"Taylor? I don't recall the name."

"Doesn't ring any bells mate, sorry."

"That crazy bitch? I don't know where she is and I don't care!"

"Why the hell do you care?"

"You should let go- you don't look so good."

"It's none of your business"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm sorry…I can't talk about it."

"It's not normal, dude. Plenty of fish in the sea, you know?"

"Come on buddy, cheer up! I mean, she's a nice girl and all, but..."

"Give it up!"

"You won't change anything!"

"Stop clinging to ghosts!"

Leon closed his eyes, willing the thoughts to go away. Seeing this again was dragging up bad memories. Memories he'd worked very hard to forget. It came as a lump in his throat, pricking at his eyes and drenching his soul.

He heard a snort to his left.

"So…do you do the running around on rooftops, saving-the-girls bit often?"

He glanced at his companion on this odious little venture. Anima was twirling a strand of her black hair around her finger, smiling at him. The look was once again eerily reminiscent of a cat stalking a mouse.

"Not really. I just saw what was going on and decided to stop it."

She laughed.

"Awfully brave for a little kid."

"I was not a-"

Yeah, you were.

What do you know?

Everything that you do, and a lot more.

"So? Was that a fantasy too?"

"No. That actually happened. What we're seeing right now are my memories."

"You mean your girlfriend really was almost-"

"Yeah. But she's not my girlfriend."

Damn straight she isn't.

One more word and I'll-

You'll what? Slit yourself?

Anima gave him a puzzled glance.

"Then why were you wearing the costume?"

"Circumstances. I was on my home from a party."

She looked disappointed.

"Oh…and here I thought you were being a superhero."

He snorted derisively.

"As if I could ever be that."

Anima chuckled.

"Oh, look. I think the next act's about to begin!"

"So it would seem…"

Got any popcorn?

What?

Err…never mind.

They were standing on a rooftop. Following the younger selves of himself and Taylor, they'd been led across the city through rat-infested streets and decrepit, rundown buildings. Eventually, they arrived at a smallish home on the outskirts of the city. Anima had projected them both onto the roof of Taylor's house, so they could eavesdrop more easily on the pair.

His younger self was unusually calm, as if he'd just been showering instead of threatening to decapitate someone. Taylor, for all her verbal bravado, looked visibly shaken by what had just happened. She stood apart from her unusual rescuer, clearly not trusting him.

She didn't have any reason to. He mused.

I think she just doesn't trust people, generally.

That's a bit harsh…

So is life. But you know all about that, don't you?

The door of the house opened. A large gentleman stepped out. He possessed a fiery crimson beard and hair, brighter then that of his daughter's. He frowned on seeing Leon, but didn't say anything. Taylor ran to him and gave him a hug. She quietly explained to him what had happened. His face burned red with anger as he listened, until it matched the colour of his beard. Seeing this, his younger counterpart tried to slip away.

"Wait."

He looked around. Taylor's father wore an odd expression on his face. It was almost like he was grateful, but he didn't know how to show it.

"Thank you…for saving my daughter's life. If you ever need anything…"

He nodded. He turned his back on them and walked away, without looking back.

"Are you saying he just jumped in to help you?" Taylor's father whispered to her.

She realized that she was still wearing his coat. She ran a hand over its soft material and smiled.

"Yeah. I think…I think he's a hero. He's not like us."

However cliché it was, it made the real Leon smile.

Do you often wish that that were true?

It isn't like that. People give that title to those they wish they could be like.

Then what part of you did Taylor want to be like?

You know I can't answer that.

Can't you?

Anima laughed.

"How little they know."

She turned round to look at Leon.

"So that's where you met her?"

He nodded slowly.

"It's a very touching story. You were quite the knight in shining armour. I find it hard to believe that this is all there is though…Leon? What's wrong, love?"

His body was shaking. His face was a portrait expression of confusion and despair.

"Do you…really want to know the rest, Anima?"

She nodded. "Why wouldn't I?"

"What comes next is the deepest, darkest time of my life. This is when I…"

"When you what?" Anima pressed him.

A wall suddenly shattered, deep inside his heart. He closed his eyes, hiding the tears.

"When I died inside."

"Yes." She said instantly, far quicker then normal. "Tell me what happened."

Without warning, without call, the scenery began to fade away under their feet. Stone and mortar crumbled away to nothingness. The streetlights began to dim and darken, merging with the black sky of midnight overhead. The stars began to go out, covered by an invisible screen, blinking off, one by one. The darkness enveloped him like a blanket, cloaking him in a supernatural shroud. The blackness was absolute; he could no longer see Anima, or anything around him. He didn't feel the cold of the wind's bite, or the pain in his body, or any sensation of touch. Nor did he feel afraid.

He couldn't feel anything at all. The worst thing was, this feeling was very familiar.

Memories of the past began welling up inside him, swelling like the seeds of a flower beginning to bloom. It should have hurt him, but it didn't. These memories had already caused all the damage they were ever going to do. He didn't even need to think to bring the recollections to life. His mind bent to his will unconsciously, projecting his pain onto the darkness. Images began flashing- in his mind, in front of his eyes, all around him- he couldn't tell. He someone knew that Anima could see what he could, without having to ask.

"You see, Anima? This is what I hide. This is what I keep behind locked doors and closed gates. This…this is my pain."

He heard Anima's voice, muffled and barely audible.

"Show me, Leon. Show me everything."

His mind responded without him needing to ask it. He saw his memories come to life before his eyes. They flooded out of him, leaving him feeling empty, like a hollow shell. His body shook involuntarily as he spoke, narrating the events. He could see his words come to life, his memories weaving a web of despair around him. His voice was flat, listless.

"After what you already saw, I didn't see Taylor again for months. I didn't purposefully avoid her…but I didn't look for her, either"

"I see. Go on."

"I eventually saw her again, about two and a half years ago. She transferred into my school. I'm not sure if she recognized me or not- it was so long ago. But as time went by…we grew closer."

"How close?"

He paused. The silence seemed deafening amid the darkness.

"On her side, it was just friendship. But on mine…"

"Ah. Such is the infatuation of youth."

He laughed mirthlessly. "Maybe."

"Unrequited love doesn't create all this by itself. Can you skip to the important parts?"

"One day…she just vanished. Completely."

"Vanished? What are you talking about?"

"She disappeared off the face of the earth. Nobody knew what was wrong with her, or if they did, they weren't willing to talk about it. Over time, it became clear that she wasn't coming back. So everybody just dealt with it, and moved on."

"Everybody except me, that is."

"Why?" Anima asked, puzzled.

"I…I don't know. I've asked myself that question every night before I sleep. I still don't have an answer. But I…all I know, is that I couldn't just forget that she ever existed. The way everybody else did."

"So what was wrong with her?"

There was no answer.

"Leon? Are you there?"

Still nothing.

"Are you alright?"

"Fear." He whispered softly. "The spider's web."

"What?"

"Clinical depression and agoraphobia. Total, paralysing fear. She became confined to her home. Indefinitely."

Anima was shocked. Leon was speaking without feeling or emotion. It really did seem to her that something was missing, deep inside him. But she couldn't reach it. It was locked behind walls built of pain and self-loathing. Walls that he couldn't- or wouldn't- break down.

"What caused it?"

"I don't know. All of a sudden, she just broke down. Something snapped inside her. Life became too much. It drove her over the edge."

He let out a disgusted laugh.

"And I couldn't stop it. Maybe I even helped it. Maybe I was the cause of it!"

"How could you be?"

"How could I not be?"

"You're not making any sense!"

"Sense? Sense!? I'm sitting here in the darkness of my mind and soul, talking to a figment of my imagination, and you talk about sense?"

Touché. It is a story worthy of the theatre. Don't you agree?

Not now. Any other time, for however long you want. But not now!

Fine. I'll just be a silent witness, for now…we'll talk later.

Much later.

Anima didn't respond, but Leon knew she was urging him to go on.

"When it became clear that…that she wasn't coming back, I made a choice. I chose to try and find her. However long it took, and however hard it might be. I swore that I would find her."

"But it wasn't that simple, was it Leon?"

"No. I tried finding out what had happened, but people had no idea. And those that did weren't talking to me about it. They became suspicious of me- some went so far as to call me a stalker. From their perspective, that must have been what it looked like."

"What did you do?"

"I put a mask over my true feelings. I hid what I felt, so that people wouldn't know."

With a little assistance, I might add.

A deep note of bitterness entered his voice.

"I began treating people like crap. Those little kids…gossiping about homework, teachers, life- all the petty little things that they thought made life hard. I avoided them, at every chance I had."

"They had no idea what real hardship- real pain- is like…not like she and I did. They couldn't have understood what it was like for us."

"So you went looking for her…did you find her?"

"Can't skip that far ahead, love. I went looking, but…"

"But what?"

"I had no success. As more and more time went by, I gradually became obsessed with finding her. Even though I didn't even know why I was doing it."

"What?"

He ignored her. He clasped his hands, as if in prayer. He felt the grief clawing at his insides, scraping everything until it was raw and bleeding.

"I fell into a dark place…and I couldn't find the light. My reality, my dreams… they almost became one. Every night, I dreamt of the day I'd find her. In many ways, she became my life. This image appeared in my head, of me being this white knight who'd save the girl and live happily ever after. But it was just a fantasy."

"Why?"

"Because whatever I may have felt for her, she never expressed anything like that for me. She knew exactly how I felt, but she…didn't return it."

"Did I go looking for her because she needed my help, or because I just needed to see her again? Was it truly for her sake, or was it just that I was too selfish to leave her alone? Did I want to help her because I thought she needed it…or was it just to stop the pain I felt?"

"I don't know, Leon."

"Neither do I."

He looked down at himself. He hissed derisively, like an animal.

"The image of the knight doesn't fit me at all. Look at me- I'm black and filled with sin and stain. How could I ever get the girl and live happily ever after if she doesn't even want me? I didn't even think of what would happen after I found her. I was obsessed with something I knew I couldn't reach, but even though I knew it, I just couldn't give it up."

His hands dropped to his sides.

"What a fool I am."

"Why is this place so cold and dark, Leon? What did you do that caused it?"

"I starting… suppressing things. Emotions. That's why everything's behind closed doors here- because I don't feel or remember them. I became as cold and frozen as ice…or at least that was my aim. I shut out the pain completely. I didn't want to feel anything, because I knew that if I did, it would probably kill me."

Do you actually think that you were able to do that all by yourself?

No. But it's not worth telling her the truth.

Not yet, anyway.

"A couple of times, I had the option of being with someone else, somebody who was interested in me. It was the option of being normal. But I turned them all down. Turned them down for someone who didn't return my feelings at all. I became numb- not feeling anything pure, not wanting to. I locked it all away in my head."

Tears were falling from his eyes.

"Just a broken kid who couldn't let go of the past."

"Did you find her?"

There was a long silence.

"Eventually, I did. A year after I started looking…it's so ironic. It was on Valentine's Day. I found her home, and knocked on her door. She opened it, just as if nothing were wrong with her at all."

He paused again.

"I finally found what I'd lost."

"And what was that?"

Leon didn't respond. Anima paused, then changed the subject

"I'm glad your story had a happy ending. Though something's not right…it shouldn't be so cold and dark in here, if-"

"No. It didn't have a happy ending."

"But you just said she got better!"

"Better? Not quite. I stayed with her for a while. She told me that she was having problems with her recovery, that she couldn't talk to anyone else but me…not even her family. She was too terrified. Too confused. Because of that, I became her sole contact with the world. I used to tell her stories…fairy tales. Secrets about me that no one else knew. Normal things."

"Oh?"

"I used to tell her everything. But even after that- even after weeks of me being her sole companion- she still didn't return my feelings."

"Did you expect her to?"

"I…I don't know."

Liar.

"What else did you do?"

He smiled.

"I taught her how to play Duel Monsters. I used to stay with her for hours- working on her deck with her, teaching her strategy, and duelling her."

"Why?"

"Just having contact with her again was a wonderful feeling. So I did everything I could to drag the visits out, just so I could be with her for longer. And eventually, she got back to where she was before. Back to being…"

"Being normal?"

He nodded. "Yes. She's been back for about six months, thanks in part to me. She's fine. But…"

"But?"

"But I'm still as screwed up and rotten as ever."

"What are you talking about?" Anima probed, curious.

"My obsession with her hasn't gone away in the slightest. No matter however much I will it to…or however well I hide it. The mask hasn't come off, either- I'm still alone among company. Nobody can see the real me anymore, because I don't let anything out, and I don't let anyone in. She still…still doesn't return my feelings. But even now…I still can't feel what I do for anyone else, whoever they are. And I can't let go of this feeling, even though part of me wants me to."

"Why?"

"Because I still see her smiling face before I sleep each night, and I still rip myself apart asking why I fought so hard for nothing. And because I still carry the tiny hope…the tiny dream that she will…"

He trailed off. His voice refused to work any longer. He forced the last words out with extreme difficulty.

"That is my story. And I've spent my life ever since this started, trying to find out why I'm here now."

Anima made a noise of understanding. She mulled his words over for a few moments.

"You love her, don't you?"

Leon did not answer. He just sat there in the darkness of his mind, trying to find the answer to a question that he'd carried for as long as he could remember. As long as he'd known Taylor.

Do you?