Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. Just this idea.

AN- Sorry... I seem to be unable to write long chapters.. ahah..

Chapter 2: Unearthly

Her worn sneakers splashed through puddles she didn't care to avoid as she struggled to breath in the cold air her lungs desperately needed.

She was tired. Rin had been running for what seemed like hours. Hardly taking breaks while she tripped through the streets as fast as she could. Running towards what she hoped with all her naïve, irrational heart, would be something that would save her from her endless solitude.

She could deal with being poor, she could brush off the fact that the town hated her, and she could find closure with… the death of her family. She could endure all those things, and understand they were just the facts of life. But, what Rin really couldn't stand was the loneliness. All she wanted was, even just, one person there by her side. One person to silence the pain that kept eating away at her as she walked down the streets of weary eyes, or opened the door to her cold lifeless home.

Deep down she knew pinning so much hope on something that could have been a bolt of lightning, or a hallucination was stupid. She understood she was being illogical, and that putting her hope into something so unrealistic was equivalent to pleading for disappointment. After her family died, she was forced to grow up, or die someplace in her impoverished neighbourhood. The harsh reality of the world had hit her faster than it should have, so Rin knew how truly stupid she was being. Just as she knew how much money she needed to survive another month on her own, and how to be frugal at the local grocery store to get the best out of the little money she had left.

But, if she lost hope, and all the childish fantasies she carried along with it, what would be left of her? Wouldn't she be a shell of her former self? A shell of a being that kept living day to day just for the purpose of living. She wouldn't be herself anymore. She wouldn't be the happy and cheerful Rin that her parents and siblings loved… and gave their lives for.

Finally Rin slowed to a walk. This was it. She recognized the building in front of her, it was the one the 'shooting star' seemed to fall behind. Slowly she got closer to it, and examined her surroundings. It looked like a regular office tower that had seen better days when the economy in these parts weren't as bad, but other than that the area was pretty barren. Expect for a couple housing units, there seemed to be no signs of life in the area.

She walked to the side of the building and saw that the doors, although broken and glass shattered, had wooden planks nailed across them in an attempt to stop people from entering the abandoned building. She swallowed a nervous gulp. All the observable traits of this area were indicating that a person like her, who couldn't scream or shout for help, shouldn't be frequenting a place like this alone.

But she was so close. And, once she figured out what the blue streak was she promised herself she would run right back the way she came.

"So no worries." She smiled reassuringly.

Thus she continued her inspection of the area and decided that if she saw the light fall behind the building she might as well start there. As she rounded the perimeter of the building covered in stains she didn't care to address, she quickly found the back. The back of the building which paralleled the mouth of an alley.

This was probably it. Her heart started to beat a little quicker, but she wasn't sure if it was due to the excitement of what could be in there or the fear of that exact idea.

Walking carefully into the small dark road way she started to feel quite hesitant. Not only did the alley practically scream 'Turn back if you don't want get mugged!', but it was also littered with trash, leaving a pungent haze in the damp drizzling air. Every sense told her to run, and for some reason, even the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. And it wasn't from the cold. All the fibers of her being were telling her it was dangerous to keep going.

But there was a reason why she was there in the first place. She made up her mind while running. Rin was going to find out what the blue streak of light was. Even if it meant walking into this alley without even the ability to scream if something bad did in fact happen.

Rin tried to steady her throbbing heart as she took her first couple steps in. She walked all the way to the end of the alleyway and found that it turned right into another one. Carefully she stuck to the wall and peeked over the edge, scoping ahead to hopefully spot anything dangerous in the next back street. But, there was nothing. All that alley led to was dumpsters. There were bags and bags of trash overflowing from the rims of the metal structures, some tumbled onto the concrete, and others ripped apart by rodents or similar scavenging animals. Apart from that, there was nothing.

Disappointment flooded over her. It sobered her up, and consumed the warmth her silly hope had given her. Suddenly Rin could feel the cold, the wet, and the weight of how utterly absurd her antics were. Her eyes glassed over as she looked at the dumpsters with a far off gaze.

"Rin… what exactly were you hoping for?"

What had she been hoping for? What was there to hope for?

"… You knew… you should have known there wouldn't be anything here. So why are you disappointed?"

That's right. She had no right to be disappointed. She knew she was giving herself false hopes. From the very beginning she knew that. So why did it hurt so badly? How could she have believed there would be something here that would save her from her numbing life? What in the world could fall out of the sky and do that? What, in general, could do that?

Nothing could. That was her reality.

She took a shallow breath. "... Why do you even bother… just stop. This is the life you have now. It can't be chan-"

Slowly her gaze focused on something shimmering near the trashcans. The shimmer came from something wedged between the dumpster and alley wall.

It looked like silver threads.

"What is that?" Rin thought, and would have said aloud if she could. "Why would anyone throw out something like that?" She wondered, and slowly moved her tired limbs to try to get a better view of what the silver strands were.

Moving closer, she peered around the dumpster, and over the trashcan that obstructed the view she had before. That was when she saw what those silver threads really were.

And when she was able to take in the whole picture, she gasped.

The silver threads were hair, simmering as rain fell and caught on each individual ivory strand. Rin couldn't believe her eyes. There, on a pile of trash wedged next to the dumpster and alley wall was the most beautiful being she had ever seen. He had pale creamy skin, beautiful magenta markings on his delicate eyelids and cheeks, a sky blue crescent moon could be seen situated in the very center of his forehead under some of his locks, and his silver hair glistened as if each strand was spun from diamond. His features were unearthly, and the fact that he was what probably fell from the sky made it even more obvious to her what this being lying there was. Rin really couldn't believe what she was seeing. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it.

"It's an angel."