VILLE

I was walking down a brightly lit street in some city in America. The guys and I had stopped here for a day on our American Tour.

I heard a low voice coming from the interior of a house I was walking past.

Yelling.

The door slammed and a tall girl came racing out with headphones on and tears in her eyes. She was moving so fast she slammed right into me. I fell on my ass wheezing as she stopped dead over me.

She stared down at me for a few minutes before she spoke.

ALKURA

I was tired of my father's abusive behavior. He screamed at me as I ran out of the house.

I was too busy trying to get lost in my music when I ran into someone who promptly fell on the floor wheezing and coughing.

I stared down into the pale green eyes of Ville Valo the very man who's voice was blaring into my ears.

I just stared. It took me exactly four minutes and twenty-nine seconds, or rather the length of "Killing Loneliness", to regain my mind and speak.

"Holy Fuckin' Shit!" My low voice was audible over the blaring music I had neglected to turn off as of yet.

I extended a hand nervously in an offer to help him up. He was still wheezing. I handed him my inhaler.

VILLE

Her voice shocked me. So sultry even in the profanity she spoke.

Then a hand with oddly claw-like black nails reached down in what I guessed was an offer of help.

My wheezing still hadn't subsided and an Albuterol inhaler was shoved into my hands.

I gladly took a puff before my vision when black all together.

I could feel the inhaler take effect and I handed it back to her and her hand reached back down and I grasped it pulling myself back up on her surprisingly sturdy arm.

"I'm sorry" There went that voice again. I marveled at her.

She was perhaps not what most men would think of as perfect but upon seeing her I knew I had to have her.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have moved out of your way miss.....?"

She shrugged, "Al." She hair-flipped her short blond and fire-truck red hair back over her left eye.

"Miss Al. I apologise for halting your retreat. If you would like I will walk with you."

ALKURA

By now my headphones were around my neck and I was talking to the lean Finn. Barely. He was talking more than I was.

"You don't have to do that. I have you right here." I indicated my iPod. I was nervous. I'd been crushing on the Finnish Rockstar for a few years and now on the day of his big Milwaukee Concert down at The Rave I was standing here chatting with him after having run dead into him and knocking him into an asthma attack.

He smiled. "You listen to my band?"

I nodded. "All the time actually. If my father wasn't home I'd invite you inside for some water but he'd die if I brought in a 33 year old man." I covered my mouth realizing that spouting his age like that was kind of stalkerish.

He laughed. A low throaty sound. Gorgeous to my ears.

"Why do you hide your face? I'm very obviously older than you."

My smile curled up past the edges of my hands and my hands dropped to my iPod turning it off.

VILLE

Her smile was radiant. As she turned her head towards her iPod to shut it off I noticed her eyes glimmering with the smile.

"How tall are you?" The dumbest question in the world fell out of my mouth. It was made even funnier by her looking down at me after I said it.

"I'm six feet two inches. What makes you ask that?" Her eyes were ice blue and rimmed in thick, albeit running, black eyeliner making the blue stand out even more.

I fumbled for words and my jaws moved furiously as though I was spilling every idea that came into my head out to her at the same time.

Upon being unable to find the right words to justify my question I simply embraced her. I found my face buried in two large, soft, fleshy pillows.

My brain didn't process what they could be until I was pushed back violently again landing me on my ass.

"PERVERT!" She spun on her heel and raced back into the house.