'I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light.'

The ground beneath her now dirty knee's prickled into her skin as she bent forward to place a potted flower into the hole she had made in the ground. After brushing the dirt to lock the flower in place, she leaned back and admired her work. A newly white tulip gleamed and swayed in the breeze causing the girl to nod her head in approval like she did with all the flowers she had planted that day. In the corner of her eye she saw Aerith walk over and smile down at the girl, "Looks wonderful." She commented.

Jessica let out a breath as she stood up and whipped the sweat that built on her forehead with the back of her hand. She took a couple step's back and examined her little garden patch filled with beautiful variety of flowers in one corner and in the other corner was bare with seed's hiding deep within the soil. These were the daily activities she would do with Aerith and occasionally Tifa when she had time to spare. Most of the time she would be working at a little bar around the corner and be too busy to spend her time planting flowers in the backyard of their cabin.

"You did a good job." Aerith said as she whipped her hands along apron in attempt at cleaning some of the dirt off them. "We'll have this place looking great in no time."

The girl looked at Aerith and nodded her head before grabbing her water from the corner of the fence where it laid and took a long sip from it. Her brown eyes traveled back over to the friend's that were boring into her own. "What do you think of it so far?" Aerith questioned as she got down on her knee's to lock another flower in place.

After a short moment of silence and no answer, her eyes went back up to Jessica's filled with question. No response left Jessica lip's but she shrugged her shoulders slowly before leaning her body back against the orange fence. She fought back the sigh that pleaded to escape from her lip's , she should have expected as much from the her. She hasn't spoken a word since her arrival here and it was starting to worry her greatly. Aerith has tried none stop to get the girl to speak but it would end in moment's like this. But she wasn't going to lose hope. Jessica just needed time was all.

Her soft hands brushed the soil around the flower as she bit down the frown forming on her lips. At least she hoped time was what she needed. But she wasn't going to lose faith in her recovering even if it did take longer then she had originally expected.

"You should get Yuffie to do work like this around the place." Said a familiar voice from behind her. "It'll give her something to do rather then have her complain how there is of interest." "Aren't you funny." Yuffie said with a roll of her eyes as she walked around the cabin.

Leon cracked a smile and shook his head at the girl before turning back and looking at the two brunettes staring at him with gentle eyes. "I just came here to tell you I am heading into town."

"Oh, that reminds me." Aerith dug out a piece of paper out of her apron and handed it to Leon. "Tifa needed you to pick up some things while you are over there."He nodded his head before placing the slip of paper into his pocket. His eyes glanced over at Jessica's whose looked slightly panicked darting between the two of them. He knew what she wanted to say for he had been through this a lot with her. She rarely spoke word's but her eyes would always give her away most of the time. "Would you like to come?" Leon asked her with a small smile.

Her dark brown hair bounced on her shoulders as she nodded her head then ran over to the man's side. He chuckled at the sight of her before looking back at Aerith to give her a slight wave which she returned with a bright smile.

"Stay close to me." Leon told her while they made their way into the town over flowing with people. "It's easy to get lost."She nodded her head and took his arm into hers causing him to look down at her with questioning eyes. He couldn't help but think she looked so small lately. It was like she was slowly losing herself, detaching herself from reality and everyone knew of this but there were plainly in denial thinking that there was some way to fix it.

The scene in front of her caused her eye's to widen in excitement for she has not been out and about like this in so long. The rush of everything caused memories to flood back into her from the time that Sora and her would always go on these daily run's from time to time to help out his mother.

It brought a smile to her lip's in remembering these little thoughts. It made her feel like she was back in the good old day's where there was not a care in the world other then worrying about getting home on time so your parent's wouldn't ground you for being out so late. She remembered all the times her parent's would crack the whip on her when she arrived home late from hanging out with her secret crush by their little spot by the ocean where they used to go when they couldn't meet up at home.

As good as the moment seem to be as she was lost in her memories, her heart began to feel slightly heavy realizing how far from reality that was now. The corner of her lip's tugged downwards as they moved through the crowd and she lost herself in her memories yet again. She remembered the day she was going to confess her feelings for the first time to the small boy at their secret spot. Jessica had never felt more nervous in her entire life then she did at that moment in time.

The boy didn't even know what to make of what she had just told him either. Maybe it was because of the fact that she didn't even make sense when telling him directly, she was never good at those kind of things. She was a stuttering mess when she first became his friend. But he didn't seem to mind, at times she always found him smiling from the corners of her eyes when ever she would stutter, blush madly then look down at the ground trying to keep her eyes away from his.

Looking back at all those times, she realized how much they had actually grown up. How much they had grown up together. They always did everything together, they were each other first at everything whether it was from their first kiss, their first date, their first fight, and even their first heart break. They were always there for one another. Her chest tightened realizing all those things. Who was going to be there for her now like he was for her?

After all this time, there was only one thing she regretted not doing with him. It almost brought tear's to her eyes as the thought soared through her head. But she didn't want to think about the fact that he was gone, she was still in deniable of it herself. The dream she had the other day didn't help her one bit but screwed up her head even more. She wishes she could go back to that dream and at least tell him there to get it off her chest. She wanted him to hear it, even if she was never going to get a response back. Leon glanced down at the girl as they made their way over to a certain booth holding a blonde headed girl he wanted to introduce Jessica to. Her expression was unreadable as she looked down at the ground giving it a blank stare. He wondered what was going through her mind currently, but he thought it was best not to ask her right now.

The blonde girl behind the box's smiled at the familiar boy with a not so familiar hanging off his arm. "Nice to see you again, Leon." She said as she cocked her head to the side.

He nodded his head softly at her before speaking, "How's the business today?"She let out an over dramatic sigh as she ran her fingers through her side bangs that covered her eye. "Not so well today. It's probably because of the other booth that just opened right across from us." She mumbled. "Taking away all our business."He let out a chuckle. "In that case, I'll take one bag of your red apples."A smile over took her face as she excused herself to go head towards the back to get some plastic bag's. She began to gently place six green apples in the brown plastic bag before handing it over to the waiting man in which he gave money in exchange for. "Thanks, Leon."

He nodded his head once more before gesturing to the girl beside him. "Alicia, this is Jessica." He said with a smile as the small girl looked up with shocked couldn't help but let her eyes gaze over the girl for a short moment. She remembered Leon telling her about this girl and how he was going to bring her over because maybe they could be friends. She put on a smile as she placed her hands on her hips gingerly. "Well , hello there , Jessica." She said , "it's nice to meet you. As Leon already pointed out, I'm Alicia." The brunette girl stared at Alicia for a moment before looking down at the ground never saying a word. It caused Alicia to frown for a minute but it was quite understandable as to her behavior, maybe this wasn't the right time. But it couldn't hurt to try to make some effort. She knew she would regret it if she didn't at least try to get to the girl today. "I've heard a lot of thing's about you from the others." She started off awkwardly trying to start a conversation, "I heard you enjoy writing stories, are you planning to write a book any time soon? I think that would be really cool if you did. I'd finally be have some one worth calling talented." She winked at Leon which he just rolled his eyes to.

Still no response from her which worried them both. Jessica gripped Leon's arm tightly as she pressed herself against his side trying to hide away from the staring eyes. "I also heard you like drawing." Alicia tried again, "What style do you enjoy the most? I myself prefer sketching still objects."

Slowly the girl hid herself behind Leon as she gripped the back of his shirt to keep her put. It's not that she hated Alicia, she just couldn't find her voice to speak. She didn't want to come out as a disappointment to her. What was she suppose to say , "I've given up on everything. Sorry." Even if that was what she was going to say , it seems as if she had lost her voice, the willingness to speak ever again.

Why couldn't they just accept that and leave her be? She didn't need anymore friends. She didn't want to make anymore ties with people terrified of them being broken and her standing on her own again. If you can call what she was doing standing on her own two feet.

Leon let out a sigh before looking up at the blonde with pity filled eyes. "Maybe another time." He said to her as turned his body toward Jessica so he could put his arm along her shoulders. "See you again soon, Alicia." Alicia stared at them as they walked off into the crowd back towards their cabin. "Bye…" She whispered as they disappeared amongst the people.

'Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home.'