Sylvia looked apprehensively at the clock hanging on the wall just about every ten minutes. With rushed hands, she haphazardly threw several items in a small red backpack. Her mind raced over the list of things she had packed.

Okay, let's see. First aid kit, extra change of clothes, towels, a box of granola bars in case I get hungry, soap, toothpaste and brush, and all the kitchen knives. Dang, mom is going to kill me for taking all her nice cooking knives. That is, if I do find her. At least she's not that good of a cook anyways.

Sylvia stood up and gazed at little red backpack that was tremendously bulging. Then her eyes turned to the tall mirror on the inner side of her closet door. She saw herself looking back. Her attire consisted of sleek and shapely night black shirt with a high neck and sleeves that cut off four or five inches away from her wrist. Her hands were resting in neat black gloves that left the final joint of the each finger exposed. Her denim shorts were of a faded weak tan but the thick heavy belt is what made them seem a little weighty. The weather out was far too warm for pants. But just in case, the pair of sleek black stockings she had on, made of a similar stretchy material as her shirt, rose to her thighs. Her tough dark gray hiking boots didn't appear in the reflection but her feet were laced snuggly in up to the middle of her shin. Her hair was pulled back into a neat pony tail with two thick wisps of dark chocolate hair falling out to frame her face. She looked like she was about to run into an action movie like Indiana Jones or something.

Sylvia's reflection in the mirror was real. Her decision was real as well. It was time to put the highest priority in front: to find her mom. With a final sigh to wash away any last minute regrets, Sylvia reached for her backpack, slung it onto her back, and headed for the back door. Even doing just this already stated that she could not return. Before coming home, she had plenty to do just to arrive.

Flash Back

Yoko was doing a final check to see if Sylvia was asleep. It was about 11:24 and she had to be well rested for school tomorrow. The warm yellowish light from the hallway seeped into the guest bedroom that Sylvia was resting in. With the concluded evaluation that she was asleep, Yoko quietly closed the door and walked down the hall. With the disappearance of Yoko's footsteps, Sylvia's eyes blinked open. With as little noise as she could make, she pulled the covers off of her, and gently slid her legs over the side of the bed, setting her feet delicately on the floor. Sylvia had already taken note that a floorboard about a foot away from the tall black dresser creaks when stepped upon, so she paid extra attention not to disturb it. Very carefully, Sylvia walked over to the writing desk where her little red backpack and dark gray jacket rested. She slipped her jacket over her pajamas and threw the bag onto her back. Just make sure Yoko would not freak out in the night to find her gone, Sylvia placed the extra pillows from the closet and laid them on her bed in a boomerang shape. Then she finished by covering them with the blanket to set up a decoy.

She looked around the room one last time before she would make her escape. Any and all the fear and regrets would be sinking in right around now. She could get into a lot of trouble for this. She could get hurt by something or someone out into the night. She might not find what she was looking for. But for that sake of what was at stake, fear could take a back seat. This is mom-finding time.

With those final thoughts, Sylvia unlatched her window and pushed the glass open. She couldn't love Yoko enough for having old fashioned windows and no bug screens. She never did pay attention to this room until she had to accommodate Sylvia for two days a week. The cool air of the summer night rushed into her room and gave her a small fit of shivers for a moment. Then she adapted to the new temperature. It really wasn't all that cold. Her room was just always really warm. Sylvia leaned her head out the window. The gentle wind swept the hair around her face. She hated the fact that Yoko was on the top floor of a four floor apartment building. Her eyes caught a fire escape ladder traveling up the side of the building as the light from the street lamps reflected off of it. The only problem was that this window wasn't even close to the escape ladder as it led up to Yoko's small balcony. Sylvia looked around. She had an idea, and she didn't like it one bit.

Sylvia reached upwards and grabbed the top ledge of the window. It was a frightening task to try and set her feet on the ledge. It was even scarier to turn around. Her hands and feet were shaking, trying to stay balanced. One uncoordinated step could lead her to the pavement four stories below. With uncertainty, she slowly tuned her body around so she faced back into the room. Sylvia made a leap of faith when she suddenly sprang upwards and latched her hands around the ledge of the rooftop. Her eyes were squeezed shut during the dramatic act. Once she found a sense of not being dead, her eyes reopened to see her hands tightly gripping the edge of the roof. Sylvia had gotten this far, but she had a longer ways to go.

The window with the fire ladder leading up to it was about eight or so feet away. Sylvia began a movement of shuffling her hands to the left, pulling her suspended weight along. The friction beneath her fingers was beginning to wear them red. She could feel the brick wall scraping and snagging at her as she past it. Sylvia decided here that this was the single most dangerous thing she had ever done in her life; hanging from the roof ledge of a four story apartment building at night by herself. She was almost to the window. Then, her leading hand landed on something small and painful. Sylvia cursed her humanly reaction, which was to lift her hand. Her remaining hand couldn't hold her entire weight, and she fell. She almost screamed, but the air fled from her lungs. With the quick reflexes she had, she grabbed the cold pole of the escape ladder. Her legs were also a bit hitched up as well. From a distance, she might have looked like a large frightened koala.

Her eyes pried open, a bit scared to see what had happened. She was holding onto the side of the ladder for dear life. Sylvia carefully pulled her hand away from the grasp and examined the throbbing finger. There was a droplet of red welling up on the delicate pad of her index finger. She must have placed it on a nail or something accidentally. She wiped the blood off on her black night shorts. Her gaze dropped downwards to the ally way below; it looked to be about thirty-five feet. With that as her final observation, Sylvia placed her hands and feet appropriately on the bars and began a steady pace of moving down the ladder little by little. She never was one for heights with danger involved, but this was no time to chicken out. She felt particularly fortunate that Yoko had not noticed her fall right in front of her own window.

The bars made a hollow metallic noise as Sylvia's hands and feet grasped, stepped on, and released the bars. Her hands were even becoming a bit raw after climbing down four stories of ladder. They were definitely sweaty from the constant fear of slipping and plummeting; sweating became the enemy there. With only a few feet remaining of the ladder, Sylvia let go and jumped the final bit of depth. Her legs stung a bit when they landed on the hard pavement; after all, she was in her slippers. There was a tad bit of chill in the soft breeze, but other than that, it was very warm and humid. Her wispy black shorts and her cerulean blue tank top clung to her slightly sweaty skin. Why the thought of shoes hadn't crossed her mind earlier was a wonder to her. Either way, time wasn't on her side.

Sylvia thought for a moment

Okay, I'm about a half-an-hour drive from my home. So, walking, that should take maybe two or more hours. Dang it, I wish I had a driver's license. I don't want to walk all the way to Whitmore Lake.

Enough whining, it was time to move.

It seemed like the night was passing quickly as she huffed her way down the darkly lit roads. Once she had passed the city, there were no lights between here and Whitmore Lake. Her feet were aching a bit from trudging on the grass and rocky dirt alongside the roads. A flashlight would have been helpful at the moment. Some people eyed her suspiciously when she was in the populated area. A girl walking around at eleven at night in her shorts, tank top, and sleeping slippers wasn't a common sight. Her feet were becoming sore and she was pretty much sure that her slippers were ruined. But then, she saw it; a humbly lit wooden sign with cursive letters engraved into it; Whitmore Lake. She was home.

End of Flashback

Sylvia locked the door behind her and hid the key in the removable brick five units away from the doorbell. The last time she looked at the digital clock on the microwave, it read 1:28 in the morning. The sun would rise in six hours. As long as she was still awake, it was time to search. The most important tool of her mission rested in her shorts pocket: a pocketbook containing two photographs of her mother. One of them was of her smiling and hugging Yoko at a carnival. The other was of her mom with her hand in the other of an un-godly thin man with a very pale face, dark rings under his eyes and deep black hair. He was smiling too, but a little scarier that her mom. This was her dad.

Now, where would be the best place to start looking? What the heck am I doing? I don't even know where to look! Some search party I am. Maybe I'll need some help with this one.

Her mind set to one person for her mission of aid.

The problem there was, she had no idea where Todd lived. He always seemed to find her. Now that she thought about it, whenever she was in some sort of distress, he came to the rescue. But putting herself in danger with just the back up of a coincidence wasn't a good idea. The only places she had seem him in the past where at the park. Maybe that was the place to look. It was after sunlight hours, so she had to be stealthy or risk being caught by the police that lap around every once in a while.

Her tired legs took her down the side walk as she passed her school. The park was in walking distance, but that was for serious exorcising people. There was yet another four blocks until they reached the edge of the town, and then the park. Sylvia's mind had dozed off for a while. Once she realized that once the town street lights were overhead her, she was very close. A right turn and another block down were the shrouded gatherings of dark elm trees bordering the park. Her feet quickened in pace and brought her closer to the reservation of domestic nature.

(MOL: I'll warn you here, I make some dialogue coming up with some light sexual and drug references. But it's short.)

As soon as she entered the park, a soft sound met her ears.

It sounded like a woman's voice and giggles; in fact, more than one.

"That was such an awesome party. Definitely better than the last one," One spoke in an exaggerated tone to her companions.

"That's because you got laid this time."

"You did too."

"But you wouldn't stop complaining last time."

"Shut up."

There were three girls, perhaps a little older than Sylvia herself. Their faces were illuminated every so often when one took a long drag from a cigarette. They all wore heavy makeup and wore clothes consisting of blacks, reds, fishnets, and spikes. The one leaning against a tree truck had distinguishable long red hair. She brought her cigarette back up to her dark crimson lips. Another had short blonde hair with the last inch or so died red. Her lips were black and her nose had a less-than-elegant silver ring coiled around it. The last was a face she recognized. Even though the light was minimal and her makeup was in surplus, Sylvia could tell that the face was of an Asian shape. Her eyes were a bit thinner and her skin had a more olive color to it that her companions.

"The one at the party was okay, but right now, there's only one guy I really wanna crawl in bed with." The last girl chipped in.

It was Mikori. Her clothes were less than admirable. She wore a black corset with some delicate white lace lining the edges over a tight mesh long sleeve top. Her black leather choker had a few unpleasant silver spikes evenly protruding from it. Her lacey skirt rose to her mid-thigh and was part of the matching set with her corset. Her tights were of black fishnet and had several larger holes in them. She wore the same tall red thick heels she did the day Sylvia first saw her. Over all, she appeared very meretricious.

The slowly shortening cigarette was brought up to her ebony painted lips and its tip glowed a dusty orange, before a stream of white smoke sailed from her slightly open mouth.

"Is it that Todd guy?" the red head spoke out.

Mikori tapped her cigarette lightly with her finger to brush away the ashes, "Yeah. He is so sexy and mysterious. He's like one of those guys that will let you near them but won't let you have them. And I can't get enough of his eyes; they're like a wolf's eyes in the dark. I bet that if he didn't want to hurt that little kid's feeling, he probably would have done me by now."

The blonde smashed her cigarette on the tree beside her and flicked the slightly glowing stub in the air, "What kid?"

"There's this little girl that hangs around him sometimes. I bet she has a crush on him. I hate the way she's always hanging all over him and acting like a little whore. I can't stand her. I so want to push her off of him, and tell her that he's mine!" Mikori hissed.

"That's not true!" Sylvia voice lashed out from her hiding place behind an Elm tree. It was there, she wish she didn't have a mouth.

The three girls looked up to see that Sylvia had come out from her hiding place. She was breathing heavily, not just from fear, but from anger. Every word, Mikori had said was a lie. She was no little kid, she wasn't always hanging all over him, and she didn't act like a whore! The three stood up and glared at her for eves dropping on them.

"Who are you?" The blonde spat out, literally.

Mikori dropped her cigarette and crushed it with her monstrous heel, "She looks kinda like that girl I just told you about. I bet it is her!"

Without another moment, the shoulder of her black shirt was grabbed roughly by a hand with long sharp crimson nails and she was harshly jerked towards their direction. Sylvia made a quick pull back the other way but the nails of the red head restraining her were piercing her clothing. But she wouldn't go down easily. Sylvia emitted a gritted growl of strength as she pulled away yet again. But this time, the only reason she escaped was because her shirt ripped horribly. Her entire left shoulder and bra strap were bare to the night. The injured fabric dangled from the clothing and quivered with Sylvia's movements.

"Wait," Mikori halted her friends before they both pounced on the spy, "This isn't the girl. She didn't have a tattoo?"

Sylvia shivered for a moment, somewhat lost.

Tattoo, what tattoo?

She watched the three girls. Their eyes all of a sudden grew wide. A cold hand rested itself on Sylvia's right shoulder. Her head turned to see a tall shadowy man in a long black coat and dark hair with brilliant green eyes.

"Todd!" Mikori spoke breathlessly.

The Maiden of Light: Whoa, I think that is the longest I've gone without updating. This was actually a hard chapter for me because I am making all this up as I go. I don't even know how it's going to end! Let me know what you think!