Yuki stared out the window. She was sitting on the cushy leather couch in the commons, thinking. I really wish I coulda went with Matt. He's really cute, and he seems nice enough. But Ryo would absolutely mutilate me. She doodled in her notebook. Mainly pictures of phoenixes. For some reason she had always loved mythical creatures, like phoenixes and dragons and centaurs.

She closed her eyes. She could call up a mental image of a place she had never seen before. As if straight out of someone else's memories…

Dark shapes danced and lightening flashed, thunder made the floor shake. The view shifted. As if looking through somebody's eyes and they had looked up. A tall, pretty woman stood about a foot away.

"Stay close." She breathed, kneeling close. Blocking something from view… from danger.

"Mom." The view locked on the woman's face. She couldn't've been more than 26. She had long black hair and gray-green eyes. She was wearing tight jeans and a black sweater, and white sketchers tennis shoes.

"Yes?"

"Are we gonna get hurt?" the voice could belong only to someone six or younger…

"I'll protect you. I promise." She sounded scared.

With a trembling hand she reached for the phone. She picked it up and tried it. It was dead. The lights were off, but the power wasn't out. It was off so they wouldn't know anyone was there. Bang! There was the sound of gunfire. The woman crouched lower. A man ran in.

"Krystal?! I told you to get outta here!" hissed the soldier, lowering his gun.

"This place is surrounded. They'll notice if I leave. Get our son out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you."

"Go. Go with him and tell them he's only a kid. Surely they'll spare him."

"No…."

"Please. For me. For him."

The view angled right at Krystal, the woman. She stared hopelessly, then the sound of a gun. She crumpled in a heap on the floor.

"No! Mommy!" the little boy's voice screamed. The man, cringing, picked up the little boy, whose eyes Yuki was seeing through. The boy looked over his shoulder at his mother, and then buried his face in the man's shoulder.

"Daddy… she'll be okay, right?" it was a terrified whisper.

"No…" the man sounded like he was on the verge of tears himself. The boy started to cry. Everything went dark.

            Yuki shook her head. I really, really hope that wasn't someone's actual memory… Poor kid… Was it real? Who did it happen to? She jerked when the bell rang, startled. Yuki sighed, shook her head, gathered up her books, and headed for the commons. That's just one of those things you can't erase from your head. That poor little boy. I feel so bad for him, his dad… I watched a mother and a wife die through a six year old's eyes…

            Matt hit the last note without a glitch. The commons was so loud that not many people paid attention to his electric guitar playing. The few who did stop complimented him on it. He flicked through the pages of his black notebook. In it was every song, every poem, every story he had ever written. Also, there was music he had composed and the beginning of a few songs he had been meaning to, but never had, finished. Raven had often told him he played like Xeno, and liked the same style of music.

He looked up. He smiled bitterly. There sat Ryo with his arm around Yuki's shoulders. Shoulda known. Taken. My luck. And she lied to me, so I'm better off anyway. Studying with Eyno… as if. Ryo looked as smug as could be. Yuki gave him the look. Matt couldn't hear what she was saying, but he assumed she was telling him off, because she did not look happy, and she stood up and abandoned him on the couch alone. Ryo looked aghast, shook his head, and his face turned red. He stomped over to Matt.

"Hey." He said.

Matt glowered and looked up. "What?"

"I just wanted to apologize for dumping water on you. Truce?" Ryo stuck out a stiff hand. Matt gave him a 'what's-the- catch?' look.

"Whatever." Matt reached out to shake his hand. Ryo snatched his notebook and started to run.

"You fu``\~ b1t0h! Thief!" Matt grabbed at it, on Ryo's heels.

Ryo laughed harshly. "You want it? Why? What's in it?" he flipped it open. "Whisper on the wind… hm! Not a bad poem! And what great lyrics and music… I didn't know you were smart enough to write! Well, looks like you're gonna hafta rewrite em!"

Ryo dangled the notebook over the fire. There was only a fire in the commons during the winter months. It was late November, and freezing outside.

"No. Don't even think about it." Matt gasped. "No."

"Oops." Laughed Ryo, dropping it.

"YOU AITSU!"  

Matt dove at Ryo. That notebook had the most important things to him in it. On the first page was one of the only two pictures he had of his real parents. Steam rose from the fireplace. Someone had put out the fire. Matt looked up, fury burning in his eyes. It was Yuki. She stood there, looking completely lost, like she didn't know what to do. Like she wasn't sure whether to tackle Ryo or cuss Matt and Ryo both out for being such suckers.

Yuki stood there. She stared at the two guys on the floor, fighting. One with a black leather jacket and dark jeans on, which was Matt, was winning. He was knocking Ryo's socks off. Ryo's lip was bleeding. He kicked Matt, knocked him back, and gave him a knuckle sandwich right between the eyes. Yuki grabbed what was left of the notebook out of the ashes and stood between them.

"Knock it of!" she yelled. By now the commons had become completely silent.

"He hit me!" bellowed Ryo furiously.

"Put a sock in it, Ryo. You deserved that ten times over. You are SO rude!" Yuki pulled him up by the shirt collar. Ryo was nose to nose with her and not looking so tough now. "I can't believe I actually DATED you! You rude-" she poked him hard in the chest, "Obnoxious freak! I've had ENOUGH of your twisted sense of humor and you're dumb tricks! They went one step to far! We're through!"

Yuki dropped him, handed the scorched remains of the notebook back to Matt, turned on her heel, and marched off. There was the sound of her boots clicking on the tile floor for a second, then it faded away. Matt got up, gave Ryo (who was still on the floor on his butt gibbering in total disbelief at how Yuki had conducted herself) one last good kick, clasped his junky note pad tightly, got his electric guitar, and walked off, head down, eyes shaded.

            Matt opened the notebook gingerly so it wouldn't fall apart. There was the torched picture inside. It was of a thin girl with black hair and laughing gray-green eyes next to a man in a soldier's uniform. It was a picture of his parents, together and happy. The edges were black and burnt. He sighed, ran his hands through his hair, and closed his eyes. The worst ending to the worst day.