<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: #4080FF">"Be careful", yeesh. As if something's gonna happen to me out here in the middle of nowhere all by myself...</span></span> Her arms cast over the rock, she rested her chin on the rough, natural surface, hanging limply in the water. <br/><br/>For Alannah, an increasing number of things were wrong with the world. She was stuck in water that she could not breathe in. It even <span style="font-style: italic">felt</span> wrong against her gray skin, she noted with disgust. She had a former best friend, who had dropped everything and run from her when she found out that the universe was not as ordered as she liked it. She had a current best friend, who she was not being entirely honest with out of fear that the exact same thing would happen again. She had parents who still thought that she was getting a college education. A great sigh escaped her, coming all the way from the pit of her stomach. She just needed to pull herself together, didn't she?<br/><br/>The early evening was not, as she had been mislead to believe, completely silent. Tiny lake-waves did their best impersonation of their ocean-brethren as they splashed gently against the rock she was holding on to. A lonely, unseen bird was singing somewhere in the darkening canopies of the surrounding trees. The grass was murmuring in the wind. She caught herself wondering if Lucy would have liked it here. Her lower lip quivered as she remembered one conversation they'd had when they had been around thirteen and skipping school to go to the Common and hide for the rest of the day.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"It's a red house, y'know."<br/><br/><span style="color: #4080FF">"Really? Ya been there?"</span><br/><br/>"No, but he's sent pictures. Ma says we might go some day. I can't wait until we move outta this stinking city! I want the fresh air! And there's a forest there, too!"<br/><br/><span style="color: #4080FF">"I'd miss ya if ya moved."</span><br/><br/>"Ya can come with us. I wouldn't want to go anywhere without ya, anywee."</span><br/><br/>She had, though. Alannah gave her blurred reflection in the water a stern look. It would do no good to keep dwelling on it. So she wasn't human, big deal. Big deal. With a few deep breaths, she prepared herself for Dimitri's probably swift return. She was here to look happy, after all.</div>