The distant honks of cars and the rain that pounded on her skin harshly because of her light choice of clothing made her run faster and faster away from all the noise. Away from everything. Away from him. She was crying, salty tears mixed with unforgiving rain drops from the night sky. Her breath was ragged due to running at full speed and the sobs that sent tremors through her entire frame. Her tear-blurred vision failed to perceive the hindrance in front of her which caused her to trip on whatever it was and fall to the ground unceremoniously.

She groggily supported herself up with her scraped hands. The pain on her legs and now twisted ankle processed by her brain disabled her from any form of movement whatever she might try. She decided to give up all effort she planned to exert on getting to her feet. It was futile. The physical pain she was undergoing prevented her body from functioning the way she wished it to, to add insult to injury, her heart and mind were in chaos. No coherent thought aside from immense hurt went through her brain and her heart felt as if it was torn away from her chest, ripped to pieces and thrown to hungry wolves to ravish.

Her hands lost their strength which caused her to slump further into the ground. It hurt. Damn it all – it hurt. It hurt more than anything she had experienced in her entire life and that was saying something. She had been through a lot since her childhood – she'd been through a lot of excruciating experiences that she had grown accustomed to agony. Her body had been wrecked and broken so many times that she had become numb to any physical aggravation which made her strong and she had a high tolerance to pain, and no matter how many injuries she accumulated, they healed with the passing of time.

How she wished that her injuries were purely physical and could be cured by medication, but sadly, they weren't and they couldn't be remedied. Her heart had been broken for the first time by the one man she had let her heart open up to. By the man she worked so hard to get the attention of. By the man she gave her everything to. And damn it all if she denied that it was those very facts that destroyed her from inside and out.

Memories of the first time they met, of their times together and all the other precious reminiscences they have imparted on each other filled her head. More tears fell from her honey-colored eyes as she cried freely into her arm which served as a cushion to her face from the dirty cement beneath her. Her body shook from every heart-wrenching sob that escaped her bruised lips; she trembled from crying and from the coldness of the rain.

A loud sound nearing her snapped her out of her self-pity. The lights that shone on her made her eyes widen as she realized the inevitable that was about to occur. Yet she did not move. She could have but she did not. There was no point anymore. She was not needed. The one person who gave her a reason to live on had discarded her and regarded her as useless -so why should she struggle to survive?

She closed her eyes and waited for the inexorable collision.

Tires screeched and horrified screams…

Blood splattered and the red, sticky fluid turned into a lighter color and became more viscous as it fused with the clear liquid from above that resonated with the tragedy it witnessed as it fell from the sky.

And then she could no longer distinguish light from darkness.

"Shizu-nee." A voice called out to her from her sleep, trying to wake her from her deep slumber but to no avail. The voice tried once more. "Shizu-nee!" this time's attempt to wake her was a bit louder and was accompanied by a light shaking of her shoulders. A sigh escaped from the latter's lips when she still refused to wake up. "Shizuru-nee, wake up! We're going to go to Japan today."

The sudden reminder for her day's schedule jolted her from her fetal position on her queen-sized bed with a soft exclamation of "I'm awake!"

Honey eyes met with dark, emotionless ones. Her brother sensed her discomfiture. Before he could ask, she answered for him. "I… dreamt of it again." The comfort between them suddenly turned to tension as her brother usually calm face turned harsh and serious, his eyes filled with unreadable emotion. "Did you remember… what caused it?" he asked her, his voice took a sharp turn.

She shook her head. She dreamt of someone running, and crying and experiencing immense pain so clearly. "It's as if that person was me."

Yuuhei sighed and hugged her closely as he stood. "No worries. You don't need to think of such things. It was just a dream."

She nodded, slightly curious about her brother's weird behavior, but nonetheless, she hugged back, she enjoyed any form of endearment Yuuhei displayed, they were, after all, very rare.

"Good... And..." her brother's voice was relieved and his face was back from scary to void of emotion. "I was about to drink all the milk." His statement woke her sleepy neurons up. "Don't you dare touch my milk, Yuuhei." She retorted, her grip tightened around her brother, the only reply from him was a chuckle and a dismissive wave of the hand as he released himself from her grasp. "If you don't get up right now, I cannot assure you that I won't drink your share as well." He informed her before he ran for his life.

Shizuru stood up, quickly wrapped her bathrobe around her and ran after her brother, in an attempt to save her precious morning dairy. Her dream was momentarily forgotten.

Yes, it was another regular morning in the Hanejima household.

In a shady part of Shinjuku, Japan sat an infamous information broker, a smirk on his face which contradicted the tired look on his eyes. His cellphone was closely held up to his ear by his left hand. "So, Shinra, why are you calling me? In need of some information?"

"No, I just wanted to invite you over."

"Why?"

"It's just that… Me and Celty haven't seen you much since - "

Cue to cut off his best friend of 12 years from further opening the sore topic for the both of them. "Alright, alright, I'll come just… just don't open that topic."

"You still haven't forgotten about her, have you?"

His words, they cut deep, but he was a master of hiding his emotions so with ease, he managed to reply to his friend's inquiry without letting his twisted amusement slip from his voice. "You can't forget easily about a monster, can you Shinra?" At his reply, his friend sighed; he could imagine Shinra shaking his head in disagreement.

"Just make sure you come, it is your birthday. We want to celebrate it - if you don't I'm going to make Celty drag your sorry ass over here."

There was no need for Shinra to remind him. He remembered vividly what day today was. It was his birthday, and the most memorable day of his life – the day she disappeared. He snapped his thoughts back to his friend's warning that had a joking tone to it which caused him to chuckle a bit. "Alright, I'll drop by later. Make sure to have a cake prepared."

"Will do, strawberry shortcake, right?"

"Yeah." Was his short answer before he closed his phone and stood up. He grabbed his ever-present coat, put it on and walked towards the door. Before he left his empty apartment, save his assistant, he flashed a look at the frame on his table. An uncharacteristic frown made its way to his face. His assistant didn't fail to notice this.

"You do know that it's your fault you're suffering right now right, you do realize you dug your own grave that night, right?" Namie asked apathetically. A harsh chuckle of acknowledgement of her snarky remark was the only response Izaya gave his ever-sarcastic assistant.

Without saying a word to the long haired woman, he headed off to Ikebukuro.

Yes, it was another regular morning to Orihara Izaya ever since Heiwajima Shizuka left.

A/N

So first chapter finished, I hope that this chapter has interested you all, dear readers, if not, please do stay tuned, I'll try my best doing what I can for this to live up to your expectations, if you had any. Hehe. Please comment, and review. They are one of the sources of my inspirations to keep writing this story. I appreciate anything you can say about this story. Thank you all for reading, and please stay tuned for the next chapter of "Forget Me Not" by Algorithmic Paradox of Love