that did hair and nails. She kissed her mom goodbye and waved goodbye and headed off to work.

As she waked inside the little bell rang above her announcing her presence. The office was empty except for a bored desk clerk behind a small cramped looking desk piled with paper and a swamped phone. The woman looked up at her arrival; she looked about 20 and vary pretty with a Italian look about her and a curvy figure. How she had gotten stuck as a dentists secretary Misa couldn’t have guessed, flunked out of collage probably.

"I have an appointment, Misa Kernohan." The woman motion to go down the hall with a nod of her head. and I'll be filling in for him.

It was a small office with only 2 rooms no doors and a long dentist chair in each. She sat down putting her stuff down and waiting for her dentist to arrive. Feeling awkward in the leaned back position the chair forced you into. She took out her I pod careful to bring it this time so as to drown out the horrid buzzing noise the that made her think off her Spanish teachers voice.

Then her dentist came in pale skin and dark brown eyes like Misa’s. "Um, your regular dentist was sick, and we don’t want a sick person putting their hands in your mouth so I’ll be filling in." She gave a weak smile at the pathetic and more than slightly disturbing joke.

 "Lean back and I'm going to put you out with gas, since I think you know how poor you responded to the Novocain treatments before." The woman seemed young and jittery, suddenly she worried about her slipping and shaving off half a tooth or something and she wouldn’t even be awake to know, she'd just wake up and BAM there it'd be. She'd look like her cousin who got drunk once and chipped a tooth who to this reminds her of the hillbillies she seen in the movies.

"Um how long am I going to be out," she asked now wary of the image in her head.

"Not long, nothing to worry about. Not I want you to breathe deeply when I put the mask over your face." With that she placed the clear plastic mask over her mouth, and for a moment she wondered if someone else should be here to do this. But she was already breathing deeply and feeling a fog on her mind. Bedy by time.

But as she was almost asleep she started to panic. She didn’t like the mind numbing gas coming thought the mask anymore. Panic filled her chest even as she told herself it was crazy. it was a dentist office what could happen. But it was too late to take the mask off he muscles felt like jelly and for a moment her mind drifted to if this is what it was like to be high.

There was no need to freak out but as the gas made her even more groggy panic took over. She tried taking the mask off and stumbling out of the chair but she couldn’t even move her hand, plan b. She opened her mouth to talk to scream something but all that came out was groans and after that here body shut down refusing to obey her. But her mind continued to fight against the gas. It was like trying to push back water, next to impossible and she would fall to is allure soon.

But apparently she had been motionless for enough time because the mask was lifted forms her face. She couldn’t see, but what she did know was that after being put to sleep they usually started to drill and a whole new panic seized her making her heart pound and palms sweat. She was going to have her mouth drill open without any pain killers. She was going to have a good hour trapped in her own personal hell.

She tried to, move something to show she was awake but it didn’t do any good. "All, right time to get started." Said the voice of the dentist. This was it, she was out of time; she braced herself for the feel of the drill on her teeth. But it didn’t come instead she felt herself lifted in the way firemen lift people who can’t walk. She felt like going down on her knees and thanking god, but of course she couldn’t. But her joy turned to confusion as she began to wonder why she was being lifted out of the dentist chair in the first place.

Her mind swam with possibilities, maybe there was another room to do the actual drilling, ok not the most comforting or logical thought, but as her mind spun trying to come up with a logical explanation they became more and more stretched the longer she was carried, including alien abduction. Blind she tried to follow the feel of the twist of the movements but she was at a loss.

"Sorry chika, you looked like a nice kid. It’s too bad." Her voice had changed to a slightly Spanish and mix of another accent she didn’t know.

 Was she being kidnapped, but that was absurd. Rich people were kidnapped or people who had stalkers or where extremely beautiful. Misa was and had none of these. She knew she was only over analyzing the situation, that she would be able to laugh at herself in a few hours. But at the moment she felt a growing fear. Something felt off about this situation.

When they waked though she immediately felt the air chilled and damp enough to make goose bumps rise on her arms. She felt herself set down on the ground and the door close as the dentist (Who Misa determined was not a dentist at all.) walked away.

She began to wonder what would happen now. The kidnapping situation was becoming shockingly realistic. But were they just going to let her lay here till the gas wore off. On the cold damp ground, she swore she felt something on her face and she had been able to move would have freaked the hell out.

She remembered watching movies of teen kidnapping, and she started to panic at the thought of never seeing her family again, but she knew she had to have a clear head to get out of this. If only she could move! She wanted to cream and kick, to be able to fight back but no she was helpless as could be. Why would she want to hurt her any way she'd never done anything to anyone? But then again she didn’t have to, this woman was obviously a psychopath, you didn’t have to do anything to set them off, they were just plain insane.

 As she lay there on the cold concrete floor she thought of her mom and how sad she would be if she died and her friends. They had already had a death in the school and it had left marks that would last another would scar her friends harshly. When she guessed about 10 min later the door opened once more and suddenly the self-pity turned to a fierce anger and hatred. She wasn’t dyeing like this or any other way.

As the steps came closer she felt like she would fight as much as she could which might not be much or long and she reminded herself her body was still limp and unresponsive. She felt a needle slid into her arm and her anger flared, they were going to kill her with a needle, what cowards, they wouldn’t even give her a chance to fight.

But as she was set back down the fogginess that had draped her mind began to lift slowly over long minutes and slowly her muscles began to twitch and if only a little painfully she regained control of her body and slid her eyes open.

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The room was too dark to make out any details, but it looked like a basement, it felt like a basement. Brick walls, cold floor and damp dank air that reminded her of a humid swamp despite the chill in the air. But what she really focused on was the man leaning in the corner. He seemed to be patiently waiting for her to wake. She stiffly sat up not trusting herself to stand just yet as her head swam from just sitting up.

"Why am I here, if your kidnapping me, you’re out of luck? My family hasn’t got much money, but I haven’t seen your face, so it not like I can tell anyone who you are. If you let me down I could just forget." But she knew if he did let her go she would go to the police in seconds and have the US navy swarm this place and kick their asses if she could. They had done this to other children that was apparent; if she got out they wouldn’t do it to anymore. But he knew that to.

"You will die here, that should be apparent. Don’t worry I'll give you a fighting chance. I like my prey alive and struggling, it’s not so unpleasant for you. In ways to die I'd list in the top ten at least." His voice was smooth and lovely, almost hypnotic if you listened to closely.

"So the needle," She said inquiringly.

"Was to snap you out of the drug, though you woke with surprising speed. Others take much longer. I'm eager to see if you pose more of a challenge to devour. When you are ready well continue but if you stall for long I will attack first," He said with calm seriousness.

What could he be talking about, had he said devour. She felt her heart rate sore. She couldn’t breath. He was going to kill her. Right now and there was no one to save her.

You always expect that when your endanger, when you need help, someone will be there. That if your caught in a dark alley, but that’s not the case. When you are in trouble, people are barley around and you realize the people you have been lead to believe will protect you when you need help aren’t coming.

She found this out as she screamed, the man just watching her as she did. Soon her cries became desperate then faded. She turned to the man hopping she could plead with him.

"You’re insane, if you'll just think about this for a moment you'll see this could end good for both of us. You won’t get in trouble and I won’t die. See good deal both ways." But she already knew her plea was futile she decided that soon it would be time for action and her body was feeling 100 percent actually even more since the shot. It was like she was running on full strength and a shot of adrenaline.

She stood up ready to fight but dropped down to one knee crying out in pain and grabbing her ankle. Her shriek of pain had almost convinced even her. As for the man he came forward the shadows of his face showing more curiosity then concern. "I think my ankles broke. Maybe your lakey should have been more careful. I can’t even stand” His face held no pity or compassion, on a bored and hungry look.

"Well this is very saddening; I like a fight for my food.” Not exactly what she had been aiming for. And in an instant he was gone and behind her brushing aside the hair from her neck. She threw back her elbow and jumped to her feet and made a kick for the man that should have still been there, but he wasn’t.

"That was a very good. What a compiling show you put on, this may be intriguing after all," he said behind her with the melodic voce of an old time aristocrat. She turned to hit him but in the time that she had, he was gone. Nothing could move as fast as this man did, yet he did. She guessed that there were special effects that she couldn’t see that were in the works to trick. Abruptly he was in front of her and lunging. Only reflexes saved her as she drove to the ground and moving to put her back against the wall giving him one less advantage as she waited for him to reaper from the shadows.

Moments before she saw his shape coming from the darkness she heard the scraping of cloth on cloth giving her precious seconds. His lunge lead him to wall where he made hard contact as she darted away. When he turned to meet her she could see blood ran from his nose and his eyes looked slightly red. "Enough with this," He said the calm gone from his voice replaced by swift anger.

"Really I was just starting to have fun," She said but he was gone before she even finished the sentence.

He was beside her in second so quick her body had no time to react. She felt what she thought was the prick of a needle into her neck. She began to move to fight against the man but her muscles were lagged . Spreading across her body a sense of warmth. It was the most amazing this she had ever felt.

The euphoria swamped her mind and she fell against the man. A moan came from her lips as the pleasure seemed to increase tenfold every moment. Every touch was the sweetest caress, every noise the most beautiful melody. A light seemed to warm her body making her moan again, she felt weaker but hardly noticed in the waves of pleasure.

She would do anything for this not to stop, even die. But a bag on the door that sounded like a sledge hammer drew him away from her neck making her fall to the ground by his feet. "They can’t be here, I've been so carful. I must finish the kill."

She lay there on the ground not able to do much more then make a pathetic whine. A pain hit as she tasted blood in her mouth and for a moment her head was clear again. She bite deeper into her tongue almost making her scream, but it had the desired effect. When he came to her neck once more as the pounding on the door increased she fought the urge to let this man kill her and brought her elbow back as hard as she could manage to his nose.

 He howled and leaped back his eye now defiantly glowing red. "You little-" But his next words were cut off by another bang that distracted him long enough for her to take a turn at lundging at him where he stood his back against the wall as she slammed his head hard enough to knock out any human.

But all he did was growl grabbing her by the throat and literally lifted her off the ground. "Time for you to cease being a problem." He tightened his grip as she kicked out not making much of a difference. As her vision faded and her lungs burned he let her fall and was on her his mouth to her neck. The euphoria hit but it mixed with the pain throbbing in her head from the many hits making it impossible to think through as a terrible bliss settled over her and she couldn’t resist to fall to.

There had been many blood drives at her school and she had given once, the drain had been so bad she felt sick for the entire day. But this was much worse, she was sure she had passed the limit for blood lose and still being alive.

The door burst open clattering to the floor and he jerked back, she watched through gray vision as 3 boys no more than 17 leaped on him. She wanted to warn them but she couldn’t find the energy, the fight was over in moments one of the boys bringing out a sword about a foot long stabbing it though the chest of the man. The mans body fell to the ground, dead.

The boys sheathed their swords as a adult came in. They began to disscus thing she didn’t have the energy to follow. But as they turned around their shoulders feel and one came forward. "God I knew we should have come sooner, she’s dead." Said the boy who was looking at her.

"You know we came as so as we could. We have to catch them in the act. it wasn’t your fault." The only adult said looking around the room. He came closer his face coming into view and she suddenly knew how she knew him. He was the boy she had run into in the school. What was he doing here? Guess he didn’t have such a boring life after all.

His face twisted with concern as he came forward, "It couldn’t be." He kneeled down to her face. "God it is."

"Hunter?" Asked the third boy finally taking interest having brown hair and standing as tall as Hunter with the same muscular body type but with a kinder face and paler skin.

"I knew this girl here, I ran into her at the school while I was wandering. She was going to the office and she ran into a wall." He said standing up. She knew she had to move or speak, show them in some way that she wasn’t dead but her body just wouldn’t comply.

"We have to burn the place, there’s too much material. Luke do you have the flare," Hunter said walking out of the room being followed by the rest. Panic gripped her at the word fire making her shallow breathing catch causing a cough to rack her chest, the sound echoed in the room and the boys froze. Spontaneously they were at her side one of them holding her head up as she felt drops of blood stain her lips crimson.

"We have to get her out of here," said Luke gathering her in his arms and swiftly carrying her into the hall.

"I heard fighting for 10 minutes before we broke in. why was he toying with her for so long, she should be dead." The older man said puzzlement in his voice.

"He heard us coming he would of wanted to get a kill done as quick as possibly, he wasn’t toying with her."

"She fought him off. This natural has fight, too bad that when we came in he was draining her dry," He said as they walked outside cold air filling her lungs.

"Are we sure no one else is in the building, I don’t wasn’t to have roasted naturel on my hand." Luke said setting her down gently on the ground and digging out something that looked like a road side flare. The older man nodded, Luke smiled and ripped off the top quickly chucking the red stick in to the open door of the building.

"3, 2, 1," Hunter said his smile growing. When he reached one the cool spring air changed to a blazing heat in second the hole building consumed by flames in an instant. She felt like her skin was burring from 20 feet away. She had to turn her face away to keep her eyes from roasting out of her head.

"Al right lets go before the locals show up, clean up your mess Hunter. Make sure this whole days a blimp in her memory, the last thing we need is her face on the front page her story making headlines." The older man said as he turned and walked away as she could hear sirens in the distance.

Hunter gave him an evil look and turned to her his expression soften. "Never found out you name."

"Misa," She croaked out her throat raw. He smiled and reached in one of his many pockets.

"Goodbye Misa," He said releasing a red dust that she breathed in almost causing her to cough again before he turned and ran faster than she ever could but not as fast as the vampire had. But in seconds he had turned a corner and disappeared as the red fire truck pulled up followed by a ambulance and 2 cop cars, all of Algonac’s police force.

They jumped out and came running to her, the fire men picked her up and carried her limp form to the ambulance setting her on the gurney the EMTs placing an oxygen mask over face actually helping her shortness of breath greatly as the firemen tiered without effect to put out the fire. After a few minutes some police men came over.  They leaned over her concern in their eyes. "Do you know what happened? How this fire started and how you got outside." She opened her mouth to tell them but suddenly she didn’t know what had happened. How had the fire started and where was she. The more she thought about it that less she knew till the last thing she remembered was the night before.

"I don’t remember," She said in a panicked voice. The cops sighed as the EMTs unshed them out and shut the door. Everything seemed to be a blur of faces and colors after that. Colors changed and she was moved place after place till finally she was still no sound assaulting her ears and no bright lights to blind her eyes. She sat up her noticing the beeping and the machine she was attached to and then her mother asleep in a uncomterable looking chair beside her bed in the small dim room.

She knew she was in a hospital as she looked out the open door to the busy bright hall, people moving quickly in scrubs and hospital gowns like hers.

She rubbed her head that had started to ach wondering how she got here. She tried to sift through the blur of the past-, what time was it? She glanced at a wall clock that told her it was 12:05. Great she didn’t know what had happened in her life since last night almost a full day ago.

Her skin tingled and she looked up as a dark shape disappeared around the corner. Before she knew what she was doing she took out the tubes connecting her to the machines and was out the door, leaving the now flat lining machines and her startled mom.

"Wait," She yelled as the figure walked around the corner. But as she got there he was gone, she wasn’t sure she had even seen anything. The white tiles were cold on her bare feet as she scanned the shapes searching for someone familiar.

"What did you think you were doing? Come on we need to get you back to your room," Her mom said cupping her face in her hand, "I'm so glad your awake now."  And then she hugged her wrapping her arms around her. She felt warm and safe in her mom’s arm and hugged her back and decided to forget about the mystery shape. What ever happened is over and she was safe now.

 

Chapter 2

 

She woke up abruptly, not even sure what startled her awake. She saw the golden light spilling through her window but hazy enough to tell her it was early morning, but when she looked at the clocked at the clock she cursed herself. It was 7. It was two weeks into her break and she still wasn’t able to sleep past noon. She failed at being a teenager miserably.

She knew from experience that she wasn’t getting back to sleep and decided to get up and make eggs.  She pushed off the covers on to her bed which was underneath the window in her small room. Her walls were white with picture of her and her friends and newspaper clipping with her face plastered on the. She had shelves on the wall at the foot of her bed held tall metal shelves dresser and desk.

She walked into the hall that lead from the bedroom portion of the house to the living room which if you went straight lead you in to the den but if you turned lead you into the kitchen slash dining room of her large house.

She was at the kitchen pouring the water in the coffee maker. It would be ready soon and with it her mom would soon be up lured by the promise of fresh coffee. She sat down at the table that sat under the giant widow that ran most of the dining room. She watched the sun rise over the houses that lined the river her house was so near.

Her mom had thought about moving after the fire incident. But she had been able to talk her out of it using friend’s school and how amazing the town was as leverage against moving away. She had read about what had happened, the dentist office catching fire and her miraculous escape from crawling through the fire even as the dentist and assistant sadly perished in the flames. She had attended their funeral.

 But she had always thought something was missing but had never figured out what. Her memory had never returned and the doctors said it never would. They said that it almost never did in traumatic cases like this.

She had been a town hero for weeks and still in some ways. People had asked for her signature. She was so happy when it was all over, she wasn’t much for attention.  Too much made her feel awkward and she clammed up.

She was pulled from her thoughts as her mom came in groggy eyed immediately reaching for the pot of coffee and her favorite cup, which held a sleepy looking puppy claiming to be allergic to Mondays.

"What are you doing up this early. This is your vacation; you’re supposed to be sleeping in till like noon like normal teenagers." Mother said her voice oddly mescaline in the early morning and cracking at all most every word.

"Sorry, I'll make it up by doing drugs and shanking people," She said as she took a sip of her coffee the sweet sugar substance coating her tongue.

"That’s my girl, now what’s your day filled with. You know beside drugs and shanking," Misa let the question remained unanswered for a couple minutes so to give her mom some time to wake up.

"Just hanging out with friends and whatever." She watched as the sun finished rising coloring the sky a blood red, finishing her coffee as the sun rose just above the tree tops along the glistening river.

"Ok but be home early, there’s bound to be a storm later today." I gave her a look. "You live by a water and yet you don’t know that red sky’s at night is a sailors delight, but red sky’s at morn sailor’s be worn."

""And what make you think you know more than the weather man," She said looking at her mom skeptically.

"I'm a mother, I know everything. You'll understand when you’re older.” Mom said with a friendly smug expression. It was a nice quite as we sat there enjoying each other’s company in the stillness of the morning, unseaperated by the day’s activities. Misa didn’t get to see her mother as much as she would like, as she had to work most of the day.

Her dad had disappeared when she was younger and her mother never remarried. She never even dated; sometimes Misa wondered if it was because of her.

 “Well I have to get changed now, I'll see you tonight," her mom said kissing her on the cheek and heading for her room.

She picked out shorts and a bathing suit top knowing her friends would go swimming today, it was told to be in the 90s. When she had tamed her hair into a pony tail she headed out catching her mom in the driveway.

"Be good, don’t get arrested," Her mom shouted from the window as she pulled out.

"Such high expectations, I hope I can match them," She called back as her mom drove away answering her with a wave from the window.

Misa walked across town to pick up one third of her posy. She found Sarah inside on the computer. She had a slight obsession with Facebook. And her hair, but that was another matter.

“Come on Sarah, its summer, were on break to get away from all the people you’re talking to.” Misa said pulling the rolly chair Sarah was in.

“Misa, wheel me back, I have to log out. Last time I didn’t Warner got on and put some really weird statuses.” Sarah said annoyed giving Misa a scowl.

“Fine but after that your off the computer and into the sun, you know the golden thing in the sky.” Misa said pointing upwards.

“Haha vary funny, I go outside, sometimes.” Sarah said looking offended.

When Misa finally got Sarah out of the house Sarah did an excellent performance as she pretended to be burned by the sunlight.

“Ahhh its killing me. It burns, Misa help, I melting, I’m melting.” Sarah cried falling to the ground shrieking convincingly.

“Come on wicked witch.” But as they made their way across town the heat inched up, till they were sweating and Misa couldn’t be more glad she had chosen to wear as little as possible. Though her stomach was pale enough to make people go snow blind. What could she expect she tanned excruciatingly slowly. Sarah looked as if she might actually melt any second.

When they arrived they basically fell inside the cool air conditioned house.

“You guys look sweaty,” said Joanna. She stood 5’5 and had no weight thought she ate more than a football team she seemed to never gain weight. She had blonde hair with naturel red flecks throughout. She was pale and always was, she never tanned, only burned.

“Do you mind if we stay here for a while, I think I might die of heat stroke.” Misa said sticking to the leather couch Joanna’s parent had bought. Misa hatted leather. If you sat to long and stood up to fast you got a free waxing.

“Come on I’ve been waiting to go swimming all day.” She begged trying to drag Misa off the couch and to the door almost ripping the skin of her legs as she was jerked from the leather.

“Jess jojo you don’t have to shave much do you.” Misa said rubbing the back of her thighs which were bright red.

“Yes in fact I don’t. So come on. Sarah help me out.” But Sarah just shrugged.

But they were all out soon after trudging to the boardwalk working up a sweat in the heat till they got to the windy water. The water was choppy but it even looked cool. The group did their little strip taking off all clothes besides bathing suits of course and slowly approaching the water.

No matter how many times you jumped in it was still intimidating not knowing what lay underneath, but the wood grew hot quickly and Misa was forced to jump in first.

The water surrounded her, cooling her steaming skin enveloping her and making her weightless. She stayed there cut off from the sound of the world above; she heard splashed that told her, the other shad made it. She let bubbles of her jumping brush against her face till her lungs were screaming and she had to propel herself to the surface gasping for air.

“We thought you might not be coming up.” Said Sarah from a few feet away as the grouped around the latter that would let the climb back up so they could again jump back again.

But it was never just climbing up.

“I’m going first.” Joanna said starting to climb. But she was pulled down by Sarah who started to climb..

“No you not.” But then Joanna and Misa both grabbed her stomach and forced her to fall to the water.

“You either.’ Misa said to the water and quickly started to climb. She felt Joanna grab her ankle and she tried to wiggle out of the little ships iron grip. She managed to get almost to the top. She stood at the top of the ladder holding her hands up like an Olympic champion.

“What now, you may now worship my awesomeness.” Misa said to her friend glaring at her from the bottom.

“You cheated, I should have gone up first.’ Joanna yelled throwing water at her.

They went on like that for hours, swimming and clambering to be the first one up just so they could jump back in.

You'll be amazed how long you can spend in water and how hungry and thirsty you’ll be after. "I vote we go to Jo Jo's house. She has food," She said as they climbed out of the water.

"I second that," Sarah said. Sarah had short cut black straight hair and always wore glasses. She wasn’t especially tall only reaching 5'3. Misa’s mom had pushed her friend ship with Joanna, not that she minded since she loved Joanna like a sister who also lead to her becoming friends with Sarah.

"Fine well go to my house," Jojo said giving in as she shook out her hair and they started the short trek back to her house where they were greeted with the smell of doughnuts being fried and her mom hastily working to get them on a plate.

"I love your house," Misa whispered as she smelled the growing pile of fried sweetness. Just seeming to notice them Jojo's mom smiled at them and offered them some.

"Thank you Miss. F," She said through a stuffed mouth as they made their way up stairs to Jojo's room doughnuts in hand. Jojos room was smaller than her won with a tiny bed on one side and windows on the other which underneath sat a paint covered glass table and desk, covered with papers and empty paint tubes.

"Have I said that I love your mom, can I borrow her? Not for long just for breakfast lunch and dinner and desert," Sarah said eating the last of her doughnuts.

"Sure if I can borrow your metabolism, you eat constantly and you look amazing," Jojo said shaking her head.

"It’s genetics baby, I feel the envy, but look who’s talking," Sarah said pieces of doughnut flying out of her mouth as she talked.

“Could some one lend me it then since your both so blessed how bout you spread it around.” Just then a picture caught my eye.

"Jojo, this is so cool. When did ya do this one?" Jojo was an aspiring artist, or that’s what she should have been with her talent, instead she wanted to be something stupid like a doctor. She had made a splatter paint picture that looked whacked.

"It's easy I'll show you." Jojo took out her long bottles of paint that she had bought at a yard said super cheap and poured a little in a bowl and dipping a fork in then slung it toward the paper mimicking the picture on the wall.

"I call first," Misa said rushing forward dipping the fork in paint and slinging it across the paper. What happened next was a combination of chance and momentum.

Sarah shrieked as a huge glob of red paint landed on her face hair and shirt. "I call next," She slyly.

"That was an accident and you knowing it, so don’t, don’t don’t," But Sarah had already dipped her hand in smearing it across her face. Misa stood open mouthed at her. She grabbed for the bottle and soon the bottle was empty and their skin was painted red.

"Really what did I do? Tell me, how I was dragged into this. Oh and you owe my 3 dollars for the paint," Jojo said as she looked down at her red streaked body. God she hoped this was washable.

"I think it's an approvment personally," Sarah said inspecting Jojo.

"I hate you all I hope you know that." And with that Misa started to laugh, she tried to hold it back covering her mouth. But it just made her laugh even more. It had spread to Sarah who made no attempt to hold it back and soon Jojo was laughing all of them collapsed on the bed holding their stomachs in pain. "Were freaks you know that right."

"I know, but its just so, much fun," Misa said trying to catch her breath. "Oh my gosh I just remembered," Misa said bolting up. She ran down the stairs almost slipping once as she raced to her back by the area where they all had to take off their shoes before coming fully into Jojo's home. She pulled out 2 movies before she raced back up the stairs slower that time ignoring the odd looks she received form Jojo's parent form her vary red fashion choice.

"I remembered to bring them, 'Bambie' and 'Amityville Horror' which one should we watch first." Joanna, her parents being from Poland had missed out on many American kid movies. It had been Misa’s mission to fill her teenage youth with all the neglected movies that should have been watched in childhood.  Much to the irritation of Joanna.

“Come on, just because I haven't doesn’t mean I don’t know about them,” Joanna pleaded.

“”No that’s not good enough, you have to actually watch them, right.’ Misa said looking at Sarah for back up.

“Absolutely, so chose,’ Said Sarah

"It's 5, I want food," Jojo said getting up disturbing Sarah whose head had rested on her lap. But at the mention of food her head popped up anyway.

"I'm game, show me the way and then get out of it," Sarah said following Joanna down the stairs. She quickly followed knowing firsthand how fast food can disappear around teenagers. And as if on cue Joanna’s mother had set down a plate of stuffed cabbage, enough to feed half the town.

"Misses. F, can we join you for dinner," Sarah said in a deceptively sweet voice.

"It would be an off day if you didn’t." that was all the encouragement it took for the table to be loaded with the group digging in, their plates already set. Jojo’s brother had already called into say that he was going to be sleeping over at one of his friends. Jojo's brother was 2 years older than her and when he was home didn’t talk much to his sister or his friends but disappeared into his room till dinner came around. Jojo's dad worked at home and didn’t talk too much when they were over.

The dinner was over quickly as the food ran out as it was being attacked by three hungry teenage girls which could eat a deceptively large amount.

When they were finished they helped clear the tangle thinking it was the least they could do for clearing out all the food and headed back upstairs to watch 'Bambie.' it was already 6 30 when they watched the prince take his first steps. A bowl of popcorn settled in Misa’s lap.

They had crowded on Jojo's insanely small bed that made a noise that suggested it would break at any moment Misa ending up in the middle. "You have to love this movie, its required, that and you have to cry when Bambie's mother dies," She said.

"Way to tell her Misa," Sarah objected jerking forward almost causing an upset with the popcorn.

"Like she didn’t know, there is reference everywhere," She countered.

"Shh, I’m trying to watch the movie and catch up on my lost childhood and you’re making it very difficult." They stayed quiet after that, riding along with the movie, getting teary eyed when Bambie’s mother was shot  and crying in joy when he outraced the fire.

"Well, now on to the Horror. I love how consistent we are. We go from the triumph of the animal spirit to some crazy chic barfing pea soup," She said popping the movie in and settling in. But somewhere between the girls head spinning and projectile vomit she drifted off lulled by the softness of the squeaky bed and the body heat of her friends.

Misa woke up finding the room around her dead silent, exempting the soft snores of her friends, and pitch black, there didn’t even seem to be light from the street pouring into the indows to help her see. That was when she made a discovery. The discovery she had to pee.

She looked cautiously around at the mass of warm limbs that trapped her to the bed. With every passing moment the urdge to pee became mpore and more intense till she decided to brave it and dislodge herself from her friends.

She slowly untangle the arms and lagess that drapped over her as she had stupidly chossen the middle of ther bed. When she was clear she began to move out, the bed making little noise and soon, she was out.

She hurried out of the room on the shocking cold wood floors to find the bath room downstaris.When finally was able to empty her bladder she figured she could have a drink, she doubted her friends noticed her missing. She quietly got a glass and filled it with water from the fridge.

She tilted the glass back against her lips managing to get the last of the water when something that sounded like a whimpering dog came from the living room. Misa paused the glass still resting against her mouth. She quietly put it down and waited for the sound again. Her ears strained in the silence as she waited the hairs on the back of her neck up and goose bumps along her arms. It was then that she heard the noise again from the same direction.

A little cord of fear unraveled in her stomach, but she knew it was most likely nothing. But what if there was an injured animal in the house, she had heard horror stories of dogs going mad and ripping the face of owners and biting deep gashes in to hands arms and legs.

But Misa found the idea of letting an animal stay in the house, unknown to anyone else but her, yet it seemed silly to wake everyone up if was nothing but her imagination. But when yet again the noise sounded Misa ending the turmoil in her head and decided she would see if in fact there was an animal, then she would alert Joanna’s parents, they would know what to do, they were adults at least.

She opened the door to the living room, her heart in her throat. But as she looked around the room, a merge supply of light from the street coming in from the window she found nothing. She sighed and relaxed, it had been nothing and she had let her imagination get a hold of her. She felt mildly stupid and immensely glad she didn’t wake anyone up. But as she turned to leave she saw town yellow glimmers of light, reflecting back at her.

 

She tensed and froze where she was and tried to focus on the glowing shapes. But by the time she had blinked the little circles were in front of her followed by the husky body of a tall man, easily 6'5.  She was too shocked to think of screaming and by the time she could, he had put something over her mouth muffling her to where no one heard.

 

She began to kick at him but an arm had wrapped itself around her turning her till her back was against the man's chest dragging her to the door as she fought. She was utterly helpless in the mans hold. She fought as much as she could, but next to him, she was shockingly weak. How could this be happening to her, this was something she saw on the news, a kidnapping of a local teenage girl, not something that actually happened to her. She kept screaming but as she breathed in against the rag put to her mouth a fog settled over her head making it hard to think or move.

 

It was a drug she knew, from nothing but movies, and until now, doubted it effectiveness, Chloroform. The rag smelled of rot mildew, she wouldn’t be awake in a few more seconds that what Chloroform did. She knew she would have to do something right now, while she was still conscious to fight and think. She bit at the hand behind the rag and struggled with all her might. The combined effort was a surprise to the man and she managed to get free.

 

The man was blocking the door, so she went to the door that lead to the kitchen rounding up the air for a scream to wake the house. She had to get someone’s attention or she would be taken, her friends would never know what happened, her mom would worry endlessly till they maybe found her body.

 

As she stumbled weakly into the kitchen she knew the man was right behind her. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as the door opened. She grabbed a knife from one of the drawers that was long shape and lethal. She didn’t know if she could actually kill someone but she guessed she would find out.

 

The man stepped forward into the light apparently over his hand and she saw that he had pure sickly white skin so white you saw the blur veins pulsing underneath and his bald head had a large x across the top where the skin was jagged and cut.

 

She wanted to cringe and back away, cower from the inhuman sight; she guessed that’s what the purpose had been in this showy display of self-mutilation. He surged forward as the sound of a door opening echoed down stairs. She held the knife out in front of her, ready for him to die if it would save her. But he was already there and in seconds twisted her wrist till the knife clattered to the floor. Misa wondered why the parents hadn’t gotten up yet, would they think it was just their daughters friend messing around and that Misa would die.

 

His arm shot out and wrapped around her throat. She remembered all her friends taking Karate but she thought she would never need it, so stupid.

 

Her heat hurt with the unmoving blood. She clawed deep into his skin, but he seemed completely unfazed. By now she was sure she was going to die as dots filled her vision. She could barely keep up the kicking and clawing as the world began to fade away. She was past desperate when a voice, muffled to her ears behind the unmoving blood rushing round and round in her head, rang out across the kitchen followed by the c**k of a gun.

 

Misa didn’t hear or see who had arrived but she willed them to run so only she would die. She suddenly feared of what would happen to her friends, but hoped he would be satisfied with killing only her. A gun shot filled her ears and suddenly the grip was gone from her throat and she was on the ground. 

 

She gasped for air looking at the man a piece of flesh missing from his shoulder his eye burning with rage looking at, Misa had to do a double take, wondering if she was hallucination from the lack of oxygen, JOJO"S MOM! She was holding a gun looking like Misa had never seen before. Misa gasped for air, and for something to make sense. She got only one of those things.

 

"Misa, run, try to get to your house but run. Find David, he'll protect you!" Said Misa’s mother as she stared the man down how was looking at her venomously almost ignoring the gun, almost.

 

Misa tried to stand up but her body still shock from being strangled. “You know that toy won’t kill me." The man said in a raspy low voice that made Misa's skin crawl.

"No but I bet it hurts like a b***h." And she fired again as the man raced forward for her not stopping as the shot went threw him.

 

Misa ran then only barley seeing as the man hit Miss. Fisher smacking her into the wall hard enough to leave a hole in the plaster and watched her drop limply down. Then Misa was through the doors and racing outside.

 

She stepped into the night air not even pausing as she ran. She ignored her throbbing hand and the opening of the door behind her. Who was David; she knew some but none that could protect her from anything let alone the crazy man chasing her. She noticed to late the man who came running from the side of the house. She hadn’t been paying attention and now she was going to pay for it, with her life.

 

"Girl get down, NOW!" Misa dropped obediently just as something gleaming sailed above her. She heard it connect with the man, followed by a strangled and inhuman cry. She looked back to find the man on his knees clawing at something sticking out of his chest. A knife she relied, she whipped her head back to look at the man who had skillfully thrown it.

 

"Nice one," Said a different boy who appeared. Misa couldn’t see either of them well in the light of the night but she could tell they were young and fit, one bigger than the other.

"Luke, make sure this girl gets home without dying. I have to see if others in the house were hurt." He went running for the house, both seemed reasonably calm despite the situation that was unfolding around them.

 

Misa began to feel wary of the boys, how had killed the man without much of a second thought, yes he had deserved it, but how did they know, were they just part of this, some weird an elaborate scheme, but a scheme for what exactly.

 

Luke looked down on Misa with kind and worried eyes. “Are you ok?"

 

 She thought of running, but the boy could easily catch her, and if he was going to kill her, he would of left it to the man. She decided to trust him for the moment. He offered a hand, which she took and pulled herself up.

 

He mind was scattered and she swayed on her feet. The boy looked at her, probably wondering if she was going to fall and a look of concern washed over his attractive face.

 

“That looks like it hurts,’ the boy said touching the top of her head making her wince.” His fingers came back dark, she was bleeding. She put her own hand up and found hair matted with blood. She hoped it wasn’t too serious.

 

“I should get you home. Where do you live, is it close by or far away can you walk or will a car be needed to get you home?”

 

 Was he really asking that? She was begining to feel like this was some insane dream. He seemed so calm and her heart was beating insanely and she didn’t know if her friends were alive or dead.

 

At that moment Miss. Fisher opened the door startling both Luke and the other boy who had was just about to open the door.

 

Joanna’s mom looked at the boy and to Misa.

 

“David, that is her, Misa. I can leave; my daughter and her friends are here. I can’t leave them. But take her to safety. Keep her safe. More are coming. They found her somehow and they want her dead. It’s your job not to let that happen.” Joanna’s mother said in a rushed hushed tone, that Misa could still hear.

 

The boys beside her did to and she felt him stiffen Misa felt about ready to run at that moment. But Joanna’s mother seemed to sense that to and looked at Misa with caring and scared eyes that Misa trusted.

“Go with them honey. They will keep you safe.” She said in a soft and believable tone.

 

A high tone seemed to pierce through the air attacking all their ears till they clutched them, making Misa want to fall to her knees. Finally seconds later, though it felt like hours, the noise ceased.

 

"Here-" David said holding out a gun.

 

"No, keep it; they'll be coming after you. Keep her safe, I'll tell Latania."

 

David turned from her to Misa, "David-"

 

"I heard, let’s go. She needs to get to the School. We have to get her to the car."

 

Misa felt the night continue to get all the more confusing. She looked up to Miss. F for an explanation but she was already gone. The thought of going with these strangers to god knows where was insane. She couldn’t leave her friends with that man.

 

“Come on girly.” David said taking her by the arm and pulling her to the car in the drive way. She pulled her arm free.

“get away from me.’ She said trying to run back to the house.

“Girl your coming with us weather you like it or not.” The kid Miss.F. called David said grabbing her roughly and dragging her back to the car.

“let me go. This is kidnapping.’ She said about to scream.

 

"Look here girly." David said trying again to get her closer to the car as she fought against him.

 

"Girly!" She yelled trying to throw an elbow back and catch his face but he easily avoided it.

 

"Enough, Misa, you have to go with him. He'll keep you safe. More of those creatures are coming and you have to leave." Miss. Fisher said gently from the door way reappearing darkness covering her front.

 

“All the more reason for me to stay and help. Misa wondered on what she had said. Creature, as if the man hadn’t been human, as if he was a bred of his own. She looked up hopping for an explanation but found herself thrown in the car.

 

Miss.Fisher stood at the door and nodded her head and mouth good luck before she disappeared again.

 

Could she trust these people? What if they hurt her, but Miss. Fisher had said for her to go, she wouldn’t let her get hurt. And David had killed that man. Misa had a sudden desire to be home with her mother safe in her arms. But she had a feeling that the place David and Luke were taking her was very far away from home indeed.

 

“You would just get hurt.” David said as he slid into the back seat next to her.

 

The car pealed out onto the road with tires squealing so loudly Misa began to wonder  how the whole town had not called the cops.

"Where are we going?" Misa yelled over the squeal of tires.

 

"You'll see. Well maybe, with Luke driving we'll probably crash like last time." Yelled David chuckling at Luke who was driving.

 

"What happened last time?" She asked.

 

“Oh I don’t think you want to know.” Soon almost too soon she was out of Algonac. She looked back feeling lost. She knew she had little choice but to trust the people before her. Kids only a few years older than her. 20 maybe 22.

 

She laid her head against the headrest.

“What were those things back there?” Misa asked amazed at how calm her voice sounded.

David sighed as if he had been waiting for that question. He was silent for a while and Misa was sure he was coming up with a lie or just not going to answer at all. But he took a breath and looked at her in a way that lead Misa to believe he might tell her the truth.

 

“They weren’t human. At least not anymore. There nothing that nature created. They’re a mix of powerful daemons pressed into the body of a warlock or human. The mindless or they have too many minds to do more than simple orders, but they are extremely powerful and almost indestructible the only way to really make sure their dead is decapitation.” He said.

 

Misa looked at him like he escaped an insane asylum which she was pretty sure he had. She kept waiting for him to laugh and tell her he was joking yet he had the stony expression he always had since she had met him.

 

“You’re joking.” She said a half laugh filling her voice. But she knew he wasn’t and she began to believe that maybe it wasn’t that insane after all she had seen the man. He hadn’t looked that human.

 

She shook her head, how could she possibly believe this, it was insane and so were these people and the moment she could get away she would.

 

She leaned back and watched the dark lite world pass in the window as she tried not to think about what had happened.

 

It had been hours since she had left Algonac and they had no sign of stopping, where could they be driving.

 

“Where are we going?” She asked again breaking the undisturbed silence that had held the car for hours only broke by the rush of passing cars. David appeared ready to tell her to shut up and wait for when they got there when glass came raining down on Misa as the window shattered.

 

Something like a bat flew in. Misa screamed as the glass cut across her arm and the winged creature flied at her, its wings beating against her face. A second later the bat was snatched away and she heard a sickening snap as David broke the animal’s neck. Luke had veered off the road and was now breathing hard his knuckle white against the steering wheel. The road was thankfully empty or they would of surly crashed into multiple cars.

 

"Did it bite you?" David said tossing the thing on the floor of the car. Misa checked herself but couldn’t find anything that looked like a bite. Nothing beyond the cut was bleeding.

 

"I don’t think so-,” She gasped as a small mark on her wrist began to throb the muscles underneath coiling against her bone like a snake till it felt like at any moment the small bone would snap under the pressure. And then it stopped.

 

"God, what was that?" She asked staring at her arm in disbelief that her own body would turn against her like that.

 

"Well some body really wants you dead." he said and bent down on the floor searching for something.

“There extremely rare and expensive.”  Isa stared at her arm and clutched her wrist as another spasm wrenched the muscles of her entire arm. The pulled and tightened around the bone till she was sure she would either pass out from the pain or her arm would break. It finally ceased and she could breath normally. She was sure that one had been worse and longer. She suddenly grew panicked. What if they kept getting worse.

 

She looked around the car, but Luke was staring at her with worried eyes and David was busy still searching for something. The car was still on the side of the empty road the air cool from the shattered window.

 

 "So there’s bad news and then there’s good news.” David said seeming to have found what he was looking for.

 

Misa looked at him waiting for him to continue for he obviously had something more to say.

 

“That was a Mentus Bat. And to not sugar coat anything your soon going to go into a nightmarish coma that could last week’s where you'll experience your worst nightmare over and over again until you die or break out of it."

 

"And the good news," Misa said sensing another muscle spasm along her arm and farther this time.

 

"I'll be going with you." David picked up the limp body of the Mentus bat opened its mouth and before Misa could even move to stop him, suck the creature’s fangs deep into his arm. The Body had leathery grey bluish skin that seemed to twitch even in its death as its fangs sunk deeper.

 

David hissed and after a few long seconds pulled the bats away. "Almost done," In a flash of movement he grabbed Misa's hand just as another spasm hit making her clamp down with an iron grip as her bone threatened to break under the stress. She could almost image her body being enstrangeled by a snake coiling tighter and tighter taking the life from her ever so slowly.

 

She couldn’t breathe, her lungs refusing to fill with air, her body growing tighter and tighter as the poison spread throughout her body. She began to believe that this was it, the finale time. Her body would soon just give up, but when it felt like she could no longer live without breathing the spasm vanished and she was released from the lethal hold.

 

She gasped in air, sweat along her brow that she tiredly whipped away. She felt exhausted and it had only been a couple spasms.

 

 She looked over noticing the car was moving again, at a faster pace than before if possible. She saw David’s eyes tightly closed his hand still gripped in hers. She saw as the muscles underneath his skin turned against him threating to break him. She imagined his pain to be so much worse with his trained muscles tightening against his bones.

 

“Are we going to the hospital?” She asked her words surprisingly slurred.

 

“Not if you want to live.” Luke said keeping his eyes on the road as he drove at an insane speed down the road.

 

David opened his eyes, looking slightly paler, Misa wonder what he had been thinking when he had made put the poison into his arm. Was he a mastasistic?

 

"What the. What do you think you doing? You freak." Misa shrieked as he placed a jagged piece of glass into his palm and grabbed her hand the moment her body seized and she gripped the glass its jagged edges cutting deep into her flesh.

 

“Did you do it?” Misa heard Luke ask faintly as she rode the most recent spasm through.

“Yes, were bonded now.” He said sounding tired.

 

Misa felt oddly calm in the midst of the pain she had ceased to feel. She felt oddly safe and then blackness blocked out the world as she went unconscious.

 

It was quiet and she could feel soft grass underneath her with a cool breeze along her body. Opening her eyes she saw that she was in a dark field with grass all around her as far as she could see and only one tree which resided in the middle of the field. It was half filled with lush green leaves and on the other bare branches that seemed alive but stripped of all the things that marked it so. It cut through a small stream that stopped at one end of the tree and began at the back again and continued far off till Misa couldn’t see.

 

Misa wondered at how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered was the car. And the poison from the bat. She felt her heart beat quicker. This was it. The nightmares that David had warned her about. But where was David, didn’t he say he was going to be here with her.

 

Misa stood ready to face whatever was coming weather David was there to help her or not. That was when she noticed she was now where a dress, and her hair fell longer around her waist a lighter blond as if she had been in the sun. Her skin was oddly tanner then it had been and it covered muscular arms that she was sure she didn’t have.

She puzzled over this but soon her attention was taken away from her change of state to a rustle in the tree.

"Hello, Misa. You have a beautiful name, but you always seem to. I haven’t been able to see you in such a while." A woman jumped down from the branches of the tree. Misa almost screamed at the sudden appearance of the stranger but she couldn’t get it out of her throat.

"Who are you?" Misa asked.

 The woman had black hair that fell beyond her back. Her skin was dark as if she was out in the sun a lot. She was beautiful.

The woman seemed to ignore her and calmly twirled a leaf that had fallen from the tree. When she had finished with the leaf she turned to Misa.

“I have watched you die many times. It kills me each time that I am powerless to stop it but it is not my place. Misa you have to find a way to stay alive. I gave up century’s where you soul styed dormant in hopes that you could awaken to a world less filled with hate. But my plan didn’t work. We no longer have time.”

The woman sighed looking sad and though she was still the most beautiful women Misa had even seen she looked older.

“Misa you won’t yet understand but you must save the world in which you belong. Even if you have to destroy it you must save the world I helped create. This is our last chance and if you fail our species shall die with you.” The women ended her cryptic message and Misa went to ask questions of what she meant but was cut off.

"Goodbye and good luck." The women wrapped her arms around Misa and hugged her as a pain in her chest made her lungs clinch and her heart stop beating for long seconds before it was gone.

 But then she felt herself falling and her face plunged in to cold water.  She was being drowned, what kind of dream was this. It felt more and more real and she tried to breathe but only choked on more water fighting against the woman who held her down effortlessly. Finally she couldn’t fight anymore.

She woke up in her class room. The teacher stood over her as if waiting for an answer. She looked to her kneeboard who was frantically mouthing Ivory.

"Ivory." Misa said dazed at the normalcy of her situation. But why would she be, she had been here all day. Or so reason seemed to suggest yet something nagged at her, like she had forgotten something important.

"Getting better at lip reading I see." Misa looked around, at the friends she has known at the room she has sat in for an hour every day for the past 4 months. The teacher droning away.

"Miss. Kernohan to the office." Misa looked up at her name and stood automatically. Grabbing her stuff she walked dazed on her way to the office. This was all too weird, and the sense of dayshavo was intense. He walked down the hall in a daze. The hall was empty and eerily quiet, devoid of sounds. Almost as soon as she thought it noises began to fill the hall. A cough, muttering, shuffling of feet belonging to people she couldn’t see.

But they hadn’t suddenly appeared, they had always been there. Why was she so on edge.

“Hey watch out.’ A boy called out grabbing her arm and halting her moments before she was about to hit a wall right in front of her she had been too busy day dreaming to even notice.

"Thanks, I was about to hit the wall." It sounded surprisingly lame to her ears.

She shuffled noticing he had sharp green eyes, but when she took a second look they seemed pale and she wondered why she had thought them so colorful. He was still handsome and Misa began to feel subconscious.

"You’re welcome, I'm David." he didn’t let go even as she tried to skirt away. But really, how bad was it to be held by a cute guy, no matter how weird the situation. Her knees gave out suddenly and David caught her. She stared dumfounded back at him. Why had that happened. She felt completely fine.

 "I think you need to go to the nurse." David said but he didn’t move. He only held her tighter his face inches from hers and she didn’t mind. She felt committable in his arms. She knew she should be worried about her legs giving out but it seemed too hard to worry. She began to only think of how much she wished he would extinguish the little space between her lips and his.

She was about to take matter into her owns hands when they were interrupted.

"Hey handsome," Somebody called from down the hall and Misa only felt a little embarrassed about being caught like this. Suddenly the boy let her go her go. Somebody caught her before she kissed the ground. She looked up and saw the same boy looking back at her. They were identical.

Or so it was at first glance. One seemed vibrant and alive, piercingly really, his green eyes looking at her seemed to look straight through her, while the other seemed to simply exist. Dull and flat when compared to the other boy.

But his bright veracity was shocking and Misa willed to be farther away from him. But for some reason he was oddly familiar to her unlike the other less intense boy. Especially in this situation. She recalled moments that she hadn’t remembered before. A day just like this. Him being in the school the wall which in the other version she had hit and he had helped her up.

But which was real. The memory or now. Each felt real to her at the moment.

“Misa I need you to come with me,” The colorfully bright boy said with a serious anxious face. He glanced at his equal but duller companion nervously.

“No, Misa it’s not safe to go with him, I can take you somewhere where you will be safe.” The byes stood in front of her each equal except in intensity. She felt that the boy she chose would have great effect. This was an important test.

She looked at the both, the duller complying as he was easier to accept. The brighter one not fitting in with the world. He was odd and out of place unknown and he scared her. Yet when the duller version made a movement for the bright boy she was suddenly at the bright ones side blocking him.

The movement shocked the dull boy and he stopped. She felt the arms of the boy she had moved to protect wrap around her and she felt herself falling into darkness replacing the school.

The memory loss that had clouded her mind lifted. Taking away moments hidden from her for years. She found the world materializing around her and recognized it as her jam. This time she could see defects, the dull color, the blurred spots where she could exactly remember what the jam looked like.

"Ah the first time we met. I remember it well also. I'm flattered you do to."

"Well you said I was going to my worst nightmare. Here we are." David's smile fell and Misa wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t seem to get enough energy.

"I'm tired," Misa said and could almost laugh at the understatement. It felt like she'd run a marathon won then got trampled by a herd of elephants. Twice.

"Well sexy over there was a parasite. They can’t live vary long without a host in which they slowly drain the life out of. Not from the world you know though."

"So you two have more in common than your looks." She said feeling snarky wanting to pop his little arrogant bubble. But the energy it took to speak was almost not worth the scowl she got for her witty come backs.

"So you admit you think I'm out of this world." He said with a smirk that Misa instantly hated.

"You wish." Misa was already feeling better, well enough to sit up, when the world around her started to fade.

"Wait what’s happening, is it over," Misa asked. It really wasn’t that bad.

"Well you’re alive so I guess the poison going to spread more and try to kill you again."

"Well thanks for telling me." Misa without much enthusiasm.

"You asked,” he replied.

"Lie,” Misa said as a burning sensation began on her skin. She looked down as it began to intensify looking for a cause.

Misa began to claw at her skin as it began to burn painfully.

“Misa what’s wrong,” David asked staring at her.

Misa began to scream as her skin began to burn. She heard David calling to her but she could only concentrate on the pain. The world drifted away and what replaced it was a black inferno. Blackness around her where nothing but flame came out of to lick her skin, the burning pain never ceasing even for a moment. She felt the fire in her veins and she saw her skin begin to melt off of her body.

She wanted to go home, she just wanted to be with her mother, in her arms as she told her everything was ok that it was all just a dream. But when she opened her eyes she saw her skin continuing to melt and the pain only increasing.

Soon she could see the white bone coming out of the melted mush that was her flesh. The horror of watching her body melt before her was as bad as the pain that consumed every sense. That overloaded any hope of rational thought, that blocked out anything but what was right before her.

It went on and on and she still didn’t die, she didn’t know it was possibly to be in this much pain and live. She could not of know if years had passed where her body burned. She wondered if this was hell. But when the pain only continued and her skin continued to melt endlessly away she knew she was. She wasn’t sure what she had done in life to deserve it but she was here.

But after what could have been seconds of melena as she had lost all relative relation to time, the pain began to fade agonizingly slow. The fading seemed to make what pain remained more intense. With every small portion of pain the gradually disappeared she felt with more vigor what remained.

When it all had faded and she was left with nothing but the phantom of the pain she had endured for whatever length of time she saw show was in nothing. There was nothing around her. She wondered if she was just in a place so dark she could see nothing, yet it felt as if she was in nothing. But she seemed to be on a solid surface, a floor.

She began to wonder where David was remembering he had been with her. She looked around for him but she saw of course nothing.

It was then she heard a tortured scream from somewhere in the blackness. She stood on the solid surface and went in search for the source of the scream.

She found a crumpled body lying, yet she could see the girl on the ground in perfect clarity yet no light allowed her to see anything else. Maybe there was nothing to see. Maybe she was in a void devoid of anything. Yet before her was proof that wasn’t true. A girl, it was something real, something she could touch and assure her she still held some sanity.

"Are you ok," Misa asked as she bent down to help the girl. She gasped stumbling backwards as she saw the face of her best friend covered in blood choking out inaudible words a knife in her stomach. Joanna looked at her and in her last moment said in perfect clarity "Help me." And she was gone, her eyes staring blankly into the distance.

"JOANNA! NO," Misa fell to her knees and cradled Joanna's head. Joanna looked back at her, her last moments gazing at her, she held fright in her eyes, a pleading look that asked her to do something, yet she could do nothing but hold her as she died.

She held the bloody figure even as she was sure the life had gone from the body. She held her to her chest. She couldn’t be dead, this couldn’t be real. Yet it felt real. She felt the cold figure in her arms. She felt the dried blood that covered her arms from winds on Joanna Misa couldn’t bear to search for.

Misa rocked back and forth holding the body till it began to disintegrate in her hands. Misa frantically tried to stop it, to at least keep what was left off her best find to bury of keep for her family. But again there was nothing she could think to do and the body was soon nothing but ash that covered Misa.

It was after that, that she saw every person she had ever loved die in horrific deaths. Being burned alive, stabbed shot and other disfiguring deaths. And there was nothing that Misa could do stop any of it.Misa felt herself breaking as she watched her family die again and again her friends deaths before her, each time as real as the last. Even when she told herself it couldn’t be real. It never helped as it felt so true.

She couldn’t handle any more; she was more than ready to give up and join all those she had saw die. She could hardly tell which memories were real and which had been manifested in this hell hole. Was her family actually alive or had one of those deaths actually been real. The same went for her friends.

She felt so ready to let go. She knew it would be easy, All she had to do was let go. Let go of memories and feelings, lose her senses and slip away. Even as she thought about it she felt her body slipping away. The deaths stopped, the pain was gone and she felt less connected to things she had believed made everything real like sight touch smell and sound. They no ,longer seemed that impotent. Nothing seemed that important.

"Misa, keep fighting I know you can make it through. Your Mom, how could she live with her daughter dead, and your friends? They wouldn’t live without you. If you die you kill them to. DAMN IT Misa wake up!" The voice sounded urgent and loud but somehow so far away to Misa. Suddenly Misa didn’t want to die, she wanted to live. She wanted to fight against what was happening to her. How could she ever give in.

She tried to fight against whatever was trying to pull her away from life, but it was so much harder than drifting away had been. Fight against the pull was like pushing back the ocean. She felt minuscule compared to the weight she was trying to push against. Yet she felt she had power. She knew she had power and this thing couldn’t kill her unless she complied. She knew that now.

It tried whatever it could to make her want to die because it had not the power necessary to actually extinguish her life unless she let it.

With the new realization she felt stronger and the force weaker.

For a moment she saw what she knew to the world she lived in. Even if it wasn’t the only reality it was the one she was use to the one where she lived and loved. For just a moment she saw David’s worried and tired face. He looked like he had gone through hell. And then he was gone and she was back in the blackness. But there were no illusions this time. Only blackness.

She called out for David, not for help but in the thought she might help him as he had helped her. Keeping him bound to the reality they knew, showing him it wasn’t real and that he could survive.

It was quiet, but not silent; Misa could hear the odd thing and a persistent beeping. Opening her eyes Misa saw that the beeping came from an IV pole that was hocked in to her arms. There were quite a few tubes stuck into her arms. She looked down on herself and saw she was thinner then she remembered, her ribs poked out and her skin looked sickly pale.

She didn’t feel that sick despite the images that said she should feel otherwise. She felt oddly lulled. She pulled the Is out causing the machines to make an annoying flat line. She got out of the bed. Her legs felt a little wobbly as she stood on them aware that she felt physically weaker. She began to wonder how long she had been in this bed unconscious.

She thought of the dreams and knew it could have been years and she would not know. Despite how long she had been in her she wanted out. She felt a draw to be outside. She wanted to feel the air of outside on her skin. She couldn’t breathe in this room that seemed cramped and small. It was plain and looked like a normal hospital room, serial and unfriendly.

She went to the window and saw there were no bars and the window appeared to open easily. She was on the ground level.

She quickly opened the window taking a moment to breathe the air. It wasn’t what she was used to. It was heavy tainted with pollutants and noise but it was still better than being stuck in the room. She jumped out of the room, aware that she was wearing a gown like that of a hospital yet it was whole and showed nothing of her. She was satisfied with the mega coverings and went forward.

She was near a main city. She could hear the traffic and see the lights. Behind her was a enormous brick building that reminded her of a church. With sprier that melted into the night. It looked like a gothic cathedral and was imposing to say the least upon Misa. She knew she was near the city. She headed for it sure that someone there would help her get home.

Misa walked the enormous lawn till she reached an iron gate, she tried to slide through, but even with her new found bone skinniness she couldn’t make it through. She found a small tree that would be ample enough in assisting her in her escape. She knew she had to reach the city. She wasn’t sure why, she just knew. She began to climb the tree, and that is when the shouting from the yard started.

Misa began to panic and jumped down without much grace landing heavy on foot. She thought it might be sprained but felt no pain, even as she set weight upon it.

Misa ran to the city and did not get much of a second glance in her strange garb. He saw a mesh of big chain stores but it felt to big. Misa wasn’t ready to face all the people. Even thought people walked around her stilled figure on the bright sidewalk.

She was beginning to attract attention and she knew she had to get out of the public eye. Someone called to her and she bolted for a nearby alley.

Her bare feet caught sharp rocks and her high began to wear off. She thought of how this might not of been the greatest idea. She now wished to be back in the small room. At least it had been moderately safe. Here she had no shoes, no friends, no hope.

"Look what we have here. I think you’re a little lost girly. But don’t worry, well help you home." A group of people had appeared around her.

"Hey Sal, what you think. Lost druggie. Don’t think she’ll be missed by anyone. I see fresh needle winds in her arm," Said one of the boys. There were about 6 of them all around 20 more or less and looked vary unfriendly to Misa.

Miss looked at her own arm and found small pricks from the needles she pulled, Misa wondered how the boy had seen them. There was a small amount of bruising, yet not enough to be noticeable.

Misa noticed that the boys were beginning to make a circle around her as she stood there, barefoot and weaponless; Misa ran for an opening but was caught by one of the guys. "She looks a little young to be a drug attic, but she hardly has any weight, she fits the description. What about it, will you be missed if we kill you.” Said the boy in a whisper to her ear.

Misa began to struggle against her capture but she got exhausted quickly. Why was she so fragile. She was going to die. She could barely keep the energy to fight.

“Aw I think she wants to run away. Fly away home.” Said the boy holding her, obviously mocking her. Just then fur ripple across his face. So quick Misa was left to wonder if she had seen right. It was so shocking that for a few moments she forgot to fight.

"They’re coming for her. You can tell me later why you ran away but for now," he reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife, "Move or even act likes you going to scream and I'll cut that pretty face of yours."  And then he held her by the arm and pulled her after him as he ran.

She knew that whoever was chasing her had to be better than the company she was with now. She jerked away from the boy holding her having surprise on her side and ran as fast as she could away. The man quickly tackled her. She tried to fight but his weight almost crouched her. He got up dragging her with him. The gang had stopped running waiting for their leader to catch up.

They all stood still as if waiting for the other to move. One of the guys dropped from the circle revealing David panting and a silver glint in his hand. That broke that stale mate and the gang rushed them. David made his way to Misa as the men attacked. She sidestepped one who came at her making him fall and kicking out at another.

One grabbed her from behind a knife to her throat but elbowing him in the stomach made him drop the knife and stumble back as another came at her slicing her slide with a knife. She gasped at the pain, but pushed it back as he came forward. She clawed at him with long nails that sent him away howling. David was beside her then.

She flew proud at all she had done, thought it seemed meniscal in comparison to the fights that David was taking on. Sometimes facing three or more at a time.

"David behind. “Misa shouted as the man she elbowed jumped on him. Misa picked up a stick intending to hit the guy but an advancing man got a hit to the head that send him down. But three more came at once all armed. She managed to jump aside one knife and kick one guy off his feet but the third grabbed hold of Misa from behind. She smashed her head back and feet bone give way with the force.

He dropped her with an inhuman howl and blood gushing from his nose. Her own head ached bad from the hit, leaving her unable to think clearly.  But more people had arrived and the gang had started to flee.  All who still could were running away.

Misa stood up and laughed at the fleeing group who had been so bad a*s just moments ago. People swarmed around her making her feel even dizzier. She looked down at her side and found it still bleeding.

“I thought you couldn’t fight, you weren’t great but not the disaster I thought you’d-,” He broke off see the blood.

Misa knew it wasn’t that bad, it didn’t feel that deep. It was odd that if this would of happened at Algonac she would have been freaking out.

 “I’m fine.” She said even though she felt dizzy. But that was probably just from exhaustion.

"Miss. Love she injured." A strict woman looked up then glanced to Misa and began to walk over.

"Can you walk," David asked Misa." Misa nodded.

"I'm fine really." She said but as she began to walk her side blared with pain and she almost fell, catching herself at the last moment.

"It deep and you’re bleeding fast. Someone must have used a cursed blade. One with a spell bound into it to cut deeper and make the wound more severe than it looks, and it looks bad." he bent and scoped her up shouting that he was taking her to the school.

Soon they were away from the pack of people and thought the jostling from the running hurt her side she wanted to find out some things. She thought David might have been dead. She was relived to find him still breathing.

“Did you hear me?” She asked knowing that he would understand if her had.

At first he was silent as he usually was. But then he ever so slightly nodded. It almost appeared just a coincidence from him running but Misa was going to believe that he had heard her calling to him, to keep him grounded as he had done for her.

They ran fast but bounced painfully with each step. The lights past in a beautiful blur and then she was inside a building surrounded by people. It all happened in a blaringly fast pace the moment she was handed off from David. People came and went she was moved from one room to another, she was put in one dark room where shadows danced in front of her eyes. Then she was put under.

She woke up in a gorgeous room, it was lite by a fire place and had a deep purple walls with a large bed in one corner in which she was in and in the center of the large room a table low to the grown on top of a big throw rug that had beautiful swirl designs. The room had shelves with old looking books covering most of the room. It had the feel of a shop you might buy tarot cards.

It was like Misa had stepped into a magazine Seductress Hostile. It had a nice ring to it. She got out of the bed which seemed like an animal swallowing her with all the pillows and blankets. She found her stomach bandaged in white gaze. She testily felt with her fingers but felt no pain.

She unwrapped the bandage from around her dreading the sight that lay underneath. The skin was pink like that of newborns and as soft. There was a raised pink line that showed there had been a cut, but that was all. There were no visible stiches or seeping wound that she had expected, as she had expected the worst. This led her to wonder how long she had been asleep.

. "Move too much and it'll tear. I'm Godiva, like the chocolates." Godiva was a beautiful woman walking towards Misa. Misa was  only a little shorter then Godiva but she was sure and swift where Misa still stumbled over her own legs, her shoulder length hair swung in tight black curs and her skin was perfect and  unblemished, she was like a airbrushed model, but real.

"Wait, have I seen you before?" Something about her was vaguely familiar. She was beginning to get that feeling more and more often.

"Probably, I did some molding for cover girl and nutargena. How do you feel you were out for 3 days? Thought it was nothing compared to the 3 week coma you were in with David." Misa choked.

"3 weeks, you’re kidding. I was out for 3 weeks?" She could only imagine how worried her mom was; her mom probably thought she was dead. And her friends were they alive or dead. She had left them with their house big invaded by freaks.

She was panicking. She had to get home; she had to get home now. She was brought back to the times she had to watch her family and friends die all those times and it only made her wish even more desperately that she was with them. To make sure that they were safe and alive.

"It's ok, we've checked on your family and friends. We've posted guards. They're all right all they'll stay that way I promise.” Her voice was soft and reassuring.

 "But for now you have to stay here. People are trying to kill you for reasons we don’t know. I've never seen so much effort to kill a mortal. You die pretty easily actually." Misa's eyes widened and she took a step back from the advancing Godiva.

"Sorry no I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, never mind. You think like that when you live in a place like this." Godiva sat down on the bed and Misa couldn’t help not feeling threatened by her.

"Where am I exactly," Misa had been wondering this science she woke up; finally she might get an answer that would make sense.

"You at a school where we train a select few people to fight. It will be there carrier and they will get assignments for life or move from job to job protecting people. Anyone who can afford them.”

That answer was by far the most information she had gotten in weeks.

“So you like train bodyguards. Misa asked trying to make sense of the newfound information.

“In a way yes. It’s a good of comparison as any.”

"That’s also what’s has made you a bit of a celebrity in school. David is one of the best fighters this school has ever seen, he can sense a threat before it comes and when it does he is an excellent fighter as you have witnessed. And the fact that he’s hot helps also quite a bit. But he’s never taken a job offer of protection. Even when the offered pay has been quiet tempting to say the least. Some of the amounts were just obscene. Yet he has remained unclaimed. Yet he has willingly bound to you, offering his protection at least till the gifting.

“Even though you offer no substantial money. And you are just a mortal”

Godiva spoke as if there was another way to be. Misa had felt a comfort on this woman’s company. Yet now she felt uneasy. Misa could tell by the way she talked, she liked David. They might be dating for all she knew. They would make a decent match she supposed.

"You first arrive unconscious and bound to David going through hell. You survived, which is almost unheard of for a Phenol let alone a human. Then the moment you wake up, dope out on painkillers you fight a gang of wires. But then get brought back during the hub of activity, lunch, a bloody mess. You caused quite a stir."

"I just want to go home," Misa said ashamed about how whinny she sounded.

"You can’t. You'll be staying here till we can softly put you back home." Godiva said her face falling. She seemed to want to help Misa but just couldn’t.

“How long would that take,” Misa asked sounding like a small child.

Godiva looked sad as she gazed back at Misa, with pitying eyes.

“We don’t know yet. First we have to understand while so many Phenols are after one mortal. You seem to be a magnet for them.”

"You can’t keep me here. It’s illegal it’s wrong," Misa said anxiety infiltrating her voice.

 "What would I even do here at this jacked up school." Godiva was standing a reassuring look on her face.

"I'm sure we can find something to fill your time,” Godiva went out to pat her back to make her feel better.

Yet the moment her fingers touched Misa Godiva’s eyes went wide and she pulled her hand away as if Misa was a snake to be feared and gave her a look as if she should be killed as well.

Misa took a step forward to help. But was rejected by fierce cries.

"No you stay away," Her voice wasn’t scared or afraid but angry, as if she strayed not to smack him across the face.

Godiva turned sharp and walked out of the room. Misa was left gawking at the insane scene that had unfolded. She was so frustrated, she tangled her fingers into her hair feeling stressed enough to pull it out, but settled for falling on the bed and screaming into the thick sheets.

Nothing made sense, she was in a strange place, and with strange people who believed in things like wires had she called them.

She played on the bed for what felt like an hour before she heard voices at the door. She was about to ignore them, but she caught her name and she moved closer to hear. Once she was at the door it wasn’t hard to hear what they were saying, they were practically yelling. She could hear Godiva's voice and another woman’s.

"She belongs here." Godiva shouted.

"Even if she is what you say, which you hold no proof to that fact, what makes you believe that she belongs here this is a school where the best fighters of our world come. She is just a human child."

"Miss. Love, she fought the rebels more efficiently than most Phenols could and she did it with a wound that might kill some humans. She survived the Mentus' poison." Misa sucked a quick breath as she heard David’s voice fighting for her. She wasn’t sure what they were trying to decide but knowing how her luck has been going it was probably over to kill her or feed her to wolves or something.

"I understand that. But it prove-"

"Just let Godiva do the test, it will tell us for certain."

Misa heard Miss.Love sigh and she knew it was her cue to get away from the door and act like she hadn’t been listing.

She ran over to the bed and jumped in as the door opened revealing the woman the Misa had saw back where she had gotten stabbed. Who was this woman, obviously some one important? They were at a school supposedly maybe this was the principle.

"I know you were lessening, yet it probably still only gave you more question then answers. But I would expect nothing less; you’re in a strange place with strange people. Just refrain from making it a habitual action." Miss.Love said as she sat down at the couch by the table.

 Godiva looking a little shaky as she sat down on the floor at the head of the table. Sat down on the couch managing to look interested and bored at the same time.

“Well come join us. This is all about you. You’ve made quite a splash on my little school.” Miss. Love said. But from what Misa remembered from what she had seen from the outside of the school, it wasn’t that little.

"Come on girly, we won’t bite. Hard." David said making a biting motion.

Miss. Love and Godiva both shot him venomous looks. I just glared at him.

"Just sit across the table from Godiva. We’re going to put you through a test. And since you’re going to ask what type of test and thought I would like to lie to make this less confusing Mister Davie can’t keep his mouth shut and would tell you any way I might as well," Miss. Love said the last part like a mother and gave David a bored look.

 "This test will show if you are what we call lost ones. Seemingly humans who find their different at age 16 the eighth of puberty. Phnom that occur naturally, Phnom are creatures that are not mortal. The things from your fray tails are all real and live right under your nose. This is a test to find if you are a lost one.

“Lost ones are dangerous to themselves and others and if, not found early and develop without controlee, have to be put down-"

"You know killed.” David said seeming to enjoy that he was upsetting her.

She couldn’t yet grasp their meaning. Were they going to kill her if she was one of their Lost Ones, if it even did exist?

“Don’t look so shocked it’s either that or let them roam free on a killing spree. Remember Jack the Ripper. But if you’re lucky you have so little power as a phantom that you end up in an asylum talking to people that aren’t there."

"You’re all insane." Misa took a run for the door but the knob stood firm, locked. She began to feel like the girls in the horror movies about to die. She looked around but there were no windows and with a fire in it she highly doubted she could climb out the chimney. There were no other doors.

"Jesus David, do you always have to be so blunt. Misa it’s not like that, odds are your human and after a little test you’ll get to go home." Godiva said in a genital voice you would use on an injured animal.

"It’s not like you have another choice, I saw you scan the room there is no way out."

Misa was about to say she hadn’t scanned the room but she couldn’t find the point and it was true, she had no other choice.

"I just want to go home. I won’t even tell anybody about this." Everybody nodded but they looked at her as if she was to be pitted. All but David, how held the bored expression. Yet she was comforted by it the most.

She felt that they shouldn’t be pitying her, but be afraid of her. If she got the chance she would kick some major a*s. She wanted out of this nut house and she would find a way.

"Fine what’s this test?" Misa said sitting down at the end of the table farthest away from Godiva. The table looked was a deep brown with almost black age lines throughout it. It felt sturdy and expensive.

“I don’t know anything about this place, so I most likely won’t pass.” Misa said feeling like an idiot sitting down at the far seat from Godiva.

“Not that kind of test girly.” David said leaning against the couch, he had the appearance of annoyed boredom, but she could see flaring interest in his eyes.

"We’re just going to look at your hand," Godiva said from across the table.

Godiva genially took her wrist and turned it so her palm faced up. This all remained Misa of a palm reading she had gotten at a carnival when she was eleven. The lady had been old and sacred Misa into running out of the tent.

"Sorry but this is going to hurt a little," Godiva said placing her hand over Misa's.

"What why-." Misa tried to pull back, but she was to slow. She felt a slight pain, like a twinge in her hand.

Then she felt something like a breeze but it seemed to blow through her. She found herself not in the strange room, but in a familiar place. It was where she had gone when she had been bitterling the poison, yet it seemed bright and more alive and it was missing the stream that Misa had drowned in.

She took a step forward to look around when someone came out of the nearby woods. It was a young woman that Miss instantly recognized. It was the woman from the dream.

“Latah, LATAH. No, to the heavens I pray be alive.” The woman said, tears streaking down her beautiful face. Her hair was wild and messed with twigs and leaves tangled in them, yet it made her look like how Misa would imagine mother earth.

The woman dropped beside what Misa had assumed was a rock at a glance but found it was a crumpled human being. Misa went forward so she could help, yet she found herself unable to interact with the people. It was like she was watching a movie.

She could watch but when it came to helping, she did no more than when she screamed for the girl to turn back and not go into the basement.

“Please, hold on. You can fight it. Don’t give in. Fight, DAMN IT ALL. FIGHT!!” The woman screamed as she held the head of the fallen figure.

It appeared the person had not yet died as Misa saw little movement of woman’s chest.

“Any death I can give for you is one I give most graciously. You were the most novel of companions, and the best of friends.” The woman smiled as the lady Misa knew from her dream cried holding her and soon the life was fading, and fading fast.

“I’m not going to let you go, I cant.” The woman from Misa’s dream cut her hand like David had done for her and cut the woman’s and held them together, while her lips swiftly moving, and forming words, that Misa couldn’t hear or understand.

Misa felt more then saw what occurred as she spoke. A black line began to form teeing both of their wrists together. It formed patterns that were more intricate and detailed then anytatoo going in detail beyond what the eye could see. But she felt the air still, the animals hushed, the land around them go eerily still and quiet.

Misa spotted movement from the corner of her vision and when she turned to see what it was something came at her.

She cringed and expected to be hit, but she felt nothing and in moments he had pushed the woman from her dream away from the body.

“You,” The woman from her dream growled staring at the man who had pushed her away.

He now had her by the throat. He looked fully intent on killing her. Yet he didn’t finish the job that seemed so easy, all he had to do was crush her throat yet he was still.

“Are you going to kill me or just watch.” The woman choked out.

“No, for if I did, you would just be a nucese in another life.” The man said his voice deep and smooth.

Misa wondered what a man would look like when he had such a silky voice. She shook her head realizing he was holding a woman by the throat, talking about killing her like it was no more bother to him then swatting a fly.

“No, I’m going to take what is rightfully mine.” He said squashing ever so slightly harder till the woman could no longer breathe and she clawed helplessly at the hand. Misa tried to help but she passed through like she was no more than a ghost.

Finally he let go and she took in breath.

“Then why kill her, she was nothing to you, yet you murdered her. Was it just to spite me, just to cause me injury.” The woman cried.

The man looked at the body as if she had just noticed it was there.

“She was bothersome.” He said simply, “I don’t like bothersome things.”

The woman’s face filled with rage that caused Misa to stand back. Her skin seemed to glow and the man yelled in pain dropping her to the ground, where she landed gracefully.

“Neither you or anyone else will ever have my power. Gods will never again walk among the humans for all they do is destroy.” She said growing ever fiercer looking. She took a blade from the ground lying beside the body of her friend, Misa guessed the very same that killed him and before the man could stop her, plunged in into her chest.

The scene seemed to explode and Misa had to shield her eyes from the light. A breeze shook the tress and even Misa could feel it. She heard the snapping of branches and angered calls she presumed were from the man. She expected the scene was over. But she was wrong.

When the light had dulled and Misa could again see she noticed that the area was in havoc. Animals raced around, branches had fallen and the woman was dead. Yet the body of her friend was moving. Her chest rose and her eyes opened.

She was alive, when she had so clearly been dead. She saw her fallen friend and her face fell. Misa felt sadness for her. There was no doubt she was dead. He skin was pale and clammy, her body stiff and still sheathing the blade.

It looked as if she had been dead for days instead of simple seconds. The recently dead woman hung her head but no tears fell from her eyes.

She stood, sorrow gripping her body, hunching her shoulders and crippling her. She touched her wrist which was almost alive with vibrant color, seemed to shift on her skin.

The man stared at her in awe. But he wasn’t dazed for long. He moved quickly, but the moment he touched her he shrieked, his skin burned black at the brief contact.

The woman mealy looked calmly at her unscathed skin. Then back at the man.

“I will kill you someday. Maybe not in this life time, but I will.” She threw the knife, but the spot where he should have been standing was empty, yet the dagger did not fall, it had simple disappeared.

Misa felt that this was the end of what she was meant to see. The color of the world around her began to fade, and the last thing she saw was the girl falling to her knees beside the woman she was meant to protect.

"Misa, Misa. Can you hear me?" She heard someone saying to her.

She opened her eyes and found David staring closely at her, his face seemed worried but at the sight of her opening her eyes he relaxed into his pomp as expression yet again. But had he been worried about her. It sure seemed like it.

Miss.Love and Godiva were sitting at the table drinking tea.

“Get off of me.” Misa said trying to push David off of her yet he remained like a brick wall.

“Huh,” he said still looming over her, hands on either side of her keeping him up.

“What,” Misa asked unable to help herself.

“It’s just I’m not used to hearing that from a woman.” He said looking thoughtful.

“So your use to hearing it from men. I see.” Misa said yet again trying to push him away with no avail. It was like trying to move a mountain.

“Now I am defiantly not gay. Would you like me to prove it?” He said dropping his voice to a sultry whisper.

Misa began to realize how close his face was to hers, his body only inches from being pressed against hers. She felt a blush crept across her face. David smiled still unmoving. She decided to change tactics and went under his arm quickly and managed to escape.

She went to the table where both women looked up from there tea.

“I want to go home. You said I could after the test.”

Miss. Love sighed and Godiva gave her another pitying look that told her what they were going to say before they even did.

"Save it. You’re wrong, I'm normal. I'm human, always have been, always will be, and I want to go home."

“Now, we can’t let you go home, at least not yet. You must feel it. It must be stirring within you. A feeling, a hint at the power you hold. You know you are mot the same, you can feel something different.”

“Of course I can’t. I already told you. I’m normal, human.” Misa said harshly.

But she knew, ever since that night she had felt it. Maybe longer. It was like a pressure pressing against an invisible wall in her mind. She had just guessed it was normal, maybe a headache. But what if it really was more.

“What do you mean you can let me go home yet?” She questioned remembering Godiva’s previous statement.

“At winter solstices your abilities will be matured enough that after the gifting we will be able to bind them. You will be able to live a mostly normal teenage life. We will wipe your memory of the past few months and every five years we will find you and rebind your abilities so you can remain in your normal life.”

Misa did the calculations in her head. Remembering to add the week she had been unconscious it would be roughly 6 months. She would be gone from her family and friends for half a year, her sophomore summer would be spent away from her friends.

“Do I have much of a choice?’ Asked thought she knew the answer. She felt it clearly now. She was different, but she didn’t have to be. She could go back, to the way it was.

“No,” Godiva said shaking her head sadly.

Misa suddenly felt as if all of this was her fault. If she wasn’t her then Misa could go back to her life, and live it like any normal person. She wanted to hit her, to claw at her perfect face for messing everything up in her life, which until recently had been going smooth. She knew it wasn’t logical but she acted on it.

She lunged for Godiva but only got in a single smack across the face before she felt something prick the back of her neck and she fell to the ground. She couldn’t move her body and her head soon became groggy.

CHAPTER 3 ##########################################################

As she opened her eyes the room she was in spun around her like she was on a caramel ride. She saw a splurge of colors on wall that as she stared began to form shape. Along the wall there were tons of pictures and all of them held a beautiful girl with uncontrollable red hair that drew your eyes straight to it. She had perfect pale skin and amazing blue eyes the reminded her of the ocean. The contract only made her more beautiful.

"You’re up! Awesome, I've been looking forward to getting a roommate, and I goat famous one. I've heard some awesome stories about you so far and you've only been here a couple of days. I mean they all can’t be true of course so I’ll have to find which ones are true and which ones they are just rumors. It’s going to be so much fun, I'll show you around the school and introduce you to Damian, my best guy friend and then we'll grab lunch. Oh and I'm your new roommate Tasha, but its fine if you call me Tish. Because everybody calls me Tish, even most of the teachers. Though some of the stricter ones insist on calling me Tasha thought I have told them I go by Tish and everyone calls me Tish they just won’t budge.” The girl who had address herself as Tish beamed hap [idly while Misa’s head still spun trying to digest the sudden influx of words

“A room mate.’ Misa managed to spit out.

 She had been an only child and never been to a summer camp. She wasn’t use to living with anyone but her mom. She had always wondered what having a sibling would be like, but didn’t like the idea of sharing her room with any one.

“Yea, everyone has on at school, it’s not like they can give us each our own room. That would be insane. Thought I wouldn’t mind having my own room. Not that I don’t think it’s awesome that I get to have you as a roommate.” Misa began to wonder if she always talked so much or if it was just that she was meting a new person.

“Not sure why you’re so happy to be shake up with me. I’m a lost one. I different from every one I knew and even everyone here. I’m a freak in any world I chose.” Misa said feeling depressed.

“I don’t care. I know that towards the last days you were there you felt something. Something that made you different. You began to notice that you saw everything brighter more alive than people around you. A little more wild. You wondered why you were so different from your friends. Whose interest was dull and meaningless to you? So you feigned interest so to still be friends with them.” Tish described with piercing accuracy.

"My parents sent me to live with an uncle who had chosen to have his gift bound because he fell involve with a mortal, and that was the only they would be allowed to be together . I lived a long time in normal school.  They didn’t keep it from me, they told me everything. But somehow that didn’t help.”

Misa didn’t know what to say, this girl she barely knew seemed to trust Misa with the secrets of her life immediately.  Misa was amazed but she hopped that not all of the people were this open because she doubted she could handle many more life stories like that from strangers.

"I'm sorry." Misa said partly because she was and other parts she didn’t know what else to say to that.

"You don’t have to be sorry about anything. I just want you to know that I know how you feel. I think that’s why they chose me to be your room mate.

"Great, time to show off my own personal super star." Tasha took Misa's hand and led her through the room. There was a small common room and one more empty conjoining room with two plain beds and a dresser, but the walls were bare and unlived in.

They stepped out into the hall and almost smacked into David. He looked at them and gave Misa a smile.

“So you've met your new roommate. I know she’s shy, but she’ll get over it soon enough.” David said still smiling.

"David, why are you here." Tasha said stopping in her tracks confusion written all over her face.

“Oh that hurts Tasha, do you not want me here.” He said giving her a hurt look.

Trish’s face went beat red to match her hair. Misa couldn’t believe she had let him get to her that easy. He was cute but damn she looked about ready to crawl onto his lap and wait for her next treat.”

“Uh, no, no. It’s, uh, just. That this is the girl’s dormitories.”

“I know I’ve been here many times before. But this time it’s biasness, not pleasure. Misa is my assignment. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you. If I were her and had the god like David watching over me I would be telling the world. I am the most sought after guardian. You should be honored to have me protecting you.” David said.

Misa resisted the urge not to laugh.

“Oh I’m giddy with excitement. I’m so happy I might pee.”

“Misa, why didn’t you tell me?” Tish whispered as David chuckled at her remark.

“Sorry, but I don’t even know what an assignment is, unless its homework which I doubt.” Misa said shrugging at Misa.

"It’s true Tasha; she hasn’t even been properly bounded yet, sees." He took hold of her wrist the common contact like an electric shock through her. Misa almost shrieked but David seemed not to notice. Trish glanced at her wrist and sighed.

“Ok I guess so, but you can’t keep these interesting details from me.’ She said eyeing David in a way that made a blush creep over Misa’s cheeks at watching them.

“Well I have to go, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.’ David said flirting deeply with Trish. As he did so he grabbed Misa’s wrist and began to lead her down the hall like a child.

Misa waved goodbye, thought she wondered if Trish could look at anything other than David.

"I don’t need a leash." Misa said stopping so he would look at her, "And you drugged me, what do you have to say to that."

"that you don’t need a leash or that I drugged you, cause I think you just might of proved the universe has an odd and kinky sense of humor when you phrase it like that.”

“Oh stop it, I’m not going to get all hot and bothered over you, no matter how much you flirt.”

He leaned in close to her, “Are you sure about that.” He said in a soft but deep voice.

“I’m sure,” Misa managed to say in a strong voice thought her heart was pounding inside her chest.

David abruptly leaned away straightening up.

“Well that just makes you a challenge doesn’t it?

“Come on where here.” David said in an abruptly changed tone.

David held open the door the room right across from their intense exchange. She made her way in.

The room was well lite and looked like any normal classroom. But the desks were gone and in the middle was a sturdy looking table that stuck out badly in the room. Sitting in the wood table in the middle of the room was a woman. She looked about 30 something and was pretty, except for a scar that marred her face.

It kissed her face from her temple to her jaw line on the right side of her face. She made no attempt to hide it with her hair or make up. Misa found the woman fascinating; she had fierceness about her that she rarely found in people. The woman seemed as if she would be afraid of nothing.

“Well I haven’t got all day, take a seat.” The woman said.

"Sorry,’ Muttered Misa as she realized she had been staring at the scar for some time.

She seated herself, still not making eye contact with the woman. Misa wondered how she had gotten the scar. She was too mortified to ask. If this place was normal at all she would have expected maybe a run in with a gang or something explainable. As it was Misa guessed it was something like being attacked by a werewolf or vampire, or something equally likely to give her a headache.

“Well you are pretty art you? You should become quite a beautiful woman, she said almost to herself.

“Thank you.” Misa said thought she doubted she would ever be beautiful

David was snickering and the woman sighed and proceeded to smack David behind the head.

Misa stared unbelieving at the woman. She was too shocked to laugh that someone would treat David like that, thought it was what Misa believed he deserved almost every time he opened his mouth.

"Don’t listen to him; I remember when he still wet his bed." At that Misa chocked on the air she was breathing as she tried unsuccessfully not to laugh covering her mouth.

"I like you." The woman said simply at her laughter.

“Are you kidding, I love you. You’re the first person I have met that at least tries to pop the big head David seems to be getting.” Misa said.

“Thank you.” The woman said.

“Oh and you can call me Misc.” She said getting up to walk over to a group of shelves.

When she was a good distance away David leaned down.

"I was 5 by the way." David said whispering to Misa.

"Excuses, to the world you may be the fiercest fighter there I, s but to me your still just the uncoordinated kid I trained. And I deem it my job to knock down that oversized ego you carry around you so you can still fit in your room. That it seems no one but this girl and me seems to notice.”

Misa watched the exchange and David’s face grow red before it hit her.

"Your David’s mom art you?” Misa asked cussing both people to pause in their exchange.

It was hard to believe that any one beside David’s own mother would dare treat him like she did.

"God no, she's my teacher. Though I’ve surpassed her in almost every way, she still likes to indulge in the times she could still beat me." David seemed to have regained his cocky persona back again. The woman smiled slowly before turning to Misa.

“I doubt she couldn’t beat you in a fight.” Misa said earning a scowl from David.

"You my darling are very interesting.” Misc. said sitting down at the table a couple of jars in hand.

“Before we begin do you have any questions you wish to ask?”

Misa thought about it for a moment before she came up with one she thought was sensible to ask thought thousands bisected in her head.

“Many, but I’ll settle for knowing what exactly what an assignment is.” Misa said.

Miss. C. paused as she thought about a response that would answer her question without confusing her.

“Our race is a race of talented fighters skilled in combat, we take assignment to protect people who pay us or to be mercenary’s for officials who can pore someone is a sever violate of law. David is considered by many one of the greatest fighters our race has seen and yet at 23 you’re the first assignment he has ever taken on despite many offers. I presume this is where your question arose.” Miss. C. finished.

Misa was taken back; she looked toward David who was beaming. He gave her a look as if to say ‘Told you so’.

"Stick out your wrists," Miss. C. said as David sat next to Misa and did the same.

Miss. C. tied an old looking thread bracelet each identical around her and David’s wrist and then proceeded to tie an almost invisible thread to them both connecting them.

Misa panicked little as she thought she might have to remain tied to David. Thought she knew she would take it off as soon as she left the room.

Misa felt a bright flash of pain like biting you cheek. She looked down at her wrist and found the bracelet gone. There was in its place a tattoo that looked similar to the one she saw on the woman aver it.in her vision.

“You are now properly bound. Much better job than the rag tag one David performed I would say. If you need help, David will know and you will feel a pull to where David is so he may insure that you are safe. You shouldn’t even notice it. It affects the guardian more than the guarded. But it may become more noticeable the longer you have it.”

“You want to see how it works?” David asked.

Something about the way he asked, told Misa it wasn’t a good idea but she couldn’t help agreeing.

They both stood up and she tried to feel something different but she found nothing.

“Ready?’ he asked.

She nodded as response. Suddenly she felt an intense pull, it caught her off guard and she found herself tripping over herself till she fell onto David causing them to fall to the ground.

She lay on top of him; she felt a blush over her chooks as she felt how warm he was and the hard muscles beneath his shirt. She felt his heart beating fast and the steady rise and fall of his chest. She looked embarrassed up to his face and for a moment she saw a flash of pain. Something deep and unable to fake in his face.

But before she could even begin to guess what it had been it was gone and replaced by a coy smile.

"Your heavier than I expected."  He said making no move though to push her off.

Misa felt her face go deep red and quickly got off.

"Not sure how you did that, but don’t ever do it again." She said when both of them were standing.

“The small thread I tied both of you two is still there, just not in the physical form. It had more of an effect since you were just bound and you stand only a couple feet away.

David made a movement with his hand that caused a sharp pain through her wrist. Misa inhaled quickly at the sting.

So it was true, she was tied to a stuck up, self-absorbed prick who made her skin burn with a touch.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter

 

“No, this should be my choice and I want it undone, however that can happen.” Misa said complaining to the principle.

When she had fully gathered what being bound to David meant she had demanded it be undone. He demands had led her to the principal’s office where Miss. Love was seated looking aggravated.

"Are you sure you do not want to be bound. Mister Blackwell is doing this at no charge to you. It will greatly insure your safety if you are to stay bound. It really is greatly to your benefit."

Misa had found David’s name to be Blackwell which seemed too proper and dignifying a name for him. Yet in a way she had to admit it did suit him.

"Yes and I still want this undone," Misa said for what felt like the thousandth time.

She had been through this many times and they had explained the honor of being bound and that David has no obligation to rebind if it’s broken. They all seemed so shocked that the charity case (Which Misa had come to feel like) didn’t want to be bound and be under the guardianship of The David Blackwell.

“Fine just let her break it. It’s her choice anyway. This is what gets for trying to do something nice.” David said sarcastically as if this was a morally crushing blow.

"Then it’s agreed, the binding will be broken. It will be done tomorrow. Preparations have to be made."

"Finally," Misa sighed. She felt exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep.

She wondered how Trish would take her breaking her bond with David, who she obviously had a huge crush on.

Misa feeling the discussion was over got up. She left them to bicker and stepped out into the quiet of the hall. Losing the door she leaned against the wood of the door. She still heard their muffled voices. She couldn’t wait to be rid of this place she thought. But it was to be almost half a year she was going to be forced here.

She heard the door open and managed to get away from the door before it was opened and she fell into whoever was coming out.

It was David, for a moment she wondered if had followed her out. But the look of mild surprise to find her still here told her he was just leaving. Why would he follow her anyway. He said he was find with the bound being broken.

 “You know I’m not that bad once you get to know me. I’m a pretty good guy, just give me a chance.” He said oddly sincere.

Misa turned to look at him; despite what he showed he must want to stay bounded to actually act decent. But she had known many guys at her school that if you gave them a chance to act like a human being they left you sorely disappointed. She shook her head.

“Sorry, but I would seem rather dumb going back in there to say ‘Oh well it seems I have changed my mind, can we just dismiss the whole matter’,” She said with sarcasm in her voice.

“I would tell them if you wished, I have no doubt that they wouldn’t mind. If you haven’t noticed I have that effect on people.”

Misa rolled her eyes, but even when he was smug she could see the way his smile lite his deep brown eyes.

Misa rolled her eyes and started to walk away.

“Wait I’m sorry, force of habit. Pulse I can’t let you walk the halls alone just yet. They are charmed to confuse anyone who doesn’t know their way around. You could end up getting lost in some dark corridor till some one finds you, which could be a while. I’m pretty sure at least a few students are still on the missing list from the beginning of this year.”

Misa was pretty sure he was joking about kids still being missing. But when she looked at the halls, identical in color and shape she could see herself getting lost in them easily and that thought didn’t encourage her at all. She thought about waiting for one of the teachers to be done. Maybe even Miss. C. but it seemed they were going to be engaged for a while. She sighed defeated.

 “Alright, then can you show me the way to my room.’ She asked and he bowed in front of her like an old time gentle man making her smile despite herself. It was so ridicules to see David bowing when he seemed so much like a prince himself.

‘This way my lady.” He said making and Misa shook her head. She knew he was mocking her.

But he lead her through the halls all clad in pale bake carpet and brick walls.

“How long are you staying?” he asked when she felt they were close to her door.”

The lace seemed impossibly large and daunting. He finally stopped and only when he did, did she notice the door they had stopped in front of as the one that belonged to her room.

“Well thanks. “She said opening the door.

But before she closed it he stopped it.

“I think you’re making a mistake if you go through with this.”

“I take that into consideration,’ Misa said closing the door.

Misa opened the door and went to the room she had woken up in. She opens the door carefully so she wouldn’t wake Tasha who was asleep in the bed the covers tangled around her.  Misa smiled at the funny sight and went to her bed. She found that covers had been put on it along with sheets.

The sheets matched the computer that Tasha was sleeping with along with the covering on the pillow. She silently thanked Tasha and crawled under them. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

In her dream she was in the corridors running, she kept hitting dead ends and getting more and more lost in the halls around her. She tried to call out for help but there was nobody to hear. There was a voice that kept telling her to run, at first it was just a whisper but it got louder and louder and louder till out was like a siren around her. The world around her started to shake as the voice blared around her.

She woke up to Tasha shaking her. "What’s wrong," Mimosa asked when she saw the panicked expression Tasha wore and then she heard the alarm sounding over speakers she didn’t know were there.

"All students in a room all armed personnel to ports scene leaf." The same message continued to blare across the loud speakers.

"What’s a scene leaf?" Misa asked. Tasha seemed to be calmer now that Misa was awake but the color was still drained from her face.

"It means there’s an intruder on the premises with intent to harm. Its code, I got a hold of a sheet that told you what the code meant once. I memorize it so I could brag didn’t think I'd actually need it." Misa could relate. She had looked up what the code for her school meant. Though she knew what a code blue meant, she didn’t believe a kid would actually come to school with a gun.

"Were safe right." Misa asked feeling panic herself.

"Yeah, we’ll be fine. I don’t know if you know but ever teacher here is a skilled fighter. They wouldn’t let anything get close to us. I've started combat training this year and I saw what some of the teachers can do and it’s almost scary. I never wanted to misbehave again cause keep thinking they could actually kill me 9 different ways if they wanted to." Tasha seemed almost normal now, as she screamed to be heard over the loud speaker.

Misa even began to feel better as Tasha went into some of the things she saw in her combat training. It had been almost a minute when Tasha was interrupted by a crash and shattering of grass.

Misa felt her heart freeze in her chest because she knew something was not right. Tasha felt it to. Because she bent beneath the bead and when she came up she held a long slender knife that gleamed silver. Her face had gone serious.

Together Misa and Tasha walked out of the room. Misa could hurdle breath from the fear, she saw her window was shattered and glass covered the floor. "What did this?" Misa said looking at the ground to make sure she didn’t step on any glass.

"MISA!" She heard before she was tackled to the ground. Tasha had brought her to the ground as something flew where they had just been.

"MISA RUN!" Tasha yelled as she stood and faced whatever attacked them. Misa scrambled up the glass grinding into her flash. When she was up she finally saw the creature, a grotesque thing. It looked like an enormous bat. It had long leathery wings with claws at the end and a human tap body that was almost all bone with a leathery gray skin pulled over it till it looked like it might split with any movement. The creature had a pointed face and a mouthed filled with rows of teeth.

It longer for Misa how managed to dive away back on the glass. The creature slid obviously not use to moving in a confined space. In its moment of disorientating Tasha turned to Misa. “Misa go, find a teacher and stay with them I know how to fight but not well enough to protect you. I'll be ok." She turned back as the teacher made another lunge for Misa but Tasha made a splash with the knife at the wing ripping a hole in the leathery fabric and causing the creature to howl in agony.

Misa took one last look at Tasha before running out the door. The creature tried to go after her UT Tasha made cuts at it and blocked its way. "I’m not done with you. She said as she made a deep gash in the creature’s neck.

It was the last thing Misa saw as she fled out the door and ran at random down the corridors. She called out for someone but nobody open their doors. She came to a dead end and cursed herself she turned around to go back down the hall.

She cried out as she saw a huge beast in front of her. It was a wolf but obviously not naturel; it was the size of a bear. It snarled revealing its teeth. Misa pressed herself against the wall as the beast lunged.

It bit down into her leg dragging her to the floor; Misa was dragged down the hall. She clawed at it and tried to get out of the jaws but they only dug deeper into her leg. Suddenly she was dropped from the jaws and the beast was howling in pain.

She sat up and saw 2 of the werewolves; they were fighting each other ruthlessly ripping into each other. Misa couldn’t tell which one had bitten her, she didn’t want to find out, she tried to get up and an agonizing pain filled her leg. There was no way she would be able to stand.

Suddenly she was off the ground being carried swiftly through the halls. She looked up and saw David was carrying g her. She bounced painfully in his arms and he struggled to run with her but they still ran at a good speed.

At first she wondered how he knew where she was till she remembered the tie. The pain that hadn’t been so apparent had suddenly made its appearance blinding her. The trip seemed to become a blur as she endured the intense pain in her leg.

Finally she stepped and was set down. She was in a room that looked like a medical room, there were cots and boxes of first aid kits pulse a shelf full of strange bottles.

"What’s wrong, what hurts besides your leg?" David asked. Misa tried to think but she couldn’t sense anything beyond her leg.

"I don’t know, David it hurts, and it really hurts."

"I know." Was all he said? He stepped away and Misa was scared he was going to leave her but her just went to the drawers and came back with an arm full of stuff. He unwrapped some gauge and lifted up her leg. Misa screamed at the blast of pain.

"Sorry but this is going to hurt more." Misa looked down and he was getting ready to tie the gauze around her leg. She could only imagine the pain that would cause. She was getting ready to tell him not to when he tightened the knot and she screamed.

The world seemed to aver and for a moment she was sure she was going to black UT, but she came back to her world of pain.

"Minnow it hurts but this will make it feel better, but first it’s going to really hurt and you have to stay here, because if you go under I'm not sure you'll come back through."D held a can of something Misa didn’t know. Misa nodded she was surprised to find she trusted David.

"He opened the can and rubbed a slave right on the bite on her leg. At first it was a numbing cooling feeling that was bliss to her, but then pain 1000 times worse hit.

Misa screamed and screamed and she felt David give her his hand which she held to, she felt the world waver but she knew she had to stay awake, sometimes she wasn’t even sure why jest that she had to.

 In about a minute it was over but when you live every moment of that minute in pain unimaginable when you live every second out to the full length that time seems to stretch endlessly.

Finally it began to fade till it was just a dull throb. "Ad avid," Misa called out as she broke through her haze.

"Here," said a voice beside her. She relied she was still holding his hand in a death grip. She let go and he flexed his fingers.

"Quiet a grip," He said over the announcement that still bared overhead.

"There are at least 50 different attackers in the school; it will be a while before we can get any one here to see you. I don’t know how they got in the school."

He was quiet a moment thinking before he turned back to her. "It’s something in there saliva, it works without pain receptors to put nus in as much pain as possible. That slave takes out the enzyme that causes the pain. But to extract it hurts a lot as you know." Misa nodded in confirmation.

"You know what this means right." She said.

He nodded.

She was going to stay bound to a stuck up, self-absorbed jackass who had just saved her life.

 

 

 

Chapter

 

"Go find her, she might be seriously hurt," Misa wouldn’t even think that she could be more then hurt.

"No, I can’t leave you while were still in the middle of a massive breaker in. I protect you, not your roommate." Misa had been fighting with him for long minutes while the speaks sounded with the annoying message.

"She protected me and she could die for it, I left her fighting some gross bat thing. And if you don’t go then I will." Misa made a move to try and maneuver off the cot but only managed to send a wave pain over her. She gasped and fell back down clenching her fist till the pain was gone.

"Yea you look like you’re really going places." He sighed and pulled out a cell that looked more than a couple of years old.

"Fine I'll go, someone will be here soon, don’t go anywhere," He said with a smile before he was gone out the door.

Why did Misa always end up leaving her friends when they needed her the most. She knew that she couldn’t have helped Tasha but she just ran away, what if she could have done something.

The door opened and Misa expected David to walk through saying he reconsidered. But it wasn’t him how walked through the door. The werewolf’s eyes glowed at her its fur raised and bloodied by the recent fight.

Misa opened her mouth to scream and let out a shriek. The werewolf began to morph and in seconds the large dog changed into a body.

"Get away from me" Misa yelled as she tried to scramble away.

"Relaxed, I'm friends with David. I protected you from the other werewolf, got some nasty bites, nothing too serious though, not for you. God you really are beautiful...”

He looked at her, not bothering to hide as he scanned her. She saw the bright gold of his eyes, so different from the dead black eyes of the beast that attacked. She was sure he wasn’t the wolf how had attacked her, but she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t attack her now.

"Who are you?"

"He looks at her face with his intense gaze and smiled. She realized how handsome he was; he had golden hair that only made his eyes shine even more. Tan skin that looked perfect and a toned tall body.

"I'm David's friend and I can prove it because he's a self-absorbed over confidante payer who's at the moment taken his first assignment, you. And just now got a message telling him that I was coming."

"Fine, your David’s friend." Misa settled back into the cot confident that if he was going to kill her there wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment.

Just then the message overhead cut off in humid sent ace and the lights cut off plunging Misa and the werewolf into darkness.

"I'm Luke by the way." The Luke said turning toward the door.

Misa thought the name sounded familiar but she wasn’t sure why. It bugged her till it hit her in a flash.

"You were with David when he got me out of Joanna's house." Misa said suddenly remembering the scenes from the house.

Luke didn’t reply but Misa heard a growl from his throat that made the hairs on her arms raise by the fire=chess in the sound. Then Misa herd it, footsteps making their way horridly to the room. The door opened as the lights flashed back on.

"WHOA, half changed werewolf blocking the way. Down boy." Misa felt elite run through her when she saw Tasha shove her way past Luke.

"Misa, I was worried about you. I thought my first roommate had died on her first day. Real bummer. Now if you don’t mind I'm going to pass out for the night in one of those cots." Misa walked over and flopped down in the cot next the Misa and closed her eyes.

Misa turned back to the door way as the lights blinked out again. She saw divides figure in the door way talking with Luke. He was a mess with his hair a rat’s nest and his cloths ripped and torn, yet he still seemed to tame the look as he had meant to do it.

Misa closed her eyes and tried to nod off to sleep. The next moment she was awake and the lights were still off and everything was covered in a silence that was only broken by the heavy breathing of sleeping bodies.

"Your leg wakes you up." Misa jumped at the sound of David’s voice so close to her. He was sitting on the bound on the side of her cot facing the door.

"No, it doesn’t really hurt till I move it, I just woke up. How did you know I was awake?"

"Magic or you breathing changed."

Misa sighed and rolled over to him.

"So how long was I asleep?" She asked wondering if she had been asleep long enough for their situation to change even though it looked about the same to her.

"Not long maybe an hour or half. Nothing’s changed, the lights keep flickering but they shut off the alert so I, taking that as a good sign."

: have you been asleep at all." Misa asked realizing he must be exhausted after all that had happened.

"No." He said simply, uncharactlly not bragging.

"You should try, I doughty something’s going to burst through the door right now."

"It’s what we do, you’re my assignment. I have to be on guard till your out of harm and I know you safe."

"You say it like I'm a defenses puppy." Misa said defensively.

"When you break it down you are. You can’t fight you can’t heal your easily harmed in a painful world."

Misa sucked in air to let in on a rape to tell what she thought about that opinion when he intuited.

"You won’t be for long though, you’re going to learn how to fight and you'll be great. I see the thpotintial you have, soon you might be a fraction as good as I am, maybe but those are some high standards."

Misa scoffed but her words died in her throat, but she was genially taken back by the complement.

"It’s going to be so fun when I learn to fight so well I can whip your a*s a hundred times over." Misa said smiling. Exhaustion took hold of her again and she let it take her into a deep sleep. Though she would die before admitting it to him, she felt better knowing David was watching over her, even if it was only his job.

The next time she woke up, it wasn’t as peaceful. She whole up seconds before David’s head jerked up and he quickly stood. He called out to Luke who rose swiftly beside him. Together they blocked the way to the two girls.

But at the sound of their movement Tasha was already leaping into action. Misa felt horribly inkless unable to fight or even move for that matter. They all tensed ready to fight whatever came through the doors.

When the doors opened flashlights glared in and came a flood of voices and exclamations. The teachers had finally found them.

"Here you all are, you were the only ones missing, and we were searching the entire school for you." Misa recognized Misc. voice and the relief in it.

"You have Misa with you I hope." Miss/C.'s eyes landed on her and they darkened.

"David, the first day on the job and you let a werewolf take a bite out of your assignment. Medics look after Misa and make sure that bite is healed and the poison is extracted, now." David made a move to follow but a look from the head administrated and Misc. told he was needed more elsewhere.

The teachers swarmed around the kids, they sent Tasha away with medics to get checked out to make sure she hadn’t been harmed in the fight and a wave of people came to Misa's aid. They asked if she could walk. When it was determined that she needed to be moved and she couldn’t move of her own will one of the males picked her p and carried her down the halls.

With all the movement Misa almost blacked out. the lights flickered on and stayed on, and with all the noise her entourage made while carry her down endless halls, doors opened revealing curious kids who caught her face and she was sure that the  news that the new girl was involved in another wild night was spreading like wild fire.

Finally they stopped in a room that looked a lot like the one she was moved from, she was set down in a cot and the posy of people dispersed as one came up.

A girl who looked about 30 with small features and a sweet smile and kind eyes came up to her. "I hear you got a bite, let’s take a look and get you all fixed up. I’m Galore." Galore looked at the blood sacked jeans and looked at her apologetically as she cut away the clothing leaving Misa feeling nude in only her underwear as Gabriel looked over the bloody mess that was her leg.

"I'm going to extract the venom. If left in the chances of the viruses being transferred is much higher."

"Misa looked up from her leg to Gabriel, "Viruses, like bacteria." Gabriel laughed softly which reminded Misa of the wind blowing through leaves.

"Sort of, I don’t meant to panicky you, but certainly you've heard of the folklore that if a were bites you, you become one. Well its partly true, not every bite makes a were and if you extract the poison the chances are one in a thousand. Not impossible but unlikely." Gabriel’s voice was so soft and soothing that the news didn’t panic her as much as it should have.

Gabriel placed her hands over the wound and closed her eyes, Isa stared wondering what she could possibly be doing when her leg began to hurt.it wasn’t an ageing pain, but a dull throb that made her clench the bars of the cot. Misa watched gritting her teeth as the woman stood completely still her hands laced over the wound.

Misa was about to ask her what she was doing when a warm feeling took over the wound. It wasn’t u peasant and actually felt nice. Misa looked at her leg wondering what was causing the sensation. Maybe Gabriel had put some drugs on it to numb it or do an icy hot type thing.

She was really starting to like the sensation when it changed from warmth to a slight itch, and it went from that to more intense. With every passing moment her leg began to itch more and more. This time she clichés the cot to keep her hands from lashing out to scratch the hell out of her damaged skin. She almost preferred the pain. She ground her teeth and bite her cheek to her distract her from her leg.

 It was at the point of being unbearable and Misa was going to give in and tea the hell out of her leg when it slowly started to fade. Ever so slowly it got degrees and degrees easier to handle. Agonizingly slow it finally faded to an itch that could almost be ignore d and Misa was able to let go of her death grip of the cot. She wounded of she had left dents in the metal and made a mental note to check.

Gabriel finally opened her eyes and smiled. "All done, come in I don’t know two more times for a quick check up and you’ll be as good as new. I promise it won’t be as unpleasant the next time. You'll hardly notice the itch."

What was she talking about, it would take weeks for the bite to heal and it would leave one whacked scar. Misa began to wonder if the entire perky little woman was there. Misa was about to tell her when she looked down at where the bite mark had been but all she saw then was pink fleshy skin that was unmarked and fresh.

Misa lost all thought of what she was going to say, she gingerly reached out to touch the new miracles skin. It felt so soft and fragile she was sacred her touch would bark the thin coverage. The color and feel reminded her of the skin a new born child has, pink and vulnerable.

"How did you do that, you can even tell there was a bite." Misa asked not taking her eyes off the skin, her voice almost a whisper.

"You don’t know," Gabriel said with such confusion Misa tore her gaze away from the skin to look at Gabriel.

"Know what."

"I don’t know why no one has told you. But I’m sure you've observed that most of the people you've encountered are warriors." Misa nodded remembering that almost every person she's met in this place knew how to fight better than most martial experts in her world, "That’s because our race is built on being bodyguards or bounty hunters if I was to give us a name you would understand.

"We heal incredibly fast and it’s even hard to injure us in the beginning, and some of us able to heal others more serious wounds, or the wound of the not yet gifted. Our body’s build muscle faster than humans and retain it much longer; our digestion can extract the mutants we need from almost anything. We are taller and more solid then the most creatures. Our reflexes and sped are almost unmatched.

"We are the perfect warriors and that’s what our civilization is founded on. We offer ourselves as bodyguards to any race giving they are within our law, and we track down creatures that have been proven to have broken laws when their own race can’t seem to find them."

"And they think I'm one of you. You do realize I can hardly pass gym class." Gabriel laughed her genital laugh that invited you to join in even when you didn’t know what was funny.

"Most don’t receive these till they are gifted, ceremonies you will surly learn about. but until then your extremely vulnerable, where as we are the perfect warrior, our race has gather a lot of enemy’s and almost some part of every other race we=would be happy to see our people go extinct."

Misa saw that at these words Gabriel took on a sadness that seemed like a shadow hanging over her.

"That couldn’t happen. I’m meaning there must be millions of you, there’s no way you could just go extent."

Gabriel looked at Misa and the sadness in her eyes was almost too much to take in such an innocent face.

"With every gifting half of our population dies unable to take the energy that run through them they become the most alive they ever have then slip away to death. Our race is quickly disappearing and soon I fear will no longer exist. But that’s not for you to Dred on, you have a long life a head of you I'm sure. You have the gifting week to look forward to."

Gabriel demean changed so quickly Misa was taken back. Gabriel almost hid the sadness the conversation brought her so Misa believed it didn’t really bother her. Almost. Misa couldn’t handle how sad it made her and decided to let it go. She nodded and acted excited though she had no idea what gifting week was she likes to make Gabriel happy by appearing exceeded about it.

Soon after that she was let go and Misa was amazed to find she could walk without any pain in her leg. The woman was amazing that was for sure. Gabriel said she would send for someone to walk her to her room.

She waited in the hall for whoever it was it arrives. She wished they would hurry, the halls seemed more moues by the minute. Misa felt the hairs on the back of her neck go up and she felt eyes on her. She jerked around and found Luke standing right in front almost giving her a heart attack.

"Jesus Christ, make some sound, do sneak up on me like that." Misa was clutching her chest taking deep breaths. Luke laughed at her.

"Sorry, usually people hear me. Did mean to start you. You look better though, the colors back in your face and your waking." Great so she had less than average hearing to.

Misa rolled her eyes at him, "You didn’t scare me that much." Misa said exasperated. She wondered if Luke had the ego of David. If he did, this was going to be a long walk back.

"I meant from when I last saw you." Misa felt heat rush to her cheeks.

"You know let’s get moving before I say something else stupid."

Luke shrugged as if to say he didn’t mind her sounding stupid. He gave her a sweet smile and Misa felt her breath catch.

"It’s this way." he said turning right and walking down the hall. Misa followed feeling a lot like a lost puppy among wolverines.

Misa followed him totally lost in the twisting corridors but Luke seemed to know where he was going. She followed him in science, he looked back often to, make sure she was still there always giving her a heart breaking smile.

"How long have you known David?" Misa asked wanting to fill the science.

"We were childhood friends. We grew up as neighbors and when I got bitten he helped me through a lot."

"Bitten, like by a werewolf and that’s why your one." Misa felt panic rise in her chest making it hard to breath and even harder to walk. Was she going to become a werewolf, if being whatever she was wasn’t bad enough? Misa stopped walking.

Luke noticed soon after words and came back. He stood in front of her looking down on her. "Don’t worry, come-on look at me." But she didn’t want to; just knowing he was werewolf made her hate him, as if was his fault.

He placed his hand genially under her chin and lifted her face to look at his. Just then looking at the golden eyes that burned so earnestly and honestly Misa felt her anger drifts away.

"Don’t worry; I was one in a thousand. You much more special than that. You'll be fine, I promise." His voice was soft against her frayed nerves. Misa nodded and smiling one last time he let go he dropped his hand away from her face and started walking again.

Misa followed and jogged to catch up with him.

"So what’s this place like, apparently I'm going to be staying here for a little bit?"

"Well it’s a lot like normal schools, you learn about history math and all those good thing, but you all so learn how to act in combat and we have a lot more security. Oh and better food. That reminds me, you must be starving. God have you had anything to eat since you got here."

Misa was about to say she was ok when she relied she was starving, she wandered when the last time she had had something to eat was. Her stomach growled so loud she heard an echo.

"I guess so, come on were close to the cafeteria." They made a sharp turn and she found herself in an open room with a circle of metal food holders. The lights were off in the room, and only a few scattered lamps lite the way.

"Cool," Misa said as she eyes the booths that looked like they belonged in a coffee shop, the whole place in fact looked like an oversized coffee shop.

"Yea," Luke said leading the around the circle of metal holders, something caught Misa’s eye. She looked closer but it couldn’t be, but asshegot closer she found she was right.

"Like it, I thought I make you first meal special." One of the tables had a scented candle in the model and cereal boxes with a jug of milk and bowl with metal spoons.

"What are you, some sort of teenage casanove.I like the candle it’s a nice touch." Misa watched as Luke pulled out her chair. She sat down and laughed. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

Luke sat down and began pouring the cereal. Misa eyed her choice, Raisin Bren or Wheaties. "Hey it’s all I could find at 3 in the morning."

"No I love it," Misa began to pour her own mix of the both. She dug in forgetting she was with any one. When she was done she looked up and found Luke staring at her.

"What."

"Oh nothing, you just get more adorable every moment I spend with you. I don’t think I've ever seen a girl eat that much so fast."

Misa thought to be embarrassed but thinking back on what she had gone through she shoved another spoon full of the soppy cereal into her mouth. She started to laugh at his face and almost sprayed the food out of her mouth. She quickly swallowed.

"So, besides making meals fit for monarchy’s what do you do?" Misa asked. She leaned back full from the inhaling of food.

"I do what everybody dose, I fight."

"Really, are you any good?" She said eyeing him.

"Well I think so, but I could be self-delusional. Let me show you some of the basic moves." Misa shrugged and got out of her chair following Luke. They were already in an open space and didn’t have to move very far.

"Ok, the first thing you need to learn is your stance, legs about a shoulders length apart and one behind the other. You have to bend your knees so if someone kicks you, you can not only stand your ground, but idfhtey kick you in the knee it doesn’t snap in half."

"That always improves my day," Misa said as she married Luke’s movements till it fit her own.

"Well, you sort of." Misa laughed as she tried to make her stance a little less ridicule. Luke was already walking back to the table giving up. Misa took a step, but the world seemed to s**t just slightly at the same moment and she lost her balance.

Misa tried to regain her balance, then she felt an arm around her stomach and one over her shoulder, she looked behind her as she regained her balance. She knew Luke had caught her, she felt his arms around her, and they were warm against her so unlike the electric touch David seemed to have.

"Thanks for catching me, I don’t know what happened. I guess I'm just a clot." Misa said feeling award in the suddenly defang science around them. The darkness seemed more intense and Misa began to wonder if he looked all that hard to find a way to turn them on.

"I guess you should get some sleep, I'll show you to your room." Misa wondered if she had hurt Luke's feelings, but when she looked at him, he just gave her one of his sweet smiles that seemed to make her breath catch every time.

The walk back to her room wasn’t as bad as she thought, they walked in science but it didn’t seem so award. Only when they got to her door did she worry. Misa went right for the room but Luke stopped her.

"Misa, sweet dreams." Misa felt herself smile as she stood half in the room.

"You to." She slipped inside the room and closed the door. She went to the room she shared with Tasha and crawled into her bed exhausted, she could see the sun giving the sky a blue hue. She looked at the sleeping Tasha tangled in her sheets. Misa couldn’t help likening the, and she knew it was going to be hard to leave her when she went back home.

 

CHAPTER

 

The alarm blared and Misa rolled. She must of set it accidently it, habits die hard. She was about to smack it to turn it off when it clicked off itself. She heard movement from across the room. Her eyes flew open her heart instantly pumping hard in her chest. She looked around but the surroundings didn’t match her memories. She remembered all that had happened and where she was.

It wasn’t a dream and it would never be one. Misa looked over and saw a blurry eyes Tasha climbing out of bed. She still looked beautiful, just a frumpy kind.

"You have 5 minutes to get in and out of the bathroom before its mine for the next hour and a half." Her voice was rough and kind of scary.

Tasha fell back into bed ready to happily sleep for the next 5 minutes. Misa knew she should hurry, they knew just woke up Tasha scarred her. She went to the bathroom, quickly running a comb through her hair.

She knew she needed a shower but it could wait. As far as she knew she had nothing to do today.

"Okay out with you." Tasha said as she came in shooing Misa out into the main room.

"Well that was abrupt." Misa said still trying to wake up. The sky outside was black with only hints of any lightness to it. What time was it anyway? Misa walked back in to the room and saw from the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock it was only 4:28.

Misa groaned, her roommate was insane. That was the only likably explanation. Misa turned off the lights that Tasha had turned on and crawled back to bed her head already hurting from being woken up so early.

As soon as she closed her eyes someone one was shaking her awake.

"What, “Misa said pushing the hands away.

"I have something for you." Misa jerked up hitting her head Ageist David’s, who was lean over her.

She grabbed her head as the pain bloomed; David staggered back his hand to his forehead.

"DAVID, what are you doing in her," Misa said bring the covers to her chest.

"Well, you’re going to be attending classes with Tasha. You have nothing else to do and it will be less hassle to just make one student have to show you around."

"Hey I don’t mind showing her around. She's pretty cool if you haven’t noticed," Tasha said defending me.

"She certainly makes life interesting. But I'm glad you like her, because she’s going to have to be your tag along till she gifted. I'll be out in the hall. You might want to get her dressed and retell her I said, I'm not sure she’s really comprehending this she looks still half asleep. I'll be in the hall."

David left and Misa looked down at her clothing wondering what was wrong with it. She had on a gray shirt with jeans, it had been what she woke up it and thinking about it they were starting to get a little grimy but it’s not like she could pick form the clothes she had packed.

"Tasha what else could I wear."

"Look in my closet; we don’t look that different of sizes." Tasha said as she finished her hair in the mirror.

Misa fished something out that didn’t seem to fancy, the closet looked a mall and it wasn’t easy to find a plain baggy tee that she could wear among the tight dresses and skirts that lined the walls.

"Jazz that wardrobe cost more than what I made in an entire year at my last summer job." Misa said recognizing some expensive brand names. Tasha beamed at the compliment and leafed through the closet herself even though she was already dressed.

"Yea my parents are kind of loaded. But," Tasha's face took on a strike look and Misa decided to move on.

"So you’re going to show me around the school." Misa said a little begrudgingly science she hated being babysitter and that’s what this felt like, but being remained of that fact brightened Tasha up to her usual perky self.

"Yea, you’re going to have a great time don’t worry, except for the boring classes and all. But some of them are really awesome and I'm not even kidding, you’re going to love combat class." She opened her mouth to say more but somebody opened the doors."

"Christ was going to be late and I think that’s makes 4 which put us in detention." A boy walked in about Misa's age with dark brown hair and eyes that seem to hold every color under the sun in them. He was shorted then most guys she had seen but he had the same muscular build. His face was soft but well defined and his skin looked naturally tan as if he had Latin or Native American in him.

The boy’s words faded out as he saw Misa, and he looked taken back before a huge smile seemed to split his face. The smile lite his eyes and it reminded Misa of a sun set spilling over with color.

"Oh my god, Tasha you could tell me she was your room mate. We've all been wondering where she was staying, I had my money on David’s room." Misa nearly choked on air, she coughed and Tasha looked at her with concern.

"David’s room, why would I be in there." Damien turned a little red, and began to sputter a response.

"Guardians like to be near their assignments so they can protect them, is why, but I figured you'd like to be free of me at least for the night and with someone your own age." All three of them jumped at the sound of David’s voice e choking through the room.

"Yea," Damien said nodding. Tasha glanced at the clock and couldn’t believe it.

"Guys even if we ran all the way there will be late." Misa groaned as she looked at the clock and the little group shuffled out the door where they almost plowed down Luke.

"Nice timing." Luke said narrowing avoiding the group by a side step.

"Luke, what are you doing here?" Mia said supplied to see him and remembering last night.

"You guys are late I was checking on you."

"Well that’s so sweet but come on we need to be moving." Tasha said pushing her way to the front and getting the group of friends moving once more. Luke fell next to Misa David fell back and Damien caught up to Tasha. It felt nice walking next (Well more like a jog) to Luke but then Misa remembered something.

She smiled to Luke and dropped back to where David was.

"So why would people think was sleeping in your room, and don’t give me any bull about protection, Damien kind of ruined that for you." He was a surprisingly bad lira.

"Half the school is betting were together." David said calmly but as soon as they registered with Misa she stumbled from the surprise and almost fell. David lighting quick had caught there without even slowing down from their walk slash jog.

"David," Misa said accusingly.

"Oh don’t flatter yourself I didn’t spread it, they just assumed it." Misa didn’t have time to say any more before a bell sounded and they went into a run, the group split away till it was only David Tasha and Misa.

They stopped in front of a thick looking wood door and Tasha went right in, Misa held back for a moment.

"Please stop the rumor this is going to be weird enough," Misa said before stepping through the door.

 

CHAPTER

 

It was a class like every other she had seen. Only then did Misa realize that she had been expecting something more outlandish like torches for lights and chainmail, she didn’t even know. She didn’t know if it was a relief that it was so normal or a letdown.

Tasha was talking with the teacher who seemed to nod understandingly which Misa took as a good sign Misa stood around the door not knowing where to go, the moment she had stepped in a flurry of whispers had begun in the room.

Misa felt her face go red when Tasha waved her over and Misa thankfully obliged.

"You will sit together even though I think that’s a bad decision on my part, but I think it will make you feel  more comfortable, but the first time I catch you two talking." he m are a dividing motion with his hands. Misa nodded but she was left with a feeling she had seen him somewhere before.

Tasha led her to two empty seat and they sat down. Mimosa had no text oak and nothing to study, but the teach realized this and gave her one that looked old and battered.

"Turn to page 260." Misaim flipping through pages with people she didn’t even recognize. She stopped a few pages away as she examined the title. American Revolution. As she read in she found that the book claimed that George Washington had had a Guardian, one that was Fey so he could remain unseen.

It talked about moments in history when his guardian had intervened, in many battles many they won few they lost, and of a time they were in a tight spot and being Fey the Guardian cast fog over the sea allowing for the trapped soldiers to escape. Apparently George Washington would have been shot many times if not for the fey that made a glamor that persuaded you to shot someone else.

She flipped to 260 and found it about Jack the Ripper.

"Many of the most notorious serial killers where lost one who were not found. Some go crazy others go crazy and become murders and others just die. He murdered and murdered to manage his power until he was killed by a person unknown even today." Misa felt a pain erupt in her head. She put her hand to her temple and closed her eyes but that pain persisted.

The pain was not intense but a dull throb, but thankfully towards the end of the hour it started to fade till by the time the bell rang Misa felt as good as new. She picked up her head as the kids filed out of the room puzzled over the head ach. She wandered if Tasha knew anything about it. She looked over to her as she was packing her stuff and saw the teacher motioning for her.

She gulped; he wanted to yell at her for not listing the entire hour. Tasha had noticed and was looking worriedly at her.

"What did you do, I didn’t even talk." Misa shrugged even though she knew exactly what she had done and she was going to be split cause she could tough through a little head ach. She was at the front of the desk seeing the teachers name was ferine, it looked to be Japanese though she couldn’t find much Asian looks in him.

"I'm sorry I didn’t listen during class I had a bad head ach Mr. Tulum." Misa said before he even got his first word out. Maybe if she explained he would take pity on the new girl.

"I figured by the way you were cradling you head Miss. Kernohan. I wanted to ask you about you binding." Misa was lost for a moment not knowing what he was talking about till he motioned to her wrist.

"OH, this,' She said holding up her wrist finally getting it. She wasn’t in trouble, he was just curious like the rest of the school. She felt so relived she didn’t mind telling him about it thought she was sure she was going to have to repeat the story a thousand times.

"I was just bound to David IO don’t know two days ago I think basically as soon as I woke up."

"Unusual," Mr. Tulum said.

"I know he hasn’t taken any assignments." Misa said already tired of hearing that fact.

"Well yes that is unusual to but it’s strange that a guardian be bound to another Phenol, it’s not varying common. And it will have to be a short binding."

This fact Misa hadn’t heard and she looked up her attention grabbed.

"Why won’t it be a long binding?" Misa always suspected she would be bound to David for a while.

"A phenol cannot be bound during their gifting. The rush of energy could make the binding permanent. Though the Bind dose have a failsafe for occasions like that where if thereto much energy on the bond it will fail but it’s been heard of that that hasn’t worked."

Misa was taken aback by this news. David got more mysterious ever moment, why would he bind himself to her for only about a week before it had to be broken.

"Even now if the binding is severed a small link would remain for a while."

"Misa looked up now worried. “What do you mean a small link would stay, like I could still be permanently stuck with David?"

"Well yes, when you bind you connect two people on a deep level almost like there connecting the edges of their souls. A connection like that can’t be cut and gone just like that." he acted like he was saying things any 5th grader would know. Misa felt even more lost in the new world she found herself in under his gaze that seemed to mock her.

"Thanks I didn’t know that." Misa said in a soft voice feeling small. She walked away to the hall where Tasha was waiting for her. On the walk to her next class Tasha talked and Misa triode to listen but she couldn’t help thinking about how she thought she was going to be such with David for a while, and now it was cut to a week. She didn’t know if she was happy or scared. She thought back to the creatures that had tried to kill her.

As cocky and self-absorbed David was he made her feel safer than by herself. All the classes went almost the same. She didn’t have a reoccurrence of the head ach which Misa was grateful for but bit the last hour of the day she felt a naturel head ach coming on. Ever class science history literature was all changed. They all said the entrance of the Phenols marked some sort of famous event. The only one that seemed to be the same was math but really she didn’t know what was happening there in the first place.

The levels at which each subject were taught were higher, Misa hadn’t been a dumb kid, she jaunt been the smartest but she basically knew what she had to. Here she felt like a first grader. As a result by the end of the day she felt tiered and expressed.

"So when do we go back to our rooms, I'm whipped." Misa said wondering where everybody was going. Should school be over, she had taken all that classes she normally took b8ut the halls were filled, kids grabbed their things and ran to different class rooms. Watt could she possibly have left to learn.

"Well after this class we can. I love it, air think you will to, it absolutely my favorite class of the day, I think you’re going to leave the teacher she's pretty cool and she doesn’t give out homework it’s all hands on. I wonder if that’s why I love her so much." trash took a breath and Misa jumped in.

'What class is it? You make= it sound as good as lunch." Misa said wondering what class could be so amazing. Class always seemed like swallowing a spike, it sucked going in and you were thankful when it was out, and pas fifth grade gave you some knowledge (like who swallowing a spike would feel for example) that would never help you in real life.

"Combat class." Tasha said smiling as she reached a room that was very open, it had books lining the walls till high up where it met the celling, and a completely empty floor beside the kids sitting down on it. A blue mat lined the floor that was mint she guesses to absorb some of the hit when you fell so you didn’t break anything.

Misa walked in at the bell and all the kids who were doing stretches across the mat and talking in small groups seemed to disperse to the edge of the mat and get organized. Misa slipped off her shoes when she saw that everyone else had. Tasha stood beside her silent.

"Well, were almost done with the school day. An hour away, you’re all tired and ready to relax with all your other youngster friends. You are so screwed. I've been seeing that this last week you were all slow and slacking, we've hardly made any improvement. Let’s go." Misa relied that she knew the Teacher and recognized Misc. She clapped and the people who looked a little disappointed fell into groups.

"Ok we each work in groups of 5 and she comes and shows the group a move oar we show her a move we have been practicing. I think it’s a pretty good method, but I don’t know if you would just go in my group or what. I'll go with you to ask."

"Misc., I don’t know-"

"Yes I expected she'd be difficult to place, I don’t think she'll learn all she needs to know in groups, and I’m going to have her work with me and Mr. Blackwood.

"Great I get to be a babysitter and a kindergartener teacher. No offense."

"Screw you." Misa said bored as David walked up from behind her.

"I'm sorry you feel this way, we could probably get another teacher for her just as competent." Misc. said giving David a cold stare that seemed to hold more behind it then Misa knew.

"And who do you think has enough talent to replace Me." he said it like a full of herself diva but Misa saw his body tense and she knew she was missing something. She began to wonder if David had someone at the school that he rivaled. Misa’s attention was focused on Misc. she wondered if she would say who. But all that happened in the next stiff moments was a small nod from Miss’s. And a look that announced that he knew who.

Misa liked that David seemed to be uncomterable; it was a pleasing difference from his carefree self like he had no flaws to hide or secrets. And then it was over as if someone had pushed a button.

"You will train with Misa and show her the basics. Try not to let her show you up to bad, it’s bad for my rep." Misc. said walking away to tend to her other students. Misa wondered what she mints till she remembered that Misc. had trained David. She wondered what David was like as a little kid.

She tried to imagine what he was like and laughed as she pictured a kid stumbling around on a mat trying to get something but not quit helpless and lost.

"What are you laughing at?" David asked and she relied she had zoned out for a while and he had been staring at her. She felt heat rushing to her cheeks from embarrassment.

"What are you going to teach me any way?' Misa said trying to change the topic. David seemed to want to ask more but decided against it.

"Well first things first we got to get those legs spread." David said as he circled her. Misa whirled around eyes wide.

"WHAT."

"We have to work on your stance was all I mint... Wow I never knew your cheeks could go that red." David said stopping and looking intently at her. Misa turned sharply away embarrassed and angry. She knew it was going to be a long hour.

"Legs spread to the length of your shoulders, a semi is not driving through your legs close up the gap, and your shoulders are back you head up stop staring at the ground, it’s the ground not much changes. Your knees should be bent. It’s not that-" he was thankfully cut off by the bell ringing. She deemed it lucky for him because she wasn’t sure he would of survived finishing that sentence.

Misa brook the stance and felt her muscles cry out in griping pain as she worked out cramps that seemed to seize more painfully each time she stretched them out. David had made her stand in the same place the same way for most of the hour. She felt almost ready to collapse most of the last half hour but each time she looked at his smug expression she managed to hold out a little longer. She didn’t know if she would be able to walk tomorrow but it was worth it.

"You did well, we might be able to do something ELSE tomorrow. Maybe." David said patting her on the back. She felt the familiar shocks from the moments he touched. She had felt them all hour from the moments he adjusted her and felt brave in that moment.

"Do you do that on purpose, or what?" Misa blurted out abruptly. Divides eyes rose in surprise and confusion and Misa could already tell what he was going to say next

"Um what am I doing? Exactly." For what felt like that zillionth time that day Misa felt her face flush from embarrassment.

"Nothing, sorry." Maybe she should just call it a day, because it just wasn’t going well for her. She turned away looking for Tasha in the room. She saw him pop up in front of her seemingly out of nowhere. She tried to move past him but he held her there his hands on her shoulders making her cringe with the rush of electricity from the connection.

"We’re going to be with each other a lot. I'm your guardian and now your teacher, were going to both have to be more quapertaive if not, this is going to be a very long four years." Misa tried to focus on what he was saying but the closeness and the increasing flush electricity made it feel like a small fire was running across her skin.

"Fine whatever," She said pushing away his hands and sighing in relief as the brushed over her singed feeling skin. She found Tasha waiting by the door watching her with eagle eye that for sure had not missed a moment of what had happened and Misa knew questions were to follow.

"So what was that, a little one on one time with your teach."

"I don’t know maybe he wants us to bond or something. I wasn’t really listening."

"Yea I wouldn’t be able to focus with that so close to me either. God he's so sexy, how in the world did you get him to be your guardian. I mean-"

"Really you think he's that hot?" Tasha stared at her like she had grown extra body parts out of some orphans of her body.

"No, of course that one girl who gets to spend 90 percent of her time with him thinks he’s not hot. What a waste. Ok Misa let me describe how most of the female school sees him. He’s the guy when he walks into a room every girl in it stops and ponders if they should dump there 3 year boyfriend so they could have a shot at dating him."

"Ok I see that he attractive but really I think that’s overdoing it a little." But as she thought back she remembered how through the hour she saw girls staring at him like a dog over a bone. Maybe everybody else really did see that.

"Sadly he knows he that hot and he only on average dates any one girl for a week. He’s the definition of a player." Tasha said sounding seriously depressed about the fact. But that Misa had seen about him. She’s seen that way he looks at girls but doesn’t really see them.

"That I can actually agree with you."

"Hold on a sec the rumors have said Hess turned over a new leaf. He hasn’t been dating any one for over a year. That leaves only a couple choices to what happened. One he turned suddenly gay. God IO hopes not. Second he got dumped had and his heart got broke. Three he's dating someone. Or four he’s trying to get a girl who just won’t be got. Most people are either for three or four ones to heart breaking. If it is four or three it’s defiantly with Godiva."

Misa rubbed her head as she tried to keep up her body aching making it even harder. But the name Godiva got her attention.

"Wait I know her I ran into her my first night awake here. She didn’t seem exactly fond of me." Misa said thinking back to the way she stormed out of the room and the evil looks shot at her for reasons she couldn’t tell.

"Well I bet she likes you even less now that you’re bound to David. The whole school would bet that if David was to seriously date someone it would be Godiva. I wonder why they haven’t already I mean any one can tell they would be perfect for each other. Built then had be off the market and that would I fantasize about dating." Tasha said managing not to take a breath for the entire time.

"Why don’t you just ask him out then your beautiful, he'd be insane not to date you?" Misa looked at Tasha her beautiful red hair mike fire around her and her fit figure, she really was pretty. Misa looked down at her won baggy clothes and tied up hair, maybe she could do more for her looks. Misa thought back to the effort Tasha put into her image and Misa knew she could never be that dedicated but maybe some eyeliner.

"I'm not really into the older guys. I want one my own age."

"How olds David I didn’t think he was that old. A few years older than us."

"Misa he's 23 going to be 24 this year. They wanted him to be a teacher here but he denied the offer."

"How do you know all this you’re better than the school office? Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"Oh don’t worry I will."

"Whoa I think I recognize that shirt, Tasha got it when we went to a concert. Why are you wearing it?" Damien said coming from the side to join the group and staring at Misa.

"I don’t have any clothes of my own but the PJ'S I was wearing when I was haighjacked from my house. I have no stuff either. I wish I had somehow grabbed my camera." Mimosa said regretfully.

"Wait you don’t have any clothes at all. Now I’m gay but not that girly gay lets go shopping type. But dam I think you need some clothes of your own."

"I'm sure when I ask the office will get me some clothes or something. I meant they were the ones how wouldn’t let me get anything from my house."

"No, I’ll give you some money any with an escort will go shopping in town." Tasha said as they walked through the crowded common room with couples sitting on each other’s laps and someone skillfully playing the grand piano for the audience spread out on the love seats sofas and comply padded chairs spread around the large rounded room. They were going to be to the girl’s hallway soon and Damien broke off to go to his own hall.

"IO doesn’t want to take your money." Misa wasn’t going to be a charity chase though she was already wearing her clothes like a hobo.

"You have no clothes and I’m not hanging out with someone who’s wearing all the clothes from the lost and found or whatever the school could hack up for you to wear so it’s settled. I’m buying you new clothes and you can just pay me back if you can. Were friends that what we do."

She seemed so determined and sinker that Misa didn’t want to argue, she knew she was going to have to pay her back but having her own clothes would be something. She wouldn’t get many scenes she was leaving soon but some.

"Thanks Tasha. But how can you afford to buy me clothes."

"I'm kind of rich, well my parents are."

It made total sense to Misa that she would be rich, with all the name brand clothes and make up she would have to be. They were at the dorm room and Misa had no energy left to do any more then collapse in her bed.

'Hey do you want me to stay with you or can I go." She knew that if she asked Tasha would stay with her but she could tell Tasha had plans and wanted to go.

"I'm fine going do whatever you do." Miss said waving her off.

"Oh if you can help it doesn’t destroy my room tonight." Tasha said with a smile as she looked behind her shoulder her red hair like a fairy main around her.

Misa just impelled and went inside the rom.

"God is it right to be this sore." Mesa said to herself as she rubbed her shoulders kicking off her shoes and laying down on her bed. She was thinking about if she should try and wait up for Tasha when her exhaustion took over and she was unconscious.

 

She was running in the streets of her Algonac. She knew something was chasing her but she couldn’t dare to look back. She had been running for a while already and she was so tiered. Her muscles screamed her body began to slow and her lungs felt as if they might catch fire. But still she kept on running farther and faster. She came across a building and made a beetling for it.

She recognized it as the dentist. She burst through the doors panting and slamming it shut behind her. It was just as she remembered it. Small with the huge front desk taking up most of the waiting room that had a few chairs and old magazines.

She heard some yelling from down the halls of the office. The cries were panic and sketchy but Misa could make out one world as clear as ice, Help. She knew that she should try to help whoever it was.

She ran down the shot halls searching for the source of the screams till she came to a basement and a group of people standing outside looking desperate to get inside. She realized the cries for help were coming from inside the room they were trying to get into.

She stepped forwardtio try and help the group of people when she caught sight of their faces. David was there with Mr. Tulum and Godiva and a few others how she didn’t recognize.

"Hey, what are you doing? Who’s in there? What’s happening?" She said stopping in front of them, but they didn’t even seem to hear her.

"HEY," he shouted but they didn’t even flinch. She reached out but her hand passed through them. Not like they weren’t there, but like she wasn’t. She waved her hand in front of divides face as if he was messing with her, but then he stepped forward and she of the placedund herself going from blackness to the other side of him.

She stared wide eyed and shivered; she had just gone THROUGH DAVID. Misa was about to continue with her own crisis when the people got centered on the door, something was about to happen.

They placed a small device on the thick metal our that didn’t look all that impressive but they group disappeared as if in cover. Misa didn’t know if she could die in here, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to test it. She hides behind on of the corners but still nothing happened.

"Dam, he must of counter cursed and barred this door to the heavens, it would take half an hour to get in." Mr.Tusume said coming out from the barrier he had chosen. / The rest of the group followed. Misa looked around, they weren’t giving up. They couldn’t, someone in there needed some major help, and as if to accent her point she heard a body hit hard against the wall a thud that sounded even into the hall.

"Plan B." Davidasid as he ran forward. His shoulder hit the thick door hard, it almost sounded broken. David’s face for a moment constricted in pain before he again rammed the door again.

"DAVID, stop. You’re going to break your arm ya lunatic." Misa yelled before remembering that no one could hear her.

"David no, let someone else. You know you can’t heal. And it’s useless."

He didn’t even look over at Godiva. She sighed and shook her head, before taking something out of her belt.

"Well try this. Godiva held a vial of what looked like a swirling gas. "Cover people this is going to be fun."

She tipped the vial on the hinges of the door before dropping the vial and running. Misa followed her as she drove to the ground the moment a bang sounded that made the pictures on the walls bounce and more than one come to the ground in a shatter of glass.

"Well hurry, Godiva shouted as she got up glass in her hair and cuts on her face.

She ran forward striking the door near where a scorch mark marred the metal. The door groaned.

One of the men Misa did recognize took next strike. By this time the room had gone silent. Godiva gave a look to David and Mr.Tusume.

"On the count of three we charge the door all at once that girl is either dead or dying. Three." The ran at the door and hit at once. Misa could see the metal strain against the combined weight, but it didn’t seem to be enough to break. She saw the door fall and a defang crash filled her ears and the small office. The three boys leaped in to action jumping on the stunned vampire who let go of the girl who fell to the ground. The fight was over in seconds as David brought out a sword and stabbed the vampire through the chest.

That was when a sense off Davao hit; she had seen this before, like a bad dream that kept repeating. She heard Mr.Tusume say something about coming as soon as they could and needing to catch him. But Misa had stopped listing. She stepped over the door and loose metal exploded on the floor. And walked to the slumped body lying on the floor. She touched the shoulder of the girl forgetting that she was just a ghost in this place., But it didn’t seem to matter.

The body was real to her, she felt the cold of the flesh on hers the  death in the air, but she wasn’t was she. It was her, the body. She remembered it all very clearly at that moment. She also remembered how had made her forget. Kidnapping her as she had been abducted by vampires to die and David had made her forget.

She heard the alarm clock and she was more than ready to get up. she saw the flash of a familiar face before she opened her eyes letting in the pale blue light spilling from the white lace curtains. Tasha had already hit snooze but Misa was awake. And she was pissed.

 

 

She was dressed in minutes and out the door. She slammed it shut behind her and stormed down the deserted hall. The halls had no twist to her but there seem to be a red haze around her vision so she wasn’t too sure about anything.  The halls lead her to the large wooden doors she had sought out. She pushed them open  not caring what was on the other side.

"Why did you show me that."

She found Godiva sitting on her bed about to pull off her clothes but thankfully not in the process of becoming nude. She stopped and gave Misa a look as if she was crazy, but Misa could see a hint of fear in her eyes that told she was lying.

"I really don’t know what you’re saying. Bu I would like it if we could take this up another time." Godiva said standing. Misa raced forward Misa a little taller than Godiva by centimeters.

"You know dam well what I’m talking about. I had I would say a genuinely important part of my life erased from my memory." Misa couldn’t believe that she was trying to act like it wasn’t her. But then Misa saw give way in her posture in her eyes even in the way she breathed.

"Tell, me, why, you, showed me." Misa said grabbing go divas wrist to make sure she didn’t walk away.

"I thought you deserved to know. It was you memory and now you know about us I thought you should have it back."

Misa turned away letting Godiva's wrist free. It was a perfectly good reason, so why hadn’t David done it, why had he hide it from her, the moment they first saw each other. She could feel David coming. He was worried, he felt her angry too bad he did know it was towards him.

"David’s coming, I'm going to have a talk with him to why you had to show me."

"David now."

Misa took a step toward the door so she could meet him when she felt a white hot flash blind her and seem to burn her skin, for a moment it hurt the next she was on the floor. Someone had come through the door and now stood in front of Godiva. I wasn’t David, but Mr.Tusume.

"How dare you come into my room.  I was calming this child  and your interruption caused a vary brutal break."

That was what that was. Misa felt all her senses numb at the moment but slowly she felt feeling the color came back to her vision smell and then she felt a more tamed anger towards David.

Godiva spotted Misa was conscious once again and David had made it into the room.

"Misa are you ok." He said from the door way."

"Why didn’t you tell me before. You hide my own memories away from me." David stared at her his eyes widened the slightest bite the only tell he was surprised.

"You didn’t need to know, I didn’t have to tell you. It’s simple"

"Mr.Tusume I think we should take our discussion outside."

"Don’t worry I've done my job, she’s alive." he walked out.

Despite the abrupt and petty leaving of David The two teachers walked out side where heated voices were heard through the thick door. Misa couldn’t make out the exact words but she could tell that Godiva got in most of it. Misa listened from the bed pondering over why she had been so anger.

Mr.Tusume came in looking a little shaken but composed. He walked to her and stopped a few feet in front of her.

"It appears that with the coming closer of your gifting your gifts have flared. This shows in a rash of emotion at the coming of a surprise. Good thing you can to Miss Godiva or you might of hurt somebody. These are very rare."m The way he said the last sentence was strange but she didn’t have time to ponder it as Godiva came through the doors looing slightly more angry then when she left.

"I have a book that could help you contain flares like this from happening again. You and David will practice together so he can learn to deal with you, science he is your Guardian." Godiva reached into her wall of book and pulled out a reasonable new looking one that was thin looking. Misa took the book and nodded. She had no intention to what so ever.

"I'm telling David and he will do it, it’s his job." Misa silently cursed, she had no doughty David would do it and make it hell for her every moment.

She walked down the hall ways a poor kid randomly selected to accompany, with her pissed offends gone so was her sense of direction. He acted like he didn’t have to mind what happened. She followed the kid blind till she found herself at her first class, she mumbled a thanks to the kid and went inside.

Mr.Tusume stopped and gave her a knowing nod as she went to her seat. Whispers went around the class but being a pro Mr.Tusume just continued the lesson till the students drifted back into their daze.

"Misa, I'm sorry. I didn’t know they didn’t know." Misa looked at Tasha how looked back at her with a broken expression, Misa noticed that her nails were chewed off recently.

"What are you even talking about, told who what." Misa was starting to get worried from the expression on Tasha's face.

 The teacher gave them a stern looked that told them to be quiet sop they lowered their voices as kids looked back at them.

"Apparently the teachers managed to keep it quiet that you were a lost one, they just thought you transferred." Misa felt her heart sink, no wonder she hadn’t had kids asking her questions and staring at her and the stares she was receiving made more sense.

This day got worse and worse.

 

 

The bell rang and Misa nearly jumped out of her seat. he had endured swarms of people around at ever passing time and now it was lunch.

"Hey Misa want to sit by me at lunch. the girl how was asking had the perfectly styled clothes and hair that took hours and a way about her that just seemed mean. She had been a new kid before this was the jerks of the school trying to find out if she could become part of their click.

"No, I already have a table." The girl seemed genially disappointed. Misa was about to walk away to the waiting Tasha who seemed to be watching her when the girl spoke up.

"Hey is it true that you and Derek are together. Misa almost chocked on a chicken nugget, that would of made the perfect additive to the day, death by nugget.

"No, trust me. He's my guardian and that is all." She said it with a little sneer in her voice that she hadn’t intended on but its naturel occurrence made her smile a little bit.

"Cool, then can you introduce me sometime." She seemed so bold about it and unabashed, but then again Misa guessed that was Derek’s type, cold mean pretty that wouldn’t be to clingy or attached.

"Well it’s great to finally catch you I haven’t seen you all day." Adam came in between her and the girl thankfully breaking an odd science and her eye contact. he guided her away and with just him being there seemed to deter most of the gawkers, at least from coming up to her.

"Don’t worry they'll get bored of you soon, teenagers, attention span of a goldfish."

"I find that comforting and depressing all the same, but thanks for saving me back there. The girl just kept glaring at me.

"That wasn’t a glare," He said as he slid into the chair by Tasha who was eating a salad and acting like she hadn’t watched the encounter.

"She was reading you, a few of the Para's that art based around the elements but around physic. She was reading you."

"Like she was reading my thoughts!!" Misa said alarmed and angry at the possible invasion of privacy.

"No I don’t think she’s that strong yet, she one of 5 students under Godiva and by far the farthest advanced but still reading someone’s thoughts would take a very high level. I don’t even think Godiva can. But she was reading general emotions and feelings."

Misa shivered as she imagined someone taking a sneak peak at her emotions, even if was only basic.

"Yea I would hold eye contact with her. “Tasha said the salad gone from her plate.

"I knew you wouldn’t abandon me for the Batches of the school. Oh and I have some great news for you." Tasha seemed excited which was a pleasant differ from the sad mopping Tasha that had been around ever science she had told about Misa.

"OK tell, what’s got you all excited, I need some good news. this day has sucked royally."

"The day after tomorrow we get to go into town with escorts of course and pick you out some clothes. finally you can stop using mine. I mean I love you but dude it’s my clothes. And the school even provided a pretty nice allowance for clothes and other essentials science they were the ones that didn’t let you grab a single thing."

This was actually pretty good news. Misa never was bossed with shopping, especially science finding things that were tall enough but still fit right was insanely hard, but she had to agree with Tasha, sharing clothing and sheets and pretty much everything else got annoying. Pulse Misa didn’t exactly concur with the style or size that was Tasha.

"So Misa  I heard from the teachers there was some commotion this morning"

"Yea she went physic angry and stormed through the halls.  I personally thought she was going to kill somebody. I was really terrified she was going to get lost and went after you but buy the time I had got to the door I hadn’t know where you went and couldn’t find you. I was so worried. It was really shameful for you to put me through all that."

 Misa rolled her eyes at Tasha how was so obviously kidding except for her worrying. That sounded senior. Misa began to feel bad about making her friend worry. But she did feel a citrine warmth that Tasha had worried. Misa was pretty sure she had found a good friend.

"I don’t know what happened. I was like so angry I saw everything in a red haze. I was pissed off at." She paused before saying David. She wasn’t sure she wanted everyone to know that she David had known her before the school but decided not to tell her out of embarrassment of her or something.

"Wait, how am I the last to know about this in our group. You people need to fill me in on these things." Adam said looking like a rejected puppy, sliding into the seat next to Tasha.

Misa shrugged apologetically.

"Mr.Tusume said it was something like a spike of my ability scene it was so close to the gifting. But honestly only understand half of those words and they really don’t make sense together." Misa said admitting her lack of understanding of the world she was in. But hey she had only been in it for like 4 days.t hear about this till now. Adam said looking like a rejected puppy.

"Don’t worry, I could help you sometime." Luck ask staring at her with the soft brown eyes she had grown accustomed to. Misa blushed at the obvious flirt.

"That be nice." She said back shyly not believing she was actually flirting back.

"Um excuses me Best friend her. and BLAHHHH." Oh yea Tasha was here. I bet its ok to momentarily forget about your friend when flirting with a hot guy. Misa didn’t really feel that bad, girls were not the first thing on her mind when flirting with guys, nor would they ever be.

"Tasha just because you have no  love life to speak of."  Adam said to Tsashaincouraging a look that could kill from tasha till she looked away.

"I think your stalkers are becoming more brave. I think we should run before the attack." Tasha said picking up her tray. Misa saw more  people staring at her and knew Tasha was right.

"Let’s blow this pop cycle stand." Adam said sounding incredibly nerdy as he left.

Misa gave Luke a smile before standing up. “I guess we should go to class. Want to walk with us." Misa was not one to flirt and to her this was to be compared to jumping on the table and doing a strip tease. So when he said sure, Misa almost couldn’t believe it.

Now nothing amazing happened on the walk to her 5 hour but some small all with Luke and her friends.

"Ok I don’t know if you know this science you knew. But we are like two days away from the biggest week of our lives. I know you haven’t rely been into talking with that many people but this upcoming week is all anyone below the age of 17 can talk about." Adam said looking back. He was walking next to Tasha and Misa next to Adam.

"Yea that reminds me, when we go for shopping, you have to buy a dress. Cause I don’t think that happened to grab that."

"Darn it, Grab dress was right under escape from crazed murders trying to slaughter me and my friends." Midas said looking disappointed. It earned a scowl from Tasha but a snicker escaped from Adam. Tasha hit him.

"She has a point, would you grab a dress while running for your life."

"Tasha tilted her head up thinking about it."Yes."

"I bet you would," Luke said with a laugh in his voice.

" I would never have to run for my life though. Because I would kick whatever was chasing me in the a*s so hard they run away like dog with its tail between its leg. so I wouldn’t mess around with me. I well mess you up." Tasha said to the group.

"I know you would, I see you in combat class, you can already almost kick the teachers a*s." Adam said.

We arrived at the class Shared between Tasha and Misa and the rest of the group split. the end of lunch was sounded by a bell though out the hall ways and Misa and Tasha headed in to class.

Misa had been standing in the same position for almost an hour. Misa could bet that if David could hear the thoughts directed towards him he'd curled up and die. She had never hated someone so much as right now.

She was practically panting and sweat dripped into her eyes. You will never know how hard just standing in one way is until you have done it for a hour. David had stared at her the entire time. First she had found it awkward not she found it as if he was mocking her for being weak. He never glanced away allowing her time to relax her screaming muscles that had begun to feel like lava in her body.

But he also head the same expression of disinterest and a look of "is that really the best you can do." that made Misa want to knee him in his junk.

A bell rang through the room, Misa felt her body pump with adrenaline as it begged to relax, but she forced herself to stand just the way she was. David’s eyes narrowed like he was waiting for her to drop. She knew she was challenging him. he stared intently at her for a few more moments and just about when he body was going to revolt and drop  he opened his mouth.

"relax." She fell to the floor and just lay there. She really didn’t care how she looked to him she wasn’t going to move for a while.

":Oh come on it wasn’t that bad.

"I.HATE.YOU!." She spat not even bothering to completely one her mouth. She wanted to say a more appropriate sentence like die in hell but science he was her teacher she decided not to.

She heard footsteps coming towards them but still she deemed then not even near important enough to move.

"Miss. Kernohan." He asked questionably.

"Uh,"Was how she responded. It was Mr.Tusume.

I received a book from Godiva. Its exorcises to help with your ability. I was told to tell David that it was his job to practice with her. It was of the most important."

"David there is no way in hell I am doing those tonight so don’t even think about it." Misa said feeling some mobility coming back into her limbs.

She heard Mr.Tusume talk with David and hand him something that sounded heavy as she still faced the padded blue ground. As Mr.Tusume walked away she heard someone else walk to them. Someone knelled in front of Misa and she opened her eyes to find Misc.

"Hey honey try this on your muscles. it’s used when Phenols have to train for a big project in a very limited amount of time. The warlocks made this to ease away muscle cramping and soreness." Misa expected something in a glass bottle vary sinister looking but was in a plastic see through tube and it was a brownish color. It slightly resembled baby puck, complete with little chunks.

"Um, thanks." Misa said dough ting it would do anything but maybe change the color of her skin from white to puke brown, and it probably smelled to.

"Just try it." Misc. said as she stood up smiling and walked away to her desk that was filled with paper. Misc. had about the same organization skills as she did.

"Think it will work." She asked David but when no one responded she found him gone. The prick left without even saying anything. he was so grumpy after this morning. She probably should say she was sorry. If he was mad at her and her at him it could make for a vary strenuous situation.

She opened the tube squishing the substance on her finger. Yup it smelled. it smelled bad. She reluctantly rubbed it on her arm hating the movement it took to do so. She gasped as the semi liquid turned as cold as ice. the shock was the only thing to keep her from scratching the stuff off as it felt like antifreeze had hit her skin. Then in second it changed rapidly to a warm then hot then scalding. This time she did try and scratch it off as it felt like blisters should be forming on her skin firm the scolding. But then it stopped and after the heat was gone all that was left was a small ach in t=her arm muscle.

 She just stared at her arm. It was like the most badass icy hot the world has ever seen. She began applying the substance to various aching parts of her body enduring the pain from hot to cold. But soon she Waa up walking She picked up a new looking book that she bet was the ability exorcise book and walked to Tasha how was talking to Adam.

 Mr.Tusume was talking with Misc., it didn’t look like anything serious jest chatting but Misa wondered if they date or if there was some rule about it. She hopped there was otherwise it would just be too weird to know that two of your teachers were together. She would have to swat h out of one of their classes.

"so how did you like your first use of baby puke. I remember my first time using it. Everybody thinks it’s funny not to mention the extreme heat and watch you wiggle around like a fish out of water. Even the teachers don’t tell you and I think that’s against some code of honor. I mean really it’s just cruel. But then again I didn’t tell you and it was kind of funny to see your face." Misa wondered what Tasha’s lung capacity was. She could probably hold her breath underwater for like a hour.

"Well it wasn’t fun I tell you that. And yea thanks for telling me. I expected more out of you Adam." Heat came to his cheeks but he just shrugged.

"I like to think of it as a rite of passage." Adam said

Misa rolled her eyes, "Let’s just get to our room, I want to go to bed so bad." Misa could feel exhaustion setting in.

"Yea, I was tired when we worked on stance to, it felt like ever muscle wanted to burn right out of my body. I'm surprised that you got the baby puke. but I guess science you have to learn so much in a little amount of time you can’t be too sore to move the next day." Misa held the ugly tube a little closer if that was here only other option she would gladly chose the icy hot from hell.

"Hey." Someone whispered by her making her jump and squeak. When she looked around to face whoever it was and hit them for sneaking up on her she found Luke laughing, his brown hair covered his face and his laugh was so soft and sweet that Misa felt her piss off nest dripping away. Still she shoved him in the shoulder causing him to hit the wall still laughing.

"You jumped like 6 feet." Adam was smiling at her and Tasha looked annoyed at them all. she was obviously in the middle of saying something when she was interrupted.

"I actually can over here to ask if you wanted me to help you out and study tonight. Not to make you pee yourself I know it’s hard to believe." he said with a smile

"jerk, I don’t think I want to study with you now. Misa said walking forward a little.

"Well I'm all you have David was called away on a little job with Mr.Tusume." Luke said.

"Is he going to be ok." It would be all she need for her guardian to get killed he'd probably haunt her and blame her for his death.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Adam said.

"Well I think me and Tasha should go to the library, we have some reading to catch up on." Adam said pulling Tasha away. She complained about being not allowed in her own room. Misa tried to object but the heat on her cheeks and the words just seemed to build up in her throat.

the thought she was going to be alone with Luke made her blush even deeper. She turned away so that he wouldn’t see her almost scarlet cheeks. "You know we can do this another time or in the library." Luke said sensing she was uncomterable.

Misa turned around and looked in his brown eyes and decided she wouldn’t mind studying with him. But that was all and if her expected more he was going to be sourly disappointed.

"No its, fine. But I’m not sure how you'll get in to the dorms, don’t they have like a chaperone?" Misa asked not sure if they could even get to the room.

"I have something ice a teacher status that lets me go pretty much anywhere."

They walked to the room, Misa found the door of course unlocked, but it wasn’t like Misa ever brought a key so it was probably good that Tasha never locked the door.

She set her books down and plopped into a seat. (Mr.Tusume GAVE MISA THE BOOK EARLY THE MORNING SHE DROPPED IT OFF IN HER ROOM) "Ok what do I need to know about this place. “Misa asked. kudos for him he kept her attention for like half a hour. Some of the stuff was pretty fascinating.

"Ok and this I think will be the last bit science I should be going soon and you need sleep. This upcoming week is the Gifting week. Our school celebrates it differently each year but its extreme. One year they brought an entire theme park to one of their many rooms in this place. Like with roller coasters. magic from all sorts of creatures is involved in the entire week to repay debts or just for friends ship.

"But the best part is a dance the night of the gifting. No one can actually talk about it. More magic to-do with the gift you receive. But it’s like prom for Mortals but like a million times huger. its especially big for the girls. Girls have a dress passed down from family to family and in the case of rare twins the government allows for another to be made. I guess there’s something special about it. I haven’t actually gone. the guys have generally the same clothes but there normal.

"You have to get Tasha to say more I'm a guy and have limited info." Misa laughed at his face which just struck her as funny, it’s always adorable when guys try to understand girl things. They lock so hopelessly confused.

"Thanks you actually helped a lot. I want to do this again but not soon, I've been exhausted." Luke opened his mouth to say something but a buzz stopped him. he got a curious expression took out his phone and nodded.

"divides back and he needs to fill me in. Got to go. See ya." There was a awkward moment where Misa wondered if she should hug but decided against it, which left them in a weird science. Luke nodded and grabbed for a book he had brought. She had set her book on top of it she went to move it as he did and it toppled over.

It got even more tense as they both apologized and went to get it almost hitting each other. Misa stopped at the sight of what looked like glitter spilled over her carpet from the pages of the book. She felt it still in the air and getting on her skin, even as she breathed in the small partials.

"Crap Misa that’s Fairy Dust." Luke sounded alarmed as he practically jumped away from it. Misa looked up worried at Luke.

"No close your eyes!" Luke screamed but she didn’t hear it soon enough. She locked eyes with Luke and suddenly she was split. The only way even close to what was happening was something like split personality’s and she did not like her new personality.

In seconds Luke was across the room from where he had jumped and his mouth was on hers.

"Nicknamed lust dust, it dies quick." He said breaking away for second before she brought her lips to his the warmth feeling so good against her. She pressed her body closer to him not seeming to handle being apart. then she realized what she was doing and tried to pull back.

"The dust dies quick but there’s just so much." Luke said quickly before they were all over each other again. She slipped her hands under his shirt onto his chest hard beneath her hand and like a furnace, she felt so cold an broke away second before she pulled of the shirt that covered his chest. Misa knew where this was leading and though she tried she couldn’t seem to stop.

"Luke help." She cried out in a moment of clarity as she felt his hand on her back beneath the shirt. She knew Luke couldn’t do anything more than her. She tried to call out for David he had to come, even being angry. She sent her emotions at him, the lust anger and fear. She sent ate fear she had as then fell to the floor by the red dust his lips at her neck his hands at her shirt.

 In seconds she lost all thought in the primal instant. All she felt was the warmth of his body against hers, the shivers from his kiss. Still as he fumbled with the buttons on her jeans a stab of a mix of fear regret came before being drowned out.

She pressed her lips against his her arms around his neck his bare chest on her and all movement stopped for a moment in the intensity of the kiss.

That was when David came through the doors.  Misa was able to see the look of fierceness as she look for danger mixed it worry. Then shock as she saw them on the ground. He must of seen the dust because the next moment Luke was off of her, she still couldn’t think clearly enough to know what was happening, but Luke being torn from her almost felt like something had been torn from her.

She gasped at the physical pain. jack A*S that HURT. But the pain did bring clear enough thought to get her shirt and get out of the room.

Pulling her shirt on she ran to the end of the hall way taking deep breaths of the air around her. with every second the haze fell from her until she wanted to hide under her bed. She couldn’t believe what just happened. She would never be able to even look at Luke now.

 She put her head in her hands, god this was the most embarrassing moment of her life. She lifted her head out of her hands as she heard footsteps approach. She felt her heart beat jump thinking it was Luke but she found David.

"Did I ever tell you you’re a saint. Thank you so much. I mean what the hell was that." Misa looked up at him as he started laughing. like real vibrant laughing that made him lean against the wall. It echoed off the walls and Misa found herself laughing with him, though she said "It’s not funny, I had absolutely no control." He slide down the wall to the ground clutching his stomach.

Misa had never seen this side of David before and only when he began to stop did she wonder if the dust had affected him to.

"Sorry, it’s just that stuff is used as a prank. Someone must of snuck into your room and aliened your book with it. Normally it’s in smaller amounts. It’s also used to just get in girls pants but somehow I think Luke’s a little to decent for that. God your face, is it possible for you to do that again."

Misa gave him a sour look as his cheeks were still red from laughing at her.

"You’re a jerk you know that. I almost got involuntarily rapped and your laughing at me."

"Yea, I’m a great guy. let’s get that dust off of you before all the male so the school jump you. There teenagers they don’t need that much encouraging." David looked at her and almost busted out laughing again. "God I'm kidding, it’s just a precaution, as I've said, this happens a lot. It a school and over 300 kids live to gather weird stuff happens. Pranks are beyond normal, its actually happened to Luke once already thought it was a smaller amount of LD."

He lead her out of the door meeting only a few people that stared at the, probably thinking they were a couple even though he was 4 years older.

They walked into a room that looked like a infirmary. the air was brisk and the floor tile. The walls were white and there were like two cots in the room and cuboids. the room didn’t look vary used.

"I don’t think you can stay out of trouble. It’s not natural." he went to the cupboard his manor going from the one from the hall back to the "I'm superior and just plain amazing" attitude.

He took out a bottle that contained a brown liquid.

"This should make sure that if there’s any kick left in that powder its gone now. Some one has it out for you. But I think it’s hilarious."

"ha. chat waus herrial. I won’t be able to look Luke in the eye ever again. And gee I wonder who would want to pull a prank on me and who would know that someone would be there just in time." She stood up feeling much better and way more pissed off.

"You a*****e. I'm never going to forgive you." He looked a little taken back and stepped forward as she got off the table causing him to spill the black liquid all over her. She turned away from him the smell of the liquid filling her nose as it was strong enough to knock over a horse.

He said something in protest and grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving, she felt the electric shock with every touch like lighting this time. it felt like every part of her was scorched by  it this time.

She fell to her knees gasping for air around her. All her anger was gone and she was assailed by another emotion. it seemed to intense everything around her. She heard divides voice filled with worry. His charge was a yet again in trouble, he had to be tired of dealing with her by now.

She turned to look at him and felt very thing she had tried had to hide and whished would just disappear coming up. She took a step back even though all she wanted to do was step closer, she wanted to feel his touch. She knew that acknowledging meant the bond would be done. She tried to stop herself from stepping to touch him. as her fingers brushed against his the door opened and something she had felt only once before, her world seemed to fracture, her heart seem to pound so hard it would burst. Her vision was cracking like glass around her and it hurt, like fire pouring in around her.

She felt some one yank her away, but the fire was still there, it seemed to be still spreading but then it stopped. It slowly started to fade, her vision was dark as it faded away but when she opened her eyes everything seemed to be fine.

"I don’t care, it ininsifys real feelings. There is a realation ship that could form from this.." Mr. Tusme said looking frustrated as if he had gone over this before.

"But nothing will happen. I don’t have any feelings for her. She’s just a job to me. Please she’s my Bond, I was asked by someone I owe a lot to. This is the only way I can repay her." She hadn’t opened her eyes as she listened to hm. These words had cut deep the feelings she had tried to make disappear. She let herself feel so much anger towards him, it was better than the hallow he had left her with.

At that moment she couldn’t hate anybody more. She just wanted to hurt him in that moment. She got up and both of them went silent. They both started to tell her she should sit back down but she went up to David. She stooped in front of him. She now saw the bored expression he always carried looking at her. She smiled sweetly and punched him in the face. the force of the punch knocked him to the ground as he clutched his nose.

She walked past him and out the door. She felt a throbbing in her hand that told her it might be broken, but she didn’t care, that moment was worth months of a cast. She wasn’t sure where she was headed but the farther away from him the better.

Her feet had found their way to her room. Oh well there was some good news, she had finally gotten a hang of the school. it brought a faint smile on her lips as she walked into her room.

Tasha was there as Misa knew she would be looking worried and seeing what Misa guessed as a cross between a hurt pissed and lost look on her face become more so. but like Tasha she didn’t freak out or act girlish but lead her to the room with a hard look on her face that told you she was ready to kill somebody if Misa asked it.

"Tell me who to kill. I have a bag of knifes under neat my bed just for occasions like this." Misa was sure Tasha did. Which broth her one more smile before she broke down top the grisliest thing in her life and cried telling her friend of what she had felt for the past week. Tasha listened and the hard look was gone replaced by a loving and tender one.

By the end of it Misa felt miserable but a little better. And also vary tired.

"Don’t worry, he’s a player jack a*s who will die alone fat and ugly." Tasha said sleepily. They both feel asleep after that.

 

She woke up feeling like poop. her head killed, it was like she had the hangover but without the fun of the night before. The morning was a blur as they rushed to get ready and ran to their classes. Even Tasha didn’t have that much time in the bathroom, so Misa hadn’t had any. She was bouncing all thought first hour as someone had taken the pass and decided to wander the halls with it while Misa was dying. She had tried to tell that=e teacher it was now or never but he then told her to go ahead, pee in the class.

Once the bell rang the pass came back and Misa had booked it out of there. She raced to the bathroom. She heard someone call her name but she wasn’t going to stop. She finally got there and was washing her hand s when the minute bell rang.

She casually walked to class feeling that everything in the world was right. And of course the one person who could ruined it/. She saw David standing in front of the class she was supposed to be in. She quickly turned around and sent a prayed that he hadn’t seen her, but as she had guessed god hated her and he called out her name.

"Misa stop." He sounded serious but she didn’t really care.

She kept walking until two beefy looking teacher of whom, she had never had the pleasure of taking their class blocked her way.

"Whoa don’t worry I'm not going anywhere." She said holding her palms out.

She turned around to find David walking with a group of teachers looking like he was going to the gallows.

Misc. came forward looking equally depressed but looked like she might give forth some answers.

They’re going to strip you of the bond. The feelings you have for David will not allow the bond to continue." Misc. said in a whisper as if not to embarrass her more.

"Oh if it went for the unending desire to be as far from David as possible I would assure you I want nothing more than to see him lying in the middle of the Sahara desert tied to a cactus." Misa smiled widely as saw a bruise where she had hit him as where her own hand had only a slight twinge .

"But seeing as how that might keep us bound together. I just love him solo much its unbearable." She spit the words at his face hoping he felt the real hate in her words.

He seemed pissed.

"I had one chance to repay some one and you had to go and ruin it." He seemed livid with anger.

"You are the most horrid creature."

"Love you to sweetie." She hollered as the guards began to pull them apart as their heated shouted match had broth them close to each other.

Did he really say horrid creature who says that. they were put into a room that looked like a cleared out class room. They sat opposite of an old wood table. Godiva came forward and seemed taken aback by their heated stare.

"And were splitting them up cause of good feeling for another." The adults around them seemed to nod in a way that suggested they were annoyed at the act they were putting on.

She was happy to let them think it was an act.

"Put both of you bond arms on the table." Godiva instructed.

They booth put there right arm on the table. David palm up and Misa put her palm down feeling the softness of the table, that ended away some of her anger. It felt centuries old.

She felt a light touch on the top of her hand and looked up to see Godiva had closed her eyes and had placed her hands on each on her and David. Her lips mumbled something that Misa couldn’t hear.

But she began to feel a fire along the tattoo that marked being bound to David, it didn’t hurt. She relished it a s it meant she would be bound to David much longer. One brief moment of a fiery warmth that felt  like warm sunlight along her skin and the tattoo was replaced by the thread that had started it al.

She went to yank it off when Godiva’s cry stopped her.

"No don’t force that off. it will fall off naturally and that means the bond is forever broken. But it may take a week or too, a bonding is vary interment and close to a person’s soul. breaking it is not something quick and easy but  long process. We shall resume another session tomorrow afternoon.

"You will not be allowed to see each other except for these sessions as that would steadily strengthen you broken bond into healing." Godiva finished and gave them a hard glance as if they would actually seek each other out.

"Can I go now, don’t want that bond healing." Misa said through gritted teeth. She only barley registered that the breaking had seemed to take a lot more out of David then her. e lay slumped in his chair breathing uneven with a unfocused gaze. She spared him moments worry before leaving the room.

The whole ordeal had cost her a hour of her life she would never get back. But with the ringing of the bell she sought out her friends and filled them in on what had happened.

They stared at her dumfounded when she was done.

"You punched him, well way to freakin go girl. That I could never see coming. I can wait for the school to know that that ugly bruise is from a girl." Damon seemed to bounce with giddy. Tasha seemed pleased.

"I'm glad your over him, you can get someone so much better. Speaking of which, mister better is coming towards you now." Tasha spun and pushed her till she was abruptly face to face with Luke. He smiled shyly and went to go to her right but she tried to go the same way until it looked like an annoying little dance the two had going on.

"Look I’m sorry but I didn’t do it I promise. I would never do that to a girl. I would never do something so despicable. Please believe me."

Misa was shocked, he thought that she though it was him. Well he was thinning all wrong. When she stood there like a dumb idiot he awkwardly started to walk away.

Misa forced herself to reality and called after him.

"Wait Luke. I don’t think it was you. I thought you might never want to see me again.
Luke turned around and laughed.

"Of course not, I don’t want some kid stupid prank to make our friendship go away. But I do feel like I owe you dinner after everything." He said it in such a shy boyish way, Misa knew no girl could refuse, especially her.

"that would be nice. I feel like that’s the least you owe me. Dessert is so included in this offer I hope.

 

Not all of her but her hand, others around her jumped back while Misa stayed there transfixed by the flame the likes of which she had never seen before. It glided along her fingers as if a wind was beneath it keeping it from Tasha’s hand. The fire was blue with a flicker of yellow every second, it was like a glove over her hand.

Sadly just as suddenly as it had come it was gone put out. Tasha wavered on her feet and Misa rushed to the side of her friend and helped her to a seat.

"I'm fine, I was just a little dizzy," Tasha said in  a drowsy voice.

"Yes you would be, even that small take as extraordinary as it was for Tasha to complete and hold will exhaust you. I recommend the next student to put there’s out as soon as possible. All will appear as fire, it is the easiest to bring and burn off energy as. next is wind then water then a light and last making things grow. but most adults highly trained can even do it."

 The class was set with a new focus and slowly there came screams and exclamations from both sexes as each student of the class demonstrated a small portion of what Tasha was able to accomplish. Misa was proud of her exhausted but beamed friend who was now asleep in the chair.

Misa kept trying but found nothing. Secretly she wondered if maybe just maybe it had been a mistake. She was only human, then what would happen to her. She pushed it aside as the teacher came over.

"She was very impressive, but don’t worry. There are a lot of kids how can’t do this and they turn out fine." Misa could tell this woman wasn’t use to lying from the look in her eyes tell Misa the truth, vary few kids can’t do this, the only one in her class who couldn’t.

The teacher woke Tasha up and gave her something to drink, it was in a Pepsi bottle but it didn’t look like it. Tasha drank it all the same and looked better for it. Misa wondered all the concoctions they had around here. Misa saw Misc. out of the corner of her eye at the front of the room. She seemed to be looking at her but found she just had to talk to Cricket.

the class had ended and Misa still hadn’t done it, though she didn’t tell anyone, when ask she lied and fabricated a answered based on what she heard from others. She enjoyed sharing in the fun even if she hadn’t been able to really do it.

Misa was sure the school was going to be buzzed with this for the rest of the day.

Misa walked into Mids.’s class running a little late as she had talked to much to Adam Luke and Tasha in the hall. Misa was glad the day was almost over. Lunch had been nothing but storied of peoples fire and Misa was officially sick of it and minimally depressed.

She expected David to be there surrounded with girls like always but felt even sadder when she didn’t see him and was reminded of what had happened, almost forgetting in the day’s activities.

 She joined the normal group, feeling like the odd one out with stares cast her way wondering why she was here and not with David. She spied a few happy smiles from girls. She was sure it was because her preens was beloved and not because they though David might be available for some personal tutoring.

I was lost in that class as I only knew basic defense moves and as I watched the partners in class they did amazing things like flipped another person on their back or sweep them off their feet and not in a good way. I looked to Tasha. "Sorry I’m boring but I learn fast." Tasha smiled and she nodded.

"Ok one thing I think you should learn is how to get out of holds." And we spent the rest of the day with Tasha showing me how to get out of various holds she could be put in like with her  hair. At the last minute of class Misa got over excited and elbowed Tasha actually sending her to the ground.

"God Tasha I'm so sorry," She said bending down to her friend who clutched her stomach.

"Sure you are you jerk. " She said teasingly.

"If you wanted to quit all you had to do was say so. Jess." The bell rang and Misa help get Tasha up off the ground feeling incredibly guilty about elbowing her best friend to the ground. She was a jerk.

"You are so getting another partner to sock in the stomach tomorrow." She said as she walked to their rooms jokingly loving to see the guilt expression on Misa's face. Misa opened her mouth to apologize yet gain but Tasha stopped her.

"I'm just kidding, I'd never ditch you but I'm sure you'll get a surprise punch in the stomach tomorrow just to make you feel better you know. So were even."

"I'll punch you back, it will be a reflex. I'll go down swinging." though she knew that Tasha knew way more moves then she didn’t and could take her down like a 3 year old versing a sumo wrestler.

They made it to their dorm and got ready for dinner, it was supposed to be this yummy chicken parmesan. Adam joined them as they made their way to the cafeteria.

"So I hear you two are going shopping tomorrow and didn’t even think to invite me. I can’t believe you two."

"I'm sorry but for a gay guy you have horrible fashion sense in girls." Tasha said. Adam scowled at her.

"I do not, I just have futuristic taste." he said in a defensive way, seeming vary gay.

"Dude leg warmers and skinny jeans isn’t futuristic it’s U-G-L-Y." Misa wondered how bad his fashion sense could be and imagined the mentioned pair and thought it could look good, maybe.

the line for food was huge and by the time they got food lunch was already half over. Luke didn’t join them and though Misa looked of course she didn’t find David in the room. She knew she shouldn’t be but she had hoped to find him. there was a acing to see him.

Misa sat eating her food glad that teenagers had such a short attention span. A dating pair seemed to take the attention of her and she was having a semi normal lunch with minimal stares.

"Misa, where are you even listening."

Misa snapped out of her day dreaming and turned back to Tasha who looked annoyed at the Misa's vary own short attention span.

"Sorry, but yea I spaced out for a moment. but trust me you have my undivided attention for the next garneted 4 minutes." Tasha rolled her eyes but found it too hard to reset talking.

"I said, when you so rudely ignored my was that I think it is cool that we got miss to chaperone us on our trip. I can’t wait to get you out of those clothes and into some style ones." Tasha had that glint in her eyes that made Misa want to gulp.

"Now Tasha they are my clothes not yours." Misa said deflating Tasha a bit.

“Normally the dress is passed from family to family as it cost a small fortune to make. And the fact it only works-“

“Oh hush, all that is so dull and boring the technology of the dress, guys don’t get anything near as cool.” Adam looked sullen, but Misa gave him an odd look.

“Do you want to wear a dress.” She asked cautiously, knowing if he said yes he would be so much weirder in Misa’s eyes.

“No of course not, I’m not that gay.” He said giving her a hard look that told of his distaining the idea. Misa was still giving him a hard look when he cleared his voice.

“You’re trying to picture me in a dress art you?” He asked sounded peeved.

“Maybe,’ She said precariously.

“Well,” He said after a pause, “How do I look.” Misa gave him a wide stare before shaking her head in lather.

“You look horrible I’m not going to lie.” He frowned sure of himself as to him looking dashing in any apparel.

 

 

 

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The light felt harsh against her eyes as she ran down the hall ways. Her gut felt clinching as her skin felt burned with humiliation. Still the essence of the pure lust that had driven them both burned in her, though even as she sailed through the dorm halls that blurred endlessly together with their indistinguishable pattern and bland colors it began to wane.

She was so sick of the unchanging walls, she wanted to see the harsh colors of the trees and grass she needed them around her so their fierceness would wane the artificial feel of the lust, she needed the cold, fresh, untainted air to fill her to sweep away the violation she felt. But she knew no way out of the maze of a school, and she knew that even if she did she would only find the cold steal of the city waiting for her.

She fell heavily against a nearby wall, that looked just like all others she had passed and let herself slide against it to the ground. The moments of such sever unbound emotion had left her feeling empty as they left her. Every touch seemed paled, every sound dimmed and sight bland. She put her head in her hands.

Why did she have to be forcible thrust in to a world that seemingly didn’t want her? She had no place no knowledge of the people and the history that surrounded them. But even if she did grasp the culture she had been forced upon she would still lack the knowledge that came with years, the small jokes of people who she would never know, along with the sadness she would never fell for things she would never understand.

She was lost to this world the moment she found herself fit into it. She missed her real home, among friends that she knew and would never feel lost to.

Misa felt lost in herself pity and felt even more cursed as she heard the thud of familiar boots approaching her. She knew who it was even before she lifted her face to him.

She found it hard to look at him without scarlet rushing to her check as she recounted the last moments he had seen of her.

Her half naked body, entangled with David in such a provocative way the memory alone made her want to don a sweater for the rest of her life. Yet she knew that she owed him an explanation, and a thanks for ceasing what never should of began. She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off with a startling venom.

“I am deeply sorry to have interrupted,’ Though his tone laid such sarcasm on the words it was hard not to flinch back, “But I had been instructed to help you, to teach you, but it seems you are already learning enough at the moment. Or are you accustomed enough to be the teacher.” He said slickly casting his words like daggers at her, sending his insults lamely cover with subtlety.

She knew he meant to hurt her, if for what reason she was unclear she clearly grasped the insult he was placing before her.

She felt her blood hum with anger and as her checks burned with heat. Before she could even say words in defense he gave her a look of unbridled disgust and turned away from her.

His long quick strides carried him far down the hall in seconds. But Misa was on her feet and bounding after him as quick as she could manage. Though she didn’t not match his stride in grace or leant anger fueled the quickness of her steps to that of almost running.

She gave him no moment to ponder on her chasing after him but slammed him to the wall putting her elbow against his throat to keep him from speaking or moving without him chocking himself, hard enough as she thought she heard a crack in the plaster, but she doubted it.

“You Jude me, not taking any time to address any other explanation. You throw insults at me while you seem to forget you brought me to this world, the world so intertwined with the one I know but so vastly different and you seem content to let me struggle through it but no more, from now on you will help me live here for as long as I have to.” She gave him pause to consider what she had just said which she realized she truly meant.

When he looked as if he was about to speak again she put her elbow deeper into his throat and continued. ”Dust lined that book, as red as the most deeply scarlet ruby but as fine if not finer then the sand you find on any beach. It spread around the air and we both lost all control to animalistic lust that if you hadn’t interrupted as you eloquently put it, would of left us to do things we each would deeply regret. I owed you a thanks but you lost it with your oh so subtle implications.” She stared hard at his for a few seconds longer before unpinning him from the wall.

She knew he could have maneuvered his way out, but it would have caused her to have even more of anger toward him. His words still sounded in her mind. He seemed so quick to judge when she had thought him somebody to look at all the fact before coming to a conclusion. Even another thing she had miss guardedly assumed in this world.

Misa had turned away for David so as to when he spoke, his voice already deep and growly from his throat being pressed upon it also barley made it to her ears.

“I’m sorry.” The words rang clearer than most others as it showed you are wrong and thus shows you have weakness among flaws. She knew he did not say it often but yet the words did little to ease her anger. But enough she did not want to pin to the wall by his throat.

“I meant what I said about helping me. There are so many things that until only a few days ago I had no thought that they existed outside books and holly wood. So I will get my school days will be cut in half, I will take only the classes I feel help me to live better here. Most just confuse me as the start where I never began.” She said it as a stamen even though it hung like a question in the tense air around them.

“OK,” he said softly but with enough force to show he would go through with what she asked of him and help her with the shorting of the school days. She began to wonder exactly what classes should she chose to keep and which to ditch.

She walked beside David as they made their way through the twisted corridors to the opening where they then came to the Head Director or the school. A heavy set man that was foreboding in his demeanor. He looked like at one time he might have been a fierce opponent. She guessed he was in his younger age a warier as she had at ;east learned that is what became of most of the small race she was supply apart of.

The room seemed too small for the bulky man. The too small desk took up much the room and as it was piled with papers it made the room seem even more crowded. The walls were a oaky wood a deep brown with black knots all along the walls that gave the room a regal appeal if it had only been bigger/.

His expression remained bored as I gave a detailed account so he could draw his own conclusion and decide what we should do, as Luke was still in the room, the dust coating his lungs with every breath even as we spoke.

“Well there is no need to worry. It was just a prank. Well get someone in the to straighten up your room and your friend. But you will have to get a new room for the night.” He looked at us. “Is there something else?” he asked obviously annoyed about our presence still being in his office.

Misa felt her heart sped up as she asked him to be able to have her school days cut in half. Before he could object she blurted out her reasons. He seemed to think about this for hours even as it was only minutes.

“And you agree to teach her?” he asked David. She hopped he would not go back on his word now. He took a breath and Misa thought that he might just say no but instead he nodded. She felt a smile creep along her face as she could tell that the Head Director was giving in.

She turned back to him, he still had a look of deep thought on his face when he agreed. Misa felt like jumping as she had won what she wanted but stayed calm and just let her smile grow.

When they were gain back out in the hall she turned to David.

“Thank you for agreeing.” He grunted in response.

He stared at her for a few more seconds and in that Misa wondered what he thought about. She knew almost nothing about him, she was bound to him, yet his entire being was a mystery to her. Her first guess was that his thought tangled with that of war and weapons as it was his life. But then she wondered if there was more to David them being a warrior. She wondered if she might see it with the time he would spend with her as he taught her about his world. She could draw nothing for his expressionless face.

He turned swiftly startling Misa as she had been staring at him which she was uncomterable to realize, but before she could say anything he disappeared around the corner.

The next hour was finding and explaining everything that had happened to Tasha. She saw as Tasha’s face warped into a firmly angry expression.

“God dam, do they realize what could of happened. If I find out how did this.” Misa growled not finishing her sentence, Misa could feel the air around her grow hot as Tasha’s fury increased. The dagger around her waist grew a lethal scorching red, the intricate runes coming to life on the blade.

That pattern was a beautiful image of sharp lines and genital curves that covered most of the silvery blade that seemed to hum for flash like a demonic creature.

“Tasha, TASHA.’ Misa said louder, breaking Tasha’s anger from rolling around in her ever increasing.

“Have you been doing the exercises to control you elemental power. Tasha blinked and then a red, that thankfully had nothing to do with her fury nature came upon her cheeks.

“No, they take too much time. Usually I do a few and blow the rest of.” Misa sighed. She was probably the most elementally powerful student in this entire school, and the most impatient. A deadly combination.

“you might want to start doing them all.” She looked confused. Misa looked at the still glowing dagger. Tasha touched it but flinched back. It was obviously scalding, thought the master of the blade cannot be injured by it, especially so when it is there energy that allows to obtain its lethal force as it does.

“yea maybe I should.” She said waving her stinging finger.

“Do you really think that studying with David will help or did you just try and get out of school.” She asked eying her. She smiled.

“No I actually want to learn. The little I know of your races history is fascinating. Magic abilities, but I don’t belong and as soon as I can I’m going back. But until then I want to learn the most I can even if the just erase it from my memory, it will still be there, a shadow of knowledge I will never be able to understand. But it will be there.”

“deep, but pointless. Why not stay. You already said you like our history, well I can tell you the present is even better. If you go back, you will live an ever day normal life, and you won’t even remember me.” Tasha said.

Misa looked up at her, she seemed Guiney sad about losing Misa.

“I promise I won’t forget you, even if I think your only a dream. I would never forget my best friend.” Tasha looked like she might cry, but she only cleared her throat and nodded.

“You better or I will become your personal stake.

 

Misa’s days were even busier than before. She had kept math Conditioning and chemistry. All which were at a much higher level than her old high school. She struggled in every class. She was exhausted by the time she met to study with David.

 The room they had chosen to take the lessons in was a small library, like the one Misc. chose to teach in. the walls were gain lined with old bound books held in a deep mahogany wood bookshelves that look as if they had been made centuries earlier and would stand double that time. The light was  to be expected for a library and when they left the light from the halls left them almost blind.

 He jade been able to teach her amazing things about the history that made the world make more sense. One of the more interesting she learned on her third day of studying with David.

“Our name comes from our old language. It was used until we had to adapt to the changing world around us and the old language was replaced with the countries word of lounge. Our name means The one of strength and age, but it was used as a name for the mighty Banyan tree as it equally represented each element. It came from the earth, had the wind tangled in its limbs, grew towards the fury sun and drew water out of every inch of space around it.

“it holds each element bonded to gather even the oppose, for every elect has its opposite so that it may be controlled. That is why in the gifting ceremony the sacred plant is called upon, Kalpak. The tree is the embodiment of the Goddess Saphera who leads her power to strip the young of their bonds and allow them full access to their ability. But drinking this time the power over comes many causing them to cease to exist.”

 Misa stared at him. “What do you mean many of them cease to exist.
“Approxamently half of our population dies during the gifting ceremony.” Misa thought he might have been lying to get a reaction out of her, but she knew he was telling the truth. The number of older students dropped exponentially once the came from their freshman year by almost half. Misa had taken not much notice of it.

But she knew it was right, whenever she heard of the gifting she saw the always present fear, if not for themselves then of their friends who they might never see again. She felt sick at the thought. She didn’t think of herself as she thought she would but an image of Tasha came to mind. Would Tasha be one of those to die, would she be part of the unlucky half.

Misa shock her head. She didn’t know how, but she wouldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let Tasha die, none of her friends would, for the rest she couldn’t say the same.

When her and David got tired of sitting and studying the would practice their fighting. David was impossibly better than her. He was just a blur that struck her before she could even react. But as the days passed she felt as if the bruises along her body lessened thought she was still unable to land a blow. She knew she didn’t really need to know, but the fact her muscles would retain the knowledge of what she had learned even when her mind did not made her want to learn all the more.

No martial arts studio could match the firmness of the fighting style the Trisha had perfected. They had agreed on a way of leering that suited them both very well.

“The Trisha capital. City?” he screamed to her as he sent a jab at abdominal that would of left her on the ground gasping for air had she not thrown herself backwards in time to dodge the painful attack.

“Charity,” She yelled breathlessly her hair escaping her pony tail and sticking to her forehead as sweat trickled into her eyes.

“very good,’ he said dipping his head in approval. Misa took the opportunity to try and land a blow, something she had only been able to do twice, each just pure luck instead of executive planning of her moves. But he had her wrist twisted behind her back in second as she scrammed in pain as he pulled the muscle to it breaking point.

He kept her there pressed against him for a few more agonizing minutes as her muscle felt as if it was spreading with in her arm and shoulder. Then he let go and she dropped to the ground not having the strength to stay standing. The sessions left her exhausted and in pain, so sore that she feverishly daughter she would be able to move the next morning.

He bent down, “Misa, can you stand.” She didn’t respond immediately as she lack the ability to do so as she breathed deaspratle thankful for the oxygen.

“Misa, you need to take deeper slower breaths or you will hyperventilate.” She paid him no head until she found she could breathe only in shorted and shorted breaths that made her even more frightened.

She looked up panicked at David. “Deep breaths.” He said calmly but with a demanding force. She nodded and slowly the airless breaths faded and she took in air.

“You push yourself to hard, you expect too much and are frustrated when you don’t obtain such impossible standards. And your more stubborn the a mule. Your finally starting to act like a Trisha. One day you will be able to wail your ability as your fight, whether it be air to add force behind your punch or fire to burn where ever you touch or any of the elements.”

Misa had known that David was far beyond the age of gifting yet she had no idea of hi gift. He had never used it to her knowledge of gave hint to it. She wondered if he would be angry if she asked him. But curiosity knawel at her.  I took them two more meetings before she had the nerve to ask him.

He gazed at her intensely as if deciding between  weather to lie or tell the truth. He seemed to decide and began to speak the words clearly hard for him to say.

“I have no gift.” Was all he said. We were sitting at one of large tables that occupied the small library. I looked at his face, his black hair falling into his face and the dark lights casting shadows along his face that made him seem almost like one of the evil creature I had come to know from the books. The blackness of his brown eyes helped none to dispel the illusion.

“It doesn’t matter if you have a gift or not, you fight better than anyone with an ability for they let themselves become dependent on it.” The words seemed to sure, how did I know if they did, as far as she knew she had never fought anyone with an ability. But yet the words rang true and better yet they caused David to smile. It was sad but it seemed as if some of the darkness that seemed to settle upon him was dispersed.

“Maybe so, maybe so.” Hat time they fought with a firmness the same but with a lighter step, as if she had removed some of the weight he carried.

After that she thought about what it might be like for him to live in a world that was set apart by their ability to use the elects in their weaponry and attacks yet he had none. He must of fought twice as hard as anyone else so he could be distinguished by his ability to fight even if was only his ability to fight.

She found herself less exhausted after every practice and spent more time with her friends. Of which Tasha was delighted. Misa shared with her what she thought was the most interesting things she had learned and Tasha was more than willing to elaborate further into them. She had a particular fascination with animals of her world.

Any questions Misa could think to ask about some strange question Tasha did not even have to pause before she answered. She thought that if Tasha would have been born in Misa’s world she would have been a zoologist.

She felt normal in the new life, and had even allowed herself the spare thought of maybe staying. Nut then she would only have to think of her old friends and family to know she couldn’t. She was fast approaching the gifting week which at the end she would be free to leave. If she chose to do so, which she knew she would with a strict firmness.

“Misa,” Tasha said as they sat in the cafeteria that unlike many of the rooms was like any cafeteria. The noise of the combined voices made it hard to hear any one and forced you to yells to be heard. The walls were white as where the floors. There was a circle of buffet style food stations of which lunch ladies dispensed food to the students on plates.

The food was good but not nearly as good as Misa had expected of such a school. Their hamburgers still tasted like they were made out of tofu, which they probably were.

“We should go out into town.” Tasha said just before taking a huge bite out of a red apple, it made a loud crunch as the scarlet skin popped beneath her teeth and went into the flesh of the apple causing the juice dripped down her chin.

“How, were guarded better then Fort Knox.”

“Well at the end of this week we could go into town with a teacher. I signed us up with Misc. though if you don’t want to go I can try and find someone else to accompany me.” Misa knew she could refuse, but it would also hurt Tasha’s feelings and she did actually want to go shopping in new York.

“Yea, that sounds fun.” As she finished her lunch of a salad she began to feel more excited for the trip and she engaged herself in talking about what shops they would attend and what they would buy. Tasha said she would Lend Mesa money since she had none/. Misa hated taking charity and was determined to not by much.

She told David of what she planned to do Friday and told him also that would cut short their exercises. He grunted but it was as much confirmation she could hop to get.

“I’m not exceedingly looking forward to having to be dragged across new York at the whims of two teenage girls.” Misa was about to ask him why when she remembered the bond they shared. She looked at the tattoo along her wrist.

It was so delicate against her skin and imitated such contrast of black against white to show every detail. It marked the bond she hardly felt against David. She pursed her lips, she had forgotten about him. It was odd he took up so much of her time as a teacher she forgot he was also assigned to protect her. For a moment she felt bad about resigning him a girls shopping trip but it passed.

“We shall begin a new chapter on the weaponry used during the 1500’s you time,” As their time line began much sooner than Misa was used to.

“First we have the cross bow,” but whatever she was to learn about the cross bow was lost as the crackly inter com she had found out was an interesting mix of tech and magic that caused the words to be blared in every part of the school with a loudness that made you cringe with the flat voice that came over.

“all students are to find their way into a room. We have approached a code red.” The voice was monotone but there was ever sauce emphasize on red. She saw the immediate effect that it had on. His body tensed and his mid whirled. He began to move in seconds ignoring her now. He became serious and lethal as he moved. He secured the door and pulled a long dagger out of a hidden fold of his coat.

“What is a code red.” Misa demanded, thought even in her own voice she sounded like a scared kid. The vary air around them had turned sever as if the school itself was foreboding the words.

“Someone has penetrate the school with male intentions. The halls will become impossible to travel through to anyone.” Misa felt a shiver crawl up her spine. How could someone have gotten into the school. Went they supposed to be safe here.

The minutes passed into hours and still the code red was not lifted, David never laced, always ready as if someone was going to bust through the door any moment.

Misa knew he could stand that way forever, it had to be taking its toll on him. Even she had begun to feel drained. He vision tainted with a blue color from her exhaustion.

Misa walked over to where David stood facing the door. She placed her hand upon his shoulder causing him to jump as if he had forgotten she was there. She could feel the tight muscles beneath his skin strained from the situation. Misa found it storage how tense he was, shouldn’t a warrior be used to waiting.

“Misa,” he said almost as a warning.

“You need to rest. If they haven’t come for us now then they won’t.” She said her voice velvety to her own ears. She found that weird.

“You don’t know that for certain and I have to protect you.” He sounded desperate in his plea his hand tightening around the handle of the dagger as if he held onto his vary life line.

He shake his head. “something’s wrong.”

“Your just to stressed about this, relax. If something happens you will be able to protect me. I have no doubt.” She was surprise at her words. She knew them to be true as they passed her lips, but she had, had no intention of telling David that. He already had too big of self-confidence to need more boasting.

He pushed of the table trying to break away from her, but she wouldn’t let him. Something was bothering him and she wanted to help. To help lift some of the darkness they laid on him like the never ending layers of snow in the deepest of winter weighting on him till he was bound to break.

“I can’t help, you can tell me. We are bonded you tell me nothing about you. You walk around as if you alone should bare the weight of the world but you don’t have to.’ She said seizing him by the arm and spinning him till he faced her. She looked him hard in the eye, his height making it hard.

“There are things you would never understand.”

“Try me,” She said sternly ready to accept anything he told her. But he didn’t speak, for a moment he seemed to struggle with a insurmountable weight.. Then he moved quicker than a snake striking its prey, he placed his lips on her almost against his will. She could not react. Her body was in too much shock to decide what to do. She somewhere far off in the distance hear voices and the door to their room opened.

Voices ceased as gazes fell upon them. David pulled away, so quickly as to make her unsteady on her feet. Voices filled the room, but she could not disconcert them. She felt their presence heavy in the room. She looked to David who might know what was happening, but he looked to be struggling with the same as her.

She felt some one grab her by the for arms and telling her something but it was too harsh a sound and it made her cringe away. She recognized the face as Misc.

She wasn’t sure if it was due to their condition or if was due to the hectic movement but time began to go increasingly fast. She could not keep up with all the places she was pulled to all the faces that looked upon her and the voices that spoke to her.

But as she was in the air out of that room she began to realize that the blue haze that draped over her eyes was not one form exhaustion but had a strong resemblance to what was left from the red dust.

It all made sense, she had been again dosed with a dust that altered her consciousness, this one somehow more powerful it its long lasting and altering effects.

She was sensitive to every person to the point of when to many people gathered around her, she wanted to curl into a ball to escape the pressing presence around her.

Thought she felt increasing safe when misc. was around all other were like invading aliens in her consciousness and mind. She heard one voice speaking more often than any other. She was finally able to pin it to Mr. Tulum. But she preferred to listen to the concerned voice of Miss. C. though she longed to know what had become of David. tired she let herself be incased by the noise and sounds around her. She slightly remembered the situation from when she had gone to the hospital.

She didn’t know how many hours it took for her to grab hold of the reality around her and block out everything else. But once she did it was easy to keep hold till it was the only one she was present in.

The change in her must have been noticeable for she drew the attentions of many adults in the room.

“Misa, are you now able to comprehend us.” Misa nodded her head. Everything hart as if she was recovering from a bad hang over. Misa was in a cot in a medical room though she was sure she was still in the school. The room was blaringly white. It had steal equipment that looked as if it belonged in only the most high tech of hospitals. It had many cupboards of which she knew were staked ful of supplies for any sort of wond. There were cots piled to the cealing against on of the walls. In this room alone, it looked like they might treat a army, and sh was sure they had more.

“Misa with in the library you were forced to stay in the air was laced with a blue powder called Lancera. It is slow to take effect, increasing in its effects over the hours you stayed in the room. It is somewhat similar to te red dust you experience a couple of weeks ago.” She  listened and them remembered with vivid clariy the kiss she had shared with David. it some how had been more intament the every thing Mis had gone through with luke.

It was then she began to feel a anger and desperation that was not her own. At first she thought it was the drug again but then she realized it came from her bond. She didn’t know how but it was certain as stone inher mind. David was feeling those emotions strongly enough to resinate t he being. Something was wrong.

She turned to the group watching her arouns her low placed cot which made her feel like a small child looking up to the faces pof adults as she tried o repent for a wrong done. “What is wrong. Whats happened.”

A new and cruel looking women steped forward.She looked like a woman placed in athouraty and had gotten their by any means. Her hawk like face companied with her bony frame that stood it a defense posture to give you the empression whatever she said was of the upmost importance in that if you didn’t listen you would be harsly punished.

“I am the director for Bonding.” She said her voice that of nails along a chalk board. It made Misa want to cringe against the cot but she dared look the hawk women in the eye.

“Relationships are forbidden among Bonds as if they end badly it could leave both parties in danger, or cause them to put other in danger. For that reason of a realastion ship forms bête=ween a the bondings the bond will be severed.” Misa stared hard at the woman.

“The kiss was only the result of owder, another prank I expect.” Misa said not understanding the seriousness they shared. The Hawk women opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Miss.C.

“Still it is nessesary.” She sounded exasperated as if she had tried to explain the same thing.

Misa knew she was missing something, but she doubted she would be told. She felt irritation flare up.

“Fine.” Misasaid lacing the words with as much venom as she could manage. She had wanted it to be stripped as soon as she got it. It made no real difference on her, why should she care.

They lead her through the halls. Deeper into the school to where the walls changed from paint and plaster to the cold stone that marked the impossibly old age of the school.

Misa felt the first emotion she had ever from the bond she was about to lose. It was a faint feeling of anger. She was forced to wonder the intensity of the anger to resinate to her They paused before a large wooden door. Hen went inside Making sure misa went in first.

The room was so normal looking, the white walls resembling that of any class room, the carpet a off wite but the majority of the small room was taken up by a old majestic looking wood table.

“Something of age and wood is required as to absorbe the energy release at the breaking or the bond or it would resinate in to the bodied of the bonded and kill them. Even now it takes a great deal of energy to striop the bond.” Said the hawk women.

Misa saw that the table had three old matching chairs and sitting in one was david. His heand strapped to the table. His entire body seemed ridged as if he ewas unable to move.

“Sit,” The hawk women said sharply, Misa wanted to refuse but a deathly amused look from the women told her that if she did, she would end up like David. Bound and helpless.

She sat the wood seemingly warm and comperting around her. She set her tattoed wrist on to the smooth worn surface of the wood table as David had his forcible placed, with the wrist placed up leaving it vunerable.

Misa expected For the hawk women to take the last remaining seat, but one more person filed into the crowded room. Struggling past Mr.tusume, Miss.C. and other teachers whith whom Misa wasn’t familiar with, Godiva took the last seat. She had a look of smugness on her face and Misa felt a spike of anger directed at her sending a ferirce gaze directed her way. But it went by unnoticed.

Godiva looked pointedly at Misa her tan skin flawless even in the bright revealing light of the rrom.

“I sugest you don’t move.” She spoke in a voice that said she could if she wanted to but the effect would then be of her own duing. Godiva placed either of her delicate hands softly aainst the tattoo on their wrist as light as air might brush against their skin.

She clased her eyes and began to mumble words that reminded her of the words spoken to forge the bond between them.

She felt a pressure increase on her wirst though Godivas hand still barly touched her skin. She preassure spread slowly through her body and she tried to move her arm away but her body was immobilized, it felt as if the air around her threatened to suffocate her as a pain shot through her arm. It felt as if fire ran through the veins of her body, the tattoo glowing a ferocious crimson as if the ink had turned to the embers of a flame.

Then it ended. The searing pain and the red glow and all that was left was a thin thread that hung limp along her wrist.the air around her realeased and immideatly she knew she had been heald in place with the abilities of some one in the room. If she was forced to guess it woulf be the hawk women who gazed at them like they were prey she was satisfied with ripping apart.

As the suffocating pressure aroiund her released its grip on her she was left feeling as if she had ran for 3 days.She found Godiva looked the same yet david looked as strong as ever. She felt a emptiness in her being, something was missing, there was a always present consciousness that was missing leaving her feeling as if she was missing half of her self.

He let out a strangeled cry that caused david to struggle in his bonds that had not been released yet. She felt her self being lead away from the table and out of the room.

“Its going to be ok, I’m taking you to your room now.” She let Miss.C. guid the hallsletting the emptiness she felt grow with every step.

*

David sat at the table, the elemental energy still holding him in place. He pushed back the unyielding vacant expanse that threatened to over power him if he let it. E also so ignored the exhaustion, he had taken the brute force of the pull of energy it took to break the bond that tied their two conciseness together. He would also feel the greater of the after affects as he

She could feel the bond breaking as she sat immobilized, she struggeled against the invisiable bonds till they tightened like a snake around her body coiling tighter with every breath till it almost choked the life out of her.

As Godiva spoke, fire seemed to split her apart, though her body remained un scathed her essence was being ripped in half with a seething fire that burned apart her connection with David like the cauterizing of a wond.

It ended as quickly as it began, and the fire ceased to burn inside her. Yet their was no escape from the now absent presence of davids consciousness she had grown to accept as a part of her now ripped away with such a brutality.

She felt the restaits disappear from her body, but she had no will left to fight against what had already happened and left her so bare.

She could only spare a glance at David before being swept out of the rrom. His face was strong, but she knew that his effects would be an amplified version of her own. She prayed to no god inpeticular for him to make it through the hell.

*

David tried to press back the exhaustion and the vacant expanse away from him. He saw Misa leave the room with Miss.C. and then the remaining teachers advance towards him. He knew from accounts that it wasn’t suppose to be this painful. That even in time such as these it was to take week even months to sever the connection.

He glanced at Godiva with suck confusion. Why had she chossin to make them endure the agony that came with stripping so much at once. He could still feel the last lingering trances of the bond that told him it was fulled severed. Probably only done in fear that it would kill both of them.

He was lifted out of the chair and taken out a back door, inevadably to a secure hospital room in the school. He stood but fell against the gaurds. His vision went dark around his and the hollow void left from the breaking filled him and took every part of him with it.

*

Tasha had scrambled to help Misa at the sight of her being half dragged into the room. Even in the state she was in she could tell tasha was ionfurtated as the air grew stifiling. She knew that if she didn’t calm her down she would either cook them of exhauste and hurt hurt herself.

Misa took the little pices she had left of herself and tried to come back to the world around her.

“tasha,’; She said her voice alien to even her self. “I’m fine, just a little tierd. I cant sleep and get better with it being so hot.” Tasha immidatly went from raging to looking like she was on the brink of tears.

“Who did this, I’ll kill them.” tasha said knelling next to misa’s bed which she wasn’t sure how she got into.

“I’m sure you would.” Misa said not doubting the flow of anger would lead Tasha to a destructive path to envy that of serial killers. Misa felt a pang of worry that if tasha didn’t leanr to controle herself she would end up hurting herself or many other people. But the concern was to hard to keep hold of and she let it slip into the void that consumed her functioning mind.

“I’m just tierd.’ Misa said cloing her eyes hoping desperately that sleep would allow some release from the void of pain pleasure or any feeling.

The next time she opened her eyes it was a day later and everything was unbearably deafening. From the light to the whispers of voices around her. Ever sense was put to such a sensitive level the slenderest touch sent her screaming. Nurses and people she didn’t know tried to help but only made her agony more piercing.

Tasha again filled with such anger backed the room almost sending Misa unconciousee as the heat was like a firey entrapment of which she had not the slightest way of escaping. After that Tasha left as to not cause her friend any more pain.

Some where along the way, the overflow of pain and senses become to much and she retreated into the safty of the void like a retreating jackel.

The next time she opened her eyes it was twice the time as before unconcies, and yet the world still felt engrossingly strong around her, it was bearable to the point she walked around the room.

“tasha dared not speack as the noise would have been defaning to her raw senses. Luke came in and together they helped her. They fed hher something as devoid of tempeture and taste as the could manage, making her drink room temp water till she thought she was going to be sick.

Luke took Tasha outside and when she came back in, she seemed manic thought she controle the flaming heat for Misa.

It took two days of coaxing and nursing from Luke and Tasha to get her back to normal. Thought her senses were no muted. She hopped that someday soon they would return to normal, but for now she was just glad they were muted instead of excruciatingly magnified.

But she did not leave the room, much to the dismay to tasha who began to worry for her.

“You have to go to school, you cant just stay here for the rest of your life.” Tasha said exasperating yet another point of her never ending ardument.

“I wont, I’ll stay here until I feel batter.” Misa said in a whisper as she didn’t have the engery for much mor. Tasha sighed and wentoff to her classes. Misa spent the day staring out into space till she heard Tasha or Luke come to try and persuade her to move, to “Join the living,” as they put it.

She felt no urging need to be surrounded by people whom at the moment she blamed for her misery. For another three days she stayed like this, unconcerning about life, except that involving herown room. She gazed often at the windows and watched as the poepl passed. S the sky darkened and lightened from rain to shine. She took retreat in the mindless patterns of the hours of time in the city. Red light stop, green go. Red stop green go. Run walk stop go. Run walk stop go.

But by the next Monday Miss.C. came in to the room. She walked silently into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed I had not left the entire day.

“Stop it. Your acting like a spoiled child.” She said fiercly looking at me with a scolding expression that made me want to retreat under the covers but the insulting words kept me from doing so.

“I am not. I’m just tierd.” I said in the think voice of a child. This made Miss.C. sigh and stand. I wondered if she was going to leave and smiled at how easy it had been to detur her.

“It really really shouldn’t matter to me if you want to be a weak sniveling chold hiding behind her excusses. But it does, you went from a strong woman to a pouting child who hides in her room cause its eaier. Will you let any body who wants to push you around in your life because they make iot difficult.

She looked hard at me as if to say I should listen to her next words.

“I don’t care what world you live in, people will try and tear you down with any way possible and right now you are showing them all you will let them. Some where along the line you have to come out of your little room and face the world, to stop relaying on your see through excuess and become the women you were ment to be. Not this sniveling child I see before me.”

Her words left Misa hurt. She had respected Miss.C.’s opinion and now she blatently showed her vast disapproval of Misa actions. She wanted to stay ion the bed to show her that she didn’t care what she thought about her. But when Monday came around she dragged herself out of bed and dressed.

Tasha saw her and after a moment of initial shock went into her normal routine, though more then once popped her head out to make sure Misa had not gone back to her bed. The first day she went through in a daze, all except in Conditioning which she put full effort into using the knowledge while taking her class and training with david and used it to show she had becom a much better fighter.

For her efforts she earned a smile from Miss.c. it was small but Misa took it as great approval. Misa went back to her old schedual of all her classes as she had no one to study with the other half of the day.

She saw no hide or hare of David even as she looked. She asked around, but no one else had either. When she had asked a teacher, she had found out he was still recovering, he had not yet regained consciousness. She had been so concerned and demanded to see him but they denied her saying the bond was to freashly broken.

She had been royaly pissed tried to fight her way to see him thought she didn’t know the room he was till Miss.C. Luke and tasha restarained her and told her why she was not allowed to see him.

“You being there will just make it worse for him.’ Tasha said holding her shoulders so she stayed where she was.

“like alcohol on a open wond the bond is still somewhat there, if he sees you it will only magnify his misery.” Luke said pleading to her to understand.

Misa looked between them all and went limp. She did understand. Though she longed to see dvid, it would only bring her pain.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully and she slowly forgot the emptiness in moments every thing seeming normal. She began to laugh and joke with her friends and pay attention in class agin though that was harder due to the teachers seemed to have grown more boring when she had spent so long learning the history while fending off David.

It had been almost a week scince the breaking and she almost felt normal againg.

“Your insane, the Ojibwa technique is far more lethal.’ Luke protested as the came out of combat theory.

“No it relies oin brut streangth over cunning whil the Ashoka incorporates cunning and speed above all else.” Misa rebutteled firm on her decision.

‘I have to agree with Misa, smarts out due brut streanth every day.” Tasha said with flared conviction.

“You really belive that,” he said eyeing Misa.

“of couse why.” Misa said feeling uneasy.

Luke in one swift motion picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She felt embarrassed as people passing them in the halls stopped to stare. But his shoulder also cut into her stomac.

“let me down before I hurt you.’ She growled.

“No I really want to see you cunning help you out.’ He said devilishly. She felt the urdge to punch him out the moment she could, and a steeping anger at tasha how was howling over Misa and her predicament.

Misa reached as far as she could streach pulling her arms to their full leangth. She grabbed the him of his jeans and smiled as she pindered what she was about to do. She pulled up as hard as she could causing her to dig deeping into his shoulder.

But the surprise caused him to drop her and she turned in the air landing on her feet with a heavy thud that sent a ach up her legs at the impact. But she felt a huge smile as he jumped around pulling is pants down.

The entire scence was so ridiculas. When he had finally diloged his pants he sent a steaming glare her way but she only smiled.

“Chalange accepted.”She said trying hard not to laugh.

We walked back to our dorms tierd from the day. I jumped onto my bed fillinf the room with the squeal of metal against meatl as my bed struggeled aginst my weight. I took a deep breath filling my lungs to their full capacity likeing the feeling of streaching them and sighed with content. I gazed at the cealeing thinking over the day.

“You know tomorrow is another shedualed school outing. We can go if you want?” Tasha asked tentivly. Misa thought back to the last week when she had agreed to go and felt the odd ach in her stomac whenever she thought aboiut david or the bond.

Misa wanted to say no, but she knew Tasha wanted her to go. Her life was starting to come together again, she was entitled to a little shopping.

“Yea, it sounds like a plan.’ Misa said cheerfully snuggling deeper into the bed. She felt certain that going was the right choice.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The next day she whispered back and forth to Tasha about their up coming trip. Miss.C. had to tell them to be quiet over three time and to fouces on their blocking teqniues. She threatened to take away the trip that she was chaperoning.

At the last hour the mauled over where they should go and in what order. Misa was guenialy getting excited over the trip.

“Well we have to stop by Eclairs.” Misa raised her eyebrow.

‘That sounds like a bakery.” Misa didn’t want to eat at much of anyting if she was to spend the day trying on clothes and having her best friend in spetct how she looked in them.

“No its this whole in the wall shop that mr.Tusume recommended.”

“I know, he’s a guy but he has connections with half the modeling world and knows what the fashion is going to be before the designers do. What ever we buy at that store wont be in style at the moment but will be soon. He’s so cool to have around.” Tasha said with energy.

Misa thought back on his clothes, mostly the same style, usally wearing the long dark blue coat over button down shirt with his pitch black hair and black eyes that went oddly well with his Asian features, yet she couldn’t see him being a key component in the fashion world.

Hey had decided to go to Eclairs first. When school let out, tasha practically dragged her through the halls to the front of the school were a town house car was waiting. There was one girl of which Misa didn’t know already in the car. She seemed the shy type and Misa expected her not to say a word the entire way.

Misa stopped for a second to take in the air. It had been the first tim she had been out side in a while. The air had the tint of pollution and car exhaust, but it blew fresh against her face. The sun was hidden by grey coulds that held no threat of rain but whos gray added to make stark contrast with the green of the trees.

Misa imagined she could smell central park and the immense gardens with in but it was sooon crowded out by the smell of odd foods being sold by vendors. The air was filled with sounds of honking cars and the under tone of people muttering voices.

Misa gazed upon the roads and found the traffic thick and unmoving. She wondered how they would get anywhere fast.

She got into the car, closing the door with a reassuring thud and the click of locks sliding into place. The car blocked out all the boise and smells of the street and Misa was gald she had stopped to enjoy the sensation of them. The car began to move with a smoothness Misa liked. The car itself was a sleack interior, soft seat thankfully not leather as it was the most annoying and sticky substance to sit on for any leangth of time. The air had the new car smell but also of expensive coffee. The two made a nice pair and Misa found herself breathing deeply.

The windows were tinted and she found it a cool idea that she could see out but nobody could see in. Whenthey pulled up to a car she stuck her tounge out at a little boy who just blankly gazed at the window.

Tasha talked about nothing impeticular while Miss.C. held a conversation that nor she or her companions could hear as a glass window separated the fron from the back. The girl managed to only say a few words as Tasha tried to strike up a conversation, but the girl had a way of politly ending a conversation in a way that left the back of the car in a awkward scilence.

Soon Tasha had gotten tierd of trying to drag the girl out of her shell and asked for the radio to be turned onto her favorite station. Misa liked the girl as she reminded her of Joanna. Misa wondered if they had more time, if the would grow to be friends.

They made good time arriving at the storing under a hour. When Misa stepped out side she found it really was a hole in the wall.

The store surrounded  by name brands that flashed their products to draw the eyes and Éclair had only a brick exterior with two windows that held nothing of petucular inters to Misa and she began to feel her doubts.

“Are you sure about this place.” Even Tasha looked taken back by the smallness of the store.

“Well now that were here no as much as before, but I would feel bad if we didn’t at least check it out. Miss.C. seemed puzzeled by the store choice. Mis guessed she had presumed to think they would go to the stores whos name was hot, featured in every magazine and indorsed by celebirties.

Misa felt a sense of satisfaction at catching her off guard. If the store held nothing toss away clothes it had brightened her day at least for the moment.

*

They walked into the store together pausing for their eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Their eyes glazed over the rack of clothing seemingly organized by no pattern of color or design. Misa felt her small hopes for the store dashed. It had a grungy feel from the bland bash walls to the clothes strwn in a seemingly unknow way.

An attendant came up to them so deeply contasting the store that Misa thought it was a shoper leaving, but the attendant smile and name tag assured her it wasn’t.

* She had naturaly tan skin that reminded her of godiva and dark hair that seemed to capture the light that surrounded it and release it at its own will dazzeling you at unexpected moments. The girls eyes were a bright blue that lured you to stare into to them. Her figure was slim exemting her chest which was modestly contained in a tee that showed the curves with still leaving some mystery.

The girl was over all a beautiful to that of a model and misa couldn’t help wonder why she had scored a job here when she would have been a sure fire for any name brand store.

“Welcome to the store to day. We’ve never sold to celebrities that insisted on closing the entire store to themselves, it had all us girls vary excited to see who would be shopping there.’

Misa thought that it couldn’t of been that much of a hit to close the store. But as The attendant who they found out was named Lucy, a fitting name, showed them around they found the store to contain jewels they never would of seen.

Each group of clothes seemed to be fit for a different type of person, from prep, to goth, lace to flowers. It held band tees from seemingly every band know to man. As misa chacked the hand drawn prices she found them all shockingly reasonable.

Misa instantly went to the Tee’s but found her self draw to other racks   

Misa felt he hopes for the small store being dashed. It held the appearance of Misa’s favorite stores but she already felt Tasha’s disapproval of the small. The walls were baige and held ancient looking photos that Misa glimpsed over with out ever realy seeing. The cealing held low, and she half expected crack to run through it like the floor of a dessert.

The carpet looked new, but he brown color stole the light from the room. There were clothes hanging or rond metal racks scattered across the floor, none held a clearly marked sign to say how they were organized or of any sales.

Misa saw an attendant walking quicly down the twisted paths of the store. She looked about 25 with naturealy tanned skin that reminded her of Godiva with softly curled brown hair that helkd in light and let it go like streaks of sun slipping through the clouds that covered a blue sky. She was a smalled girl with a slight figure exempting her chest which modestly covered by a black tee but managed to show every curve in its lose hold on her skin.

But most shocking was the bright blue eyes that pop from the brown of her skin like a dimond among coals luring you to gaze at them for hours. The girl was as beautiful as any model Misa had seen and she wondered why she had taken this job when she would have been guaranteed and forfront job at a high end clothing store of her choice.

“Hello, my name is Lucy and I will be here to help you. I’ll show you around, I know what your thinking, but this place is like a paradise.”  The girl gave me a wink as if we had been best friends scinece kindergarden and Misa felt herself begin to like the girl dispite having never know her.

They began to walk around the store and inbetween the circels of clothes. “The sections are for different styels, we have goth to prep to band and hoddies.” Misa spotted a few people she had missed coming in. The disappeared in the mounds of clothes.

One appeared with dark clothes and a shocking blonde hair that Misa knew must be dyed. Another looked plain in a normal shirt and skirt. One stood out with piercings along her eyebrow but a appealing face that seemed friendly and approachable.  She saw that the goth like girl worked her by the name tag on her corset like shirt.

Misa felt herself drawn back into the conversation she had drifted out of while examining the other patrens of the store.

“So, just wander around and I promise you’ll find your style and probably a new one you though you would never like or even existed.’ At that Lucy departed leaving the group to mill around and slowly split.

Misa immediately went to the tees but found her self drifting across the store at the bright colors that could only be seen when you loked closly. The sequenced flasky club skirt to the stain red lacy shirt.

Misa placed her self at a rack of clothes. The shirts were made os a sily fabrisc that made her want to roll around in the collection of the. They held disignes of sharp floral colors that rminded her of the Chinessefans. Misa found in the middle a dress that went to the floor.

It was either a blue as dark as the night sky or pitch black depending on the light it gleamed in.

“tasha look,’ She said holding up the dress.

Tasha looked up from her own little haaven her arms already loaded with piles of shirt and pants to try oon. Misa had the sudden feeling this was going to be a long day.

Tasha came over at a near run almost dropping her clothes as she did.

“Oh my god its beautiful. If it doesn’t fit you I so want to try it on.’ Tasha said.

“Nah she said eyeing it closer, it would look better on you.” Msia looked skeptical, nothing would look better on her then on tasha who had a better figure then the models she saw on TV.

“No seriously, it was like this dress was made for you. You don’t even have to try it oin. I know its perfact match for you. You should wear it to the dance scince you have no Acoman dress.” Tasha said with a touch a sadness in her voice.

Misa was about to ask what she was talking about when she felt it. Or rather them. She felt it moments before tasha froze, then dropped her clothes and grabbing the nife she always carried. She pushed Misa behind her as the world erupted around them.

Misa felt the glass shatter behind her, the shards scrapping along her back. She turned and saw the hell unfolding slowly before her.

Gour snarling houds the size of the carse staked ontop of each other. Ther hungry maws dripping with slime. There matted brown fur that did nothing to hide the grotecuely protruding muscels that laid beneath the skin. Misa could see in their blackned eyes the un directed fury of their animalistic hate. They howled once the sound nails against a black board escaping the yellowed sharp fangs.

Misa felt her skin crawl at the almost human battle cry. S**t was about to get real.

The dogs lunged at Misa and tasha went into action that Msia had almost forgotten she possessed. Miss.C. launched herself at one of the dogs. She semed so small againstthe mass of the dogs lumbering toward misa.

She looked around for something she could use as a weapon and found a large pice of glass. She wrapped her hand with cloth and grabbed the glass. She almost shriecked as she found herself face to face with the snarling maw of a dog. It openedits mouth to grab hold of her small body tis hot breath like maggot infested meat.

Misa shoved forward her knife but found air. The dog had reared back. Msia searched for the cause and found david holding desperately to the muzzle of  the dog. She saw the the room had become a battle ground of newly arrived warriors and even more lumbering dogs shreading the store under their large paws and talons.

Misa watched in horror as one of the warrior slipped on a pice of tattered fabric and landed on the floor. The dog immideatly decended upon the helpless body and all she could see was blod spraying into the air.

She sprinted forward with an angry speed making her way over there in mear second. She propelled her self into the face of the grizzly beast.

She found herself looking into the blacked eye of the monster the blood of the body smeared across its sfur turning it dark red and smearing acoss her body. She stabbed the dogs eye with the pice of glass causing it to howl and leap back losing its footing.

Three warrior leapt ontot he unstable creature and revenged their fallen. The dog sent out snarling cry of desperation before the blood began to pool around it as it snarls became weaker and more like yelps.

Misa tuenned satisfied and wen tback into the heart of the fray. She went ot try the same thing on another but it had learned and btted her aside with its massive paw. She slammed into the wall, she felt the air escape her lungs. She tried tobreath but her lungs refused to expand. Her chest began to burn and she clawed at her throat.

Finally she filled her throat with air and lay there in the ground gasping for a few more seconds before she slowly stood glass in hand. The fight was going bad for the warrior as she saw one being thrown across the room as she had. One was held between the yellowed teeth of one and thrashed like meat.

She felt some one grab a hold of her and she tried to swat at them with the sharp glass but they avoided her. She spun to find a tattered and bleeding David.

“Easy Misa, its time for you to go.” He had deep circles under his eyes and his movements were lagged.

He took a hold of her and began to pull her toward the demolished entrance where a car waited.

He had managed to quickly pull her to the entrance before she was able to stop herself. She pulled away.

“No, we have to help them, there being slaughtered.’ Misa yelled over the chorus of screaming and snarls that filled the air.

“It’s not your job now go.” David tried to pull her when a sharp cry filled the air, one Misa knew.

She jerked her head and instantly found her.

Tasha was taking on a dog by herself. Clinging to a tattered ear she had tried to gain the advantage but the dog shook its massive head and sent her flying into he walls so hard it caused a crack to race up to the ceiling.

Somehow Tasha remained conscious but in no position to move. The dog was seconds away. It emanated a growl before it went for the killing bite. Tasha looked calmly at the approaching death even smiling as she closed her eyes facing her demise with more ease then Misa would ever.

He couldn’t let her friend die, right in front of her. Agony ripped through Misa and she pulled her arms away.

Misa felt a scream erupt from her throat that had with in it all the despair and anger she held with in in h=one shill note that for a second all stopped to gaze upon her even. It was all she needed.

She felt out the only beast she cared about and with a great power she seized its mind, its consciousness, its vary essence and being. She felt it held in her mind, a animalistic wolf that felt now onlt the lust for blood of its next victum.

Taking the effort of only breathing she crushed it. In a second ending its existence. She saw the beast and its bauge stange mind combine with hers. She saw it from the first memories it had, ones of smell of food and that of a mother. She felt it through its life growing and becoming the animal it was, but it had been a normal creature but magic had twisted it poured violence that contorted the mind into that of a savage mad animal.

She felt the fear it had ion the moment it died and shared in its agony at its vary being was crushed as breath still filled its lungs.

But she also felt Tasha, she was still alive and confused at the frozen dog infront of her that should be ripping her apart. She felt its breather stop and she took the moment to strip their minds of the thread that contorted them so as she had found on the other beast.

She had ment to end it there but the crushing sadness she had caused from the ending of the life from the dog even if it was to save another pushed against her. She began to feel the combined weight of every soul in the room pressing against her suffocating her.

Then she felt every sould every mind in Newyork pressing impossibly strong against her. She pushed back, but as she did felt the strain cause cracks in their souls. She was going to kill them all, she was going o be responsible for the deaths of millions.

She felt the sould threathen to shatter under her hierce gripp. Tears streamed from her eyes at the unbearable aginy she was about to emit and eqally endure till she was lost to madness.

Then she felt fire dig into her back, the pain was so great and fierce that she released the people form her hold.

She stood on her feet for moments longer the fire cutting deep into her seeming to go straight through her.

She fell to her knees and blocked the world out with blackness.

*

He had almost gotten her out, with the chaos around them he knew he was going to lose her and he couldn’t.

He didn’t care if the were bound or not, she was his to protect, to save. He was sure if she stayed this would be where she lost her life. He finally made it to the destroyed entrance the car waiting and slackened his grip for a moment and she pulled free.

“NO, theyer being slauthered. We have to stay and help.” Sh The e cried obver the noise of battle. Why was she so eager to die. He growled at her stubbornness.

“Its not you job.” He was about to grab her and dispite his aching body pull her kicking and screaming away from the carnage. But the air was spliced by the scream of which made Misa frezze in paralyzed fear. He sowre, it couldn’t happen not now.

He saw it to, her friend being throw and about to die. She was calm the mark of a true awarrior he was sad she had to die. He grabbed for Misa knowing she would try and help when it was impossible to save her.

But her touch burned his skin. He looked to her and saw her skin glowed with a fury of which he had never seen. She let out a howl that shook him to his core at the undescribed sadness and anger. He felt like he was about to drop to his kness friom the misery when it eneded.

The battle paused at the sound. The light shimmered around Misa like she was an avenging god. The light grew blindingly bright with intensity, he turned away.

What the hell was she doing to have this much energy to blatenly use. Then he felt his heart frezze as he felt the breaking of a sould, the dog that had been destined to kill tasha froze and he could almost see the moment where its life was crushed and all that remained was a empty shell. The dog toppeled to the ground dead but still breathing.

David thought that was the end of it and looked to Misa but he knew something had gone terribalt wrong as he saw her face contorted into a agony of which he had never felt. Then he felt it, her clutch around his soul.

He tried to pull away but it was like iro around his being. He saw her face grow panicked and helpless, every living creature stopped their petty squabbels as she took hold. She gave one last hopless look cast at David before he knew what she was going to do before she even did as the sould around her began to die.

She was going to end her life to save the thousands she had in her grip. He wanted to help but his body was paralyzed by her unyielding grip as he assumed the entire state was held by her fury. He grabbed the metal stars in his nearest pokect and struggeled against the force of eternity only the thought of keeping Misda alive making it possible.

He felt himself throw the blades at her back, he didn’t know what good it would do. But the moment it left his grasp a shot of energy ignited the metal with a black flame that consumed the weapon burying its self in Misa’s back. It stripped past the clothing and spun deeper and deeper into the vunerable fleash till Misa dropped to the floor releasing the thousand t=she had held at her mercy.

The room was paused devoid of any fighting even as they were released. They all gazed at the being that lay in the midel of the recked floor. Hey all held fear in their gaze but no one seemed to know she didn’t mean to, she didn’t even know she could.

He took a step forward the movement capturing the gaze of every one in the room.

He slowly walked to  the fallen body. He kneeled picke up the form. He carried her t he=is outstreached arms, her head falling back her hair like a tumbling water fall.

He carried her back his feet crunching on the broken glass, she still head a heart beat and breath in her lungs, she was alive, if only in body.

He carried her to the waiting car and lay her on the back seat carful to lay her securely and gentaly. He slid beside her and placed her head upon his lap and stroked her head. That was when he noticed the thread that marked of their bond fall of his wrist.

But it left the tattoo a blazing black more vibrant and dtailed then any other he had seen. What it ment he didn’t know or care.

*

She came to sometimewhile she was riding in some ones car. She could feel the shifting that signaled she was in the car. She was also shocked to find she was resting on some one as the stroked from the base of her neck to the mid of her back.

She tried to speak and move or even open her eyes but she found it impossible. She felt fear and anxiety well inside her to the point she might of gone mad if she had not with great effort been able to move her toes, showing that she was not paralized, just stunned and slowly recovering.

Once she found tht out she found it easy to let go of all the worry and relax into the gental strokings of her cartaker.

She felt the car stop and her head gentaly placed on the seat, then her body being lifted, her head uncomterably drawing her neck back. She felt an anxiety well as she sensed the moments of quiet were ending, and she was right.

*

David carried her up the stairs, the adults poured out of the school, their mouths all moving out at once, but David couldn’t hear them. He was wrapped in his own world and as he drew the pain away from Misa he found it hard to stand and fouces but he could stand to let her endure.

“What have you done,” Godiva said in a voice beyond devetation at the sight of Misa crumpeled in her arms.

“Shes alive, her body at least, I don’t know if her soul is unscathed. Godiva I need you to help her, I trust her with no one else.” He said a begging tone creeping into his voice.

“And you never should. Understand me, ever.” She said firmly taking Misa off his arms and into her won as they began to walk down the halls. The kids that were ordered to there rooms peaked out of their door and the whispers began as the Misa yet again brought excitement to their lives, he had braly managed to keep away the swarm when she first arrived by threats he deeply ment and still some were bold enough.

There would be no stopping them now, not after her little demonstration of power. He still didn’t know what to think of it, only that the warriors had been in imense fear along with the dogs who moments before had been vicious relenless beast.

He worried that the almost death of her friend had broken something fragile with in her. He worried even more that there would be no repairing it.

He stumbled into the wall as the pain hit a new level of intolerance and he still wasn’t yet recovered from the breaking of the bond.

“Godiva paused but only moments to grasp why he had fallen behind.

“Come to me when you can.” She said swiftly then hurried the short distance into her room.

David took a few deep breaths and pushed off the wall, he almost fell to his knees from the impact of the pain and his vision wavered but her stayed standing and walked intot he room after Godiva.

She was already saying some incantation to heal Misa’s broken body. But she was done in only a few minutes in what david belived should have taken hours.

“I made sure that her body will live, even if her soul if gone forever, her body will remain. But David she cannot feel the pain, you need have to stop diverting it or you will kill yourself.

“Its not bad, I tripped.’ He said clenching his teeth.

Godiva came closer and david tried to concel all the pain that he endured. She looked into his eyes with a grim scowl that seemed to old for her young face. In a flash her hand went to his neck and the added pain of the pressure point sent him to his knees.

“Stop now or I will make you.” She said calmly as if she was giving him much of a choice. He reluctantly let the pain stay with Misa. E looked at the body for some reaction but found nothing but a twich of the foot.

“Will you leave?” Godiva asked already expecting the answerer. He shook his head then preceaded to lock the door.

“You can trust me to keep her safe while you sleep. Tomorrow we launch in to the deathly snake pit that is polotics.” Godiva muttered something else that rang in his ear like a song of the birds, filling his mind with drowsyness that he submitted to.

*

Misa felt pain slowly fil every sense, she driffted in and out of conciousness vaugly understanding the things she saw. She began to hear a drone like that of a voice when the pain was at its greatest.

As the drone got louder the pain seemed to dim. Not so much stop but become over powered. It came in unbearable waves, the drone keeping back the pain till it seemed to break like a dam and overwhelm her and slowly be pulled back by the drone.

It was a steady rythem that she could almost prepare for and slowly the pain began to fade. Misa could tell it was almost over,the last waves of agony were brief and most intense in her back where the fire had started. She could almost hold onto reality and wake up form the sleepy dream of pain.

When mIsa finally opened her eyes, she gound her self in the fire lit room the air as thick as honey with heat on her skin, she was in a bed drapped with blanckts thick with feathers that kept the heat held right against her. She pulled the think blankets back her body acking at every movment.

Her arm shaked and she began to wonder how long it was scince she had eaten. As if to answere her, her stomac growled breaking the scilnce. Misa held it and tried to get out of the plush bed but her legs were shaky and denied to hold her up for long.

She laid back in the bad and waited for some one to come. She found she was incredibly tierd dispite having slept for god knows how long. She closed her eyes and found her self in a familiar plain.

The sky lightless yet she was able to see in serene detail the vivid green of the blades of grasss, the brown bark that covered the massive tree that was was still stationed in the middel of the seemingly endless void. She still could hear the trickle of the stream that wond throught the middel of it all to her right.

She made a step for the tree but found her self shaken into the concious world.

“Misa, food.” Tasha said again shaking her.

“I’m awake I’m awake,’ msia said as Tasha continued to skae her. But at her protest let her drop back to the pillows.

“Well you should be by now, I’ve only been trying to wake you up for like 5 minuets. You were like the dead. I was about to go get Godiva.” Tasha said her arms crossed.

Misa sniffed the air and found it full of a familiar delicious smell. She perched up and serched for the source.

“Um did you say something about food.” Misa said her mouth beginning to water.

“Oh so now you want food. Are you not happy to see me.” Tasha said smiling to let Msia know she was kidding.

“Hi Tasha, good to see you alive, now give me the pizza before I kill you.” Misa said sitting up searching for the heavenly box promising slices of gressy chessy goodness.

Tasha sighed and pulled the box from bhind her and set it on the bed. Misa tor into it and shoved the chessy yumminess into her mouth. She didn’t so much eat as inhale the first half then she realized it was supream and began to enjoy the long deprived flavor. Meanwhile tasha sat on the bed picking at a single slice so Misa could have most of it.

 When misa was done devouring the pizza she laid back satisfied.

“You eat a lot.” Tasha said picking up the empty box and tipingt till the crumbs fell onto the floor.

“Hey I was hungry. How long was I asleep. It felt like days.” Misa said streacking as if to empasise her point.

“You were. Godiva said it was due to the metal stars David threw at you were laced with the dogs blood which was like posion to you. Every body was worried about you  ut I knew you would be ok. Probably due to this.” Tasha said admiring her wrist.

Misa felt her heart stop. She felt it then, the added conciousness to her own. The heart beat that was like a ever present background noise. She could feel vauge emotions of happiness and relife flowing from Tasha.

Misa looked at her own wrist and found both of them to be adored with the blazing black tattoo.

“Godiva explained that before they made it into a job and a ritual made for it bonds were formed when imminse devotion was showed towards one person. Its not permante but it wont fade for many months. Unlike...” She said letting her voice trail off.

Misa gazed down at her other wrist how held a black tattoo that seemed to be alive with swirling designs that apeared to move along her skin yet she knew it not to be true.

“david,” Misa said not as a question but a statement. But Tasah nodded.

“You too are bonded forever, stripping it would risk both of your lives, and we can risk something so important now can we.” Tasha said with a certain sadness in her voice.

Misa looked up,” hat do you mean by that?’ tasah looked deeply at her and Msia could feel a sad lonely ness coming from her. Before Msia could ask again the massive wood doors to the room opened and Godiva walked in.

“She wore a blue dress with a split up o her thigh shwoing the perfact brown legs. It looked like satin against the fire light glowing with a certain briliance against the shadows that danced around her like living beings. The top of the dress was bare save for a a ring of bead placed around the tight neck of the dress. It had long slevve that drapped over her arm past her hands.

“She means you life has sudden new importatance that cannot be risked. You are a Postal.” Goiva let the word hang in the air so the weight setteled upon her.

They were people that were though rare not unheard of in the time before the dark ages where they had dissapeared dfrom existance.

Postals had exessive power that was ment to balance the elemental power when ever one element was weaker then the others. With out them it was found out the Lazurs would die by half at each gifting as to keep intact Elemental energy.

 They disspeares the immense power that is to be spread among thousands of souls. Their bodies holding a sea of power. You could kill us all with out even meaning to, because you get a little to carried away, but I think you know that by now.”

PAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRTTTTT 222222222

The had stopped, yet she had recived double the gaurds at all time. David had almost dissapeared from her life entirely. He had left the school often to live at the local bars. Misa had been taken out of her normal schuedual and placed in one to get her ready for the role she would play when she was gifted.

Her days were long and strenuas with ever minute filled with knowledge about Phenos and their weaponry and combat skills. She left early and came back late and hardly saw her friends. She began to hate her new found value. She found she slept less and less and with that little free tie she indulged in the only good thing to arise of the day every one found about her power.

Lupa. After the fight the mutalated dog like which she had come to find out were called Lupae, had followed her back to the school where they said to thank her for saving their minds from the coruption and sparing their lives they would gift her with one of their cubs, which would watch over and protect heart.

“I cant take one of your cubs.” She had proclaimed.

The Lupae were able to whisper into her mind through the conntion she had formed as she stripped their mind of the oddities. It was less words but images and feelings. It was tedious and ineffective to speack with them but it was all they could since the Lupae would not leave the school.

The pregnate Lupae that had promised one of her cubs began to send feelings of dissapointment and hurt and being insulted. It was then Misa saw their was no way she could refuse the gift, even the Miss. Love who had been most displeased with the Lupae occupying her school had relented and said as long as the cub did not grow to be as large as they had it could remain here.

The Lupae didn’t naturely grow as large as they had become, but the mutations had been forced by whoever had manipulated their minds.

Misa promised shew would treat the cub with as much love and care as she could. Now she visited the still heavly pregnat Lupae named Ramula.

Tonight Misa made her ways throught the halls finding another night devoid of sleep. She sighed and wondered how long this could go on. She walked the familiar paths into the deeper parts of the school. The brick walls grew darck the floor went from carpet to stone and she began to feel as if she was in a dungeon.

She opened the door to  where the Lupaes had been staying till Ramula gave birth. They were all a sleep. But at the sound of the door opening Ramula opened her large eyes and glanced at her. Ramula had grown to like her and expect these midnight visits.

 But tonight she did ot trot to greet her but lay on her side her enlarged stomac looking as if it might burst. Misa sat down at her large head and scratched her soft fur. It had looked rough and brisly but was as soft as satin when touched.

Ramula groaned and Misa scratched harder whispering to her.

“I know, but you can stay like this much longer. And soon you’ll have your cubs. You’ll be a mother.” Misa said reasuringly.

Misa felt the most alive during these visits. It felt as if she slept through the day and this was the only time she was truly awake. But she only had now only a few months remaining. She laid against Ramula and closed her eyes. She found herself always able to drift off to some sleep to the steady beat of her heart and the rise and fall of her chest.

She woke to the gentle nudging of Ramula. She made a deep unthreatining noise in the back of her throat that told her it was time to get up. Misa felt exhausted and could barley get her body to move away from the warmth of Ramula.

“Goodbye,” Misa whispered as she slunk out of the room trying not to disturb any of the sleeping Lupae that she had come to know in the past months. When she made it to the hall way and looked over the sleeping pack she found that when they were gone she would miss them terribly. And they would be leaving soon, as soon as Ramula gave birth and could wean her cubs. Dshe had time, but not much. Misa sighed and pulled the door closed.

She walked mechanicaly to the library. She didn’t care that her clothes were the same as the day before. She found her touter there. A thin old man, with stark grey hair and boney features. His eyes were kind and he was patient.  He taught her of the Pheno’s history, and the polotics.

He taught from a book and she took quizes and did work sheets like any school. She found that it tied with human history but was vastly different.It spoke of the dark ages in detail how they found they had to have some governing system. How the wars between their race had brought destruction on much of civilization.

We went to the polotics, she learned their was someone like an embasador in every major country, they were mixed in with our politics though becoming president or major govermental figure was forbidden. When something of empossing importance arised all figures gathered at London, but this rarely happened.

She took math and science and then she went to Miss. C. for combat traning. She no longer ate lunch with her friends but while learning. She moved through the classes like a mechanicall being. When it came to combat she had excelled but found she was now easily tierd this came to Miss. C.’s attention and she eased up on the training.

“Misa all you al reight. Should I talk to Miss. Love about your schedual, I think they are pressing you to hard. You look like you havent slept in days and or eaten.” Miss. C. remarked at her loss of weight. Misa forced a smile and shook her head.

“No I’m fine. Just didn’t get good sleep last night.” Miss.C. didn’t seem as if she belived her story but the class was almost over. Misa picked up her things and left mutly throught the empty halls.

The students had been out of school for hours but she had just gotten out. She didn’t know why they insisted trainning her so hard when she was just going to leave. She was escorted to her room by her silent gaurds. She was egarly looking forward to seeing Ramula tonight, the only time she escaped her chapperones.

Misa walked into her room and founf Gina waiting on her bed. Shje looked like she wanted to talk and Misa inwardly sighed. Misa missed her friend but she was to tierd to try and carry any sort of conversation with her.

“Misa, I want to speak with you.” Misa silently sat down on her bed beside the anxious looking Tish.

“Yes,” Misa said when they were silent.

“Misa I missed you.” I have barely seen you in months and when I do I only notice how tierd you look. I wake up at night and find you always missing from your bed. Where do you go.”

“I see Ramula. I sleep better next to her.” Misa explained.

“have you seen david recently.” Tish said bluntly.

Misa shoook her head, “He seemes he has lost interst in my unique case. I belive if we could become unbound he would do it in seconds ut as it is.”

“I don’t think its healthy a gardian and its bondy should be separate so much. And he looks horibal. He’s always either hung over or drunk. He hasn’t been like this since he was 16 and learned he was ungifted.”

This was news to Misa, but she couldn’t get the energy together to ask questions.

“Maybe its best I don’t see him then.” Misa said camly and got up she went over to her bed and lied down.

Misa heard as Tish sighed and turned off the lights.

“Your still my best firend. I’m just worried about you.” She said in the darkness.

“I know.” Was all Misa said.

Misa waited till she was sure Tish was a sleep and snuck out of the room. She began to make her way to Ramula.

She was almost half way there when someone spoke from behind her almost causing her to shriek.

“You shouldn’t be out alone. Its dangerous.” The voice was low and male. Misa whirled arpound and found it was one of her gaurds.

“I’m sorry,” She said with out feeling.

“Are you going to take me back.” She asked already expecting an answer.

“Not if you don’t want to go.” He said looking directly at her with such a strong gaze that she found herself very uncomterable.

“Well I guess I should go then.” She said turnning but he was already there.  Her head spun with how quick he had moved.

“Well I didn’t say I would let you do that either.” He said blocking her way.

“Well I don’t actually need your premission for anything.” She said turning again.

Even going back to her room was better then being harrased by one of her gaurds. There was no way she wuold go to ramula while being tailed by her guard.

But he came behind her and garabed her by the next, crushing her throat. Shje tried to scream but found nothing would escape her crushed throat.

“I can make all you exhaustion go away. I can make you feel batter then you ever have before. And all you have to do, is not scream.” He whispered in her ears loosining his grip.

She jerked away and went into one of the many defense poses she knew. But he was just smiling. And that’s when Misa noticed for the first time, the glen of white that poked from his mouth. The enlongated canine teeth.

Misa felt her heart beat a thousand times faster. She remembered the last time she had been near a vampire. She recalled her erased memories and felt a shiver over her body.

The vampire stepped forward.

“Intrested now. I heard how you got bite before. How you almost died. But even then you fought. Fought to stay alive. But I can offer you the painless escape of a bite with out the threat of dieing. Every time I am near you I have to endure your amazing smell, the thrum of power I sense. But I was never good at self controle.”

By the time he was done talking his voice mezmerizing he was only inches from her. She had too look up to his face. She recalled the euphoria she had felt and suddenly she yearned for his proposal. But how could she know if he would harm her. But he was her guard he wouldn’t kill her.

She fought mentally for several minutes while he stood patientally. She swallowed hard and sighed. She felt so tierd and dead. She had for so long. She wanted to feel something other then tierd exhaustion.

“No, I don’t think so. I can de-.” But before se could even finish he moved.

He embraced her his hand wraped in her hair and on the small of her back. He paused for only a moment before he sunk his teeth into her neck.

She felt the flash of pain before it was washed away. Everything was washed away. All she could feel was a spreading warmth. S Mutly she felt her knees give way underneath her but he kept her to mis mouth.

She was washed away in the euphoria that seemed even better then she remembered untill he let her go. She wanted to protest against it, but felt that required to much energy. Instead she lingered in the passing high of the bite. She felt her self being picked up and carried to where she could only guess was her room.

She was thankful for she knew she would never be able to make it there.She was still swimming in her high, the first thing she had truly felt, the first time she had felt alive in such a long time.

She knew she should be angry but how could she when she felt so good. She held a real smile on her face as she was brought to her door.

“Now, Misa I need you to walk to your bed and rest. Oh and you were delicious. I doubt anyone could taste as good as you do.” He whispered setting her down.

She smiled feel giddy and walked to her bed in a daze. She fell alseep instantly.

When she woke she found she was running late, but she didn’t care. Tish was just waking up and she had missed her friend.

Her high have wore off but she still felt better then she had in a while.

“Hey Tish.” She said streaching.

“Got any plans for to day.” Misa asked.

“Yea school, speaking of which shouldn’t you be there?” tish asked glancing at the clock. Misa shrugged.

“yea but I think I deserve to sleep in, I had an amazing night, sleep.”
 Misa finished awkwardly. But tish didn’t seem to notice.

“Well goo cause I think you needed it. You look better. A little paler maybe but better. I don’t know like you have a energy to you. Its good to see it.” Misa smiled.

“You look good to, I like you hair when its down. Did I ever tell you that.” Tish smiled at the comment and then took her hair out of the loose pony tail it had been in making Misa smile.

Misa stood to get dressed for the school day she was late to but found she just fell back to the bed. The world spun at her attempt at movment. She shook her head, it must be because she was hungry.

“Tish I don’t want to make you late, but could you get breakfast with me/” Misa asked not sure if she could get there on her own.

Misa looked at her and nodded smiling. “Of course. It would be nice to spend some time with you again.”

Misa tried again at standing and suceded though her world still spun. She managed to egt dressed without falling, which considering her state was quite a feet. By the time she was ready tom leave, the first bell had rung.

W hen they walked out the door, She was imidiatly greeted by curious looking gaurds.

“You are late. Why are you ill.” Asked one of the gausrds.

She quickly scanned thhrough them and found the one she was looking for, When he caught her gaze he gave a smile, but nothing else as to what transpired last night.

“Just thought I deserved to sleep in. And now were getting breakfast.” Misa said more as a command then statement.

They walked thoguh the mostly empty halls though a few kids who were running late still inhabited the halls.

When they arrived at the cafateria Misa selected a cinamon roll with as much icing as she could find. Tish got a fruit salad. They sat and ate, they talked and Misa caugth up on what was happening at te school, Adam had gotten a boyfriend and she was looking for her won, thought he would certainly have to not be gay Tish said.

For the first time Midsa felt said at having left her normal classes. She felt lost from her friends and their world.  When they were done they stayed and talked more. The gaurds grew annoyed but Misa cared very little.

It wasn’t until the first lunch started to come in did they decid to leave. Misa asked what excues Tish would use for being so late.

“I’ll just say femine problems. That usally keeps them from being suspicious.” Misa laughed with her firend.

When she made her way lesualy to her class feeling better after the food met her system. She just told the tutor she slept in and he did not question it. It was only half way through the remaining school day that she remembered she forgot to visit Ramula.

One night wouldn’t hurt. She had insturucted to be alerted when Ramula was to give birth so that she would be there to comfert her.

The day blurred. Misa was anxious for the night to come. She was impatient to hear Tish’s snore. Hen she did she almost ran out of the room into the hall.

She made her way to ramula though kept her eys open for her vampire. She was almost to the room and she felt her hop fleeting when she was pulled into a room.

She wanted to scream but a hand covered her mouth. She saw the face and quit fighting. He vampire. He smiled down at her showing his teeth.

“I saw you to day, she whisperd to him. She knew she didn’t have to be quiet but it would ruin the mood otherwise. “Were as anixous for the night to come as me.” He whispered back. She just nodded.

Again he smiled and at the sight of the fangs she felt chills. It was then he bite her. It seemed more drawn out this time, not that Misa was omplaining.

When he pulled away. She was barley concious as her high took over her mind. She numbly felt herself carried to her room. She don’t know if he carried her to her bed or if she walked but some how she was in it.

She closed her eyes and expected the deep sleep of before but instead got night mares.

She relived the night when the vampire had ment to kill her. But it was her vampire this time. And their was no David coming in to save her. She watched herself being drainned of her life while she laid there limply.

She woke up to the gentle coxing of Tish.

‘Come on you have to go to school today.” She said gently

Her eyes flew open. It had of course been just a dream Her vampire would never actually hurt her. Yet when she stood she found it harder to move. She felt an energy but it was weight out by the exhuastion of her body. It still only felt like she had had a intense work out.

She dressed numbly saying goodbye to Tish and walked to her class. She found the school day over before she even realized it had begun. The entitre day was just one daze.

She walked down the halls feeling as if shhe still hadnt woke up. She walked past Godiva’s room and paused when she heard a familiar voice. Her vampire.

She walked to the door and saw the two together. They were pressed close together against a far wall. They seemed to be whispering and laughing quietly. Misa walked away. She was not dating him, so she should not care and she found out numble that she didn’t.

It scared her as she walked to her room that she only wanted the bite. She didn’t even know his name.

She wiated anxiously for night and walked the path. She  found him leaning against the wall.

“Look. I’ve decided that I really don’t want this anymore. I never wanted it in the first place.” But this only made him smile.

“I was not trying for flattery when I commented on how you taste. Nor was it a choice the first time we had or little randeue. I’m not going to let you go. You just taste so good.”

“You cant do that. All I have to do is say you bite me and they will take you away, lock you in jail, or whatever they do.”

“Do that and before they are able to track me down I will drain your little friend dry. She looks yummy enough. By the time they find me she will be nothing but a corpse. There is no way out of this for you. You never had a choice.” Then he was upan her.

She tired to fight him away, but there was no way and soon all her struggles were brushed aside. She had no thought but that of the incredible warmth.

She lost consciousness and woke up early that morning. She sat up quickly and almost fell back. She felt as if there was no way her body could move. But somehow it did. He saw Tish sleeping and noticed something odd. Two dots that were barely visible were upon her neck. They looked like bite marks, but ones that had just barely broke the surface.

She felt her breath catch and she knew she would tell no one. She couldn’t risk that he would hold true to his threat. Not with Tish.

She could hardly make it through the day without passing out. When it came to combat traning she fell to the ground in exhuastion. Miss. C. was at her aid.

“Misa whats wrong. Your ill arnt you.” She asked worried. Out of the cornner of her eye she saw her vampire shift.

Misa nodded, “yea I’m not feeling to good.”

“Well why did you come to school. Its not going to do you any good to be even sicker.” She said sounding like a scolding mother.

The session ended early and Misa went to her room early. Her gaurds left her but of couse one strayed.

“You will be here tonight or you will not be the one to take the punishment. I figure I could snap her neck with out to much difficulty.

She found tish reading something on her bed. But she looked up smiling when she saw Misa. But the smile seemed to fade when she took into acount her pale sickly skin. Her baggy eyes, her broken body.

“Yes I’m sick, a cold probably. Misa said sliding under her covers fully dressed.

“Don’t lie to me.” Tish said abruptly.

He face was not in its usual smile, but a stony expresson that made Misa belive she could be a vary skillful warrior.

“I know there is somehting wrong that has nothing to do with any ordinay sickness. Your gone the entire night now, I know I watch when you leave. Thining you are undetected. At first I didn’t mind cause you seemed happier, but now.”

Misa sighed, Tish wasn’t stupid.

“If I say I can handle it will you belive me.” Misa said hopping her friend would not press further. Even now she could still faintly see the marks of her vampires threat.

Tish paused and looked like she was having a hell of an enternal debate but finally she sighed and nodded.

“Yes I believe you can handle youself. Misa I am your friend, that means you can tell me anything.” Misa smiled an nodded.

“I know, and I would. But I’m ok. Just a little tierd from my schedual.” Misa said trying to tell as much as she could to get Tish off her tail.

Tish didn’t seem totally satisfied but she laied down in her bed anyways. Msia turnned off the lights and went to her bed. Shge stared blanckly at the celing going over her plan. Each point now crystal clear.

She felt tierd  but she knew she couldn’t sleep. Then Tish would pay for her miskatke. She might be an amazing warrior but what if he went through with his word. She couldn’t take the risk. She would deal with this herself.

It took a long time for Tish to fall asleep. When she finally did it was two in the morning but Misa had stayed awake. She silently crept out of her bed carfull to grab her silver knife. It didn’t have to be wood to kill a vampire, just something pure. And the knife was pure silver. She didn’t know if she would have to use the knife, she didn’t know if she could.

She walked down the hall ways, it was erriely silent. She waited for him to pop out of some dark cornner but he didn’t. She was almost done with her regular path when she thought he might not show.

But waiting at the point she decided she was going to turn around was where he was. He wasn’t hiding in some shadowy cornner but casually leaning against the wall as if this was all completely normal.

“I came.” She said her voice sounding small among the silent echos.

“I had no doubt you would. You are to much a coward to risk your friends life.” He said.

She felt her back stiffen as he cal;led her a coward.

“I think I am very brave.” She said with more streangth. He walked forward, not hurried but not slowy. She felt the knife in her belt. He was almost close enough.

He came right in front of her, he came forward his fangs fully extended to bite her. She pulled out the lethal knife and he paused.

“Aw you brought a toy.”

“I cant have you biting me. I didn’t want it the first time and I don’t want it now.” She said the hand holding the knife shaking slightly.

She expected him to step back, run, something, but all he did was smile.

“You don’t,” He said still smiling. He began to move forward the knife pressing against his chest where his heart would be.

“No I don’t.” She said firmly pushing the knife ever so slightly towards him.

With that he seemed a little fazed but all he did was move his body at lightning speed beside the knife. He put his fangs to her neck.

She could feel them on her skin, his heart was exposed and he was going to bite her yet she couldn’t move. And nither did he.

“Go ahead stab me with your little toy, I promise I wont move.” He whispered into her neck. She tried to move the knife but suddenly she didn’t want to.

All she could think about was his bite, the high, the feeling.

“Please don’t, I’ll die.” She felt him smile as he said the words.

“I know.” And he bite in the the vein.

 

 

Even as she  felt herself lose the will to stay awake, to stay alive in this world, she felt more alive in this fake high then she had in so long. She let go of the fight that kept her here.

She was in the familiar field of her dreams, the place she held in limbo. But wind tore through it, threw her casting sheets of icey rain and small leaves and twigs from the large and beautiful tree. As it was being ripped apart. She was forced to bow agaisnth the gale that tore through the field.

 

Shje knew she had caused this. She was diying and it upset the naturel balance. She looked to her wrist and saw her tattoo her bond unravaling like string from her wrist. It showed her life, her binding to earth just slipping away.

She reached out to it, to stop the unraveling but it glowed and burnned her hand making her quickly drop it. She began to realize that her tattoo wasn’t from either of her two worlds, but something that slipped from the heavens to this world, it was old a touch of something that truly was.

She knew that she could use that bond to get back, but she didn’t know how and it wasn’t like she had all the time in the world to figure it out. She stared at the thread hopping that something about it would give her some sort of clue about what to do.

For a moment she swore she saw somehting touch the thread, like a hand pulling it against the wind. Misa followed the way the thread was taken in that moment. Was it to the tree, but as Misa looked it really wasn’t. The river surged over its banks coming towards her. The water, it was how she always got back. She walked back quicklyto the surging waves that crashed closer and closer to her.

She got closer and the water enveloped her ankel and quickly rose. She didn’t know what to do then. She looked for what ever had helped her, yet she saw nothing. She turnned all around but she lost her footing and fell into the water.The water was impossibly cold and deep. She fought against the waves to reach the surface but she could no longer tell what way was up and what way was down.

The water hit her chest and she lost the little air she held in her lungs. On instinct she breathed in taking in the water into her lungs. She caught a glimpse of the glowing thread and she reached out for it. It burned her hand but she held on and she was gone from the water.

She found herself in the traning room,  but things were very wrong. She herd voices and felt the body move in a way that wasn’t hers, but was davids. She had found her way back to David. And though it seemed david did k=not know she was there, his subconcious mind did as she began to burn as when she touched the thread. David felt the pain to as he stopped and dropped to the floor.

Misa couldn’t fouces on him at the moment, instead she foucesed on the way his heart beat his breathing. She felt his heart, it beat like hers, she could find herself, her own body. She was gone from her mind, but before she fell into her own something felt as if it physically hit her. She could see her body as if in a weird dream yet she could not reach it.

She had no training to fight things she could see, that wernt ion her world. It seemed to be winnning as she drifted away from her body that was still being held by raphiel as if only seconds had passed.

 She tried to pull some energy from david, it felt so close, so avalable and abundant but the moment she did it pounced like a lethal preditor on weak and sick prey spreading through her dosy like a posionus fire. Yet it burnned with such a delightlful flame. Making her heavy and weak. It seemed to caress her to tempt her into dying. It wanted her dead, what ever it was.

In the matter of a breath she felt something come undone, some surge of energy that had been buried deep down. She knew somewhere in her mind that it should stay buried but she also knew it was her only way back. So she took it and felt almost dragged bak into her own body. But something else was there. Something that helped her hand as it picked up the knife and drove it into Raphiels heart.

Almost his heart letting her lean forward his blood onto her clothes as he gapped like a fish out of water..

“You tried to kill me, and you failed. Now it’s my turn.” She looked into his fearful eyes and with an effortless twist she mercilessly twisted the knife emptying him of life. She threw off the empty body and stood covered in his blood.

“Misa?” She heard a voice from the door. She smiled, she knew that voice, it may have been lifetimes ago since she was out in this world yet the voice never changed, the faces did but at least there was one constant.

She took the knife out of the already decaying body and in one swift motion had it thrown in the air at Abaddon. Only insticnt saved him jumpping out of the way second before the knife hit his chest.

She raced forward to grab the knife but he already had. He gave her the strangest look they circled. Why did he act as if he did remember her, they always recalled each other at the same time, yet he seemd confused at her attack. She wondered if this would give her the upper hand.

She came forward and grabbed the knife pinning him against the wall. She had the knife to his throat but made the mistake of looking into his eyes.

There she saw something she had never seen held in his expression before. It was the way she saw her Mother look at pictures of her father. They way her grandparents still looked at eachother. The way she Godiva still looked at David.

“Love,” Misa said.

Misa found herself in that moment and dropped the knife pressed so tight against his throat. Hje still only stared at her as she back away. Shje felt that if she lessened her grip over her mind that she would slose controle to who or whatever held her before. She tried pushing what ever it was back down, buring it in memories and feelings till it began to be weaker and weaker.

It stoppped fighting and Misa felt for the moment she had won. She looked at David and he held look of confusion, she could no longer see any trace of what she had seen before and she began to doubt she had seen it at all.

She had no energy left now that the precense that had occypied her was gone and she sat heavily on the floor. David came to her aid but her eyes were already closing. She wanted to sleep.

“Misa, what happened. Misa, MISA.” He was alarmed. All Misa could think about was what she ahd done. She had killed Raphiel, taken another persons life. She was scared, of what they would do to her, for what she had done.

“David, please don’t let them find me. Im sorry, im so sorry.” Why would he protect her when all he had seen was her killing the helpless guard, then she attacked him. Why would he ever hide her.

She closed her eyes letting her mind shut down, letting her body repair itself from the damage done.

 

 

She say there silently listening to David's slight breathing which started as a painfully loud noice to a soft wind. She sat up in the bed the sheets crinkling with a startlingly lound. She looked at David against the bright blinding light. She saw that David was silently watching her. He looked tierd, and sad. Misery was plain on his face. She wondered how he had never seen it. She saw everything about him at the moment. How some one could live with such pain and sadness, she thought. Even as he turned his face in to his stony featureless expression she still saw it. It made her ache at the depth of his sorrow.

She wonder if she would ever see him this clearly again. Or if like the severity of noise and light it would fade. In this moment she saw his beauty and understood how he captured the love of every girl at this school, every girl he met with a silgle glance, even her.

Yet she saw the sadness they did not, she could feel it ebbing through their connection, she never noticed it before but she felt it now. Overwhelming him attempting to consume him every moment of every day.

He tried to smile a smug grin yet she saw it's falseness, " so sleeping beauty arises. I thought I might have to go find a prince, because I consider myself more of a god then a prince, it might not have worked if I were to kiss you awake."

His cocky and flirty quips seemed to have no strength. She could see he was impossibly relived at her comming awake, yet she wasn't sure why, or why he carried such a burden.

He sat close to her but not touching her, he even spoke in a soft whisper yet it still was harsh.
Miss placed the palm of her hand against his cheek. She felt the now familiar shock and she saw the slightest twitch that showed e felt it too.

He placed his fingers lightly on top of her hand yet he didn't move it.

She looked at him, trying to look past the sad eyes to find why he hurt so Much.

"I thought I had lost you too." he said not covering the anguish in his voice.

"What happened to you. What made you so lost, so sad?" she asked never taking her eyes off of him.
"Why wernt you gifted?" she asked remember what Godiva had told her about him.

He removed her hand then and stood.  She thought he might be leaving, yet Misa had to know, she knew that if right here in this moment he wouldn’t tell her, he never would.

"Please," she said, her voice carried her worry her pleading. And maybe a touch of how she felt.
She wasn't sure which one or if it was all of them that made him stop. His shoulders seemed to drop as of he had lost some battle.

"did you know my parents are dead, my only other sibling my sister in acoma." He said it sharply a harsh whisper.

I shook my head slightly as he looked at me.
" then you probably wouldn't know that I was the one who killed them. I was the one who put my little sister in a coma that she has remained for 6 years. "

Misa stood completely still, she showed nothing. She couldn't be shocked becaus she did not yet know the whole story. She refused to believe that he did what he said that that was the entire story.

He continued to look at her waiting for some reaction but she just waited in return.
"It was in a bank, I was 15 and she was 10. Daemons came into the bank thought the humans saw them as fellow human bank robbers. They wanted special drugs that Lazurs keep in that peticular bank that services both humans and Gaurdians. My parents went to fight them but they were ready and poision es my parents. I wanted to help but they told me to get my sister out of there and I knew that was what I had to do.
Te when I turned back to see if they had killed the daemons yet I saw them fall, I thought they were dead, and that was when it happened. I lost controle, my power hit a spike as I was only months away from being gifted and I sent all the energy I had against the deamons. but It did stop there I started to see the humans dropping and some started screaming and then they would drop, dead to the ground. Even one of the bank teller's eyes rolled back and she dropped. My sister screamed and threw me to the ground, but she took me by surprise and I lost all the little controle over the spike of power and the building started to crumble.
She got scared and tried to drag me out. But a part of the building was falling twoatds her and I did the only hung I though I could. I physically through the power at her to move her out of the way.
It worked but the shock of being hit with so much power set her in a coma she still remains today." he paused looking out the window at the now falling rain streaking down the clear paine. It felt right that the weather should be

“But the worst part was that the demon that attacked hadn’t even killed my parents, they had only stunned them. I had delt the final blow, crushing their spirits.”

“I killed them, 6 humans and one light fey. And I thought I had done the same thing to you.

“I feelt you try to take from my energy, I also briefly ffelt how you reacted to it. When you killed Raphiel and tried to kill me, I thought it was some wort of spirit coming back seeking retrebutions for the lives I have taken. But then I saw you drop, beg for me to protect you and then you were gone. So much like my sister, gone from this world, slipped into another.”

 

“It wasn’t youe fault. Their deaths were an accident. All of it was just an accident. You cant live every day regretting something that you couldn’t controle.” I said standing up (Cosmic Love) so he would look at me. My legs felt weak but he was there as I knew he would be, to catch me when I fell.

“If you do not blame me for thing I can not controle then do not blame me for this.” He put his mouth softly on mine his lips barley touching mine. He held back, affriad of hurting me, afraid of the consequences, just afraid. But no fear is forever. (Some one Like you)

He began to kiss more fiercly, as if it was the last moments he would hold me, as if we were both going to die. I kissed him like I had wanted to since I had seen him. I felt everything. His heart pounding against his chest pressed aginst me, his rough hands hold my face. His soft hair. The soft spark that ran through us both as we touched that told me something about this was forbidden.

She felt that they might stay like that forever, but nothing is forever. There was pounding at the door that forced them apart.

“We are looking for Misa Kernohan. She is under arrest for the murder of Raphiel Mercury. (Somebody Told Me)

She felt her heart stop in her chest. This was it, she was going to pay for what she had done.

David turned to her, calm but she could see a flash of panic across his face.

“Why did you kill him? Do you want to run?” Misa wondered if he would truly give up everything he had, to spend his life hising with her.

“If I told you I killed him just to kill him would you still protect me?” She asked as the pounding increased. They were about to break through the door.

“I don’t know.” He said as if he was thinking but he was out of time.

The door was broken open, but Misa saw that he had decided he tried to fight them but there was to many. He was pinned and they took Misa. David seemed to try and fight but they had his arms bound with cord as they had mine.I was taken to a out of use classroom and they asked me if I did it. I said yes.

They asked her why and more details and she told them a made up tails condemning herself. She knew David was listening somewhere but she just couldn’t rationalize killing him. She knew about selfdefense but it was all she could see, him dying. Those eyes filled with fear, pleading with her to let him live and she killed him.

 Maybe if she paid for what they believe she did it would make the images go away, it would ease the guilt she felt. She could see nothing else that would ever help. She let them ask her questions which she answered in way that would convince them of her gilt until they were satisfied and she was sent to a jail that was built into the school.

 It was much like her room except the fact that there were no windows and the door was locked steal and gaurds were posted along the corridor to get out.

She could feel that Tish was upset, she was frantic and she could also only slightly feel that David was also upset but he seemed determined. Misa wondered what he w, that she might of been as so determined about.

Thinking about David lead her mind to think about their kiss. She wondered what it ment. She began to wonder if it ment anything. David was a scoundrel a player, he was with many women, why would she be that different.

It hurt to think that to him she could just be another girl that she might have been just another night. She sat in the small room and laughed sadly.

                       *

David paced the room, he knew that she wasn’t as guilty as she said. He didn’t know why she was setting herself up to go to jail for the rest of her life but she was.

Yes he had seen her kill Rahpiel and even said so when questioned about it. In the eyes of the council she was as guilty as sin. He paced when he bagen to form an idea to see for sure if she was guilty.

He ran through the corridor hopping he wasn’t to late to get the sample. He came to the morgue, a cold and dead place. He found no one there and the door he needed locked. He slammed the door with his fist, he felt a bone crack and just as quick he felt it began to heal under his skin with an itcvhy warmth.

“Do you need something.” A beautiful vampire woman was in charge of the morgue and she quietly stepped out of the shadows. She blatently sized him up, slowly taking in every muscel on his body, but he was not in the mood for games.

“I need to see Raphiels body.” He said in a calm order.

She raised her eyes brows smoothly. She smiled and brushed past him purposefully. She unlocked the door and disappeared into the shadows he dove in after her.

He found an odd light to follow her, though all he could see was he ever moving shadow. He was lead to the small metal cell that held Raphiels body. She unlocked it pulling out the slab.

The smell was awful as he was already more then half decomposed.

“I need a tissue sample I want to test the blood, I want to see the last 20 people he feed on.”

“He doesn’t have that much blood left in him. That dammed girl drainined most of it with that silver knife.” David felt himself tense when she said dammed girl and she nmoticed.

“Oh David are you worried for your little pet. They wont hurt her, she is to important. Are you here to prove your pet innocent.” She said smoothly. He voice was soft but clear.

He couldn’t help but look at her lips as she soke as they were red in the darkness.

“Do you want a taste boy?” She asked seductively. David took a step back.

“No I want the tissue sample and to know the last 20 people.” He said sternly.

“You can find out by simply checking the feeding logs.” She said even thought she knew he was looking for people he fed on off the books otherwise he would not be here.

“Thank you I will do that next.” To be impolite to a vampire would mean you make a enemy for an eternity, something he tried to avoid.

“Not many people can find out that far back with such little blood he has left. I may not even be capable.” She said decicivly.

“What do you want.” He said fiercly.
“I want a taste.” She said her fangs sliding out of her mouth to make clear what she ment by taste, “Not much, just a taste.”

“No you cant partake in my blood. You are forbidden from all guardian blood.” Every bite from a vampire can put you at risk to becoming theirs Always aching for their bite.

“That is why I want it and I want it from you. One of the handsomest of gaurdians. If you do not give me what I want, then I will not be able to give you what you want.” She said it simply and let it hang in the air.

David knew that this was important if he was to prove that Misa was innocent to at least some degree.

“Fine.” He growled. He could almost feel the joyful hunger as she came closer.

She looked him in the eyes and smiled a moment before she went for his throat. He fought every instinct to mfight her and let her sink her teeth into him. He felt her drinking from him selfishly. Shje waited for him to stop yet she did not.

He pushed her away almost ripping his throat in the process. He fell back against the metal cripts the room spinning. She had taken much more then planned and he fought not to vomit.

“Sleep for now I will get what you need.” The vampiure women said charming the air so as her closed his eyes into a restful sleep.

“Wake.”

He opened his eyes jumping to his feet. He was about tpo attak the vampire  before he remembered who she was and why he was here. She held a piece of paper.

“It seems that for almost a month he has been using you pet as a snack. The last meal draning her, she should be dead. I wonder to why she still breaths.” David took the paper and smiled. She killed him in self defense, but why did she not just say so.

He gave the vampire a nod of gratitude and then left her to play in the shadows. He had t move quickly and gather more evidence to support his claim. His case had to be undeiniable since she had confessed.

                                   *

 

 

 

 

There was a knock on her door that woke her from a light sleep that she had fallen into. She wondered what they wanted to ask her now.

Mr. Tusume walked in. He had briefly questioned her.

He sat down in one of their chairs after closing and locking the doors.

“Why do you lie and say that you killed him for no cause. When I know that you did now.” Mr Tusume said.

Misa tensed wondered if he knew for sure what happened.

“Why do you say I lied when I only told the truth.” She said as calmly as she could.

He couldn’t know that she lied. She had been to careful. All her lies made sense and fit perfectly together.

“Because I know you. I know you are a sweet girl who would never purposefully harm anything.”

Misa relaxed, he didntknow anything. He was just guessing, hoping that the girl he knew the one he taught in his class for almost half a year wasn’t a murderer. But he was wrong, she was.

“I was there with you from the beginning. From the very first time the Gaurdians every noticed you on the first attack. Untill now. I know that you wonldnt do this.”

Misa smiled and shook her head.

“You can hope all you want, but I did what I did and you cannot change the past.”

He looked like he was about to say something  bbut he was cut off by the door being unlocked and opened to reviel one of the gaurds.

“A appeal has been rose on your case.” Tha guard said motioning that she should stand and be bound at the wrists. But she was too shocked.

“An appeal, but I did not ask for one and so soon.” She stared at the guard waiting for answers.

“The importance of your situation puts all traditional convintions aside.” Tha guard said.

Misa knew that was all the answer shewas getting from him and she stood and let him bind her wrists with the special cord. She walked back intot he class room in which they interviewed her.

She knew it was David. He had done this and when she came into the room and saw him sitting there she galred at him. Why coiuldnt he let her be. But he avoided her gaze just stared ahead. Was he embarrassed about the kiss. Did he regret it, yet you have to care anbout something to regret it so she wondered if her had just forgettten it.

“You have called this appeal, I hope you have firm evidence to go against a confession to a crime.” Said an elder man. She knew he must be one of the council. Of couse any matter involving her would arise the concern of the high and mighty council.

There was silence and then the hearing was under way.

“A tissue sample shows that the subject of Raphiels feeding for almost a month before he died was almost strictly on Miss. Kernohan. The last feeding being lethal by almost any creatures standards.

“It is yet unknown how Miss. Kernohan survived, but given her abilities it can be assumed that different standards are applied to her. It can there be assumed that Miss. Kernohan acted in self defense when she attacked Raphiel.

“Futher more, Her blood count shows that she produced almost 5 times the normal amount of blood yet she is still is not at normal healthy standards.

“And lastly I demand a casting is prformed.” At that there was slight schock from the council member.

“That is impossible, casting can only be prefomrmed when one of the bond mates is dead.” Tha council member said seeming agitated that this was recommended.

“No, it can only be preformed when a bond mate had been dead. And though she is alive now, Miss. Kernohan was dead, if only for a moment. There for the last important momts are open to us.” The council member thought for a moment and then nodded in confermation.

“Alright, but a casting has never been done while both bondmate are alive. We are not sure off the effects. I have to disscuss to make sure it is safe. Itf it is determined to be safe then we shall procede. The evidence put forth in quit conclusive this will be indisputable.”

“I ask for conference with my Evie. While you decide.” David asked referring to Misa. She tensed slightly hoping that he would refuse while aslo hoping he would agree.

“I will allow it.” The council member said before he left the room. Misa was shuffeled into a room with David and a guard.

“What are you doing, I know that you killed him because he was killing you. Hell he did kill you. And if he was feeding on you for this long, why didn’t you ask someone for help. If not me then why not Tasha or any one?” He walked around the room shouting his questions grabbing his hair in a frustrated tic.

“You left me, what was I suppose to do. I don’t know why you did because you felt it the same as I did. The pain the deadening. Yet you were ab;le to drink it away but me. Hat was I left to do. He found me and asked to bite me. I refused yet he did so any way and it was the first time I felt alive in weeks. It was a way for me to escape what you left me in.” She screamed at him as he had screamed at her.

She let free what she had felt since he had abandoned her.

“I couldn’t be around you. You were destined to be something great. To do something amazing with your life and I was a warrior. When I found I was to be forever by your side I felt at first happy, impossibly happy. That even thought I could never have you I would always be in your life. But then I faced the future of having to be by your side of havinf to watch as others fell in love with you and you them. you raised a family and I would be left to watch from the outside. To outsde of training never hold you. I knew I would always die for you but I didn’t think I could live with you.”

Misa stepped back. She couldt take in all he said. All it ment at this moment. Her face held an expression of shock. She pushed herself against the wall away from him. He looked at her and he seemed to take this as a rejection as repulsion.

“I understand.” His face was harden hiding all emotion from her.

Why couldn’t she speak. She wanted to call out to him yet she couldn’t get her mouth to move as he walked out the door. She didn’t know what she would say even if she didn but it wouldn’t be rejection. Then he was gone. The moment the door closed she seemed to unfrezze. She went to the door but when she opened it some one else was standing there.

“Godiva?” Misa said surprised.

“I don’t even want to know what you have done to my David to make him so upset but I am here for the casting. I have deemed it safe. I doubt out goddess will let you die by this thought you seem to have visited her shadown land quit often.”

Misa was shocked by what she said. How did she know the places she visted in her dreams. She was taken to the classroom and seated in front of the newly gathed peers who would hear her case. Among them an annoyed looking Miss. C.

She found David at the front of the room and resisted the urdge to shout after him. But Godiva had already started what ever the casting entailed.

“We call on the bond that binds these two. The protecting David has offered has failed and  we now call to see where  Misa Kernohan’s life was lost.” She seemed to pause for a second, “Even for a moment.” She added.

She walked over to Misa and held her bonded wrist. David stood and walked over offering his bound wrist. The lights went low and before them began to form a scene as Godiva began to whisper things into the air making it shimmer and move.

Misa began to recognize the room in which she killed Raphael. She saw from her point of view the events that occurred. As she tried to fight Raphael off. When she lost and as she died, it cut from the moments where she was not with the body and thought it seemed that there was no more the air began to shimmer and continue. She saw as she once again killed him watching the life drain from him as she whispered her cruel words to him and twisted her knife.

She heard David call an as she threw the knife David barely missing its blade. They began to fight and when it seemed as if she might just kill David she stopped and that was the moment the casting ended. The shimmer faded like water running out of a dried river.

The judging peers seemed satisfied and thought they asked just a few more questions, Misa knew she was free to go. Thought the council man asked for her presence after all was done. David was out of the room only seconds after the verdict was final that she was innocent.

Misa stood to go after him but he was gone. Godiva was beside her and whispered something to her.

“We need to speak.” Was all she said before she too disappeared into the leaving muttering crowd? She all too soon found herself alone with the council man.  They both stood. He smiled warmly, like a grandfather might and motioned for them to sit at a table.

When they were both seated he began to speak.

“I believe I know why you lied to us. And if this were under any other circumstance there would be consequences for those lies but anything concerning you is not normal circumstance.

“You have to know that being a guardian means you grow up knowing that someday you will have to kill. You will take many lives, but you do so knowing that with taking that one life, you are saving many others. You were saving yourself when you killed him. And if you hadn’t you would have sentenced to death so many others. We all owe a death; you just helped Raphael pay his.

“If you let it, your first kill will consume you. Oh and concerning the boy David who left in such a hurry. If you happen to want to find him he looked like a man who wanted to think and what a better place to think then the library.” The council man said standing.

“The troubles of the young.” He said chuckling as he left the room.

“Thank you.” Misa said calling out before he left completely. He waved off her thanks.

“Don’t spend your time thanking me. When youth think it tends to lead to only problems I would go stop that young man before his thoughts get the best of him.” And the council man was gone.

Misa stood for a moment unsure of what to do before she ran out of the room and to the library.

She ran as fast as she could hardly meeting anyone along the way. When she arrived she saw him, and the mess he had created. He had destroyed anything glass. There were holes in the walls and blood to go with them. The chairs were little more than shards. The books were surprisingly unharmed.

Misa walked in and found him sitting in a partially destroyed chair his head in his hands.

“David.” She said softly but loud enough for him to hear in the empty room.

“You sure know how to make a mess.”

David looked up, but he held no amusement in his eyes. His hands were bloodied from the work they had done. She wondered how hands that could destroy a room, that could easily take the life from a person could hold her like they did.

“If you are here to offer me a consolation prize that we may remain friends I would rather you go. I sure that later in life I will no doubt take what you offer but now. Now I just want to be alone.”

“Well, it’s good thing I’m not here to offer a consolation prize. I don’t want to be friends.” She said catching his attention causing him to look up.

“What do you want?” He asked seeming guarded.

“No one can tell me who to be with. Just like no one can tell me who I am going to be. That is all up to me.”

“They won’t accept someone like you with her guardian.” He said matter of factly standing up and slowly walking over to her.          

“I really don’t care.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth to his. He kissed her making her heart pound and her skin sizzle as the spark ran up and down her igniting her senses. She could smell him a mix of rain and smoke, and impossible but amazing pairing.

She pulled back and looked into his dark eyes her arms still hooked around his neck.

“You should go. You need to get to sleep. I should stay here and try and pick up a little. Alspo I want to be alone. I need to think.” She could see from his expression that he didn’t want her to go as much as she didn’t wasn’t to leave him, but she agreed, they both needed to think, even if the old council member adviced against it.

She walked outside the room, feeling almost mezmerized by the joyful glee that was wound in her stomac. So she didn’t bother to notice that Godiva was waiting outside the door, leaning on the wall waiting for her to come pout.

“Well wasn’t that just the opitamy of sweetness.” Misa almostshreiked but managed to rein in her surprise of Godiva appearing out of thin air.

“You were watching.” Misa said mortified.

How dare she intude on such a private moment bettween her and David. Misa watched something flash in Godiva’s eyes that made her for a moment wary.

“Yes, I told you that we needed to talk, yet you went running after him like a lost puppy after you left him a wrecked mess. You are so irresponsible and carless. Why you?” She asked actiong as if she was the most vile thing on earth.

“Why me what. Why do I have this insane power tucked behind my mind like water behind a dam? Or is it , why did David chose me?” She said harshly.

“Is that why you hate me. Because you love him.” She hissed. She wasn’t trying to be mean, she just wanted to know why this woman held so much hatred in her eyes for her even form the moment they met.

“You know nothing. But discussing weathewr you deserve what you have is not why I am here. I am here to talk about a far more important matter then both of us. When I watched you casting I saw them moments when you awoke from your travels through limbo. You were taken over by something that you rallied from deep in your mind, almost another being yet it seemed to slide perfectly within your mind, coloring you decisions with a unyeilding rage. It was older, and more powerful then you and almost forced you to kill David. Why you didn’t I’m not sure, but Im sure yu have some sappy story to tell me that it was love conquering all.

“It occurred to me then that you are even more unique and powerful then you or any one else knows. You are not only a Postel, a holder of great power. But you are the Postel of a new power. One that hasn’t been alive in this world for many many centuries. That old precense that you felt was you oldest spirit. Your first life, you are a old soul and your oldest soul, your Kenan, is that of the first gaurdian. That gaurdian of the godess who created our race with her death.”

Misa began to rememebr a vision that had occurred when she first arrived here. When Godiva had tested her

“The first bond ever between my Kenan and the godess.”

“You know the story, Im glad less explaining. So you see. The godess with the end of her life shared her power with the world, chosis souls to hold a new power. One of the elments of the world around them. One that could be used as a letahl wepon to make sure that a god would never walk this world again or any demon that thought himself as much. Or humans such as Alexander the Great and Hitler who recive to much power. But she gave her most prized power to a single person, her gaurdian throguh the bond she had made only seconds before her death.”

Misa knew she should be shocked by what Godiva was saying and on some level she was, but somewhere she had always known. Ever since she had seen the vision she knew, just not conciously. But then an awful rtelization hit. She remembered the man who in the vision she had promised to kill. She saw his face as clear as if he was standing in front of her at that moment and she saw it. The stricking resemblance and she felt it to, the same made power that drove him she had felt like a sleeping coiled snake unseen but its presence oddly felt on someone else.

“David. He’s… Abaddon. His Kenan is Abaddon, the man who killed me. The man who I promised to kill.”

Godiva nodded.
“You’ve felt it, when you’ve touched no doubt. A spark, a hint of what is to come. The moment you are gifted he will also be and your touch will be toxic to each other. As well as your Kenans both waking so they may kill each other. What you felt then was only part of the power she holds and somehow you kept from killing David but you wonty neext time. She will controle every move you make as his Kenan will controle his and between them there was no love.”

Silence hung in the air as Misa took in what she was being told. She was going to want to kill David the moment she was gifted and there was nothing she could do about it. And even if she did she couldn’t even touch him. Godiva turnned to leave, apparently delivering her.

“Wait, you got all of this off of a few minites of my memory. And why are you not telling David any of this.” Misa felt suspicion rising in her.

“I am very intuitive and I am not going to be the one to tell David that the woman he has fallen in love with will have a urdge to kill him as strong as the urdge to kill her will be, and even if they can get past that he cant even touch her. NO I’m saving that special little job for you darling. My suggestion. Keep it a secret, theres nothing you can do so spend the time with him. You have little more then a week left with him.” She left and Misa was left thinking that maybe she had misgudged Godiva.

She no doubt loved David, but maybe that love let her accept Misa. She may not like her but if David loved her then on a level so did she.

She turnned back to where she knew David to be. There was no time for thinking any more. Not that she would tell him.

She came to his surprised and when he opened his mouth to speack she ended what ever he was going to say with a kiss. She felt the spark of when she touch but now with dread, now she knew what it ment for her and for him, for them.

“I don’t want to be away from you.” She said simply and making him smile. He held her against him for long moments. They stayed that way before she helped him clean up the wreaked libraray. They laughed about what he had done. But they both stopped dead when sirens sounded in the school. David stopped what he ws doing and went to Misa protecttivly standing by her.

“David, whats happened.” Misa could feel it. Sopmething bad had happened.

“I don’t know, but we need to find out and your not leaving my side that for sure. The way you find troble is sure to get you in the middle of what ever this is quicker then I can come to get you out.” She scoffed but let him lead her down the halls. She wondered what could be happening now. She wasn’t sure she could take much more.

A group of gaurds came down the hall running and David caught them and asked what was going on as the siren still blared.

“An attempt on the Council mans life.” Misa felt her heart go still for a moment.

“But it was just an attempt right. Hes not deadis he?” Misa asked holding her breath and when the guard shook his head she was able to let it out. He was alive.

The man had seemed so sweet she wasn’t sure why anyone would try to kill him.

“I’m sorry to do this to you Miss. Kernohan but you were one of the last people seen with him, therfore a suspect of hs attempted murder.

“He is still unconcious as the attempt almost succeded. A guard came in just as the intruder was about to make the final blow.”

Misa let herself yet again be bound by the ties of the gaurds and brought to a room not unlike one that held her hearing. But she wasn’t worried she had spent the time with David and he could testifie for her. Nothing seemed as bad as it was now that she was with David, she felt even bettter then with the high, cause this was real, real happiness. She wasn’t sure what she would do when she couldn’t even be near David with out the urdge to kill him, but she couldn’t let herself speand the remaining time worrying.

She was sat down in one of many seat, many were already filled by people bound similarly. None seemed piticularly worried about themselves but more for the council member which made Misa believe that the criminal was not among them, they had simply gather all the people in the primices.

She saw Mr. Tusume who nodded to her then continued to talk with a guard abou the health of the council member. As well as a disgrunteled looking Godiva. They among with a few other students she recognized filled the chairs. The whispered amongst themselves sometimes throwing a glance at her and David. When a surprised looking Tasha was walked in she gave a questioning smile to msia who started to stand tyo go and talk to her but was throw a hard glance by one of the gaurds.

“David, what would it mean if he died?” Misa said not having to specify who she ment.

“It wouldn’t be good. The council members streangth is in one big pool, when one goes down, it hurts them all. It takes a lot to kill a council member. I think I’m going to ask for some more details. This guy should of been gaurded better then the pope, some one didn’t do their job.” David said angrily and walked away to one of the more in charge looking gaurds. David was almost a good half foot taller then the guy.

He wrung him out untill someone came out of the door of thew room where the injured council man lay.

“He requess David Blackwell and Misa Kernohan quickly. He will only remain concious for a few moments and he still needs to identify his attacker.” Misa cast a glance at David and rose out of her chair and hurridly went into the darkly lite small room where the ouncil man lay on a cot bandaged but looking like death itself.

“Misa, someone here at this school is here to kill you. I imagine they have for a long time now. They placed Raphael among your gaurds and controled him with promises of money and power. Looking at past reports I believe that they have let demons into the school to kill you before any one but them was aware of your power and placed you under special protection. I was close to finding out who it was when I was attacked, I believe for that reason. Even if my attacker is in there, they may not be alone so do not let your guard down.

“You must protect her David and yourself. You both must survive.” He said before he began to cough. A cough that racked your whole body, that ripped your lungs and threw blood up your throat. One that was the very sound of death.

“Send Matthew back in.” Misa assumed that Matthew was the guard and sent him into the room when she left.

The council man was brough out leaning heavily on Matthews shoulders. He looked around the room foucesing on each face intently, it was as if he wasn’t looking at them as much as through them, to there very character and nature to determine if they were his attacker. His eyes widened and he raised his hand.

“You, you tried to kill me.” He said calmly but acusingly with anger lacing his words.

The gaurds were imidiate in action.

“What… you are mistaken. Please reconsider. I am not the man who attacked you. Please reconsider, look again, you can not be sure. Please I beg of you, I am not the man who attacked you!!!” The room was still in shocked silence as they watched Mr. Tusume be carried off as he fought proclaming his innocence to the unyeilding gaurds. It was then that the council man collapsed unconcious and was carried back into the room.

The room was in uproar at what had happened, many of the older people in the room yelled in protest for Mr. Tusume, or Jack as his name was. They said that it couldn’t of been him. They made accounts on his character and when the scence started to get phsical when a middle aged man was shoved by a guard as he was standing to close chaos began to erupt.

David pulled her up and out of the room before either of the could get hurt. She called after Tasha who got up to and was allowed to leave quickly with David and her.

“God it was a riot in there.” Tasha said as the door shut behind them casting the awful noise of yelling and fiughting to a dull muffeled sound.

“I know. I cant believe Mr. Tusume. The Council man must have been wrong. He weak and delerious, they can strictly take his word for it.” Misa said.

“They can and they will if no evidence comes forth he will be convicted and sentanced to death for the attack.” David said simply as if that was just the way it goes.

“That cant happen. Mr. Tusume didn’t do it. He couldn’t of done it.” Misa said shaking her head in dismay.

They couldn’t posibly believe that Mr. Tusume could of tried to kill the council member, yet he was picked out of the crowd. And the council member seemed so sure that he was right. But if Mr. Tusume had wanted her dead, why hadent he just killed her when he first saw her at the dentist office. She headed through the bland halls milling over what had just happened. She tried to calm her brian but with all she had learned about almost everything in her life it was hard to settle down.

She tried to listen to her friends talking about something coming up in the next few days yet she couldn’t fouces on something like that. Her world seemed to be changing . it seemed to beshifting from the life of a normal girl to that of someone whose life was tied to thhousands of others, where matters of extream importance were pushed at her simply because of what she was.

All of a sudden she was against the wall. Her arms pinned above her head. Davids face was inches from hers.

“Tell me what your thinking about.” He said in a whisper his black hair falling in front of his eyes which perfactly reflected her face lost in thought.

She was about to answer when she found herself lost in the darkness of his eyes, losing sight of her own reflection and found herself trying to see past him and into his oldest soul, his Kenan, the one who would try and kill her when they were both gifted.

She tried to feel the sleeping precense through the bond they shared. She felt outward with hewr conciousness and she felt theforboding sense of somehting that wasn’t David, it was colder and filled with hate.

She tried to push forward but that was the moment that David decided to kiss her. She felt the shock and she felt his Kenan stir insid of his. It seemed to hold her there. She couldn’t breath or move. She felt as if a dark coil wa wrapping itself tighter and tighter around her. All of a sudden all she saw was two red eyes bright against the darkness surounding them.

And then they were gone. She was staring at David’s face.

“Misa!” He said alarmed.

“Oh Im sorry, im a little spacy today. Im tierd and I haven't eaten in a while and after all that’s happened. I really just want to go to sleep.” She said hoping that a pile of excuses for her lack of attention was more believeable then one.

She saw as his body slightly stiffened and heard the hardness when he spok.

“Well I guess you should probably get some sleep.” He said turnning around.

“Im not sure if I want to sleep alone.” She said shocked at her own blodness.

He turnned to face her a carful but lustfull look in his eyes.

“But I am sure that I want to sleep and only sleep, just not alone.”

She couldn’t help but have mixed feelings about the look of dissapointment in his eyes. But he came to her anyway putting his arm around her waist making her feel small next to his muscular form. He lead her to his room and away from her own where they both fell on to his bed, which was barely big enough for the both of them.

She had worried on the way there that she might have trouble falling asleep with him, either over worry or over how it might be uncomterable laying next to his as it might be like laying next to a rock with the muscels so tightly coiled around him. But he was warm and the constant rise and fall of his chest lead her to fall asleep.

David was in front of her and they were ion a room she didn’t recognise. He smiled but something was wrong, he looked mean, like a snake ready to strike.

“Finally were alone.” He said coming closer to her.

He grabbed her arm and tried to kiss her but she jerked away, something was so very wrong with him.

“What you don’t want to kiss me. Well then why don’t we just skip to the part Iwas most looking forward to.” He was a blurr as he came at her pinning her to the floor making it impossible for her to move.

She began to scream but he only laughed.

“No one will hear you sweetie.” His eyes began to glow as red as the ones she had seen. This wasn’t David, this was Abaddon.

He brought a long curved sliver knife up and placed it to her throat. She could feel the sharpness of the blad against her skin, the cool metal as it sat at the hollow of her throat. She felt Abaddons weight and his hot breath as he lay on top of her.

His muscels tensed and she knew he was going to cut her throat when she opened her eyes. Again she didn’t know what room she was in, everything was strange and when she turnned only slightly in the strange bed and for a brief moment saw the face that had haunted her dream she screamed.

Chapter************************************************************************

He moved quicker then she thought possible, even for a Pheno. His hand clasped around a blade that she had made him put on the night stand instead of under his pillow like he wanted. She was sure she was going to cut her self in the middle of the night.

His eyes landed on her and in the same sleep fill dis orentation put the knife to her throat. It felt all to familiar, the feel of the blade against her throat, the ferocity in his gaze. He realized seconds later who it was he held the knife to and quickly pulled back.

“Im sorry, you woke me with such a start, Im not use to waking up with people n my bed.” He was breathing heavily, and his hand was still clenched to the handle of the knife his knuckles white from the strain. He noticed and quickly put the blad back on the table and then turnned to her his eyes worried and confused.

“Why did you scream.”

Misa’s heart still pounding from the excitement/terror/dream couldn’t force her brain to think ofma good enough lie so she decided to tell as much of the truth as she could.

“I had a nightmare.”She said not caring about how childish it seemed.

“I was being killed.. byy Raphael.” She said scrambling for a name besides his to say. She was pleased with how well it fit.

“Raphael is dead. You killed him. You know that.” He said coming closer to try and comfort her.

“I know, its just the dream seemed so real. I could feel the knife on my throat.”

“There was a knife to your throat, well that must have been interesting to wake up and have you nightmare in real life.” He said with almost a chuckle but all she could think was that he didn’t even know that half of it.

“Come over here, your as white as snow.” He said.

She found he back was against the wall and she was as far as she could get away from David while still being on the bed. She forced herself to come closer to him although her body screamed to get away from hinm, the dream had seemed so real that nesteled in her mind among her other memories she held to be true she could almost forget that it had been just a dream.

He put his arms around her and held her to his chest. Her head fit perfectly in the crook of his neck. She could hear his steady heart beat in his chest and she wondered if he would chak her racing heart beat to the nightmare.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“OK,” She said pushing away and looking into his eyes trying to seem intemidating.

“If Im going to be spending so much time with you I want to learn how to fight. Im doing well in combat class But its nothing to what I could learn if you taught me. People are always trying to hurt me and I can do little more than hope someone else is there to help me. Or of course threaten the lives of all the people who reside in the state of ew York.” I said standing off the bed.

David was rolling his eyes, and I felt annoyance crep up in me.

“Yes but now I ill always be there.” He said leaning against the bed his shirt becoming tight against his chest and his hair perfectly messy.

“David, why don’t you want me to learn how to protect myself.” I said in an hurt voice trying to persuade him.

“I do, its just, Im not sure if you have learned enough of the basics to start with the more extream stuff. Plus we will have plenty of time later, when your gifted.”

Misa felt the hair on the back of her neck as she thought about the gifting and what it entailed. She shook her head.

“Im a fast learner. I want to be as good as you when the gifting comes. Who know what danger there could be there.” She wanted to be no weaker then him, and no stronger. If they were evenly matched in this state mayb e when their Kenan took over they would be to evenly matched to hurt eachother.

“I guess there is no persuading you otherwise. Maybe I’ll just show you what its like to go against someone who has been fighting for many years, to go against the best.” He said with a cocky smile.

Misa wanted to laugh dispite the fact that he was not the only one who claimed he was the best she couldn’t help but almost drown in his ego that was filling in the small room.

He climbed out of the bed and came over to where she stood. They both stood a little was from eachother and took the stance that she had learned in combat class. The space in this room was much small then the one she was use to fighting in. yet she had to learn to fight anywhere. She was sure that if someone wanted to hurt her they would be like oh, maybe we should take this outside, don’t want to break anything.

He moved and she was able to expertly doged. He had tried to sweep her off her feet, yet amazingly she had seen the way his eyes flickered to where she was standingf, she had seen his muscels tighten before they moved that gave her just a few seconds to move. She ad jumped as he had swept at her feet. But even as she landed he was recovered from his attempt.

He was gone from her sight, she felt him behind her, he was going to grab her. She knew it was to late to turn but she was confident that she could get out of the hold. He did as she thought and wrapped her arms around her stomac but in the moment she was going to try to get out she felt a shock.

Like everytme they touched, yet this was like an eletric shock surging through her body. It took her to much of a surprise to let her scream, her vision flashed and she saw her vision again, the very second where Abaddon killed Saphera.

She ame back to hewr senses and was still being held by David. She sliod to the ground, losing the streangth to stand on her own two feet.

She heard David saying somehting but everything she heard semed muffeld. She was lain on the ground and the cool of the ground helped her fouces on what was happening.

“Misa, are you ok?” he asked his face like stone.

He lifted the bottom of her shirt and they weree both shocked as they found a bruise across her ribs, she knew it had come from the energy he had let go during their fight. She knew he hadnt even known he was doing it. He still didn’t know as he looked at the ugly bruise that he had caused it. He looked at her his face calm thought she saw a strom in his eyes.

“How did you get this?” asked in a voice to calm.

She couldn’t tell him, they he had given it to her just now. He didn’t know he was Postel, and he already hd reservations about his power, that he had decided to never get gifted.

“I got it in combat class, I fell heavily on the back of a chair. It was a dumb accident.” She said trying to sit up. She felt a flash of pain and wondered if her ribs were hurt. But she was able to mask the discomfert.

David dint look like her totally believe her story, yet as far as he knew, she had no reason to lie. She shivered know that his energy was stronger when he was around her, and she knew that if hers wasn’t bound somewhere deep in her mind, hers would be as well. There was also the fact that they were getting so close to the gifting, so both of their energies were getting restless, like living beings being held inside a cage they were becoming edgy.

She knew she couldn’t hurt him as her power for the moment was bound by her own subconcious, yet his was free and exceedingly dangerous.

“This is why I didn’t want to trin with you. I knew that I would hurt you. You just are not ready for this kinda of thing. Just give it time.” He said pulling her shirt back down.

Misa nodded and then managed to stand up, she had to act like she had before the bruise along her ribs since she had supposidly gotten it a while ago. Even thought it looked ugly and new.

“I think I should go, tasha is probably really wondering where I am.” She said giving him a reassuring smile.

He nodded thought clearly didn’t buy the excuse to leave but he let her walk out with out any questions. She walked out into the hall, she leaned heavily against the wall and took a couple of deep breaths. Somehow she managed to stay upright as the pain in her chest got worse.

Walking was getting harder and harder and she couldn’t get her lungs to take a good breath. She fell against the wall and tried to catch her breath. She was so confused, what was happening.

She saw someone in the hall she really didn’t care who it was, she just needed their help. They ran towards her as she was obviously in distress. She found it was Luke.

“God Misa what happened.” He tried to look for injuries but he found none.

“I have to take you to David.” he said picking her up like she weighted nothing more then a pillow.

“No,” She horsly cakeled out.

“Godiva.” She said finding the effort to talk brought a lot of pain from her chest.

“No, shes too far away, Im sure David will know what to do.” He started walking the way she had come, but she coudnt let David see her like this. He would know something was very wrong, and he would ask to many questions to hide that he had done this.

“Luke, please,” She said as the pain started to increase again, it felt like it was spreading out.

Luke looked down at her, severly conflicted but he turnned and began to run. They passed barely any people which she was very greatful for. It seemed to take a small eternity to get to Godiva’s door.

Luke didn’t knock, but just pushed the door aside and went in.

“HOW DARE-,” Godiva seemed furious with the sudden intrusion untill she saw Misa.

“Here, put her here, she pointed at a long wooden table.

She went quick to her many shelves and pullled out a small bottle and came over.

“Where is it.” Godiva asked leaning over her.

Misa looked over to Luke, she was thankful for him being her yet she didn’t want him to know more then he had to. Godiva seemed to understand.

“Luke I need you to get out. But don’t leave this hall way I might need you assistance. “

Luke looked reluctant to leave her, but with a sharp look from Godiva he turnned and left. It was then that Misa pointed to her stomac. Godiva lifted the shirt, Misa heard her make a sharp gasp. She quickly unscrewed the cap of the bottle and put something that looked like vasaline and smelled like gas and spoiled milk and  rosemaerry onto the bruise.

The pain was gone almost as soon as she put the gell on her skin. She was soon done and Misa was able to sit up and move with littlemore then some sorness.

“Godiva what happened to me.” Misa asked.

“I honestly didn’t think it would happen this fast.” She said running her fingers throught her hair in a nervous way.

Misa hadnt seen Godiva flustered many times, but she never like it when she was.

“What, what didn’t you think would happen this fast?” Misa pressed desperatly needing to know.

“With both of t=you energies spiking, and with your being the only one properly contained ill effects were bound to happen. I wasn’t lying when I said you wouldn’t be able to touch each toher when you were gifted. It will be like this but much worse and with the slightest touch. The slav I put on you nuterlizes any energy, I wouldn’t have used it on you had your powers not been well bound or it could pose a very serious danger for you.

“When every David’s emotions run high, everytime he touches you this will happen and it will only get worse the closer we get to the gifting. Keep the slav you are probably going to need it much more in the upcomming days.” She said.

She was about to leave when Godiva meet her at the door.

“Misa I think I should make it extreamly obvious that certain activities with David would be highly unrecomended.” She said intently.

Misa felt heat rise to her cheeks and nodded. She pulled the door open, the slav in her pocket and was surprised to find Luke still there until she remembered that Godiva had asked him to stay.

“What the hell just happened.” Luke asked

“”Hey luke, I just hurt myself trying to train.” She said hoping the using the same lie she had used with David would help.

“Well that’s bullshit. Tell me what actually happened.” He said bluntly.

“Look, Luke I just hurt myself training. It happenes.” She said walking past him.

“Fine don’t tell m the truth but I’ll just find it out from David, you were with him wernt you.” Misa felt panic rise in her chest.

“Luke, please don’t tell David about this. Please Luke I need you to keep this between us.” She said turnning to him pleadingly.

He seemed at a lose for words. He sighed raising his hand in defeat.

“Sure what the hell. Ill just keep secrets from my best friend that concern his girlfriend, this will end great.” Misa could hear the heavy sarcasm in his voice, thought she was pretty sure that he would keep this secret.

“Can I ask you another thing.” Msia said getting an idea.

“Sure whats just one more thing.” He said.

Chapter &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

They stood in the spacy room, she had two days before school started again, she would try and learn as much as she could in this weekend.

“Look, if you are going to learn anything from me training you, I cant hold back because I’m worried your going to get hurt. In our world girls are treated the same as guys, they egt bruises they get hurt. Im going to have to hit you becausean enemy will to.” He said gaurdedly.

Misa nodded, she knew that she would probably not leave this room feeling to good. And she was very very right.

After two hours of constant practice Msia felt battered and worn. She had small brusies all along her body from where she had been thrown to the ground or hit. But she felt good, she knew that their was probably not enough time between now and the gifting, but she was tierd of feeling helpless in every respect. She was glad to be doing something about it.

She thanked Luke who only had a couple of brusis from her lucky shots, but he seemed to only share a fraction of the excitement that she did.

“I was glad to help. I just wish I knew what I was helping you with.” He said as she was about to leave.

“Your helping me learn how to fight.” She said as if it was obvious trying to skirt around what she really knew he was asking.

“Yea but why, why all of a sudden do you have such a desire to learn to fight. And what happened to day. Why couldn’t I tell David what happened to you. Even delerious and sick with pain you kept that thought stuck in your head. Don’t tell David.” He sounded pleading.

She could tell he desperatly wanted to know, but she couldn’t take the chance that he would tell David. Because if he knew she knew he would get as far from her as possible, but they would both have to get gifted for the sake of so many lives. And he would find his way back to her and her to him, even if was only to slit eachothers throats. He would just be postponning the inevadable.

“I just cant tell you. Just trust me. It for everyones own good.” She knew the words sounded weak but there was nothing else she could do or say. In the end it was alll up to Luke if he wanted to tell or not.

She walked away having nothing else to try and persuade him. She just desperatly hopped that he was curious enough to keep it a secret for just a little longer.

Misa made her way back to David. He was in the weapons room. At the moment she walked in he held a gleaming blade in his hand as long as her legs. She knocked cautiously not wanting to scare him.

“Nice sword,” Misa said and he turnned to look at her.

“Hey,” he said putting down the blade, “Love hearing that.” He said smiling.

She shook her head but smiled at his humor.

“Your sick,” She said wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him feeling an eletric shock that seemed to be getting more intense with the passing hours.

When they pulled away, she made sure she still held the bottle of the slav in her pocket and like a lumpy cell phone it was still there.

“So was tasha happy to see you.” He said turnning back to the gallent array of weapons oin fornt of them.

Misa wanted to slap herself as she thought of Tasha. She had been gone almost an entire day and Tasha had no idea what was happening with her.

“Yea she had a lot of questions, but I said we only slept. Id don’t think she believed me.” Msia said with a shrug.

David turnned with a gleam in his eye.

“There are rumors all around the school. How about we make them true.” He said his hand at the small of her back pulling her to his chest.

“How about,” She said sliding out of his arms, “you tone down the testosteron.”

She took a step back from him. She let the metal shelves take her full attenton. She glanced over the metal stars which made her back ache at the memory of their bite. She shuttered and opted to pick up a knife about as long as her forarm. It had intricate patterns like groves all along the blade of the weapon.

Every line would end into another forming a seemlessly endless patern all the way to the very tip.

“It where the weapon take our energy. The blade then becomes even more expessialy dangers. Even a touch from the energy filled weapon will send a deamon back to the hell in which it came.” He said his eyes glazing over the weapon longingly.

He would be able to do that soon, did he feel it was worth it. He would lose her yet he would be without a doubt the best fighter there ever was. She shook her head, she couldn’t fouces herself on those things. She put the blade back on the metal shelves and sighed.

“there is so much I don’t know. I have so much to play catch up on, a life time I never knew. It impossibly daugting to think what I have to learn,” She said sadly.

“Its not that much, pluse you should be able to learn through experiances. I could take you to my friend’s Brian’s house. He’s dark fey, which some people think are all bad but its just the few horribal ones that have to be put down that give the whole race a bad name. Sure fey are shifty creatures that are not to be trusted, but that goes for light or dark, its in their nature.”

“Yet where he lives, its beautiful. He lives back in the woods someplace. Hes surrounded by these daunting trees that make you just feel so small  and your problems slip away because next to the trees and under the stars your worries your wold are so odly insugnificant. It releaving to think that in the grand schem of things you don’t matter.”

“Wouldn’t that be sad?” Misa asked.

“Maybe, yet it take so many responsibilities away. It makes you feel that you should do what ever make s you happy cause no one else will.

“And theres this pond, its so deep that the surface is always black even in the day, but at night its like a mirror for the sky, every star shines so brightly on it and the moon looks an exploding star its so bright. And sometimes you see a face staring back at you, as still as stone just staring at you. And you know that if you never moved that it would stay there staring back into yor eyes for eternity. Yet the moment you blink the face I gone and all you see is your own staring back.

“Along the side of the pond there are flowers as white as white as coulds and the petals as soft as silk, and when the dew gets caught on the flowers it looks like frozen dimonds.”

David paused a moment his gaze far away coming back to the room they were in and finding her face.

“The place reminds me of you. You have those drops of water in your eyes that glitter like frozen dimods, and your skin is soft like the petals and perfactly white. And when I look into your eyes I feel that if I was allowed to I would never look away, I would just keep looking at you for eternity.” He said raising his hand to touch her cheek, yet he held it there,  a hairs breath from her skin but he never touched her.

He pulled his arm away and turned and in a moment qucker then Misa could find her voice and voice her concern he was gone. Dissapeared from the room and rounded the corrner out of sighgt.

She leaned back against the shelves sighing. Hat the hell had just happened. She ran her fingers through her hair and decided to head back to her room.

CHAPTER^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“Finally she returns, after the tiral I didn’t see hide or hair of you. Hesus where have you been, I haven't seen you in forever. Where were you last night, or more importantly who were you with. Please tell me you wernt studying in the library and just fell asleep or had a late night training session and decided to just sleep over, unless your little sleep over was with someone hot and interesting.” Tasha seemed done.

“I spent the night with David.” Misa wanted to say more but there was no chance.

“OH MY GOD!! You did not, your making this up. Oh my god. This is so amazing. Are you giys together are you guys going to the dance together. OH my god, just wow. He hasn’t been with anybody for at least a year, and not for alck of tyring on the girls part. He proably had to turn down five girls a day and pretty ones to.” Misa thought that if she let her, Tasha might keep talking forever.

“Not like that. We just wanted to spend time with each other. It was strictly sleeping.”

Tasha seemed to pause for the new information and think about it. Misa wondered if she was dissapointed. Not that it really mattered, it was her life after all.

“What are you dissapointed that the night was filled with the sounds of snoring.” Misa said.

“No actually, I think its cooler. See if you would of slept with him, he might of only liked you for that. But no you guys are really together. Not many guys just want to spend time with girls expessially alone in the dark at night in a bed.”

“I know he want more from me then just a night.” She said reliving their conversation before her trial.

“Oh do tell.” She said taking a seat across from me.

I sat down and began to tell her what he had said summed up as a lot of it was personal.

“Wow, that’s so beautiful. I didn’t think he could be so romantic, he always seemed to much of a player to really be in love. Yet I guess if you meet the right girl then anything can change.”

Yea the right girl, just so happened to be the ones that going to kill him or he’s going to kill her. What a perfect pair.

“Ok well enough about your love life. How excited are you for next week.” She paratically bouncing.

“I don’t know why should I be excited.”

She stopped bouincing and like a kid with a popped ballon she frowned.

“Your kidding right, you have heard of what the gifting week is about.” She said making Misa feel less knowledgeable then a 2 year old which she proably was.

“No,” msia said apologetically.

“Well your going to be so impressed cause you have like no expectations so let me set them for you. The first night is simple, we go see some premiring badass movie. But the next night we get acting Phenos and they use their energies like physically making shapes and dancing and then they do a quick mock battle where they fight. So cool.

“Then the next day is fire works, beautiful really. Then the carnival and the last day we all have a dance in this special room. No one knows what happens bacause your not allowed to talk about it but it’s the night you get gifted.” Tasha said looking out into the distance as if she could imagine it all happening in front of her.

But then something brought her back down to earth.

“Oh you still don’t have a dress do you. And Im sure that they wont let you out of the school, short of it burning to the ground. Well you can just wear one of mine.”

Misa looked sceptically at her perfect figrure. Tasha was a good half a foot shorter then her and had a perfect body with a large bust almost the exact opposite of Misa.

Mis doubted that they would both be able to fit in anything. But she smiled and nodded to make Tasha happy. Misa felt that she would have most of the night free. She got up from the bed.

“Hey I got to go. I’m meeting up with someone.” Misa said as she walked to the door.

She felt that she hadnt spent enough time with Tasha, but with her world shifting so endlessly it was hard tomake time for anything but plans to survive, weather it was studying or fighting. Tasha came over and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hold. The kind that makes you think they might never let go.

“Tasha I’m gonna be back, I promise.” Misa said.

“You know you can tell me everything and anything, I know you wont but you can. And I will be there for you, even when its not easy.” Tasha said.

She looked sad nad serious.

“Tasha,” Misa said carefully, she wanted to reassure her, yet she didn’t know from what.

“No, go. Your going to be late, for whoever your meeting up with. And you don’t want that, expessially if it’s a little randevue with David.” She said almost pushing her out the door.

Misa found herself halfway into the hall and the door closed behind her. Misa wondered if tasha knew about her and David or if she knew something else. But what else was there.

She walked thropugh the school, through common rooms filled with the students she saw in her class talking laughing some making out and she felt distant.

Did she miss what she had, her normal and calm life. She knew she missed her family and her friends. The fact that she always felt like an outsider here didn’t help. But would she go back when she was gifted, if she managed to work out things with David after it was all done.

She still didn’t know. She had made friends, Tasha, Miss.C, Adam, Luke and even Godiva in a way had become her friend. She couldn’t just leave them either. She looked up and she was in the cafateria, mostly deserted due to the late hour.

She missed her mothers food. She knew that much for sure. It had always made her feel better. She didn’t know if that was because it tasted so good or if it was just because it made her feel so wanted. She could see her mothers face and felt her stomac ache as she imagined the pain she must be going through.

“Hey there.” Said a voice from behind her.

They wrapped there arms around her, gentaly pinning hers to her body.

“What are you doing here so late.” David asked his mouth against her ear.

“Well I am in the cafateria and you made me miss lunch dinner and breakfast. Im starved.” Misa said smiling.

“I did. I’m a horribal person. But Im definatly not going to make it up to you by letting you eat the school food.”

He grabbed her hand and lead her deeper into the kitchen. She hadnt thought that the school food was all that bad. It was actually like eating at a hotel everyday.

“Well then what are we going to eat, because I do not believe that we will be allowed to leave the primasis.”

She dreaded even the thought of leaving the school as it seemed like every time she did only destruction could result from it.

“Nope, you see I’m going to cook for you.” He said letting go of her hand and placing a apren on.

The image made her want to laugh.
“What you don’t think I look good in an apron. I think its sexy.” He said looking down at himself.

“And only you would.” She said shaking her head.

He winked and then turnned to search for different pots and foods. She soon began to hear thing sizzeling and her stomac made a loud growl. David only laughed without even turnning to her.

He mixed more things together that she couldn’t see and the smell became complex, it was smoky with a spice in it and she could definatly smell bacon. She fidgetted as she sat in a nearby chair waiting to see what he would creat.

She was worried that he really wasn’t a good cook and she would have to pull through this dinner without scaring his precious ego.

But she had confidence in him if not only because of the delicious smell. When the sounds of cooking had cleared away she looked up and saw that David was before her his arms behind his back.

“Vlose your eyes,’ he instructed.

“Why,” Misa asked.

“Because.” Misa could tell this she wasn’t going to win this one.

She shut her eyes and she heard the clink of a plate as it hit the table. She waited patiently to be able to open her eyes.

“Ok now open your mouth.”

She sighed but did as she was instructed. He placed a bite of food in her mouth and told her not to open her eyes till she was done. She began to chew and it was the most amazing food. It tasted like ham over a very moist and tasty rice with the most amaxing sauce in the entire world.

When she was done she opened her eyes and looked at the petite dish in froint of her. It was slices of ham resting on rice with a orange sauce over it.

“it was amazing.” She said wanting more, yet she could find a fork. She thought about using her fingers yet the embarrasment stopped her.

“Ok, then, I guess I can return your fork then.” He said placing her fork in fornt of her.

She dug wanting to scarf it all down, yet the food seemed to demand to be tasted. She paused with each bite even thought her hunger seemed unstopable to taste it all. When it was gone, she felt sad it had left and surprisingly full.

“I cant believe you can cook.”Misa said incredously.

“What am I not a good chef.” He said in mock hurt knowing damn well he was a great chef.

“No you just don’t strike me as the homey type.” She said honestly.

He seemed more ready to fight in a war, to kill a werewolf then to cook dinner for the kids.

She paused in her thought, she had thought of him as a dad. That was a little far streached, she had barely known his for ahalf a year. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

“What,” he asked with a smile.
“just thinking about you in the apren.” She said quickly.

“Oh, well I do look pretty amazing in it, yet I don’t think that’s what was going on in your impossible mind.” He sared intently at her as if she held the key to the world.

“No it wasn’t,” she admitted.

“Tell me.” He said.

“Or not.” Msia retorted.

“Tell me or I wont cook ou anything ever again.” He said threatingly.

“Oh well we cant have that.” She said in mock horror. But he only waited patiently.

“Finr, I was thinking that you always seem so ready to fight. To kill and protect something for a war its hard to see you as anything else. As anything lasting. You act like you are so ready to die, to give up the world around you so easily.” She said truthfully.

David sat there silent for a minute. He seemed lost in thought, like he might be in another world from here.

“Yea, I do. I was. I had nothing to live for, I had murdered most of my family and sentanced all that was left to remian in an unchaning coma for an undefind amount of time. What was I to this world to any body but something that took up space.

“I could of died of mabye been able to see my family yet they would only hate me for what I had done but at least I wouldn’t do more damage.”

Misa didn’t know what to say. Theres nothing she could say that would change anything. She tried to say how he did mean something to a lot of people yet he cut her off.

“That changed thought. It changed about a year ago cause then I saw this girl. And there was nothing I coiuld do to get her out of my head. She was what I thought about when I let my mind wander even thought I had only seen for such a short amount of time.”

Misa wondered who it was that had changed his life so much.

“It was killing me to have her in my head, so I took any job near the place where I had first seen her. And who would of thought that this one job where I was asked to protect this girl. To become her gaurdian that it would be the girl that was in my head. That it would be you.”

“David.” She said feeling as if her cheeks might catch fire from the heat.

“David I’m not that important. You mean so much to so many more people then me. You have a world of people who would be the same with out you.”

“Yet you are the only one that matters.” He said his eyes seeming to pierce right throiugh her.

He fiannly looked away.

“My mom was the one who taught me how to cook. She said that food could make anyone feel batter no matter what. So when ever I was sad or angry she would always make food, dounghnuts soup anything.

“It got to the point where I either had to stop getting upset or be the fatest little kid you ever saw.

I laughed trying to invision a little avid as chubby as could be. It was humeous at the least.

“I think you would be adorable. But if you keep making food like this I’m the one whose going to get fat.”

“Well we cant have that,” He said and took the plate of food away.

“hey, give that back.” I said getting up and trying to get the food from him, but he was taller and I couldn’t reach the plate.

“So you just like me for my body.,” I said still groping for the food just out of my reach.

“Well that’s certainly one of the things I like about you.”

He took the arm that wasn’t busy holding the food and wrapped it around her wasist pulling her closer making her forget about her quest for the plate and she jus looked at him. She felt his steady heartbeat, he put his lips on hers. It was amazing at first, but as she felt his heart start to race she felt the black burning coming over her.

She pulled away, and turnned sure that her lips held the black color of the burnned bruise. It was getting worse, they had a week starting today untill the gifting, a week to be with eachother, a week for her to learn how to stay alive.

“ I got to go,” I said going to the room and shuting the door. I found the cream and put it on my lips and the burning stopped.

I sighed and sat on the bed, I heard a plate being thrown into the sink hard enough that I was sure it was broken. I knew he was mad and confused. If I wouldwould have beenI would have been confused to, one moment we were holding eachother the next I was running away like he was the plague.

I looked into a small mirror on his wall and found that etheir was still a slightly black mark on my lips. I pulled out colored lips gloss from my pocket and covered up the blueish black of the mark and walked out of the room.

“I’m sorry.” I said to David as he was hunched ove the sink.

“For what it’s not your fault I’m-“ he cut himself off from what he was going to say.

“theres an event that’s happening tonight. For the week before the bonding. It’s a movie, I thought you woul want to go with me, a little of the normal world that your used to.”

“Like a date?” I asked carfully as he seemed to be avoiding the word.

“Yea like a date,” he said finally turning around to face me.

“Yea I would love to go.”

David smiled, but it seemed weak. I saw red and relized that David had cut his palm, probably trying to clean up the broken plate. I was distracting. He was in a world where being a second to slow would end your life and he was to upset to pick up the pieces of a broken plate without cutting himself.

“I’ll pick you up at seven in your room.” He said trying to sound light.

I turnned and left the room.

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School was useless, the kids were to distracted to focues and the teachers seemed to have anticipated this and gave us simple work even by my standards. I talked with tasha, catching up on the lost time. I realized to what extent I had missedd her in these past weeks where my life had taken a turn.

After school tasha, Adam, Luke and Damion and me just stayed in mine and tasha’s room. We talked about the crazy rumors that had filled the school about me and David and I told them that they were all false but I felt that they had trouble believeing my.

“It’s true, we haven't done anything.” I said feeling heat come to my cheeks under their gaze.

I looked at the time and found it was only 5 o clock.

“Luke do you want to go train for a little bit before the movie?”: I asked hopping that he would say yes.

He paused a moment ane nodded. Tasha gave me a long annoyed gaze and I gave her a pleading one. What could I do, I had to train/. I left with Luke and we both made our way to the training jym. Sudenly he stopped.

“OK, why do you want to all of a sudden want to train with me. We both know that David is the best out their, why not learn from him.”

“He doesn’t want me to learn.he doesn’t want me involved to much in this part of his life. He wants to keep me safe and hidden. But he doesn’t understand. I am a postle, there will always be people who want to hurt me. It better if I know how to defend myself, David wont always be there.” I said surprised at the last part and so was Luke.

“Why wouldn’t he always be there Misa. I’m pretty sure he loves you weather he has said it or not yet. I don’t think he would leave you even if all of hell came down on you too.”

“Just please train me, and try to keep it a secret plase. I promise that I will tell you soon why all of this is necessary.” I’m not going to have to tell him, it will be plain enough in about 6 days.

We training, I was demolished, yet I felt I had done better then last time. I was a fast learner when I had to be, I just wondered if I was fast enough.

Six thirty came fast, and I was glad. I was exhausted by the time it did. I made my way back to the room and Luke went back to his. He was taking a girl and he also had to get ready, thought I wasn’t really sure what guys did to get ready.

I took a shower the moment I got in the room relieved that Tasha was done with aplication of make up. I dryed off and went to my closet to pick out clothes. I had a simple selection. But I chose some jeans that fit well and a semi tight plaid shirt. It looked a little country but I was ok with the over all semi dressed up feel. I heard the knock on my door and finished up by puttingmy hair in a ponytail and walking over to answer it.

David was leaning on the edge, and when he saw me he smiled and looked me up and down, in a way that made heat rise on my cheeks. He himself was in jeans also with a black shirt that was loose but some how showed he lean bosy by its simplisity. I wanted to take the shirt off just to see what lay beneath.I shooK my head and cleared my thoughts.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded and he gave me his arm. I laughed as I took it.

“I guess chivalry isnt dead.”

We walked down the halls like that. Arm in arm untill we got oiutside. There were busses in which most of the students wer filling onto. I started that way, but David stopped me.

“No we get our won car to ourselves.” He said in a low and insinuating voice that made goosebumps rise on my arms.

The radio was playing and I had a good time just listening to the music and leaning against David as we followed the buss to the desired location. It was about 20 25 minutes till arival.

We all piled into the movie theater. It was the first primear and I found that not even a simple movie was simple, this movie was not to primear to the general audience for another 2 months.

It was an action film, It was mostly pg 13, yet there were a few scence that were inappropriate but hey, half us were supposivly going to die in a week who really cared. We all got unlimited popcorn  wich I took advantage of. I leaned back against David his arm wrapoping aound me as the lights darkened and the movie began. I loved the normalcy of the whole situation how it actually felt like a real date.

                           *

IThe night was fun, I remembered it as I lay in my own bed staring at the celing. If only life could be like this all the time simple and easy. He had walked me back to my room and kissed me and I managed not to be burned by his touch, I was so thakfull I wasn’t the one to pull away that time and that I didn’t have to add another brusie looking mark to my collection that was acumilating all over me. I fell asleep thinking of him.

I woke to a alarm and smiled as I realised I had a dreamless night. The day was the same as the day beofre, simple school, time with friends training and the even this night was a play produced by the Phenos themselves. Some have the ability to control the physical representaion of their element so she and David got to watch an exhibit of water, fire, earth and wind manipulation into beatuiful shape and designs.

She walked home with he friends who were still abuzz with the dispays they had seen. She noticed something moving among the darkness and with David stiffing beside her she knew he did to. He pulled out a short knife and throwing stars she didn’t even know he had. Luke saw David and looked ready to change at any moment. Tasha pulled out a longer blade and Misa was wondering where these people all kept therse things hidden. She again had nothing to defend herself because unlike her friend she didn’t see how it was possibly to hide a foot lkong sword on you persons. David handed her one of his knifes.

She began to walk forward with David at her side while the others stayed ready to go after him if he decided to run. The walk up to the tree where they were sure he had gone behind. Misa barley heard what sounded like a brezze rustling the leaves before sdomething dropped infront of her.

Her instincts were in action and she went to cut the object with the knife untill the attackers face became apparent. It was the face from her nightmares come to living life. It was David, but he looked cruel and menacing, his face twisted into a snarl and his eyes as red as blood.

He went out and with a clawed hand grabbed her by the throat and pulled her against him making her drop the knife.

“David!” she screamed.

He came in seconds in front of her and stopped looking only a little startled by seeing his doppleganger in front of him holding her by the throat.

“Hello pretty, nice to see you again in person this time.” He hissed into her ear, sounding errily like David.

“I could kill you right now and watch him break, watch as you precious David witness the life seep out of you and the hopes of everyone allong with it. It would finally break The David, it would kill him from the inside.”

Misa began to think and suddenly she under stood and she formed as plan. She had been in this same position with Luke countless time and she had never gotten out sucessfully, but she knew how.

1. She smashed her head aaginst his causing him to hiss in pain and blood like substance tio come from his nose.
2. She dropped down wincing as his claws scaraped her neck deeply as she did mixing his blood with hers.
3. She picked up her knife and before David managed to kill the creature she slit the tendons that kept him standing and made him fall as a knife sliced the air where he was standing.

“Don’t kill him,” She screamed at David as he was poised to throw another knife.

He gave her a look as if she was insane and so did the Luke, tasha and Adam.

“He was the one who tried to kill the counsel member. Not Mr. Tusume, he is a shape shifter is he not.”

As if in response the shriking creature morphed into its original form of a scaly creature with a greenish tinge and spike jutting out from its body periodically covered in a black liquid. But balck liquid seeped from its face and its legs.

“We need him to prove that Mr. Tusume is innocent.”

David sighed.
“Your right, but I don’t like it. I don’t care how much it looked like me, I don’t want anything but me to ever touch you.”

“Well that could be misconstrued as obsesivly possesive.” Tasha said as her, Luke and Adam came forward.

We managed to carry him into the school, where officals took the body from us and we spent the rest of the night sitting and being question and then sitting some more. Untill they were done with us and we were sent back to our room like children.

“How can they not involve us in the case. We were the ones who found him. How can they just telll us to go away like weresome six year old child who has gotten in trouble.” I said fuming.

“calm down, they are going to have to let us know how the case works out sooner then most since we provided this you know slightly important piece of eveidence.” Tasha said.

“Or they could keep us in the dark till the vary end cause were not old enough to be trusted.” Luke pitched in.

Mis rolled her eyes. David had stayed behind to find out more about what was happening since he was above the age of 20 and a certified gaurdian.

Tasha and Misa made their way back to their room watching carfully still on edge form the fight no matter how breif it was. They setteled in to sleep But Misa found that a hard thing to acomplish after the excitement.

She was out of her bed the moment she heard an almost unaudabile knockng at her door. She saw Tasha stir at the noise thanks to her training and Misa hurried to see who was at the door. She looked through the peep hole and saw a distorted David on the other side. She opened the door.

“Is that why you keep pulling away, why for the past few days you’ve been acting like you could barley stand my touch.”

Misa was taken back for a second untill she was able to recall what he was talking about. He must think that the resaon she has been pulling away from him was because of the demon doppleganger that has been haunting her dreams.

Misa nodded taking the explination as her own. She could almost feel his heart hammering against his chest, so when he reach out for her she knew that the moment his skin was going to touch hers it would burn fiercly. She pulled away almost in reflex.

“You don’t understand. It weas so realy, I just need some time. I cant stand not being around you, but I have to get him out of my head. I have to egt the images of you, of him hiurting me out of my head. Please understand.” She pleaded.

She watched as reliefe filled him at finally having an explination for what was happning between them even if it wasn’t the truth.

“I thought…” He said but let the words drift away.

“It doesn’t matter what I thought, I was wrong. I can give you time, I can give you that.” He said looking like he wanted to embrace her but thankfully kept himself back.

Misa paused, shocked that she could find herself liying so convincingly to a man that she presumably loved. How could she go from a girl who could hide nothing from her friends or family, a girl whose riskest things she had ever done was illegaly download music to being a someone who lied to every one she cared about and hiding secrets that would change her world from prople they most involved.

For the first time she thought not about how she was going to go back home, but if she she couls, she was a different person, how could she go back to her same life with her same friends and family after all that had happened.

“Thank you.” She said hoping that she look gratful even though she just felt sad.

When she closed the door she felt tierd and older as if that encounter had taken years away from her. She walked to the bathroom and stared back at her same reflection. Remacably unchanged from the time she got her. There were scratches along her neck but the slave that she had been given would make it sdo they didn’t even leave a scar.

How could she look the same but feel so impossibly different. She turned off the light and went to sleep finding it easy to drift off as she was sure no demons lay among her dreams. But he was wrong, she dreamed of a different sort of deamon. She was back at her home town, but her friends just stared at her with contempt and a touch of fear.

“You left,” they said in unison, “You left us to die.”

“And now you come back stained with blood of your sins.”

“You have to listen to me,” Misa shriecked, “Please, I didn’t want to leave you. I never forgot you. I always wondered and worried about you.

Misa found that she was covered in blood, that her finger tips were dripping the scarlet liqid onto a white flood. The blood dripped more and more untill she was beging drowned in the liquid with her friends dead and floating in the liquid their empty eyes staring back at her.

She woke up as the alarm clock shreiked causeing her to jump and hury to turn it off. She tried to make her heart slow as it was going so fast it ached from the strain. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes focusing on slowing her heart beat. 10 miutes later when the alarm clock rang again she was calm enough not to jump at the sound and she opened her eyes.

She went throught the day in a haze, she heard their was a bonfire going on tonight, but she decided that she would skip it and just rest. Her friends tried to persuade her but she was so tierd.

She laid down on her bed and tried to shut her eyes, but she found that when she id, all she cxould see was the image of her friends floating in the pool of blood. When she heard a knock at the door. She sighed wondereing what Tasha or Luke had forgotten and she got up and answered the door.

But it wasn’t Tasha or Luke at the door but David, carrying a book and a candle.

“We’ll have our own little bonfire, he said making his way in. She was about to protest that she just wanted to sleep even thought sha doubted she would find any.

“Don’t start, I’m ok with you sleeping, I brought stories. Isnt that what your people do to make someone fall asleep?” he asked holding out the book.

Misa almost laughed at the idea of him reading her a story till she fell asleep. But she wondered what story he brought, it was probably one of war which she was sure would not help her on her mission to sleep.

“David I really don’t think-“

“Don’t think then, just sit back and listen to my soothing voice.”

He lead her to her room and to her bed where she laided down. He brought a chair over and sat down the book in his lap. He put on a pair of reading glasses.

“Glasses?” She asked.

“What, I thought they added to the affect. No.”

She shook her head.

“Suit yourself, a lot of girls think I look sexier with glasses.”

“The Fair One With the Golden Locks, There was once a most beautiful and amiable princess who was called “The Fair One with Locks of Gold,” for her hair shone brighter than gold, and flowed in curls down to her feet, her head was always encircled by a wreath of beautiful flowers, and pearls and diamonds.” David continued to read till at some point Misa actually fell asleep.

Misa had no nightmares that night and slept through Tasha coming back and into the morning. Misa went through school but had no desire for the beach party that was scheduled for tonight. She heard a knock at her door and David stepped forth carrying a basket she found was filled with food.

She laughed as she ate with him, cheese olives and sandwiches, he admitted to asking Tasha what a “Normal” thing he could do for her was and she suggested a picnic and when she canceled going to the bonfire he decided to make it an indoor picnic.

She reminded herself that she would have to thank Tasha for the suggestion. She was thankful that no matter what happened after the gifting she would always have these moments, she would have this time and so would he.

When it was time for him to leave she asked him to stay till she fell asleep.

“You just help.” She said trying to avoid the fact that her nightmares were always lessened when he was there.

“Sure,” He said sitting back down in the chair that he had read to her form just last night.

“But I want you to come to the fireworks tomorrow and the carnival. This is our week, the student’s week.” Misa could almost hear what he wasn’t saying.

This week was a farewell, a farewell to the students who would lose their life at the end of this week.

She nodded and crawled into bed. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

When she woke up he was gone just like the day before, she couldn’t help but feeling a little sad. She felt better now that she had obtained two nights worth of sleep. She was actually excited about the fireworks that were going to happen. She always loved fireworks when her city shot them off on the fourth of July. They were on the water so you could easily see them reflecting on the water.

When the time came she dressed warmly but as stylish as she could without looking over done.

“Awww someone is nervous for her date.” Tasha said looking amazing in a lavender pea coat that fit just right around everything.

“Shut up, I’m not nervous. I’m just a little anxious, what if someone gets hurt in the fireworks.” Misa said.

“Oh yes because that’s everyone’s first worry, that someone could get hurt.” Tasha said sarcastically with a an expression that made Misa laugh.

“Come on were suppose to meet the guys outside like now.” I said hurrying Tasha out the door.

We mett only about 15 minutes late. The guys were playing somesort of game that looked like ninja but instead of playing with hands they played that if you got ct with a knife you were out. Even David was involved in the fun, but he had not a scratch on him while the others held at least one on their arms.I shivered at the thought of playing a game where you tried to hurt eachother to the point of blood.

As soon they saw us thought, they put away the knives and Luke offered Tasha his arm and David offered his to me. Adam took tasha’s other arm and we walked down to the area in the back of the school sactioned for this even.

 There was a large hill and when they all got setteled the first firework went off. It was less for the visual but the bang could be felt deep in your chest and everyone got quite for the next 40 minutes as firewrok after firewok went off each greater then the last until we hit the end with firewoks that formed moving shapes that I was pretty sure was special to the Phenos only.

We all went home yawning from the experience. People themselves had gotten a hold of personal fireworks and they were setting them off dispite the best abilities of the administration.

When they came to the back entrance of the school Luke made them pause.

“Wait, I have something.”

He pulled out his own assortment of fireworks handing them out to everyone and pulling out a lighter.

We set off firecrackers and ones that sizzeled on the ground and ones that shot out miniture fireworks that rained down sparks on us and caused us to run inside smelling of burnned clothes and hair our s***s dotted with burn marks but we didn’t really care as we were laughting to hard.

“Luke I thougth thaty was a vary thought through plan.” David said as he laughed.

The next time I saw them was at the place we decided that we would meet up for the carnival. At first I thought we would be driven to a carnival but they said that it was in the school. I remembered the carnivals we had at my elementry wewre we would have homemade games and blow up toy houses outside. The idea was cute but it paled in comparison to the events of the week. But it might be nice for the school to do something normal for a change.

We walked to the jym.
“I really don’t see why you guys are so exciteded. Its probably just a few games a a blow up house.” I said and they laughed.

I moment later I found out why. The room was filled with rides, from bumper cars to ferris wheels to the spinner, a machine that pins you with g force to the side, there were sale men with cotton candy and other carnival treats. The lights were just like you might find at a carnival.

“I think shes a little surprised.” Luke said laughing at my expression.

“Ya think, why didn’t you guys tell me it was like this.” I said accusingly as we made our way into the chaos of the carnival music screams and game players trying to get as many people to their booth as posible.

We began to ride the rides, going on the bumper cars over 10 times and the ferris wheel a few. Then we went on the different rides, one that spun you up and down called the salt and pepper shaker, one that set you on your stoma and spun you called the superman.

“Guys, I think I need a moment.” I said taking a seat on one of the neches feeling like I might be sick at any moment.

“Not a strong stomac.” Tasha asked.

“Not as strong as it use to be.” I said breathing quickly to get the nausea out of my head.

“You guys go on, I’ll stay here with her.” David said taking a seat next to me.

“No, you can go, I’ll be better soon and I’ll come and find you.” I said while covering my eyes as the flashing lights was making my head spin even worse.

“I’ll go and buy you some water.” He said getting up and leaving with the rest of the group to go wait in line. They were only gone a couple minutes when I heard something from a crowd forming.

I got up, the world only slightly spining and walked over. Pushing through the crowd I saw two boys arguing. One was huge, he looked like he worked out every moment of his life. He started to push a man who was much smaller in stature then him.

All of a suddent the fight shifted as the in moments changed, their skin rippilling untill both of them were monsterous wolves. The lunged at eachother their teeth bared. The larger one went for the neck of the smaller one and latched on shaking their head back and forth. The teachers just watch unable to do anyting, against the two monsterous beast attacking eachother.

 A third member joined the fight. The new commer ripped the large wolf off the small one tossing him aside and tried to then leave, but the large wolf wasn’t done. He attacked the new commer from behind bitting into his leg hard enough I could hear the crunch from hear. The new wolf bite the ear of the larger one nearly ripping it off but getting him to let go. He spun to attack but he was slow with the bleeding leg and the large wolf lunged pinning the new wolf down pressing the broken leg hard.

The new wolf howled and turnned, I then recognnized the color of that coat, the pain in the cry and the crystal blue color of his eyes.

 I ran forward as the Luke kicked off the larger wolf, but the larger wolf was fast and went back at it but I threw on of the knifes that David made me carry if only to get use to having one. It lodged in his thigh, but it was small in comparison to the pure size of the wolf. His attention shifted to me as he growled and hunched down.

He jumped and I moved down taking my last knife out and digging into his stomac, not enough to kill him as if only sunk into muscle but judging by the howl it did some damage.

But when he made it to the ground and faced me, his eyes tinged red I felt it didn’t hurt enough. I was out of weapons and he came at me with impossible speed. I scrambled aside. I tried to remember the  the training that Luke had given me, that Miss. C. had given me.

BThe wolf came at me and sunk its teeth brefily into my thigh causing me to gasp in pain. But he was close enough that I could grab my knife out of his thigh which it still remained. I wrenched it making him let go. I stopped trying to remember and just let my bpody move.

As the wolf came at me my body shifted letting the wolf go around me. I shoved the knife in the wolfs burly neck. He growled and showed his teeth. I was agin out of weapons when the wolf was gone. He was thrown from me by another. This one was older, and corded with powerful muscles that showed power and age. It snarled and you could almost hear the wimper in the the large wolf. He began to shift and was covered with blnkets before anyone could see him.

The mystry wolf turned and for a moment I saw the green eyes I had seen all my life, green eyes that belonged to my mother. The wolf bolted and I tried to go after her, butmy leg screamed in pain as I was no longer fueled by adrenaline to block the pain. I fell heavily to the ground and streached my leg.

It didn’t look horibal, it was bleeding bad, but it didn’t seem as if any artiry was cut. I thought back to my lessons in anatomy and examined where the bite was and how deep. A nurse came and shook her head.

“Never get in the middle of a fight between two wolves. Your lucky you didn’t get yourself killed.”

“one of them was my friend. I couldn’t let him die.” I said pleadingly.

“take this, it will clean up the wond pretty good, you’ll be able to walk with out to much pain, the bite wasn’t as deep as I thought.”

I dropped the liquid the nurse gave me onto the wond, and it burnned like fire. The mark was covered with an ugly scab almost an inch thick. It look disgusting, but the pain was diminished. The bottle only held a few drops and was now empty.

I stood and found the movemnt shockingly painful.

“Able to walk my a*s.” But as I moved the pain went to a numb throb even if the scab cracked.

I walked away from the crowd that was still gawking. I knew that Luke was ok, wolves healed at a facinating rate. But I still wondered who the wold with the green eyes was. I walked out where I saw she went into the hall which was oddly silent.

Everyone was in the carnival either on a ride playing games or watching as perodioc fights broke out between the races.

She couldn’t see the woman anywhere. But she was pressed against the wall.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed.” David said angrily.

“You throw youself in the middle of a fight of tooth and claw and you armed with what a few knives and some basic traning. What am I suppose to do if you wont stop indulging this death wish you have. How can I protect you if you wont let me.”

“maybe I don’t need protecting.” I shoted trying to push him away.

His touching started to burn aas he got angrier.

“Of course you do, your like a child in this world playing with toys you don’t understand and living with people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. And you just want everyone to egt allong.”

I could brley breath as he pressed agianst his skin like fire even with clothing between us. He said somehting else that IO didn’t hear above the rush of blood. He moved away staking down the hall and I dropped to the floor. I tried to breath and clindly searched for the slave that would cease the burning. I fumbled to get it open as my entire body began to darken with the burn. But I barley had any left.

“Well look at you now. You know he is right, you have such a nack for getting youself in troiuble.” Godiva came from around the cornner and grabbed the slave. She took some of the slave and rubbed it on my chest, the relif there was innstant but it spread horibally slowly.

But eventually the burning stopped.

“I would recommend you don’t touch David any more until the dance. Something about the power of the room cancels the effct until your gifted, but I’m pretty sure at that moment your not going to want to lovingly hold him unless its death embrace.” Godiva said seeming to enjoy this a little to much.

I couldn’t reayy be that angry as the relife continued thanks to her medicine.

“How do you know the things you do. You even seem to know more then your telling me now. Whats you secret I said.”

“Just hush now. I get Luke to walk you to your room, tomorrow is a vary important day. Gifting.” Then she left.

I stayed sitting there untill Luke showed up helping me stand. He lead me through the halls to my room. I made it my bed and fell onto it and was determined to stay there till the end of time. I slept through the alarm clock and straight through school.

By the time I woke up it was five o clock in the afternoon and Tasha was already getting ready.

“You finally woke up. I was going to let you slep another hour before I would of made you get up and get ready for the dance. We only get one of these and I hear that its amazing.” Tasha said almost shaking.

Tasha looked amazing even though she was still in her bathrobe, her skin was perfactly white with out a blimish and her hair was perfact loose curls along her back.

“Uh I don’t know what you do to get ready for these things but I wanted you to have time to do it.” She said.

I groaned. I was pretty sure I needed a shower, I could smell dried blood in my hair. I got out of bed and went into the bethroom, my eyes had dark circels underthem and I looked horibal.

“Great day for a dance.” I said glumly as I stepped into the shower.

I scrubbed as much blood as I could off and found that the massive scab came off too having done its job only leaving slightly pink skin where there was teeth marks the night before.

I put my hair into a towel and hurried out of the bathroom as tasha was starting to get annoyed, she was an awsome friend, but when it came to living with her she was an extream bathroom hogger. I sighed and got out. I found a dress waiting on my bed.

“Where did the dress come from,” I yelled to Tasha.

“I got it for you, since our last trip didn’t go so well, but I remembered you size and the basic style of what you would like.”

Misa put the dress on and examined the fit the dress looked good. Misa imagined that she would stick out bad at the dance. Misa sighed and sat down at the bed. Tasha came out ofthe bathroom looking positively radiant with her hair done perfects up and shimmer that you could only see in just the right light.
But the effect was stunning. Misa couldn't help feeling jelouse. But she smiled twoatds her friends.
"you look beautiful." she said truly meaning it.
She looked sad. "I am really sorry we couldn't find you a gifting dress but there so expensive and take almost a year to make. Their passed down from girl to gril or if it's only boys well there a whole preceding
For that so that it stays in the family, let's just say some families end up with like 4 dresses.
But they can only be worn by the girl one night this night. It uses ur ability so it looked diffrent on every girl. It also protects you."
Misa sighed. "Yea it does all that looks amazing and is probably still coterable." unlike her dress which was scratchy, she couldn’t believe she was complaining. This dress was beautiful and probably vary expensive and she got it for free, she should be thanking Tasha not complaining

Adam came in looking amazing in just a white shirt that bellowed out and black pants. Yet the shirt hinted at muscles underneath. It seemed to shift perfectly with him casting shadows that looked like intricate designs.
Misa guessed it held the same abilities as the dress. Adam'a boyfriend walked in looking beyond handsome in almost the same attire thought it looked so diffrent on him. Damien was hot, wow he was.
"You know how about you not be gay for a bit and I take you to the dance?" Misa asked Danien who smiled sweetly only making his face that more handsome.

“OK but I am not the one who tells David.” He said
Misa laughed an seriously wondered if he was related to kalven clide.

"You are beautiful a Mida. You look stunning." he seemed to mean it but Mosa could help but feel a little down when she saw there eyes lite up at Tasha her red hair contrasting so beautifully with her pale white dress.

"well I guess we should go getting locked out tonight would be pretty funny yet sad." Adam said eyeing Damien.

"I think I'm gonna stay here a bit I have half an hour. " Misa said wanting to spend as little time in the room being stated at for being so out of place.

Pluse every one expected something from her tonight. Every one was strung high, every deamon was hunting this place. Yet she felt no diffrent no impending doom or revelation.

She didn’t feel like the postal that would bring a new element to the world, and she wasn’t ready to face David. For whatever was to become of them both.

As her friends hugged her goodbye one at a time, she felt that they expected something from her and though she was told she was something special she didn’t feel like it. She still felt adveage, even less then that put among all these amazing people.

When they left she sat on her bed fidgeting with her dress watching as time slowly passed. A knock came at her door and she sighed. She wondered if it was David, Luke or Tasha.

So when she opened the door he was surprised to see Miss. C standing there holding a long box. She seemed nervouse, and Misa couldn't ponder why.

“May I come in,” Miss.C. asked.

“Yea, of course.” Misa said getting out of the way.

Miss. C. went over to the desk and set the box down.

“You might not know that I have no children.” Miss C. said as simple as stating a fact but Misa could hear sadness in her voice, Misa was sure that it wasn’t by choice that she had no children.

“And I figured that since you come from a human house hold that you would not have a gifting dress. I have one that I wore and I was going to give it to my daughter but of course I never had one.” Miss. C. smiled a sad smiled and opened the long box and white tissue covered something Misa could quite see.

“No, I already have a dress. I’m sure that Tasha would be sad if I didn’t wear it she picked it out for me.” Misa said signially the dress she had on.

“But thank you, really.” Misa said not wanting to take charity form Miss.C.

“Please. These dresses are meant to be worn. As something you could do for me.”

Misa shoke her head.

“I’m not leaving until you at least try it on, and if after that you still don’t want to wear it then I’ll leave.”

Misa sighed and took the box into the bathroom. Misa didn’t want to take charity and she could only imagine what a dress from generations ago would look like. If she really hated it she could always lie and say it didn’t fit.

Misa pulled out the dress that looked simple enough. It seemed like any black dress. Misa was plesently surprised. The material also felt like silk on her finger tips and the way it slid across her body was like satin. She wondered what the material was yet could find no tag to tell her.

When it got completely on her, i9t fit perfectly, hugging her where she was cirvedwhile not being like saran wrap hugging her chest in a low v that made what she had seem like more then there was. She twirled arounsd and began to notice that in the black material there were strips of shimmering blue line vines with b;lack dimond leaves to small to see directly but as a whole had the way of making her body seem ever shifting in a glorious way that even in the bathroom light she seemed to shimmer her skin tone matching perfectly with the color that now seemed more like a deep midnight sea blue then the dark black it had been. The dress almost seemed alive with the way it shifted and moved with her.

She stepped out of the room and into the view of Miss. C.

“My, god.” Miss. C. said her hand to her mouth.

“What is it bad, did I rip it.” Misa said looking down the dress and finding nothing wrong.

“No, no, no. Its just you look.” Miss. C. just stared at her and Misa felt heat come to her face under her gaze.

“Thanks I guess.” Misa said embarrassed.

“No always take everything as a compliment if you can. Even if someone doesn’t mean it as one take it and show them that even when they put you down there really just bringing you up. Onfidence is key. Now we just need to put you hair up in a simple doo with maybe a strand left down to accent you neck and I’ll do your make up.”

Misa imagined that she had always wanted to do this for her own girl yet never got the chance so she was using Misa as a substitute. But Misa missed her mother so she felt ok with the motherly doting.

Miss. C. hurridly did her hair and re did her make up so that they would still make it in time.

When she looked in the mirror after she was all done she was taken back, she reminded herself of someone, but she couldn’t place it. But she was beautiful, she wasn’t vain but at this moment in time she was as beautiful as the models on the red carpet, her lifless brown hair was pinned so that it was up but look as if it might cascade down with one stand left to accent her pronounced collar bones and long neck. Her eyes were dark and defined with a shimmering blue on top that made her brown eyes pop and her matched her dress.

Her lips looked full and shining. The little rougue made her cheek bone sshow and added definition to her face that made her seem less like the child she had always been and the woman everyone expected her to be.

Misa walked out to Miss. C.

“Thank you so much, for being her for doing this.”

Miss. C. nodded but the looked at her watched and gasped.

“We have to get you down there because at midnight they will lock any one not in out. A shame to get you all dressed up for nothing.”

They went running down the hall which wasn’t hard in her dress as she thought it would be. The material streached and resided with every step.

They made it to the room that they had been told was holding the dance as the doors were closing. She slipped in along with Miss. C. who was a chaperone.

Misa was gived a black hood that drapped down her dress and was shuffeled to one side of the room where others waited in a line. The room seemed frozen, frost covered the walls in amazing detail and metled when touched but was instantly replaced. The room held a blue glow and in the middle was a large OAK tree from her dream. The only thing not covered in ice or frost.

Her feet were bare like everyone else yet she felt no cold and as the slight snow fell from the ceiliong when it touched her skin she felt no chill.

As she was placed in the line of hooded people she felt part like she was in a cult and wondered what was happening. Yet every culture had its weird traditions, as dunking children into water that made them holy or dressing up you house during winter for a man to come break in and leave you gifts.

Music filled the air with a vibrating sense making her feel the music in her bones. Yet it wasn’t to lound just everywhere without being overwhelming.

She had a sudden flash of what she was suppose to do, she saw the steps of a dance that she was suppose to move, she felt it as her Kenan had done it coutless times and as the crowd shifted so did the Kenan of the others.

She understood then it was a tribute to all the lives they had lived and would live, it was a constant in every world they lived, a tradition as strong as breathing. She felt herself moving to the steps she saw with grace that she knew she didn’t posses yet demonstrated.

Each person drifted across the dance floor meeting their parthners ion a seemingly random order. She found hers al most when there was no one else. The hood cast a shadow over his face as she was sure that hers covered hers.

But she ahd no time to woder who it was as she spun with the beat of the music that seemed to pulse with her heart, never giving her a moment to thiunk or falter.

The people spun around her in a uniform and perfect way. She stepped arouns and between them garcfulle and he held her twirling her when the musioc felt right. She felt a laughter as she moved with the beat seamlessly. It sped and so did they as they moved across the room which made room for them. they held eachother close as they danced .

She closed her eyes and let her body move and litsed to the intricate rythem of the music and how her body shifted with her parthener in perfect unison faster and faster spinning wildly his hand on the small of her back until when she opened her eyes and the music came to a climax and he diped her low and her hood fell back as the music ended leaving the air vibrating with the resonding beats.

The light cast differently and she saw that David was the one to hold her. He slowly pulled her up and against him as another song started playing and the people who had stopped to watch them dance began again.

“Hey,” She whispered in his ear so that he would hear her over the music.

“hey” he simply said back.

“You look unworldly.” He said as she slipped off the hood her bare sholders shivering against the air and his stare. The black garment seemed to disappear in the shadows of the floor. When he did she breath in quick.

He wore like the other men a white shirt that was thin and see through but seemed to cast moving shadows od designs along his skin. He looked amazing, even more then normal, again she could see why every girl who saw him fell in love.

But she knew him, his sadness, his hurt and his past but she was ok with that. She was ok with him. He pulled her close to his chest and the danced that way to the slow beat of the song. As the songs changed she found her friends and they danced with eachother as from then on they played fast dancing songs.

She saw girls staring longingly at David but for once she didn’t mind. For once she felt that she deserved him, that she was pretty enough to belong beside him and his perfact looks. She knew it wouldn’t last but she didn’t bother to care.

She didn’t even realize time was passinf until the music stopped and the bodies stilled.

“The gifting will now start.” A voice over head said making a shudder across the room. The tree which she had forgotten about shimmered and glowed. Every one gather in a circle around it, not moving passed a barrier that was just understood by all.

It was like that for a moment no one moving until some one broke out of the crowd and went up to the tree. Misa recognized the girl form one of her classes yet she did not know her name.

When the girl touched the tree it glowed even brighter until it seemed to explode but a dome just appeared and touched where the barrie that no one crossed leaving the girl inside. No one made a noise until the dome glowed red and every one cheered. The girl appeared sliding through the dome smiling and looking so porud until she passed out, a chaperone there to catch her. The chaperone Misa was startled to see was David. She hadn’t bothered to wonder how he had gotten in here. She wondered if he was suppose to be involved in the dance she had done with him, but what did it matter it was done now.

One by one each student went, the dome turning the respective color each one male and female losing the energy to stay conscious once they emerged. But each smiling and proud.

When they had gone through about 10  Misa wondered who was next and then she felt movment from beside her. Tasha was miling and stepping forward.

Misa felt a panic andwanted to go after Tasha as she watched her walk into gifting. How could she be going be fore her. What if something happened. Why did she have to go when so many had gone with out a stich. Adam sensed if not shared her worries and put a hand on her sholder but even he couldn’t ebb her fear.

Misa waitewd anxiously but everything seemed to be going normal. The frosted glass that covered the tree and showed the colors like a beautiful firewoks show stayed clear. The corwd began to shuffle, something was going wrong Msia knew. Yet she had no idea how to make it better.

She heard a scream and Misa then knew what was happening, her friend was dying. A crack appeared in the glass a mare on the beautiful thing it was and Misa lost thought of what she was doing and went forward before David or anyone else could stop her. She was inside the glass dome she saw the tree and her friend at the bottom of it her eyes were closed and she was motionless. She felt her heart stop until she saw the slight  rise and fall of her chest. Misa went to her friend and found nothing wrong but she felt that she was dying as clear as she could feel that David was living.

She felt something ans when she looked behind her David had found his way into the dome. She suddenly had an idea of what to do to save her friend.

“David I need you.” She said, but she really was asking him if he would help her save Tasha.

“Im here.” He said and Msia samiled briefly.

“David I need you here beside Tasha

He nodded and did as he was told kneeling beside Tasha.

“When you feel that its right, break the contact between Tasha and me.” She didn’t know how he would know when to break the connection but she prayed to whatever god watched over them that he would.

She placed one hand on the trunk of the tree feeling its power pulsing under her finger tips and one hand on Tasha’s forehead.

She closed her eyes and felt for the power that rested in the back of her mind,she felt how lossly it was secured and how badly it wanted to be let free. She tore down the thin wall that held the ocean of power back and like lighting racing through her body it burned through her and into Tasha. The tree also took the energy she held dampning the blow Tasha took. Misa felt that every moment she stayed like this she was being torn apart from the inside. She cried out, but there was no stopping the flood of evergy that was being ripped from her mercilessly. It was all she could do to direct it to Tasha.

She felt the power given to her streangthen the tie Tasha had on life giving her a stronger hold. She felt the heart beat stranger and faster. But suddenly Misa felt she was giving to much that she had to stop or she would overwhelm and kill Tasha.

“David she cried,” yet no sound made it past her lips she was torn from tasha almost like losing apart of herself. When it was over she felt impossibly hallow and empty. She felt as if her life had been ripped away, her soul. She gasped at air as she fell away from the tree.

She realized tht she had gifted hundreds maybe thousands of people with a new power that hasn't been seen on the earth since the beginning o their creation including her best friend yet she still had not managed to gift herself.

For that she needed DAvid who at he moment was worried at her side asking if she was ok and slightly shaking her limp motionless body.

"Misa please don't be dead, god please don't be dead! " he said desperately calling out to her.

She managed to bring herself back and tell him she was ok.
"I need you to be gifted. " she croaked out feeling steadily weaker he needed to hurry.
"Misa you know I can't, I can't controle my power, people could get hurt." he didn't know he was her opposite, her equal her balance in the world that with out him the power she had gifted would slowly die and do would she.

"Please," was all she could manage in a chocked voice.

He took one last long look at her and nodded. He gently set her down and walked over to the tree and placed his hand as she had on the bark.

Immodesty she saw as his own power was stripped from him, as the immense barriers he had put up over the years to protect him and the people he loved were ripped down and the power stolen from him.

She saw the pain on his face as she had felt. She almost visibly saw the strain and the agony having something you held withing you since brith ripped away in a matter of moments.

She saw the the pain was leaving his face and she knew it was time. She came over to him and held him placing one hand on the tree so their powers would balance so they could be gifted. She smiled as he looked at her.

She felt herself filled with a different, a warmer energy then before, it wasn’t like fire or earth wind or water. It was something different entirely. It felt livid and whole warm and bright in sum it felt like life. But it felt weak, it felt as if it barley existed, not the strong force she expected but as soft as a whisp of wind along a dessert plain.

She took her hand away and smied. It was done, it was finally done. When they took their hands away Misa saw herself broadcasted across the glass, she was at a dance and she looked older, she was with Daive and they looked happy. Next she saw her self looking tierd sweaty but happy holding a baby girl. The last scence she was in the dress she was wearing now her hands covered in dark liquid Godiva standing beside her and the image was gone.

David stared at the glass but she could not see what he was looking at as she guess he could not of seen hers. Misa felt porud, she was sure what they showed was true, she was going to be happy, she was going to be a mother. Not soon but in time.

David looked happily, like the man she saw him when they were dancing. He bent and piked up Tasha and together they walked out of the dome.

She felt the little energy she had leave her body, but she refused to fall. She put her hand onDavid’s sholder to give him support in carrying Tasha. Gardians came to help him but he refused to hand her over.

They were lead to a room in which all the students had been carried in to. It lead to a room filled with cot like beds, IV and other medical supplies, for as wonderful as this night was it was still dangerous.

They were placed in a room separate from all the other cots together. David finally placed Tasha down in one of the three cots in the room.

Misa smiled and turned to get in her own cot. That was when she felt the sharp pain of a knife sliding between her ribs.                                             

The knife was pulled out and Misa turned to find David staring at her with familiar black eyes.

“My beautiful. How I regret That you must die to day, but you must. You beauty takes my breath away even as I watch the life flea from your body. I have finally cured the ache in my boes and ended your existence.” Misa knew that it was not David but Abbadon that stod before her so gleeful at her death.

Misa found it hard to stand and let herself slip to the floor where her blood stood out vary prominently. She had felt the protecting the dress had given her, but she also knew the blade that pierced her was one older then the thread that the dress was wound so the protection was limited at best.

But it tighten around the stab wond to keep her alive longer. The door opened and they both looked to see. Misa was relieved to see Mr. Tusume walk in, he would help her save her with out killing David. But before she could speak David did.

“Ah Aziel, so good to see you after so long. My second in command.”

Misa was shocked as she saw Mr. Tusume smile at David and at the scene before him. Misa felt her self slipping, giving away to something older then herself, something powerful. She felt as her Kenan took over every breath every thought every action her body made.

Mr. Tusume seemed to sense this yet said nothing to David. he only leaned down close to Misa making her want to vomit at his vary nearness.

“B*****d.” She whispered.

“Oh,’ He said surprised as he slipped something into her palm.

“Use it wisly, may you hit your mark.” He said and then stood.

“Your work is fine and complete.” He said.

“I know, I can finally rest.” Abaddon said and then he closed his eyes.

When he opened them they hed their normal brown tint. But when they fell on Misa they widened in shock.

He fell to her leaning over him

Misa wanted to shout that he had to leave, that he couldn’t be so close.

“Kill him.” Mr. Tusume said with a smile and she drove the knife into David’s beating heart. She watched pleased as the life drainined from his body. He fell beside her taking shallow breaths clutching the wond she had inflicted.                                                

With this act she felt the elder presence vanish like vapor out of her. She felt en=mpty and alone like she had never felt before.

Mr. Tusume came forward and grabbed her by the throat, not chocking her, but putting enough preasure to ,make it even harder to breath.

"Now I don't want to kill you. In fact I need you alive. Do you want to save him, to save his fleeting life."
Miss could do nothing but croak out something like a yes. He smiled andreleased her throat. She resisted the urdge to attack the lying betrayer even though she could barley move.

"Don't look so shocked of. Course it was me. I have been devising this plan ever since I saw you when the vampire attacked. My pack leader had tried to kill you then you were a child and then you disappeared when I found you I was so excited.

All I had to do was gather the retires needed to attack that little house so they would bring you to the school.

If it hadn't of been for your mother binding you so quickly to David I would of killed you then. To bad I did t know you were bonded till to late.

I was going to drain you of every last ounce of power. Or that was my original intent. I kept trying to kill you at the shop which seemed to back fire but you never seemed to die.

But I guess that for the best cause now you are going to give me your power willingly. It may not be as great as before you gifted so many but it's all I need to give the illusion.

"why would I ever give you even a drop of my power. "Misa said venom in every word her chest aching with every breath the sentence took.

"because it is the only way to save him. Of you try to put you power into him it will burn like poison killing him all the quicker. But my power is only a slight divient of his and he will gradually turn into his own over time. And I am far enough from his power tht your power is not toxic to me. See I am the perfect conduit. I don't know how you will fare but oh we'll. Do you accept."

Misa stared at him then to David who was surrounded by blood barley breathing at all. Misa couldn’t believe that there was a way to save him, even if it was from this man who had indirectly killed him in the first place, she could save him. She would give anything, even her own life for him to live.

Misa felt broken as she nodded.

"Yes I agree."

She could almost feel Mr. Tusume smile at her.

"Good."

He walked over and gain grabbed her by the throat but this time she felt a pull on her power and she made no move to stop it.

As he pulled away from her he poured his vile energy into her. She almost gasped as it churned within her. He wasn't sure was magic he had used to cover this foul power but it must of been great. She al isn't choked on the hate and blood lust that came with this power.

She found that he had obtained it by draining the life from hundreds of creatures twisting it into some degraded version of the pure energy that David brought into this world.

He had found he had the energy that no one else seemed to and Tusume believed that he would have to be the leader of the new energy as noe had risen so he collected more and more power to make him the unquestionable leader of this power but in doing do he changed it into something unnatural and disgusting. He had no opposite no balance he was not part of nature but some mall creation of twisted intentions.

He dropped her and she found he couldn't move. She could barely breath with the horrid energy inside of her. And she knew that this wasnt all he had, he had almost endless bound of it. The lives it had cost to give him that power was dastardly large.

She began to crawl over to David but before she could transfer the life saving power someone else entered the circle.

Godiva walked over. She looked briefly at Tusume and before he could even react took a knife out of her belt and stabbed David again in the chest. The little life he had then fleeced from him. He no longer had the hope of ever comming back.

Misa stared up Godiva. Misa felt tears spill over on to her cheek yet she could do nothing to her as she could barely move.
"Why," was all she could croak out. She wanted to do so much much to ask do much more to the murderer in front I her.
"Your just gonna hve to trust me girly."

"Well Godiva I didn't know pu held such a hatred for David. I know unrequited love hurts but I didn't know you had it in you." Godiva glared at Tusume but he only laughed and turned.

Misa felt her heart race, HE WAS LEAVING!!!!! He was going to get away with all he had done. But Godiva didn't seem to want him to leave.

She attacked him, but he easily fended her off, he threw her against the wall with just a sweep of he hand, the energy he posses being to much to fight off. He walked out of the room and suddenly Misa knew what he was going to do. He was going to the tree. In the time it took odiva to get bak to her feet Misa felt it. The disgusting flow of power that was being rentched from Mr. tusume as he placed his hands on the tree, somehow shielding the power Misa had given him to save David

All the I'll gotten powe that rested within his was retched from him. In tht moment hundred or thousands of the newly gifted people that had gotten Dvaids power now had the choice to accept this new and horrid power.

It may have felt wrong but it also felt stronger, it felt greater and they would get more.

Misa felt as an uncountable number accepted this diseased gift in the place of David's.  She could almost feel the unnatural twist this put on everything. She felt the odd shift in power how this were once again unbalanced. This new power was far from naturel.

Godiva shut her eyes against the horrid feeling  this put on the world that she seemed to also feel but she shook her head and opened her eyes and then hurried over to David and Misa.

"Misa he is dead I know, but his souls hasn't departed but it will and soon, you need to transfer the power but also you need to give a little of yours. You are the embodiment of life and you can give done to David, but give more then the smallest amont and his body will die from the inside out and burn his soul. " Godiva said kneeling in front of her and speaking fast to her.

Misa struggled to follow with her mind becoming hazy from her lose of blood and the vile energy that was eating at her with every breath. She wasn’t sure how long she had left in this world either. But she had no time to feel worried, to wonder why Godiva did what she did or what was happening. She just placed her palm where David’s heart should be beating

She just knew inside her that she had to place just the tiniest amount of life in him before the power or it would never work.

She felt for the power that had filled her. She still felt the amount that reminded she grabbed at it and felt for the tiniest amount she could. When she had it he gave it to David imagining it sliding into his heart like a splinter of wood the same moment that Godiva pulled the knife from his chest.

Misa felt his heart beat again but it raced and he felt his skin grow hot. He was starting to reject the power that she had given him. She took that moment to give him the energy siphoned from Tusume.

His heart slowed to a crawl then spread to a almost hum then slowed his body went back and forth on the energy accepting and rejecting until it finally decided and finally she felt his heart beat at a steady pace.

Misa fell beside him. He was alive. She had saved him yet she felt impossibly empty and tierd. She had given away so much power to be gifted and then to Tusume and even now the vile energy ate away at the little pure power she had left in her.

"I'm sorry." she said and then drive the knife into to Misa's chest.

            *


At first she felt nothing. She wasn't sure if it had worked. Godiva felt herself smile or that's what he thought he was doing it was so dark she could even see her own body she could reall feel it either. But if it hadn't worked that was a lot of drama for nothing.

Godiva simple existed in what ever part of time and space she was in. She drifted in the nothingness around her. When Godiva thought that she ahd failed and she was to not float around I the nothingness for the rest of eternity she saw a light coming towards her. She spent the next couple minutes, hourse, or even days watching as it drew closer.

When the light came close enough Godiva found that it was not a light but a person whose skin was so birhgt and perfact that it glowed in its perfection. Godiva knew that she was looking at a goddess even if she hadn’t seen her before.

"Hello goddess.” Godiva said simply not sure how else to address the goddess.

“is it over? Is she alive again?” Godiva asked carfully. Biut the goddess said nothing Just stared stilly at her.                     Hhhhhhhh             hhhhhhh                    

“ Am I just going to float around her till she dies or is it for the rest if eternity?" Godiva asked.

Godiva wasn't jaded she had chosen this and there was nothing she could do now to change what would happen. She knew that if she was left to just exist in this place she would simply lose herself and everything that made her alive.

"Not exactly. Things hve not gone according to as I thought they would. That has let a surprising perposal come you way. When you first touched Misa you visited me and I told you that some day soon you would have to give your life for this girl to save your race. I told you it would still be your choice but refusing would mean the end of your people. You have shown that you would die for them. But with both of your bodies damaged equally you can chose to live almost like you once did. You would take the spirit of Misa as our own she would change you but you would still remain dominate and there. You would take her power and her place. Her memory would be gone from the world even from you, you would never remember what you had done. And David would love you and only you as he loves Misa now. You would be the leader of your new energy. It would be you not her to take places in this world." the goddess said.

Godiva could do nothing but stare. She had thought from the moment she had first touched Misa and seen the Goddess for the first time that she would have to give her life. Even when she briefly entertained the idea of not saving Misa, of letting her die, she knew that she would save her in the end. She would never let her people die because she was to selfish to embrace death. And here she was being given the option. The option of life, alife that she had always wanted without guilt or fault.

Godiva thought about what the goddess proposed about how David would love her absolutely. She thought about how nice it would be to know that David thought of her and only her. Yet she knew deep in her mind that David would never truly love only her. He loved Misa and he always would even if he forgot her completely his ould would, could never forget.

 Godiva knew why the goddess had asked her and not Misa to make this choice, because she knew that Misa would always save her. That Misa would always give her life to save another when given the chance. Because she knew that Misa would always let Her live. That Misa would give her own life for her. And that was what we people needed at this moment with war unavoidable. They needed her life, her love and her light to lead the way.

Godiva could never take Misa's place. Godiva thought of Thebeus and of Tasha and her other family and friends. The would never love her as they do Misa because she would never be the same.

"No, I will be the one lost. I just want to know, will it hurt her taking my spirit. Will I be like a caged animal, always seeing but never being, trapped inside of Misa?" Godiva asked fearing the answer and of a life trapped and unable to move.

The goddess just smiled kindly.

"You are both two halves to one piece. You will lose yourself but you will live on in her. Your likes and dislikes even your slight thought will change her and still live in her. She will come out a new person one with you as her combined soul." When the goddess put it that way it didn't sound so terribly bad.

She nodded, she could do this, for her people, for David.

The Goddess nodded and stepped toward her. She brushed her fingers along her cheek and Godiva felt herself slipping.



Misa was in the field she had seen many times. But this time it all made sense, her dress and her hair her muscles. This was always the moment in which she would be here.

She knew that whatever happened this was the last time she was going to see this place. She was not coming back.

A beautiful woman stepped out of the darkness. Misa knew her from the vision when Godiva had tested her. She was the Goddess that had started all of this.

"So I am dead then." Misa said. She had failed. A war was sure to have started and she would not be there to help guide her people so lost in their new power. She thought of David, would he be sad that she was gone. She hopped not. He had his own people to guide and help, there was no time to worry about her.

"No you are not dead. Exactly the opposite. You are about to be reborn. Godiva has decided that you shall live. You shall not remember her as you will take her spirit, her power and she shall cease to exist. She will be gone from the memory of all. I will not be able to help any longer as you have gifted your people. You must fight this war on your own or more accurately with the help of your friends. But I can no longer interfere." The goddess said coming forward.

"I think I can do that." Misa said with shaky breath. The goddess came forward and placed her finger tips on her jaw bone urdging her to look into the Goddesses beautiful face.

"You are my daughter, you are strong and brave. I know you can do this."

"I have a favor." Misa asked quickly sensing that her time was short.

She quickly discussed it and finally the Goddess agreed.

"It will take even more time."

"I still want it."

The Goddess nodded and then lifted her hand and placed it on Misa's forehead as if checking for tempeture.  And Misa felt herself slipping changing. A sensation she had never felt before took over her.

"You power will be staggered so you will not be overwhelmed. It will all come eventually just have patience." the goddess said before Misa woke from her blurry odd sensations.

Misa woke to a room she had never seen before. It had a grandmotherly feel to it. She was ion a bed with knitted covers and a creaky frame. Every movment was shaky and hard. She got to the side of the bed but she could barley stand even with the help of the bed.

She praticed walkeing around the bed a couple of time her leggs getting less shaky with every step. He was finally able to let go of the bed and walk around the small room on her own. She wondered how long she had been asleep for her body to have grown so weak.

She placed her hand on the door knob and breathen in and opened the door. The same moment another door down the hall opened.

“Misa,” David said stopping where he stood. Misa saw that he looked different, still gourgous but his face was gaunt and un shaven. He looked older, more worn.

He came forward and wrapped his arms around her.

“David, we have to go.” She said.

David gave her an odd look but she turned away and walked for the door. He followed her, when she got to it she opened it to find the sun rising on a new day, the sky was a blood orange and red. It spread to purple then pink and then to the night sky blue. But littering the sky was sparks falling from the sunrise.

She felt one touch her skin and shivered against it. This was her, her energy, her power, spreading to every one who was now part of her. She felt them a slight voice at the back of her mind, thousands of conciousness under her sharing the power she ahd brought to this earth.

“David, how long was I asleep?” Misa asked dreading the answer.

“Almost 3 months.”

“How bad is the war?”

“Its gone bad for us, most of your new energy were too weak to fight and just went into hiding to survive. And my energy was to unstable to use with out your to counter it. That unatrel element that Tusume brought into this world has been allowed to dominate it. Peopl think he is the leader of your energy though. When he took your energy he took just enough to make an illusion that he held the abiltty and the council desperate for answers believed him.

He then said I was the leader of his energy as I was tainted with his energy so again the council believed him. Misa they are trying to kill us, no one is on our side, no one even knows to be on our side.” David said.

I turnned to him watching ht esparks roll off of him.

“We will ;lead our people, we will fight and win this war. We have no other choice. But for now I don’t care, about anyhting but you.” I saiod and rushed forward wrapping my arms around him and for the first time I felt no spark I felt no electricty just him, his body his warmth his power everything.

I kissed him like I might never get to again and he kissed me back. We stayed like that as it rained sparks around us the sun rising in the back ground of our new revolution.