Who did he think he was? Trying to toy with my emotions after I saved him. I thought angrily as I walked. I hacked through the brush with my arms, not bothering to take a path where I could come in contact with someone else. I pushed away more of the thick foliage and literally, fell upon a clearing. I had expected there to be more trees to hold me back, not more open space.

I sat up and looked around, the clearing was ringed with enormous trees. I couldn't quite tell what they were. Some were tall, and others were wide with long skinny branches. Sitting in the middle of the clearing was another tree. It looked like a mix of the ones ringing the clearing, it was tall but full of wide branches that would be perfect to sit in if they weren't full of leaves. Among the fresh, bright leaves were bundles of cherries hanging of the tree like you would see in a movie. To sum it up, it was perfect. I walked over to the tree, I looked up at the sky. The stars twinkled like lights on a Christmas tree and the moon was like the star on the top, bigger and brighter then the rest. I smiled feeling peaceful and relaxed here.

I sat down under the tree and closed my eyes. I had many days like this when I was younger, sitting under the trees in the backyard looking up at the stars. I reached up and grabbed a bundle of cherries. I pull the stem off one and popped it in my mouth, it was sweeter then I remembered last time I had a cherry, but it was tasty none the less. I had been ready to spit out the seed, but, oddly, there was none. I pulled of the stem of another one. "if I were you I would eat that" My eyes flashed open at the voice and my hand paused as I was about to put it in my mouth. I whipped it at the speakers head, hitting him right in between his black soulless eyes. Yep, it's exactly who you're thinking. Raphael was back, again, and I was NOT happy. He wiped the cherry from his face like it completely didn't faze him. "what the hell do you want?" I asked, venomous anger dripping from my words. "I want to apologize," he told me. "For being a complete jerk?" I didn't give him time to reply before answering; "apology not accepted." "Rose-" he started but I cut him off. "Go to hell Raphael... And this time stay there" I told him with a glare.

I looked around and found a rock I looked back up at him... I saw three. It was probably just a mind trick. I took aim at the one on the right and threw. It passed right through his head. "Crap." I mumbled knowing I has guessed wrong. Weird enough, I didn't hear his obnoxious chuckle of his or see his 'I am waaaaaaay better than you and I know it' smirk. Even weirder, a look of concern crossed his face. "You ate one didn't you?" he asked "No!" I replied, almost like an indignant child. "Rose, you have to go get help, those are poisonous" he said and started walking towards me. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed. He stopped dead in his tracks.

I got up and walked past him, giving him a hard shoulder check on my way past. Raphael tried to grab my arms but I ripped them from his grasp and kept the walking. I made it a few feet into the forest before I heard his footsteps crashing behind met. I knew they were behind me, but it sounded like they were coming from every which way.

I began running forward, her vision starting to blur and darken around the edges. Everything started to tilt and spin but I didn't stop, I did quite the opposite and sped up. My feet were barely able to be lifted off the ground, but somehow, I was still running. I tried to jump over a log, but my feet wouldn't. I tripped over it and hit the rocky ground hard. I ground my teeth together and tried to force myself up, but my arms just gave out under me. The rest of my vision turned blurry around the edges, like TV that wasn't in HD. Raphael ran towards me and I tried to crawl backwards, only making it a foot or two before he reached me "ROSE!" he called it looked like we was yelling, but it sounded like it was muffled by cotton. I blinked and two more of him appeared again. "Get away" I slurred. "Rose you have to go get some help," he sighed and reached forward grabbing my arms. "leggo of me" I begged, my words slurring together even more than before.

I tried to pull my arms away, but they felt like someone had filled them with lead. He said something else but I didn't hear it as my grip on reality loosened and I slipped into unconsciousness. Within seconds, I was awake and didn't recognize where I was. The room was all white. White walls, white floors, white ceiling, white sheets. I sat up and looked around. It looked like a hospital room, but there was no hospital stuff. I tried to remember how I would have got here. I vaguely remembered a tree with cherries, but anything after that was just an unreadable blur of colors. I got up and walked around the room. I brushed my fingers along the wall. I wouldn't have noticed the door until my fingers hit the crack between the door and the wall. I brushed my hands down it until I found a piece that felt different from the others. I pushed lightly on it and the door slid open sideways.

I walked through the door and came face to face with a reflection of myself in the mirror. My hair was wild, it stuck up everywhere. My clothes were the same as I had been wearing earlier, but my pants were slightly ripped. Around the edges of the rips were slight tinges of red. The only proof that there had been a cut there, was the thin, barely visible, white scar. I REALLY wanted to know what was going on now.

I turned and walked down the hallway, it was an alternating pattern of window then mirror on either side. I got to the end, reaching yet another door. But this one was clear on the other side it showed a chairs and a desk, maybe a waiting room or something. I pushed it open and walked out. Nobody was standing there waiting nobody was there to tell me where I was, so I kept going until finally, I found my way out.

I stood outside, breathing in the fresh air and looked around. I recognized the fountain and realized I was in the square. I walked to the fountain and sat down on the edge looking down at the rippling water"ROSE!" a voice called behind me. I turned to see Raphael and my eyes narrowed into slits. "I thought last time I saw you, I told you to stay away from me FOREVER." I said and pulled a chakran out of my pocket.

I was ready to throw it if he didn't leave. A flash of something that looked like caring mixed with sadness mixed with relief crossed over his face. It stirred some memory in my head, but I couldn't get it. It was still just too far away. "I just wanted to check to make sure you were ok." he said softly "Why would you..." I trailed off as the memory surfaced and all the details of earlier came flooding into my head. I had, in a way passed out, but my eyes had been open and my subconscious had caught the whole thing. Raphael carried me the whole way back to the city and brought me to someone who healed me and removed the poison. I looked at him, confusion was written in my eyes "Thank you... For saving my life." I murmured and looked down. I didn't want to thank him for anything, but I felt that this had been necessary. "I stayed by your side all day. They had to drag me to the meeting." Raphael blurted out. Once again, I looked up at him confused, "Really? Why?" "I didn't want you to wake up alone. I wanted to be there so you didn't get scared." he whispered. I knew it was genuine from the way he said it with meaning. Maybe... Just maybe, he meant what he said about caring for me. I shook my head, not possible. "I'm a Shadow hunter, I don't get scared" that, was definitely a lie. There was many times I had been scared... A lot recently. I put the chakran back in my pocket and turned, walking off back to the house.