Runner Written by: Lucy Albertson

Running and running he could never stop for if he did not only would they catch up to him but his mind would catch up to himself. There was only one thing worse than them finding him and that was to let himself think about what he has done not only to him self to to all of those around him. He could never be truly happy, not because he couldn't be but because he wouldn't let himself be happy. If he was ever truly happy then those he love around him will always suffer because of him. His name was Misaki Takahashi and he was always known as the runner. misaki started running way before he even knew he could. For as long as he has been alive he has always run away from his problems and him self. Things like this would normally only happen to children who have had great tragedies happen to them, but misaki has forever been different from other children his age. He has a gift that no one undertsons, he has the gift of pain. Or lack of pain to be exact. You see misaki could not feel the same pain as others do. People can feel pain in many different ways like physically and emotionally and mentally but misaki feels pain in his heart. misaki has put everything he has ever felt into a deep dark place with in the secret depths of his heart. Soon after he started to run away he discoverd a way to keep both parts at ease. If he kept movin from place to place and never stayed there long enough to make friends or to even try to his thoughts catch up to him, then and only then would he be able to live. In middle school he started out in one school where he was a total freak and a misfit and no one ever even thought of talking to him. And that is how he has always wanted it, but one day in the middle of everything starting out good a person would ask his name, then that town was over it was time to move again. Some places he left sooner than others and sometimes he was lucky enough to live in one town for over two months but he would always end up leaveing in the end. He wasn't alowed to make any friends because like it was said many times in his past, that if he was to make any friends at all that they would only end up getting hurt because of his stupidity. He would always end up hurting his self and then the people around him would be hurt by it, that would always be the sign saying that he was there for to long. He was always marked as the type of boy labeled a trouble maker by the teachers and an emo by the students. He was never suppose to have a normal life, and he wouldn't let that happen. Every month or so things would change, again. nothing was ever the same he would end up getting hurt if it was the same. But deep down he had always wanted someone to understand what was happening or to at least have a friend there with him. When he was really young he let him self have a friend but one day his friend saw what he did to himself and started to cry and was deeply hurt that he didn't know before and then misaki finally decided that he wasn't alowed to have friends ever again. he never wanted anyone else to be hurt by him. He didn't want their love or anything else from others. So yet again he ran, he ran far away to a town in the middle of no where. and in that place is where EVERYTHING began. including love hurt and alot of stuff he never knew he wanted.