"Humph"

"Don't you 'humph' me. There will be no negative backchat whilst I'm driving the car."

I looked over to my left. "Technically I wouldn't classify it as backchat since I'm pretty sure it's a sound not a word."

Morgane smiled but kept her eyes locked on the road. "Whatever your definition is, it's an expression of your sulking."

I turned back around and leaned my head against my window. "I still don't know why I can't drive my motorbike."

"Because the forecast said it's going to be very rainy tonight and I do not want you driving home, all the way from the gym, in the rain."

I peered out of the front windscreen. The weather appeared fine if not slightly overcast.

"Yeah it looks real bad." I grumbled crossing my arms.

"You never know when things can go bad Aerrow."

I heard a catch in her voice and turned to look at her again. Her face now wore a frown which was a rare sight to see and her hands were tight around the steering wheel.
"Driving at night is dangerous enough- And if it were raining…"

I instantly felt a stab of guilt. 'Of course… She's thinking about my father'

"Anyway I need some help down at the grocer's with loading the car." And like that the somber mood was broken. I smiled and settled back into my seat.

"You went shopping yesterday and you're already going back for more?" I shook my head, sometimes even I have trouble keeping up with Morgane.

"Yes a new delivery came in today. I wasn't expecting it till next week or so. Something about more availability.."

"You do realise your negating all the good you're doing in eating greens with all the petrol you're wasting."

*THWACK*

"OW!" I rubbed my arm in hopes to ease the pain. I playfully glared at my aunt. "Both hands on the wheel please. I will not be seen with an irresponsible driver."

"Coming from Mr Daredevil himself." She threw a smirk at me and turned back to the road. "Is there a reason why you seem a bit on edge?"

I froze in my seat, 'How did she..'

I rolled my eyes as I realised, of course she could tell something was off about me, this is Morgane we're talking about. I frowned when I thought back to the reason I was so edgy, "Didn't sleep well last night."

I glanced out my window thinking back to the nightmare I had;

I was scared. It was dark and I was running. Branches were hitting my body as I ran, my foot caught on something and I hit the dirt hard. I quickly scrambled to my feet but crumpled as pain flared up my right calf. I wanted to buckle to the ground and hold my leg in hopes the pain would go away but terror so tangible I could taste it, was engulfing me and pushed me on forward.

I heard a loud cracking behind me as if numerous trees were falling; the sound spurred me on even faster. Pain was a constant presence in all parts of my body but I couldn't stop, whatever was behind me was worse than the pain.

Suddenly something wrapped around my foot and dragged me to the ground, a starburst of pain flared in my head as it struck the ground. Everything started blurring and mixing together, I raised my hand to my head and hissed as the pain exploded again. I drew my hand away just as a sliver of moonlight shone through the clouds, making visible the red liquid smeared across it.

I struggled and managed to roll onto my side.
A dark figure loomed over me, shrouded in shadows.
Blackness started to overtake my vision.

The figure raised their hand and said something. Then the darkness engulfed me.

It wasn't till awhile after I woke up in a sweat, and managed to calm down, that I remembered what they'd said.

"You can't run forever"

I wasn't able to get back to sleep for hours.

"Anything you want to talk about?" Morgane asked, her usual playful tone replaced by a more serious one.

I shook my head, I didn't know how to explain it.

'It's so weird.. Usually I'm a deep sleeper.' I sighed, it was the first nightmare I've had in awhile so it was a bit unsettling.

'There was something off about it though' I mentally shook my head, there was no sense in obsessing over it.

I thought of something to appease Morgane's curiosity, "It was probably all the strange foods you've been force feeding me lately."

I quickly threw my hands up to fend off the slaps she aimed in my direction and laughed so hard my body shook when she replied;

"Radishes are not strange!"

oOoOo

I struggled to balance the bags as I loaded them into the boot of the car. I glanced back into the market and saw Morgane still discussing the shipment of a new 'super food' she'd recently found.
I finished packing and leaned against the side of the car. Unexpectedly something cold hit me on the arm, I raised it up to my face to examine it more closely.

It was a drop of water.

I peered out from under the veranda lining the main street. The sky was completely overcast, the clouds a dark shade of grey and a light mist of rain softly starting to fall.

I smirked "Well what do you know- she was right."

I watched as people along the sidewalks started to duck into shops or make a run for their cars. Soon enough very few people were left on the street.

A flash of black caught my eye. Someone with their black jacket pulled over their head was jogging across the street.

They managed to dodge the few cars driving and stepped onto the footpath not far from where I was standing. They flicked their jacket a few times, ridding it of the excess water. The jacket settled back onto their shoulders and I stifled a gasp that threatened to escape from my mouth.

At first I thought the person was Piper but I immediately discounted that after it became obvious that this person was definitely male.
Their hand, the same complexion as Piper's, ran through short shaggy blue-black hair. Sensing my stare, the person glanced to their right and locked eyes with me.

The man, who couldn't have been more than a few years older than me, stared me down with his dark brown eyes.

He raised an eyebrow as if questioning me. I then realised he must be wondering why I'm staring at him.
He looked me up and down appraisingly, then tilted his head to the side as if to examine me. I squinted my eyes, I can usually get a good read off of people and be a good judge of character but this guy was like stone, I had no idea what he was thinking.

Suddenly, as if convinced with what he saw he walked forward and brushed past me.

I turned my head to watch him go.

"Aerrow!"

I looked back around to see Morgane walking towards me smiling. "You ready to go?"

When I didn't answer straight away, she put her hand on my shoulder silently asking if I was okay.
I grasped her hand and smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, let's go."

I ushered her back to the car. As I opened my door I threw a last glance back down the street.

Further down the sidewalk the man with brown eyes stood, watching us. He gave me one last scrutinizing stare before turning around and walking away.

oOoOo

The rain was starting to fall heavier, I hadn't noticed until I stepped out of the car. I told Morgane I'd call her when I was ready to be picked up, then slammed the door shut and made a run for the gym's doors.

I pushed the door open and quickly shut it behind me.

"Hey Aerrow, glad you could make it."

I took off my jacket and shook the water out of my hair, causing it to spring back up into its natural spikes. "A little rain couldn't keep me away."

Burner smiled. "Well we had a little bet going."

"On?"

"Whether your aunt would let you out of the house."

"She's never stopped me before."

"Precisely, I just thought I'd try and con some money outta the other guys."

I smirked and shook my head, the only thing more outrageous then Burner's bright orange mohawk, was his incessant need to bet on everything.

"Well gotta go, Blister's got me doing some heavy lifting out the back- oh hey! If you see your friend Finn around tell 'im he still owes me money from his last bet."
I laughed, Finn will never learn his lesson. "Sure thing."

I quickly ducked into the change room and changed my clothes. I packed everything back into my bag, slung it over my shoulder and walked back out into the gym.

I headed over to the mats. I dumped my bag on the side and started doing my warm up stretches, after a few minutes I started with my warm up drills before quickly making my way up to the more experienced flips, kicks and disarming techniques of Sky Fu.

Once I was happy with how I'd executed everything, I pulled my fingerless gloves out of my pockets and made my way over to the punching bags.

I practiced all different kinds of punches, varying angle and power, after about ten minutes I then headed over to the high bars. I jumped up, grabbed one and started doing pull ups.
This was my training circuit. Ten minutes on the punch bag, then pull ups on the bar, followed by roundhouse kicks on the punch bag, and finally some sit ups. Then repeating it all over a couple of times.

Sometimes instead of my circuit I would go for a run in the woods out the back depending on the weather but there was no chance of that happening today.

"Hey Aerrow, might want to take it easy there."

I pause momentarily between kicks. "What do you want Carver?"

"I just heard a rumour that you've been asked to be the gym's representative at the competition. I mean, I know it couldn't possibly be true but I just wanted to ask why people would think a kid like you is qualified or skilled enough for that."

'Ahhh-that's why…' Carver had been training for the competition for months and had a firm belief he was the best fighter in the whole gym. He couldn't stand that someone younger than him was already at his level of training and difficulty. Carver was nineteen, which was only two years older than me but that fact seemed to only infuriate him more.

"Look Carver I don't really think the competition is that important. And whether I've been asked to or not is really none of your business."

Carver's face contorted into a mask of fury. 'Opps- wrong thing to say'
He took a step forward and roughly poked me in the chest. "Now you listen here kid-"

"CARVER!"

Carver quickly took a step back and schooled his face into an expression of indifference. Blister came to a stop before us.
"I'll have no brawls in my gym, if any one wants to go all alpha male they'll have to take it somewhere else. Am I clear?" He leveled his gaze on Carver.

Carver smirked and held up his hands "Was just having a friendly conversation."

"I'm not blind mate, now I believe you're supposed to be in the sparring ring right now, am I right?"

Carver's smirk hardened but managed to stay intact, "I was just on my way." With that he turned around and marched away but not before he threw one more look of disgust over his shoulder at me.

"I'd appreciate it if you two school boys would take your rivalry back to the playground."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't let Carver hear you say that, he's very assertive over the fact that he's already graduated."

Blister fixed his gaze on me. "Well then he better start acting like it and not expecting to get his way all the time."

Blister is the only person Carver would even consider listening too, with his shaved head and nose ring he made for a pretty intimidating figure. But even then Carver liked to do things his own way most of the time.

"Anyway, where you at?" Blister asked.

I gestured behind me, "I'm almost done, just a few more circuits then I'll warm down."

"Get to it then and just so you know, I've got you sparring with the rattan sticks Tuesday."

"Sure, no worries."

I managed to get through the rest of my workout with no interruptions but on my last round through the circuit I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end- I could feel someone watching me.

I glanced around to see who it was, the gym was fairly quiet today, a few people in the sparring rings, a half a dozen on the treadmills and a handful scattered all over but they were all focused on what they were doing.

I shrugged my shoulders and started to warm down, it wouldn't be the first time this week I'd imagined something, namely the incident with Piper.

'But I could have sworn that our hands- Woah back up! Dangerous territory!'

I quickly shut down that train of thought, I didn't need to start thinking of Piper… again.

I finished warming down, hastily packed my bag and made for the exit, all the while trying to block out my thoughts regarding how beautiful her unique eyes were.

oOoOo

He watched as the boy glanced around the gym, he looked like nothing special, good stance and technique perhaps but he was a kid nonetheless. Too insignificant to interfere with their plans.

When the boy glanced in his direction, he increased the force of his strikes into the punch bag in order to appear like he was completely focused on what he was doing. The fool of a boy couldn't see that even though his back was to him, he was clearly observing him in the reflection of the glass.

The boy warmed down then quickly packed his things and proceeded to make his way to the exit. The man then stopped his attack on the punch bag and turned around to inspect the boy more closely.

The boy's appearance was unusual, with his spikey red hair and green eyes, but not so much so, that he warranted a second glance on the street. He had a dreamy look on his face that made it even more apparent, he was oblivious to the fact he was being observed.

The man continued to watch the boy as he made a call on his cell phone, until he disappeared through the entrance doors.

No, this boy was not one of them- but he held an interest in the girl, one which seemed to be reciprocated, so perhaps he could be of use in the future.

With that thought in mind the man turned back to the punch bag with renewed vigour, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass and smirked, which made his crimson red eyes flash dangerously.