She stared horrified at the wall, as she listened to some news program on the radio. The radio was blaring out about Dewei Yang's attempts to over throw Emperor Ling Yao.

She fought against the tears, threatening to fall, that were clouding her vision. In her mind, a desperate plea to not cry rang out, 'Don't fall. Don't fall.'

Her Cretan grandmother turned off the radio, muttering something about garbage.

Her grandmother absolutely detested loud noises of any kind.

"Go play outside like most kids your age do." She barked out at Rachel.

"I'm a teenager, Grandma." She muttered back, but none the less, headed outside.

She had made it a point to always obey her grandmother's orders. Her mom had always taught her to respect her elders, anyway.

Her mom had died years ago, and she went to live with her Cretan grandmother, the only family that she knew of, aside from her, and her late mother. Rachel hadn't known her father, let alone his side of the family. Her mom had had a short-lived relationship with him, but by the way her grandmother worded it, Rachel's dad had, already been married, and her mom had just been his affair.

She, herself, had long ago stopped being hurt by her grandmother's off hand comments about it being Rachel's mom's "worst mistake," and that it was "a disaster." She had forced herself to be strong, when her grandmother talked like that.

That was when she remembered the broadcast.

'Dewei, my precious Dewei!'

She ran inside to grab some clothes, and money.

She wasn't some love sick fool; she wasn't naive enough to think that Dewei hadn't changed, since they were kids.

"I'm going out, now, Grams!" She called out to her grandmother on her way out the door.

"How long?" Her grandmother asked from somewhere upstairs.

"A few days." She answered, knowing that her grandmother wouldn't remember all of that. She reminded herself to call her grandmother every couple of hours.