The big city.

"What do you mean you can't?", Eddie asked.

ALice stood up. "I just can't", she said turning her back to him.

Eddie stood up and wrapped his arms around her waist. "come on it's just a harmless kiss", he whispered into her ear.

Alice closed her eyes when he whispered in her ear. "no!", she said angrily and turned around pushed him back harder this time making him stumble back.

The secne changed again. He was 17. His father hit him hard, harder then normarl, it knocked him to the ground. He stood up. He had eough. His father went to hit him again. He did something he never did before. He grabed his father and pushed him away. To him the moment he did that all the scars on his body his father had lefted hurt a little less. He truned and stromed out of the room.

It changed again. It haven't been 24 hours yet. He was packing his stuff in a bag. He counted the money he had. He and looked at the bank card. He would get all the money he could out if his saveing account. Then he would have to stop useing it. It was traceable. He put the wallet in his back pocke, and threw his bagonhis shoulder, and climbed outof his window. He didn'teven say good bye to his little sister.

The sence changed again. It was the night of the fair. It changed again. It showed him taking his medaction whenever Ashlynn wasn't looking. It changed for the final time.

The doctorpulled the sheet over his dead face. "The cancer retruned, His diabetes wasn't being taken care of as well as it should of have. His heart was getting weak." The docotor went on for a few minutes about everything that was wrong.

~!!~
Chris smiled. "tell me again, that you love me." He beged slightly.

~!!~
James was rageing.

Alice was glaring at Eddie. "I don't like you the same way you like me!", she snapped.

Eddie ignored what she had and and came back over to her. "Why not?", he asked trying to kiss her again.

She slapped him and went on the other side of the room where James and Layla where but hadn't seen them there. "stop trying to kiss me!", she snapped again, "I like someone else", she said and her voice grew softer again and she refered to James.

He flinched when she slapped him.

~~~~~
Layla smirked when Alice slapped him,and laughed alittle.

Ashlyn watched in silent horror as the scene changed again and again, until finally he was dead. So he had taken his medicine. Her guilt lessened, but only slightly. All the things she had said to him since then were still there.

She turned to Lee, and soon the scene changed once more. They were standing in front of the house she had been in when Mason had found her, only it was different. The shingles were all there, the lawn was mowed, and there was a 5 year old girl running around in the front yard. It was Ashlyn, and her father was there, but he looked much different. Younger, happy, and he wasn't passed out on the couch. The woman sitting on the front porch looked exactly like Ashlyn; the same bright blue eyes, the same hair, the same face. The man laughed and picked up his daughter, spinning her around before taking her back to her mother.
~!!~
Hymn tilted her head slightly, smiling up at him. "I love you," she said quietly.

James found himself smriking slightly.

~!!~
Mason wacthed quietly.

~!!~
Chris laughed, and kissed her, he pulled back. "I love you too."

"leave", Alice said coldly still glaring at him.

Eddie shrugged. "fine", he said then walked out of her room.

Hymn laughed again, but quickly quieted down.
~!!~
Ashlyn closed her eyes, and when she opened them it showed a still young Ashlyn laughing and watching TV with her parents, playing hide and go seek with them, having fun.

Then, it showed her slowly growing up. She was 13, and she watched as she entered high school. She had been so nervous, but her mom had helped her through it, along with her dad. Now she was 14, and it showed her first kiss, with a boy at a dance whose name she didn't even remember now.

It changed again, and she was 15. She was laughing with her friends, and then it showed her at age 17. She came home, and her mom was in the hospital. She had had a sickness that she hadn't told even her father about. She was dying.

"Mom...mom, please," Ashlyn whispered, holding her hand. But her mom just smiled at her, stroked her hair, then fell asleep. She never did wake up again.

Chris suddenly picked her up bridal style.

~!!~
Mason smiled slightly seeing her happy childhood. He wasn't effected byher first kiss like she had been by his. His smiled disappeared when hermom died.

~!!~
"Take me back." James said.

Hymn laughed lightly. "W--What are you doing?" She asked.
~!!~
Ashlyn watched as her life continued. Her father began drinking after that. He blamed her for her mother's death at times. Ashlyn began to pull away. It showed her first fight at school, and all the times she had been hurt, resutling in her many scars. It showed her crying at night when she thought she was alone, screaming into her pillow at night, looking at the picture of her mother that she kept with her.

It showed her slowly pulling more and more away at school. Another fight that ended with her in jail for a night. More fights, a few even involving knifes or guns, resulting in more of her scars. She hadn't killed anyone, like the rumors said, though she had hurt many. They hurt her, too.

As the many fights played out before her eyes, Ashlyn felt her hand going to her arm, touching the scars.

"I don't know." Chris said happily.

~!!~
Mson's frown became deeper and deeper.

Layla nodded and grabbed his arm again and appeared back in James' room.

~~~~~

Alice layed on her bed still mad at Eddie, she had considered him her friend but now she think of him as anything but a pervert.
((only thing I could think of at the moment))

Hymn laughed. "Put me down," She said, but she wasn't angry; she was smiling.
~!!~
The scene changed again.

"We're moving?" Ashlyn asked, standing up.

"Yes," Her father said. "I lost my job." Ashlyn's hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"No wonder!" She shouted. "Ever since mom died, you've been nothing but a lazy drunk!!"

"Don't talk to me that way, I'm your father!" He yelled, standing up. She stood up as well, and glared at him. Silence engulfed them before Ashlyn stormed off.

The scene changed again, the night before they moved. Ashlyn was sitting in her room, staring at her scarred arms and legs and looking at a picture of her mother, crying.

Now it showed her first day at the school here. All the whispers and rumors about her, and then the fights started again.
~!!~
Lenora jumped up when they reappeared. "What'd you do to him? Where'd you take him??" She yelled at Layla.

Layla rolled her eyes. "will you just relax?", she said letting go of James. "I just took him to Alice's and saw what she was doing with that guy", she told her.

"Is that what you want?" Chris asked.

~!!~
Mason sighed. "Thats enough. I get the point." He said.

~!!~
James pulled away. "Alice's"

"No, not yet," Lee said. Next it showed Ashlyn after Mason's death. The depression, the tears, the gun to her head.

"One more thing," Lee said quietly. It showed Ashlyn earlier that night. Ashlyn saw where this was going.

"No!" She shouted, watching herself on her bed. She was talking to herself.

"I can't believe I like him," She was saying. "He's dead. I can't."

Lee took them back to the graveyeard now. Ashlyn stumbled to her feet, glaring at her, but she was already gone.
~!!~
"Are you okay?" Lenora asked James quicklky, completely ignoring Layla now.
~!!~
Hymn shrugged, then shook her head. "No," She said.

Jade appeared in the park, nearly dragging Sable along. She was tried of his selfpitying attuide.

~!!~
Mason's eyes widened slightly.He looked at Ashlynn, but said nothing.

~!!~
Chris smirked, and spun in a circle. He fell to the ground, letting her land on top of him.

Sable frowned. "Jade..." He said, just as he saw Raven. She was crying. He felt horrible.

Raven looked up at him, wiping her tears away but saying nothing.
~!!~
Hymn let out an 'oof!' as she fell, but he softened her blow. She laughed, more than she had in a long while, but made no move to get up.
~!!~
Ashlyn pushed herself to her feet. She turned and stormed away without another word or glance at him, Ether close at her heels.

"I'll be by the crow tree." She said and disappeared.

~!!~
He smiled at her. "Hey?" His voice grew soft. "Can I ask you something?"

~!!~
Mason followed, invisable.

Layla rolled her eyes at Lenora and sat down against the wall in James' room.

Ashlyn walked back to her old home. She would stay here tonight, and leave in the morning. She walked up to her old room, and lay down on the ground near the window.

"If you're here, I wish you'd stop sneaking around," She said, talking to Mason. "You heard what she said, so don't pretend like you didn't."
~!!~
"Wait--" Sable began, but she was gone. He sighed and sat down next to Raven.
~!!~
Hymn nodded, somewhat surprised by his sudden change in voice. "Sure," She said. "what is it?"

He appeared sitting next to her. He sighed. "I'm your gurdain."

~!!~
"Can you tell me about when you were little?" He asked. "You know all of my childhood?"

"Really," Ashlyn said sarcastically. She sat up and leaned her back againt the wall under the window of her old room, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I had no idea."
~!!~
Sable and Raven sat in silence for several minutes before she spoke.

"I'm sorry."
~!!~
Hymn blinked in surprise. "What about it?" She asked, hardly noticing she was still laying on top of him.

Mason sighed, "I can't retrun your feelings, I don't like you like that. I think of you as a sister." He said

~!!~
"Anything. Everything." Chris said.

Ashlyn nodded. "I knew that already," She said. She felt something slide down her cheek. Oh great. She was crying. She turned her head away from him, biting her lower lip to keep herself from crying even more. "It's just that....well, after so long I finally let someone back in. Then when I thought you had died, I didn't....I didn't know what to think," She whispered. "I felt like my entire world caved in on me. I just wanted to see your face again."

She took in a deep, shaking breathe, then continued. "And then you came back, and I realized something. That I liked you. I really liked you," She said, laughing wryly. "So I retaliated against my feelings, and did stupid things." She pointed to her back. "I have no idea where that came from." Another short laugh. A fake one, to hide how she was feeling. "And then I decided to leave. I'm not going back home, so if you're going to tell me to, don't bother. That place hasn't been home for a long time."

She looked up at the ceiling of the room, blinking back the tears. "But I...." Her voice cracked, and she buried her face in her knees, her hair falling over her face and covering it. "I knew you didn't like me. So you see....it's okay, really," She whispered, and sniffled, which only made her shoulders shake with more tears. She wrapped her arms around her legs tightly. She couldn't believe she was saying these things to him, much less crying in front of him. It was only going to hurt her more in the long run.
~!!~
"You did nothing wrong," Sable said quietly. "I was mad at Aden, not you. I was just worried about you. I was avoiding you because I thought you didn't want to talk to me." She scooted closer to him hesitantly. "Same here," she sighed. He hugged her tightly, and she hugged him back.
~!!~
Hymn looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well, me and Melody always aruged, like we do now," She said. "She was the 'good' one. The one that everyone liked, and that everyone wanted to see. I was more like a shadow of her, always mean or yelling at someone," She said. "She was the 'perfect' one. She was nice, sweet, cute, and everything I wasn't. Leon was there, too, of course. He didn't do much, though," She laughed slightly. "He left when we were 13, and me and Melody starting fighting even more after that. Everyone liked Melody, though," She said. "No one liked me." She looked almost sad for a moment, then quickly shook it off. "Then, when we were 15, our parents forced us to go out. We were on our way back, and someone, I still don't know who, decided that they wanted to have some 'fun' with us. But we decided we didn't want to go with, so he pulled out a knife. We were laying there together, and I remember Meldoy taking my hand. I got scared," she said. "I didn't know what happened after death. So I told Melody I wanted another chance before we died, and I woke up with her in heaven a long while later," She said. "And you can guess from there," She laughed slightly.

Mason sighed. "Please don't cry." Mason begged.

~!!
Chris listened closely. "I wouldn't want you if you were prefect." He said softly. "You wouldn't be you."