The riot lasted for six and a half hours til the crowd settled. There was tons of graffiti, bashed street lights, scars on the grass from where it was burned, and broken booze bottles as far as the eye could see.

Christian felt his pockets and realized he left his wallet in the alley. Idiot, fucking idiot!, he scolded himself. He ran back to the alley and found a crying girl there. When she wiped her tears away he saw she was perhaps the most freaking beautiful girl he ever laid eyes on.

"You okay?" he asked.

She looked up to his love-struck face and answered, "No, I'm not. Some of my best friends died today and it's all my fault."

Christian saw a picket sign cast away. "No, it was mine. I shouldn't have started that riot. You don't deserve this grief, I do. Someone I knew should've died, not your friends. At least you were fighting for something, I was just angry."

He sank down so that he was sitting beside her. Putting his arm around her he continued, "don't cry, please. I'm already the cause of so much misery. I don't wanna be the reason for the most flawless girl in California's tears." did I just call her the most flawless girl in California?, he asked himself. The girl started to smile. Yes I did.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Christian. Yours?"

"Gloria."

"Gloria, please don't hurt yourself. Keep from losing your sight of beauty. I know that we can't keep our innocence forever, I have the scars to prove it." he pulled his sleeve up and she saw his attempted-suicide scars. "Please keep your faith in humanity, you can destroy the corruption. The entire population has been waiting for someone like you. The fight of your life is a war and you will win. You will. Someday."

"Thank you Christian. I'll remember you forever," Gloria said, "I just need time to recover."

Christian helped her to her feet and just stared at her; her pretty face, her messy pony tail, her slim figure dressed in a t-shirt, a mini-skirt, and high-heeled boots. Was she even mortal? She looked like a goddess to him.

He was tempted to kiss her but couldn't find the courage. CHICKENSHIT!, he scolded himself. You can't even kiss a girl! And just then Gloria clutched his jacket, pulled him close and kissed him on the lips. "Now I can't forget you," she whispered in his ear.

A few weeks went by and Christian hadn't seen Gloria. He did see the graffiti in their alley though, it was just like the rest of the new graffiti, it said The Underground will be avenged, GLORIA .

He went to the Underground Headquarters and asked for Gloria.

"How do we know your not a cop?" the guard asked.

"Ask Gloria about Christian and the alley."

The guard opened the door and let Christian in. Christian found his way to Gloria's apartment.

"Gloria, I gotta talk to you."

"Yes? what is it?"

"What did you become? I saw the graffiti all over everywhere. You're not the innocent girl I met in the alley. You're destroying your soul so much it might as well be falling on broken glass."

"Shut the hell up! You've never lost, you've never even had someone you loved like family!" Gloria screamed, as she did Christian saw a scar on her cheek parallel to her jaw.

He stroked the scar, "Have you been getting in fights?" he asked.

"A hell of a lot you care!" she yelled.

"I do care. Please don't make your best memories the times it didn't leave a scar. Please. You don't have to live in the ruins of what you couldn't save. You're still very young, you don't need to lose your innocence. You don't have to be self-destructive, you're better than that. Why did you even go to self-destruction anyway?" Christian asked, trying to unravel the mystery named Gloria.

"I wanted to be the perfect role-model that everyone looked up to. But I can't be perfect! It was all because of my damned pride that twenty people got shot. I let that happen!"

"You don't have to be perfect. Nobody's expecting you to be. Gloria, you're the saint of all the sinners and yet the one who's getting all the crap. Don't give in, Gloria, don't let your light go out! So what if you lose the battle? You'll win the war and then everyone will be free. don't give up now. Please Gloria you're the first person to make me feel hopeful."

"I am?" Gloria asked. "You lived your entire life without hope?"

"I never had a reason to hope," Christian confessed. "If it was bad, it would happen. If it was good, there was no way in hell it would happen to me."

"Without hope? That sounds painful."

"That was my life, what was your life like?"

"Tell you in the morning, I'm tired. There's an empty room you can sleep in, unless you prefer that alley."