Chapter One

~ Maka ~

Everyone has those days when they're lost. When they're afraid of being neglected for far too long, and have eventually just fallen into the pit of nothingness and became - forgotten. Everyone is afraid.

And I for one - am one.

The bus bolted backwards and forwards, causing me to sway restlessly from side to side as I folded up my ticket. Folding it again and again, half - and then once more until the writing was completely invisible.

"Next stop - Death City."

The drivers voice seemed to drag on forever, like it was one million miles away and its echo was still trying to reach me.

But I was long gone. Little Miss Maka Albarn wasn't there anymore, because she was lost. She was lost in the world of feeling forgotten - she knew it would be best if she never returned. But who would miss her?

The guy in front of me snored and roared against the engine of the vehicle. Having rage wars with the bus, trying to win for being the loudest. And the guy was winning - by miles.

Staring at him disgusted me. His dark blue shirt just being able to swamp over the whole of his rounded stomach, stained with sweat and other disgusting and horrific looking things.

I swore I could smell his wretched breath from across the aisle - it sickened me, greatly.

Am I even alive? Everyone and everything around me could be created by my own mind. I don't know.

The bus slowly pulled up to the bus stop, inching closer with every second Mr. Fatty-Blue-Shirt's snoring got louder. I felt like my brain was going to implode, so I placed my feet against the ground, threw my folded up ticket onto the seat behind me and walked the aisle.

~ Death the Kid ~

I watched the bus grow closer. The four wheels that were pressurised against the concrete road parking the vehicle perfectly against the side of the pavement. Right in front of me.

As soon as the doors swung open, a long blonde haired girl barged past me to grasp hold of the open air, breathing in the outside as soon as she reached it. Like for the whole of her journey, something was suffocating her.

She raced to pull up her hood on her jacket and speedily walked off down the road, leading towards the centre of town. Nothing else mattered to her - except for freedom.

I reached my hand to the rail and pulled myself up the step and on the bus, walking to the driver to pay for my ticket before walking the aisle in search of a seat.

Opposite a big man swamped in a filthy dark blue shirt, an open space sat and just waited for me to run to it. Freeing it from the space of feeling so empty.

But as soon as I sat down and grew face to face with the big stomached man - I realised I should have just stayed up front and waited for my stop.

His snoring was unbearable. So completely suffocating.

Suddenly - I felt a prickling sensation against my right thigh, digging up into my skin like it was trying to pierce at my flesh through my jeans. Rip-rip-ripping me apart from the outside.

What the hell?

I reached beneath my thigh, brushing the tips of my fingers against a soft but sharp edged object that had been forcefully squashed beneath my legs as I carelessly took my seat.

A little paper crane is what rested lifelessly inside my palm, the edges of its paper wings crumbled and ripped from my ignorance of not being careful. I had murdered its beauty.

It hung like a broken branch swaying restlessly in the wind between my fingers. Longing to crash towards the ground, in need of giving into defying gravity - I had forced it into nothing.

I'm so sorry.

~ Maka ~

"Her." They were all around me. "That's the girl."

My hood covered my eyes, shielding my sight from the girls and boys that pressed closer to me with every breath they took, stealing away what felt like my last ever supply of oxygen.

Not now, please.

They snickered and whispered to one another, glancing in my direction before quickly turning back to laugh once again. Mocking me and not caring whether I saw or not. I was no one to them after all, just prey that they hunted and continuously tore apart from the inside.

"She cuts herself."

No, I don't.

"She's a proper emo."

No, I'm not.

"No one likes her."

No - they don't.

I never wanted someone else there. Never did I want someone to hold my hand and guide me away from the anger and tears that threw itself around inside me.

I was perfectly fine on my own, if I were to get close to someone - they would only break me, rip me like paper.

I'd watch them around me. They'd smile, share gossip and so called secrets like they were nothing but works of slipping the tongue and passing the lips on someone's arrogant and careless face. They were all monsters.

"Why is she just standing there?" The brown haired one stared directly at me as she took a step closer. "Doesn't she want to fight against us?"

I held my own breath. "I have no reason to."

She seemed somewhat - startled. "Really? Even when we spread those lies."

"I really don't care." My head shook itself slowly, like it had a mind of its own. "Do whatever the hell you want."

By the end of the day; the whole school believed the lies. The lies - about me.

~ Death the Kid ~

"Surely it would have hurt her?" Soul shrugged his shoulders. "What was she thinking?"

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "You really believe that crap?"

"You don't?"

The sun was bleeding through the sky, casting waves of sunshine to beam against my pale skin and heat little of my cheeks as I tipped back my head to feel the cold thin breeze. It was like freedom when it brushed past my face, freeing me from the wave of suffocation.

He scrunched up his spiky blonde hair. "Well, whatever. I don't know her."

I raised a dark eyebrow. "Why, does it matter if you don't know her?"

"Then its not my problem." He too, tilted his head back to the sky. "I don't have to get involved."

He was right, but I couldn't help but feel partly angry at him for acting like there was hardly anything wrong with the girl. It was true - we didn't know her, but what if something happened to her because of our carelessness. I didn't want to sit back and watch that happen.

His red eyes were suddenly on me. "Does it matter to you?"

My lower lip trembled. "No, it doesn't."

But what I didn't know then. Later that week - it would.

Sweat rolled down my forehead, damping my hairline before streaking across my face. It was the sun that caused the salty water, the sun let it drain away all dryness from my face, leaving nothing but two soaked cheeks.

"Anyway, let's go." I pushed myself to stand. "It's baking out here."

We had bunked the first two lessons. History and then Maths, although due to make it back for Art. A lesson that I actually didn't despise, just one of the few.

Soul slung his bag over his shoulder. "Believe what ya' want bro." He swept the sweat away from is face. "Liz's a babe, I'll believe anything she tells me."

I frowned, trying not to release most of my pent up anger against him. Holding my shaking fists beside me, trying my hardest to lock away my rage.

I wasn't very good at it, but I was okay. It was hard to control when I felt angry. So very angry.

~ Maka ~

I sat patiently on a bench at the bus stop. The summer heat burning down on me from the sky even though I held my pale skin wrapped up tightly in my black hoody.

A group of girls from my school walked on the other side of the road. Walking past me while pointing fingers and throwing their heads back in laughter. Mocking my appearance and everything they thought they knew about me.

I pulled my knees up to my chest, placing my converse against the edge of the bench as I tilted my head back to face the glimmering sun. Watching the clouds float around it like the followers of it's existence.

It was like they looked down on me. Like they too were laughing at everything I existed for, laughing at everything I was and everything I wasn't. And as I felt the tickle of the wind caress the side of my face - I felt free.

The bus turned the corner towards the bus stop. Its wheels turning vigorously against the concrete as it raced the clouds to where I was sitting.

I just hoped that it wouldn't mock me too.

The doors breathed open as it stopped in front of me. The sound of the radio tickling my ear drums as I stood from the bench. The sound of the broadcasters voice growing louder as I stepped on.

I purchased my ticket, stuffing it deeply in my hoody pocket as I walked the aisle in search of my previous seat, delighted to see that it was empty as well as the seat opposite it.

My bag thudded as it hit the chair, but I didn't pay attention to whether or not if people noticed, I just sat down beside it, lifting my legs up and crossing them on the seat.

A voice called from outside, "wait!"

A boy with scruffy black hair ran towards the doors of the bus, quickly managing to step inside before the doors exhaled behind him.

"Close," the driver smiled towards him. "Ticket?"

The boy nodded, "yes please."

~ Death the Kid ~

I sat down quickly, feeling the jolt of the bus shake the ground beneath my feet as I did so. Feeling the wash of relief come over me as I placed my head in my sweaty palms.

Slowly I removed my bag from my shoulder and placed it beside me, letting it tumble on it's side as the bus shook slightly from left to right.

The girl opposite me sat still. Her hands clasped together in her lap as if she were holding something so utterly fragile. Like if the slightest amount of air were to brush past it's surface - it would shatter into nothing but dusty remains.

Her hood covered her eyes, so I was unable to see her face. But as she sat there in silence, I couldn't help but feel the urge to want to comfort her.

Blonde strands of hair escaped from her hood, falling from behind her ears and staining her pale cheeks with thin blonde lines.

It were as if it were a symbol for her destroyed purity, and I couldn't help but want to try and fix that. I just wanted to reach across the aisle and offer my hand of support.

Then suddenly - she sniffed. Causing the release of two tears to drip from her shielded eyes and stain the skin of her clasped hands.

Her fingers quivered slightly. As if she desired to drop her grip on whatever it was she were holding so close to her. But as the bus stammered from side to side - her hands showed no further signs of hesitation. She remained stern as stone.

"Excuse me...?" I leaned closer to her. "Are you alright?"

She gasped, abruptly raising her head and revealing two shimmering emerald eyes, that were easily the two most beautiful things I had ever seen for the whole of my existence.

Another tear quickly bled down the left side of her face, sliding across her skin as if it desired to be separated from her suffocating flesh. Screaming for the moment in which it would drip to it's fatal extinction.

The bus jolted to a stop and as fast as she could, she gripped hold of the bag beside her and sprinted down the aisle.

"Wait!" I exclaimed.

I jumped up after her, watching her run out the double doors and proceed to run up the path, when the doors were automatically instructed to close behind her.

I couldn't catch her.

Just before the bus pulled away from the pavement once again, I sat back down. Trying my hardest to avoid the glances given in my direction.

The space opposite sat painfully empty. Empty with the exception of one little thing.

I leant across the aisle once more, reaching towards the little folded piece of paper that rested lifelessly on the deserted seat.

And there, sitting in the palm of my palm, sat another paper crane.