1:33am~
Kayla suddenly sat up in her bed. She was sweating and breathing hard. Without thinking she got up and headed straight for her balcony. She closed her eyes and gripped the railing as she took in the warm night air. She was calm, but her heart hurt, she could feel the holes and cracks that were getting bigger every day.
Silent tears slowly rolled down her face. She opened her eyes to wipe them when she notice a black pick-up truck parked across the street from her apartment window. She quickly backed into her apartment, tripping over a pair of boots in her attempt to get back inside before Dominic saw her. But then it dawned on her.
"I'm home? How did I get home?" she picked up the boots and went to put them in her closet when she notice that they were pretty heavy.
"These...these aren't mine.." she turned to where they were laying on the floor. There was a rustle as feet poked out from the the corner of her bed. She screamed, dropped the boots, and grabbed the bamboo bow staff she used for training.
Mark jumped up into his fighting stance, nearly slipping on the air mattress when he heard a scream. They were both breathing hard and staring daggers into each others' throats.
"What are you doing here?" Kayla lowered the staff.
"Making sure you were okay. Why'd you scream?"
"Cause I saw your feet!" Mark cocked his head.
"I live alone Mark. I don't expect to see someone's big ass feet on my floor, let alone someone sleeping on my air mattress."
"Fair enough." he lowered his hands.
"You were going to punch me?"she put his boots in the closet and set the staff in the corner.

"You were gonna whack me with a stick!" he raised an eyebrow and she laughed.
"So how did I get home?" she sat on the bed.
"I carried you, your godmother Rachael came to help."
"Help?"
"You don't remember?"
"Remember wh-" she pictured herself diving out of the way of a truck, she was backing up into a tree, and grasping onto Mark. "Oh..right." She reached up to adjust her bandanna.
"Where's my bandanna?"
"I took it off, its on the dresser."
Kayla turned pale an covered the sides of her face. He placed a large hand on her knee.
"I won't ask. You can tell me when you're ready. Come on back to bed. Its almost 2 am."
"I won't be able to go back to sleep for a while. I'm just lay down." Mark nodded and went to lay down on the air mattress when Kayla suddenly grabbed his shoulder. She looked scared and squeezed his shoulder. He patted her hand and laid next to her.
"So why the glow in the dark stars?"
"I've always loved stars. My parents would always tell me that when I was a baby I'd just stare up at the stars when they were outside at night. Mom had a photographic telescope and we'd take several pictures and hang the coolest ones up in her office. Dad and I went on camping trips and late night picnics to a clearing outside the city when mom would go to work. He'd teach me everything about space and how different mythologies regarded space. We'd be outside for hours..." she absentmindedly rubber her right shoulder. There was a happiness in her voice that he had never heard in anyone, he also recognized the sadness when she trailed off at the end. Mark waited for her to continue speaking, after a couple more seconds he heard her stifled sniffling. He pulled the covers over her and rubbed her knee.
"Sleep."

"Shit, gotta get home!" Mark was racing home on his bike, he was late for the surprise he had for Kayla. He rolled to stop at a red light. Wait...Kayla?
"Why would Kayla be at my place?" He wondered. He realized he wasn't even remotely sure why he needed to get home. Lost in thought, Mark didn't notice the light changed, the bike sped up without him pressing the gas pedal. He tried applying the brakes,but his hands never moved.

Oddly enough, he wasn't worried about his body not responding to the signals his brain was sending. All he was worried about was if Kayla would like his surprise. He smiled to himself knowing that she'd probably loose her mind. He didn't see guy in the red pick-up run a red light. He felt a sharp pain in his side and everything went dark. He couldn't see a thing, but he felt his body fly off the bike, he felt his ribs puncture his lungs. It seemed like he was in the air forever, until he felt his forehead come in contact with the asphalt.
"Daddy?"

Mark sat up panting. His hands frantically running over his sweaty chest and head searching for blood, wounds, maybe a rib or two poking out from under his skin. Once he realized his person was intact he gained control of his breathing and rained his body in from the adrenaline rush the nightmare had caused him. He looked over to the digital clock on the nightstand and flopped back down on the bed. It was 6:30 am and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. The only thing he could do was think about the dream. Anyone else would have ignored it and gone back to sleep. But in Mark's world, dreams always meant something. He wondered if it could be a glimpse into the future, it certainly wasn't something from his past. Mark thought hard about it. Only being able to picture the bike seconds before being thrown from it, and hearing a child say "Daddy?"
He turned to look at Kayla who was covered head to toe in the sheet. He decided to follow her example. Mark pulled the sheet over his head and hoped to fall back to sleep for at 30 minutes.