The soundtrack to this chapter is "Mad World" by Gary Jules.

Bold = dream

Italics = thoughts

Also, all these poems were written by ME

Hands.

Strange, cold, unwanted hands made filthy trails along pale skin. Marking him, making him dirty. Those hands, too many to count, had tied his own behind his back, cramping his shoulders and making his back hurt. Sharp blades made wicked designs on the already scarred chest. A deep chuckle that never ceased to make him shiver rang through the darkness, the black that surrounded him caused by the rag around his eyes.

"My little raven...you're so cute..."

He felt his heart race when someone reached for his pants. He knew what was coming, he was used to it by then. He refused to apologize, instead retreating into the safety of his mind-not fighting them but not giving in. He tried to think of happier times, when Kanra still smiled. He struggled to remember his parent's faces, but for some horrible reason he couldn't picture them, leaving their faces a blurry white. He briefly wondered how long he had been in Bogmertv. Months? Years? Did it even matter? If he and Kanra didn't leave soon, they would surely die. Although, Kanra already acted like she was dead.

Like she had died the second the elevator cable had snapped.

Roppi jolted awake to the sound of voices.

"Mom! She ate the meat!"

"What meat?"

"Uh...well..."

"Oh Shizuo you didn't! I was going to make that steak for dinner tonight!"

"I-It's not like you don't have three others! I'll just eat something else...besides, she ate everything so she must've been really hungry..."

"...Alright...but ask me first next time, okay?"

"Okay!"

Roppi smiled softly at the boy's lighthearted voice. He seemed like a nice boy, at least when he wasn't yelling about something. The enthusiasm he showed towards feeding a stray animal was rather endearing, and Roppi couldn't help but smile at the heartwarming gesture. If only Shizuo knew what that gesture meant to him, that it had saved his life. He owed Shizuo his life.

Then he heard his father say something he most definitely did not want to hear.

"I called Animal Control, they'll be here in ten minutes."

Shit shit shit! Okay, I have to sneak out of here somehow...

He found that his muscles were cramped and he could hear his bones creak when he tried to sit up in the bushes. The hunger was back and gnawed at his insides, but nowhere near as badly as the night before. Peeking his head out of the bushes away from the house, facing the fence, he looked up and saw that the sun was high in the sky.

This is bad...

Forcing himself to not look back, not even to see if anyone was watching, he leaped straight up and gripped the white fence with calloused hands. With a single heave he was able to lift himself over the top and land on all fours on the sidewalk like a cat. He winced at the jarring of bones, but kept himself alert. He knew he was in bad shape, looking like a street rat with all the dirt and shredded clothes. He had washed off the blood from his skin, but he still looked like a madman.

"First I should find out what day it is...find out how long I've been away...",he muttered to himself as he stood and brushed himself off. Taking a look around he found that the neighborhood was quaint, it looked like something out of a magazine: neat and uniform. He suddenly felt ashamed, as if he didn't fit in such a clean place.

After all, he was so tainted...

There were a few people walking around, none of which saw his gravity defying leap up a ten-foot high fence and drop down unharmed. As he made his way down the sidewalk, bearing the glances and nervous whispers sent his way. A mother shied her young daughter in the opposite direction, Roppi resisted the urge to sigh.

He started to jog lightly, uncomfortable with the amount of stares he was receiving. The sidewalk was burning hot under his bare feet, the sun heating it and distorting the air above it to create mirages of water that were but illusions. He hadn't been in the company of "normal" people in so long, especially adults.

A newstand caught his eye, bright yellow and rather large. He dashed across the empty road to it and quickly peered through the dirty glass to check the date.

He choked on air.

March 19th 1997

Two years?! I've been gone for TWO YEARS?! That means I'm twelve now...THIS IS CRAZY!

Mind spinning and stomach churning, Roppi ran.

He ran far and fast, not caring who saw him. Trees, people, roads, buildings-he ducked through alleyways and leaped over fences with ease.

He was scared.

He was angry.

...

He was lost.

...

"Oh fuck..."

An abandoned cram school.

Roppi was in awe at the amount of furnishing and books that still took up residence in the dusty classrooms. A library stocked with books on every subject, broken computers that lacked power, rooms piled high with just desks, empty rust-colored lockers, flooded hallways and clogged toilets. Stripes of sunlight came in from cracked windows and missing ceiling tiles.

Nature had taken over the cram school, plants of all kinds weaved and wrapped themselves around book shelves and fire exits. The air was a mix of so many scents-he couldn't discern a single one. Every now and then Roppi would hear a car pass by, water drip from a broken pipe, or a bird tweet from somewhere inside the building.

Roppi made his way to the library and plopped down on a dusty couch. It was slightly ripped and probably covered in mites, but he could hardly care less. The springs were still there and he relished the feeling of being on the corduroy cushions. There were books shelves surrounding him and loose texts strewn around the rather spacious room.

A line of computers, screens busted in and some entirely missing, sat in a perfect row in from of three large unbroken windows that let in an enormous amount of light. The sunlight combined with the dampness of the air was heavenly to him, and he soon found himself drifting off into a deep slumber.

Nightmares did not spare him.

Falling through darkness without a bottom and without a purpose, Roppi was falling to his inevitable death. He could hear laughter around him-deep chuckles and strange giggles that made him ill. Despite the rate at which he was falling, there was no rush of wind or fluttering of clothes. He could only see his arms and legs-he was the only colored thing in the world of dark.

"Sweet little Roppi...why won't you apologize to me? You've been a bad boy...bad boys must be punished..."

Roppi knew that voice all too well, the voice of the man who haunted him day and night.

Hakuro Chimamireina

"Does it hurt, my little raven?"

That fucking bastard...

"Kanra wanted you to save her, you know? So why did you let her die, Roppi? That's not very brotherly of you..."

"SHUT UP!"

Suddenly he felt something grab his ankles and he looked down in surprise. Thin spider-like finger wrapped around his ankles, pale arms that connected to a scarred bare female torso, jet black filthy hair hung like ropes around a sullen ashen face that was pocked with bloody holes, a single crimson eye looked up at him in what could only described as sadness. The other eye was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced with empty blackness that oozed out something yellowish and bloody down her face.

It was Kanra.

It was how Kanra looked before she died.

"You let me die, brother..."

"Wha-?"

"You left me to die...why didn't you save me...brother?"

"N-No i-it w-wasn't like that!"

"You wanted me to die...didn't you? You were sick and tired of caring for me. I just hung onto to you and depended on you all the time...you wanted me to die so you could be free..."

Tears welled up in his eyes and he struggled futilely to free himself.

"No! S-Stop it! I d-didn't-I never-!"

"Are you happy? Are you happy now...Roppi?"

Suddenly the grip on his ankles loosen, and those pin cushion hands slipped from his legs-Kanra falling down into the darkness below.

"KANRA!"

They say that we are puppets on strings

Our master so high out of reach that we don't even know what he looks like

The strings he uses to command us are like links of a chain

We will never break free from their hold

We are just there for the amusement of the crowd

Soon we will be put away into a box in the corner

Collecting dust and soon forgotten

We, the puppets on strings

For the next week and a half, Roppi followed a strict routine.

Morning: he would catch a stray cat (he found he had developed a bizarre hatred for them) and have it for breakfast, he'd start a small fire using some loose paper to cook, and would read a book in the meantime.

Afternoon: Roppi didn't want to get spotted by anyone, so he stayed inside the cram school until dusk and either read books or explored the nooks and crannies of the school.

Night: now, he was happiest during this time-less people on the streets and less likely to get caught. He enjoyed exploring the city he now identified as Sugamo, a neighborhood in Toshima, Tokyo. He would run across the large bridge that spanned over a dried up river, careful not to fall down into the trench. He also enjoyed watching Shizuo play in his backyard. Call it what you will, stalking or spying like a creeper, he was content in watching the young brunette play in the grass with his brother or just take a nap on the porch. Roppi always stayed in either the bushes by the slide or in the large oak tree. Shizuo would never see him, never know that the boy who owed him his life was hiding just a few feet away. But Roppi was happy, content with this routine.

Until Shizuo Heiwajima went missing.

ATTENTION!

You might have noticed that I edited a few things in previous chapters.

1. Izaya lost his right eye, not his left. I went back and changed it to his right eye.

2. Shizuo and Izaya are both currently 25, so the current year is also 2010

3. I changed the knife that Izaya threatened Mairu with to a kitchen knife because he actually doesn't have his switchblade with him. This will be revealed why later on.

Also, I noticed something really cool but kinda creepy-IZAYA HAS THE SAME BIRTHDAY AS ME 0.0