<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Ravi;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>It has to be a secret....if I tell you a secret promise to keep it....we can't handle any more lies....</em><br/><br/>No, no she had to stop listening to the voices, stop listening. Why? Why though? There was something, <em>someone</em> missing. It hurt. An empty ache in her heart, only was her heart still there? A hand lifted, pressing against her breast but the flesh was whole, not empty, not carved out. However much she felt like it was. Her head was spinning, the world seeming to tilt with it but...why? Why. Why. That kept coming back. Why was the world a way she thought it shouldn't be. Why was she asking why. No answers. None. No guidance either. Just that sense of loss. Grief. She thought she might suffocate on it, or choke from it. But she had to live, had to....What?<br/><br/>Shaking her head the petite figure of the questioner uncurled herself, realizing she was laying in a dark ally way, dank and chill as it was. Some cardboard, discarded, roughly handled lay above her and her motions sent it fluttering to the ground; such little covering and <em>yet</em> it had been covering. <br/><br/>Now she was bared. <br/><br/>Breath sucked in, the girl bit the inside of her cheek as sleep cleared from her eyes, a muzzy sort of sleep, a unnatural sort of sleep. That was bad. Odd. Like...like...someone's sleep. Familiar features, haunted eyes, gaunt cheeks and the scent of...what was it called? Tea? Maybe. Tea was suppose to sooth, to mellow, to blunt the hard edges of reality; it was a gift. A gift. She had taken some of that gift, after so long resisting because...she wanted to follow, to find. <em>Catch me if you can...</em> The voice had teased, bitter hope warring with fear and grief. Its just hide and seek. Only why couldn't she remember a name, any name? Even her own. Name. Her frowning contemplation was shattered though by the sound of a chuckle, a deep sound, but not pleasant, raspy, like an old engine guttering as it struggled to work. It brought her eyes upward quickly, the shimmering gold and grey color of them the most arresting part of her features, widened and uncertain, around those eyes were long long lashes, a deep brown almost black and her skin was a soft sun kissed golden brown color. Tilted eyes, a slender nose that despite that was cute rather then elegant with its button end, trembling full lips, softly rounded features all made up the rest of the girl's face. Indian perhaps, Hindu in descent, but only perhaps. Curly dark hair, tawny gold and nutmeg brown, chocolate and sable, a shimmering weave of colors cut short, just above her shoulders, tousled and wild around her as her shoulders tensed. <br/><br/>Again the laugh. <br/><br/>The curvy girl got to her feet, picking herself up with care, something about her delicate in a way that most are never delicate, as if one blow would shatter her. Perhaps it would. Those frightened shocking eyes scurried down the ally she was in first one way and then another. Nothing, yet not nothing. No. There. Shadow, yet form, blending, becoming and she shrank back against the mossy brick of the building behind her, whatever it was, wishing she had stayed hidden in the cardboard as a figure loomed toward her, skin dark and features holding a feral cast. Eyes promising pain. Pain. Eyes. Memories. The young woman made a sound between a squeak and a whimper, fear and shame pressing down on her. Failure. She had failed. And the pain, someone else had gotten hurt, someone had been taken from her...that missing..missing part. her fault. Grief. <br/><br/>She shrank, down and down, hunching inward on herself eyes squeezed shut against the sight of the man coming closer. He would touch her, touch and touch and take. Give nothing. Breath came faster, panicked and she felt his hot breath almost against her skin, only a drab little grey dress shielding her and it wasn't enough. Nothing ever would be. No one to help, no where to hide; she trembled, aching, fearing and yet with it came relief, it would be over, the game would be lost. Perhaps then there could be peace...</span></span>