Diana

I bite my lip in excitement as I stroll through the forest along side the stranger. I've always seen the forest from afar, and while I always thought it was just one simple shade of green, but really it was more colorful. The stranger gives me a glance as I take light steps compared to his long, heavy strides. I hold my hands behind my back and start to hum.

"You're quite cheerful." The stranger says.

"Well, I like to believe I have a reason to be. If you were locked away for twenty years of your life, wouldn't you be cheerful to be outside?" I ask. He shrugs.

"I mean, I've been alone for thirty-one years of my life until my son. I think that's as isolated as you can get." He explains. I stop walking.

"How can you still be alone even though you're allowed to go outside?" I asked. He stops walking. He looks at me.

"It doesn't really matter if you allowed to outside or not." He says, starting to walk again. "It all really depends on social interaction. I prefer to be alone, so I've been isolated all my life. You seem much more social, so you prefer to be out more. It's called introvert and extrovert." He explains. I nod my head in understanding.

"So if you like being alone, why did you bring me along?" He sighs and stops walking.

"You're coming with me." He says. I look at him. "Look, the chances of Artemis and everyone else treating you like a normal person after I'm gone are low. If you come with me, you can live with me and my son and we'll figure it out from there." I bite my lip. What made his world different than mine?

"You promise? If I go with you, no one will judge me for who I am? Or the color of my eyes?" I ask with a hint of desperation in my voice. He nods. I glare at him, waiting for him to say it instead of giving me a minor gesture. He doesn't because he already knows the answer. We stay silent and just listen to each other's footsteps. I smile to myself as I think of something to say.

"You should ask me for dinner first before telling me to come home with you." I say jokingly. I glance at the stranger, who is shaking his head with a bright smile and with a slight blush forming on his cheeks as he quietly chuckled to himself. It seemed so unlike him to smile, his bright smile contrasted against the dark color of his suit.

"You know stranger, smiling really does suit you. You should do it more often." I complimented. He looked at me strangely with a smirk.

"Are you flirting with me Princess?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow. I gave him a smile and shrugged, considering it.

"Well, you aren't half bad to look at." I admitted. I looked back at him again at his now red face. "Can you really blame me for it?" He shook his head.

"No, I suppose not."

We continue to talk as we walk through the forest. I follow him into a clearing, and my eyes settled on a crashed chunk of metal that was smoking. I turn my head to the side in confusion. The front of what he called a "jet" was completely destroyed. One of its large wings was sticking abruptly out while other had sliced deep into the ground, making impossible to move. But what struck me as the most confusing part was how he made it out alive with just a deep cut on his arm. His legs should have been crushed from the way the front of it looked.

"How the Hades did you get out there alive?" I ask as he walks toward.

"I guess I got lucky. Happens a lot." He replied digging through the seat of the jet. He looked back at me and held up a long, sharp object. "Want to help me?" I nodded and took the object.

"So what exactly are we doing?" I say, inspecting the thing that could be used as a weapon.

"Well, you're going to fit through that hole because I can't." He explains, pointing at the one that was underneath a panel of blinking buttons. I raise an eyebrow but ultimately decide to shut up and go in. Once I'm in, I flip over onto my back. "You see those little round things on that panel? I need you to take those out and take off the covering." I follow his instructions until I come to threads strung together.

"Okay, what now?"

"I need you to cut the wires in a specific order, red, yellow, black, green, and blue." He says, handing me a different object. It was a blade that was slanted so that one end was at sharp point. I looked back at the wires and sighed. There was more than one of those colors.

"Stranger, there is more than one wire of those colors." I heard him chuckle at my comment.

"I just need it in that order; you can cut any one that you want. And I have a name Princess." I move my head so I'm able to see him.

"What is it? Ben?" I ask sarcastically. He rolls his ocean eyes with a smile.

"It's Bruce." I giggle. "I'm still calling you stranger." I say, going back to the wires. I hear him leave his spot and walk around to the other side. I cut the last wire and get out of the hole. I peer over the crushed side to see Bruce fiddling with something else.

"I finished." I say. He looks up at me and I die a little on the inside because there is a streak of black across his cheek and it he looked like a child after playing in the mud. I continue to stare at him, blocking out any noises, including his voice. He snaps his fingers and I jump as I'm taken out my mind. "I'm sorry what?" I say.

"I asked you to see if there's a red light that isn't blinking on the panel." He repeated, even though it was the first time I heard him say it. I nod and go back to the panel of blinking buttons to hide my embarrassment. I skim over each row until I see a red one that isn't blinking. I turn back to tell Bruce, but he isn't there anymore.

I look around to try and find him, but he's gone. I call out his name once. Then twice. Then three times. My stomach turns inside out and worry floods over me. I can't shake off the uneasy feeling. I open my mouth to call out his name once more, but before I can, a hand covers my mouth.

And it suddenly turns black.

I know I've been MIA for awhile now. But honestly I've been so busy that I haven't been able to do anything and because I had to get a new computer. I also just didn't feel like writing. But I'm back now, I promise. :)