A/N: After much proofreading and editing. And re-proofreading and re-editing (AKA: My Keyboard Sucks Like Hell And Decided To Break Down On Me) I'm still not completely satisfied. But Oh well. The song that I was hearing while writing this/that was most coupled with the chapter would be My American Heart- The Shake ---really good song! Oh by the way- SHOUT OUT TO KIM: I'M EATING NOODLEZ RIGHT NOW! Enjoy~

Chapter 2: Stepping On My Feet

She stepped out of the alley and shivered, the weather still very pessimistic. All the stores near the area were completely closed and the streets were emptied, with a few random cars going by now and then. The weather was still in the midst of its downpour, raining down hard on her head. Alisia pulled her hoodie close to her body, searching for warmth, "How am I supposed to get home now…" She muttered. She looked left and right in hopes of a taxi, but was unable to find any. Alisia sighed miserably and started her two mile walk home. As she descended halfway through her journey home she could feel a strong negative aura in the air. She had this strange skill ever since she was an infant, feeling things out of nowhere. As she walked closer, the stink of burnt sulfur became stronger in the atmosphere. It contaminated the air and made it harder to breath.

Suddenly a loud shriek was heard from a nearby alley. Hastily, Alisia dashed towards the shrill cry and hid next to the side building. She could see everything from this spot. A blue haired man was strangling a woman against the side wall. The upper half of his face was masked in darkness and all Alisia could see was the maniacal grin that he put on as he choked the life out of the person. The woman's face was in an expression of full panic. She struggled and clawed against his hands, but stopped shortly as she could feel her lungs being crushed. Tears flooded down her face and she could sense herself giving into sleep.

Alisia immediately came back to reality and quickly reached for the cellphone that should've been in her hoodie pocket, but felt nothing. 'Oh shit…must've forgotten it at home.' She closed her eyes and sighed. 'Stupid stupid!' She acted quickly and looked behind her for a telephone booth. Congratulating herself as she spotted one across the street. She quickly dashed into the telephone booth and deposited the coins needed for one call. "Ring Ring Ring." The phone slowly emitted. She could feel herself sweating and glanced back over to the alley.

"C'mon, c'mon pick up!!!" She shouted into the phone. A moment after someone finally picked up.

"Hello this is the Constables Law Enforcement of London, please state your emergency." A man stated on the other line.

"Yes um I just saw this man strangling this woman in an alleyway! Please come quick!!!" She screeched looking directly at the alley. No one was coming out and no one was going in but she had a vague feeling that the woman was already dead.

"You need to calm down Madam. Please state your name and location." He inquired.

"My name is Alisia Jane Ferren and I'm at streets cross section Wellington and Burley. It's the alley nearest to these streets so please hurry!" She frantically cried, clutching hard onto the phone.

"Alright Miss, I want you to try and relax. The police are on their way so please let them handle this situation." The man exclaimed.

"Yes sir." She hung up on him and ran back to her hiding spot near the alley. Most of the alley was shrouded in darkness. She couldn't hear any shrieks or any panting. Actually, she couldn't hear anything but the cold breeze blowing into the narrow alley. She hesitated before stepping into the lion's den, cautious of a sudden attack. As she began to feel more confident, she dashed towards the area where the man attacked the woman.

"Ah!" She gasped as her feet suddenly stepped onto something soft and squishy. She immediately remembered the handy lighter that she always kept in her pocket and hastily snatched it out. She flicked it on and positioned it lower to the soft material, screaming at the horrifying image that appeared. The woman was dead, mutilated. Her eyeballs were gouged out of her head and the holes looked like they were pecked by some kind of bird. The bloody holes dripped blood-like tears down her face and all over her upper body. Her neck had already started to form blackening bruises and the most unusual injury was spotted on her chest. Her shirt was torn straight down her torso and right above her heart, carved right into her flesh, was a five pointed star surrounded by a circle. She turned the other way and tried not to barf out her lunch, knowing the image would stay in her head for the next 3 or so weeks. This was inhumane, even above degrees of inhumane. The person who did this was messed up beyond fixing.

"Who's there?" A light was beamed at her face from the entrance of the alley.

"Hello Miss, this is the police. I would like you to face the wall and put both of your hands on it or else we will be forced to use violence." The policeman warned. "But I didn't do this!" She heard his gun being pulled out and the click sound symboled he was ready to shoot her. Terrified, she quickly did as she was told and placed her arms onto the wall, 'This did not look good…'

"Um sir you got the wrong person, I-I was the one that made the call." She stuttered out feeling nervous for some reason. She had been arrested plenty of times in the past and felt this sudden unusual urge to be nervous rather annoying.

"Oh are you? Then why are you standing in this alley and I should assume this…" He moved the light next to her, at the dead body. He cringed at the awfulness of it.

"Is the victim. Care to explain?" He stated, his eyes glaring at her.

"I know this looks bad constable, but you have to believe me when I say that this is in no means…my doing." I pleaded, staring back at him. He was an officer in his mid 40s with weary lines all around his face. Alisia was sure that he didn't believe an ounce of what she said, typical. "Well you got one thing right. The situation you're in does look bad. You're bending over a dead body that looks freshly murdered." He grabbed her hands from the wall and pulled it back, locking his handcuffs onto her wrist. "Now if our forensics gets a whiff of one of your own fingerprints on this corpse, you can tell your story to the judge." He growled, pushing her in the direction of his car. He pushed her head down and settled her onto the backseat of his police car. He went over and spoke to rest of the police, explaining the situation. Then he came back and glared at her once more before driving her to the police station. And the rest they say was history.

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"What gave you the idea!!!?" Her father yelled at her in the car. They were a couple of blocks away from the manor, just returning from the police station.

"She was dying! What did you think I should've done Dad? Sit and watch!?" Alisia yelled back, feeling aggravated at the situation. She was trying to help and this is what it gets her. The police could not find any evidence, of course, that it was her. They kept a wary, disapproving eye on her as she quietly stepped out the door. Her father was pissed, beyond pissed actually. She could practically see the smoke blowing out of his ears as he stepped on the gas pedal. She wondered where she went wrong when she called the police. It was the best thing to do, wasn't it?

"Well how did you end up being charged with murder!? Huh!? Explain that to me!" He shouted, pulling into their driveway. He glared at her and took the keys out of the ignition.

"I don't know! The officer assumed that just because I was at the scene of the crime and that I was standing next to the dead body then I must've been the killer! And may I remind you that they did not find any evidence to charge me!" she shouted back at him, starting to tear up at her father's blatant expression of disbelief. She shook her head and opened the car door, he also got out.

"Why were you so stupid to stand next to the dead body in the first place!?" He roared gripping his fists. She was about to scream at him but shortly shut her mouth, knowing nothing could change his mind.

"You know what…if you don't believe me then…just don't. Because I am tired of repeating myself when-- When you're completely ignoring me! …Don't wait up for me." She ran down the street and blocked her ears of his screaming. As she dashed a good length away from him and the manor, she breathed in a sigh of relief. At least she was away from her parents. She picked up her pace and headed towards her secret hide out-- An old abandoned playground that was hidden by thick trees. Rumor has it that it was haunted by ghosts from a private gang war not too long ago. Alisia was in willing disbelief of the rumor, it was bullshit the neighborhood kids made up to scare people. But she was glad, because she had it all to herself—it was hers now.

Alisia stepped onto one of the swings and sat on it, wallowing in her misery. She moved up and down on it sluggishly, while her mind was somewhere else, somewhere far away. She thought back on the last two years of her life. How she had been living on the edge, testing the limits of her body on illegal narcotics and huge amounts of alcohol. She's intoxicated herself with the craziest shit on the planet, analyzed the reins of her body, but even with all that…she still hasn't died. So she tried fasting herself, staying three days without food until Johnny had enough of her. He insisted that she bring an end to the madness or he would do it for her. He started choking himself with alcohol and getting high every night along with her. He admitted himself to her level of psychotic and as his health began to deteriorate right in front of her eyes. The walls slowly crashed down and she stopped him before anything got serious .From there she slowly changed to the person she is now. Still a worthless miscreant, but at least she settled on some standards.

An unexpected cold twinge released itself through her body. Alarms that were similar to the emotions she felt during the murder. She glanced around the area but didn't see anything. She quickly sat up and decided it was now time to go home. The sound of a tree branch breaking echoed from in back of her. She jumped at the sudden noise and sprinted out of the playground area, not looking back. She continued running until she could see her house close by, slowly she turned her head and stared back at the direction of the playground. She confirmed that no one was following her. As she turned back in front she accidentally tripped on her own feet. Her body suddenly pounded into a firm chest and they went tumbling down. The loud noise of plates breaking and "Oofs" could be heard through the silence of the night. She found herself on top of an unknown guy who seemed in pain at her sudden fall.

"Oh I'm so sorry," The boy mumbled, readjusting his rather unusually large glasses, "Are you alright?" he inquired sincerely. Alisia sat up and rubbed her hands, staring at the boy in front of her. She raised a curious eyebrow at him because she never saw him before. The guy had honey-brown hair that, under the light, created an angelic halo around his head. His range of height was probably around 6'0, making him at least six inches taller than her and his overall appearance spoke of a boy who didn't care of what he wore, in other words… a geek. He had donned on overly-large glasses that hid both his eyes and parts of his nose, a vintage button up that did nothing for his sleek figure, and a pair of old brown trousers that seemed like the pants old men wore in retirement houses. He picked up the cardboard box that fell in the middle of the streets and unfastened the topknot. He looked in and cringed at the heavy sets of plates, which were now destroyed. "There goes the last set of China. Mum's going to kill me when she finds out…"

He looked back at her and immediately grinned, "Hi I'm Jace!" He happily extended his hand. "Sorry about suddenly knocking into you. I'm still a little woozy from the plane ride." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head cutely. "I just moved here from Liverpool, and I'll be vacating the manor next to yours. So what's your name?" She stared at his hand, feeling a sudden connection to this boy pulsating through her inner being. She shrugged it off as after jitters of being crashed into and stood up by herself. She didn't bother to look back at him, knowing that he'll be under her mother's spell within a week.

"Hey! You didn't tell me your name!" He hastily dashed towards her, forgetting the cardboard box altogether. She gazed at him in annoyance 'Great a stalker…' and sped towards her house, leaving him standing in the middle of the road staring at her receding form. After she was a good distance away, Jace collapsed on his knees and chuckled at the irony of the situation.

At the very beginning of seeing her figure sprinting frantically towards him, he could feel her blood seizing his appetite. But this wasn't like any blood attraction he had felt for another human being, no, this blood called to him like a siren's song. He stood his ground and sniffed in her intoxicating scent that still permeated the air. Oh the attraction of her blood made his mind numb with only the desire to run after her and rip her vein open. He straightened his posture and reminded himself of whom he was. He was raised in nobility and would not break face, even if the Siren's song became twice as alluring as he got a good look at her. She was beautiful, the most heart rendering thing he had ever seen within the centuries on this planet. She didn't react as enthusiastically as he would've imagined, but there'd be time to change that later. He kept his eyes on her retreating figure; her lovely tresses, as dark as night, flowing freely as she ran off.

"Hmm…this one might be tough to break..." Jace stared amusingly behind his glasses. He took them off and swayed his hair to the right side so it wasn't in front of his eyes. Two icy gems stared fascinated at the white manor that Alisia just stepped into. Shortly after, he smirked and started walking towards his new home. "Be ready for the ride of your life darling."

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Alisia tiptoed through the door, steps away from finishing the stairs until…

"Alisia Jane Ferren, you get yourself down here right this minute!" A woman shouted from below the stairs. Alisia groaned knowingly and peered down. There was a beautiful woman, dressed in a pale white night dress. Her coffee colored hair was pulled messily into a bun and her eyes had heavy dark circles under them. Alisia stood her ground and gazed annoyingly back at her, tired of this day and wanting it to end already. The woman sighed and gestured towards the kitchen. Alisia accepted it unhappily and followed her slowly from behind, wishing this to be quick. She was tired. She had seen a murder, got suspected as a murderer, and now had to talk with her mother about the murder-- Life was grand.

Her mother turned on the kettle and sat onto the counter. Alisia sat on the other side and the awkward silence thickened. Her mother rubbed her forehead and asked "Where have you been? You know…your father and I were worried sick about you," Alisia scoffed at this and leaned back, waiting for more lies. "And this…this thing about a murder and the police? What happened?" Her mother asked, gazing wearily at her daughter. Alisia slumped down to the counter and stared at the pepper and salt shakers that lay conveniently on the kitchen counter. She amused herself by reading the labels, ignoring her mother's questions.

"Alisia!" Her mother yelled. Alisia looked annoyingly in her direction and straightened her posture.

"Talk to me Alisia. Let me know how you feel, so that I can understand! God knows we haven't talked to each other in the last three years!" She pleaded, looking straight into her daughter's eyes. It was almost the exact same color as hers, but it seemed to glow, like a fire had been lit from the inside. Alisia flinched at this question and was now glaring at her, feeling extreme hate for this woman. "You… want to know how…I…feel?" She asked, emphasizing the words with her own type of poison. "I hate you. The very fact that I'm standing in the same room with you, not to mention having to look at you every day for another three years, makes me tremble in my socks. I'm fed up with your impact on my life-- it's only caused me problems." Alisia kept her eyes locked on the woman. Her mother was shocked into silence. Alisia was in disbelief of this woman, her mother really had no clue what kind of damage she's done to her own daughter's life. The beatings, the bullying, the snide comments, the hate doubled in mass.

"You'll never understand my life Jane…so don't even try." At that moment, the kettle sounded off. Her mother peered at Alisia before turning her back and shutting off the heat. When she looked back to find her daughter, Alisia was already nowhere to be seen. Jane leaned against the counter and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering where her daughter's need for angst was coming from.

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