"Dawn, Wait!" Nagi called after me. For once I just kept running. I never thought I could run from him, leave him behind, but I did. I'll never regret that night I escaped it all, escaped the pressure, the unbreakable bond, and the pain. That was the night I saw the Great White Shark swimming in a sky of blood. He was the king that would show me freedom.

"No, Dawn, you can do this," Mother said slowly. "Just focus, it can be perfect." I sighed and sat up straight again. I repeated the poem's line in several languages, concentrating on every bit of pronunciation. "No, do it again. It will be perfect." She was loosing her patience with me. I was saying everything correctly; it just wasn't good enough for her. I would never be good enough.

I left the study room an hour later. My blouse was torn along the left shoulder and blood was dripping down my arm from four deep cuts. It could have been worse I kept telling myself.

Nagi, my twin brother, found me when I went up stairs.

"Oh, Dawn," he said as he rushed towards me. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the expression on his face. It was a mix between pain and pity. I couldn't stand it, and yet I kept staring as he dragged me to his room and tended too the cuts. "What did she get you with this time?" he asked

"A letter opener."

"I told father to get rid of those," he complained.

"Well apparently she found another one," I snapped. I was so tired of this.

"Dawn, it will get better," Nagi said in a calm voice. This usually made me feel better, but it didn't work tonight.

"How and when?" I demanded. "When she gets over this little game of hers? She won't because she hates me and you know it."

"Mother doesn't hate you Dawn. She's just upset about-"

"I didn't even kill him, I saved her life, yours too and that's no excuse for all that she's done these past nine years!" I was almost yelling now. It didn't matter; she didn't care what I said about her as long as it was behind her back and not to her face.

"Dawn all of that wasn't really that bad was it?" He was still trying to calm me. It wasn't working.

"After that, she abused me for two years, pushed me off a twelve story building when I was seven, used me for testing and trained me to kill for another four years and now she thinks I'm supposed to be her perfect daughter!" As I said this I realized that Nagi didn't know my pain. He had watched all this happen, but like other people he could only pity me. Although he was my twin and shared my soul, he couldn't share this pain or blow it away. Too him it really wasn't all that bad a life.

"Dawn, I know what you have been through-"

"Then why can you only pity me?" I watched as his face turned into an expression of shock. I ran then, I ran from him, from the house, from her.

"Dawn, wait!" Nagi called after me, but I kept running. This wasn't the first time I had run away before. I ran at least two times a month, usually I still had open wounds. They didn't know where I ran to, only father knew that, because I ran to him.

Father had a house on the other side of town. I was free to visit anytime I wanted too, mostly because he wasn't there. If some thing really upset me and I stayed for a while, I might not see him until my third day there.

Father always welcomed my presence with open arms. He would see my shoes at the door and drop everything to find me and give me a hug. He would talk to me about how things were at work and the characters of the people there. He worked for my Grandfather, his father. The company was called Time. It had many branches and had a large influence on people all over the world. He would always give me the chance to talk about why I had ran, but he would ask in a way where I could dodge it and keep him talking about work. Some times he would tell me about a school a colleague of his mentioned. That was his way of giving me the chance too escape. He would send me too any boarding school I wanted if I just asked, but I never did. I couldn't leave Nagi.

Father was home when I opened the door. I regretted not taking the bus then. I had run roughly six miles non stop. After I closed the door I fell too my knees, breathing hard. I heard father come out of the kitchen to find me.

"Why did you run this time?" he asked timidly. I must have looked horrible from the run. I did my best to regulate my breathing.

"I had a fight with Nagi," I said. Father's eyes widened a bit. This was the first time I had run from Nagi, he was my twin, my other half, the holder of my soul, the person I loved the most.

"You won't be staying here long will you?" I shook my head.

"Can I stay until I get married?"

"Did Ruby already pick a suitor for you? I told her I was against it, of course that would cause a fight between you two." I shook my head again.

"She didn't, what I meant by that was, can I stay here and not go back there?"

"You can stay here as long as you like, do you want me to bring Nagi here too, so you won't be alone?"

"No, she still loves him, he didn't commit the sin I did."

"Dawn what you did wasn't a sin."

"Thou shalt not kill." I said.

"You didn't kill me. You saved more lives from being taken!"

"I tried though, I had it in my head," I was shaking now. This was my least favorite subject in the world, the thing I most regretted.

"I'm proud of you for that; I would have rather died than have taken another life."

"You didn't kill Melissa, the spider did." To my surprise father smiled.

"Then you took the spider's life."

"Thou shalt not kill," I repeated.

I took a shower and then ate dinner with father. I listened to him go on and on about work. I liked hearing stories about his close calls and how people tried to trick him. It sounded like something straight out of a mystery book.

Unfortunately our time was cut short by a call from the office. Father had to head out but, he promised to be back by tomorrow evening. I saw him off and then went to my room. Father's house was a two-story house with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fair sized kitchen and dining room, and a living room. My room had a balcony, so did the one next too it. It was a big house just for father, so he welcomed company.

My head was swimming with thoughts, mainly how I was going to survive without Nagi. I needed to calm down. I opened my balcony door and stepped out of my room. I stepped on the plastic chair which I kept on my balcony at all times and lifted my self onto the roof. Since I was seven, I've had a fear of heights. Father's roof was the highest place I could be and look down at the ground without being scared.

I laid back on the shingles and looked at the stars. I found the big dipper and traced it over and over with my eyes. For some reason it helped me calm down. I think it was the North Star, wasn't it supposed to help you find your way when you were lost?

"What the-"

"What are you?"

I heard several voices yelling. About two or three houses down, on the roof, some one was fighting, but it wasn't a regular fight.

"Hurry! Run!"

They were all screaming, they were scared of someone. Above the screams I heard laughter. It was kind of high but defiantly male. It sounded insane but sane at the same time, like he enjoyed what he was doing but knew the depth of it all at the same time.

The figure jumped up, higher than you could with jump your legs. He must have had ATs. Had it been a Storm Rider battle? I could see him better now. He was short, about my height, and he had shoulder length bluish-black hair. He had an eye patch covering his left eye. He was wearing an orange straight jacket and black pants which had four strings dangling from them. There were hooks on the end of the strings. As I had thought he was wearing ATs, they were silver and looked like they had blades on them.

The boy landed on the roof of the house next door. He had met my eyes. I sat up, meeting his gaze. It felt as if he was trying to kill me with just his look alone. The lighting changed as the clouds shifted away form the moon. I saw that the boy was covered in blood, but it wasn't his. Just who was he?

"What the fuck are you staring at?" he asked, his voice was rough like his laugh.

"You have been looking at me for some time as well," I said calmly and evenly.

"Scared?" he asked smiling a devilish smile. I think he was trying to scare me, but it wasn't working. I stood up, all too aware that the skirt I had on was shorter than one I would wear out side and that the wind was blowing it to the side making it seem shorter.

"Nope, people popping up, covered in blood is part of my everyday life." I said lightly. He frowned at this.

"Stay inside when it gets dark, or your going to be the one covered in blood, your own blood." He said. It didn't sound like a threat, more like a warning. He looked at me for a few more seconds and then jumped again. He was gone within seconds.

"Covered in my own blood, haven't I always been?" I asked the stars.