She turns the handle and pushes the unlocked door open. No reason to do so, no reason to worry. No one comes around here anyway. Its late at night, he is asleep, so she steps lightly, looking over everything as she enters the cold apartment. Everything that she touched last is still in the same position, books still scattered across the coffee table. She sits down in a chair and picks up a journal she doesn't recognize…not her own, but James'. She lights a candle near by, as not to take the risk of turning on a light.

            I miss her. Those are the only words I can manage to write…She isn't here, and I miss her…

Shutting the book, a tear slips down her cheek…

Flashback…

As they sit on the sofa, her legs carelessly thrown over his, he strokes her thigh closet to him gently, watching her without her knowing. She flashes him a glance and a smile.

"James…why are you staring at me?" She asks politely, pushing hair behind her ear. He laughs, and picks up her hand, playfully tossing it as he thinks. She changes positions, her upper body now lying across his lower half, and as she faces downwards, she closes her eyes.

"Raven, do you ever think of who you're going to spend the rest of your life with?"

"I'm seventeen, I'm not supposed to." She jokes.

"But do you?" He implores again, more seriously.

"Yeah…I do." She thinks nothing of his questions, but he stops again, taking time to calculate his words. Rubbing her neck with one of his free hands, the other resting on her back, she speaks again. "So what are you trying to say?"

"Nothing." He leans down and kisses her neck, causing a chill to fall over her body.

"Are you teasing me?" He answers as he kisses her neck again slowly, his fingers tracing the tattoo illegally attained between her shoulder blades.

"No."

"Yes you are…" Her voice is drawn back, senses taking the best of her.

"I know…"

Overwhelmed and startled, as she stands, she stumbles and knocks a few books to the ground, causing a loud crash. Panicking, she runs to the nearby closet, and slips inside, easily camouflaged in the darkness. With slow and unsure steps, he comes from the hallway into the room, looking around, but not nervously. In his state, having just awoken from a light sleep, it takes moments to notice the dim candle light. She watches him as he sits down, and stares at the flame. Not afraid, but puzzled.

"I must be loosing my mind." She quietly nudges the partially open door and makes it to the main door without being seen. Walking down the street, she stops in a small all night store.

"Evenin'." The clerk says, not bothering to look up from his newspaper. She smiles, and continues to the back for the magazines and weekly Times. Grabbing the latest, she pushes it onto the counter, searching through her pockets for spare change. "Don't worry about it miss." He folds the paper, and glances up at her, ignoring the black trails underneath both her eyes from eyeliner cried tears. "It's tomorrow already, no point in chargin' for yesterday's news now…" His words gradually grow quieter as hw stares at her face. "I…I know you from somewhere." She slips her hands into her sweater that she'd taken from the house. He begins frantically flipping through the news paper until obviously, he finds what he's looking for. Studying the photograph, he looks to it, then to her. "Naw…it can't be…" He picks up the paper and holds it towards the light, adjusting his glasses. He takes one last look at the necklace around her neck, and is taken aback. "You're the girl that…" When he looks again, she is gone, and a few dollars are left on the counter. "That was murdered…"