My name is Youma Karo. I won't say I live a 'normal' life; no, far from it. Even my appearance isn't normal- for as long as I can remember, I've had violet hair and crimson eyes. Both natural. Probably my most disturbing feature is my lack of gender, but only one other person knows about that, as he is the same way.

As for my life... I'm a Senior in a private boy's high school. Somehow, the woman who ran the orphanage I lived in saved enough money to send me here; but whether it was out of 'love' or she just wanted to get rid of me, I'll never know. So this school has been my home for three- going on four- years.

I also have a job, playing 'detective' for the school. You know, find out who stole what and such. It doesn't really pay well, but at least I have spending money.

But recently, some rather disturbing things have been happening. Like this morning. We discovered the walls at the end of my hallway painted red. With blood.

And I already know whose. Jonathan Reilly. He lived in the dorm at the end of the hallway, and I must say his roommates were quite shocked when the announcement was made. The custodians have been trying to scrub it off all day, and have yet to remove a single spot.

The thought upsets me. Jon had been a good friend of mine. I was coming close to trusting him with my secret...

Whoever did this will pay dearly.

--

Ishrael sat on Youma's bed, hugging his knees and staring thoughtfully at the floor. His mysterious friend had been more hurt than the young man realized. Without knowing it, Youma had fallen in love with his friend, and Jonathan had just started to feel the same. But how could he know this without knowing Jon's murderer? There was something unsettling about that. He blew a strand of dark brown hair away from his face, frustrated.

"Hi Youma." He greeted as the school's 'detective' walked into the room.

"Hello Ishrael." Youma replied sullenly. He dropped onto his bed just as the angel jumped up. "This is so confusing... Who would want to kill Jon? I know he could be loud and obnoxious at times, but he never crossed the line. Unless someone was really jealous of him, but even that's no reason to... to... God..." He shivered and pressed his hands to his face, hiding the tears that threatened to fall.

Ishrael played with one of his oversized sleeves. "I have a bad feeling about this, Youma. A very bad feeling. Something isn't right here... Why couldn't they wash his..." He paused, feeling queasy just thinking about it. "His blood off the wall?"

Youma shook his head, having given up on why it didn't come off. "Unless the person is very demented, I don't think a human could have done this."

Ishrael shook his head. "No, a human couldn't..."

Something popped up on Youma's laptop. "What does it say?" its owner asked. "I can't read it from here."

"Um..." Ishrael peered at the screen. "There's a new tran... transfer student. His name is John.. Savage." He carefully sounded out. He smiled, feeling rather proud of himself. Learning to speak English had been easy enough; reading it was an entirely different matter.

Youma sat up. "The principal kept saying something about a transfer... I'll be right back." He pushed himself off the mattress with a little difficulty (it had been a long day and he was tired) and walked out of the room, stifling a yawn.

Ishrael shook his head as Youma left once more. "He'll get sick if he keeps pushing himself like that..."

--

Youma stepped out of the elevator once he reached the first floor, straightening his school uniform. He froze as he turned the corner to enter the main hall. It was crowded, the other students all wanting to get a glimpse of the newcomer. Youma scowled, pushing his way through the other boys to reach the front. And stared when he saw the new student.

The man was easily six feet tall. He had long, golden blond hair that had been pulled back into a braid, lightly tanned skin and the deepest blue eyes Youma had ever seen. If he hadn't been so sure all the other students could see him, he would have thought the young man was an angel.

Gathering up his courage, Youma stepped forward to greet the man who would soon be his new roommate. "Hello."

The blond paused, and had to look down slightly to meet the boy's eyes. "Hey. Who are you?" Youma frowned to himself; the man seemed rather wary of him. He brushed the thought away as simple nervousness.

"Youma Karo, I'm to be your new roomie." He held out a hand.

John accepted it, shaking hands with the younger student. "John Savage, resident psycho." He kept a straight face as he said it, but his eyes betrayed the laughter he was holding in.

Youma nodded, allowing a small smile of his own. "Follow me, I'll take you to our room." He abruptly turned and headed toward the crowd, which parted slightly to let them pass. They took the elevator back up to the dorms. As they stepped out, Youma felt he couldn't bear the silence anymore and asked a question.

"So... why the 'resident psycho' bit?"

John paused, seeming to tense a bit. He took a deep breath and ran a hand over his hair, looking down at his new roommate. "Well, since we'll be living together for the next nine months, I guess you deserve to know." He paused for a moment, seemingly searching for the right words.

"About four years ago, at the beginning of my Senior year of high school, I hit a... a rough patch in my life. My mother had been sick, and my girlfriend and I were growing apart. I'd been under a lot of stress; trying to save our relationship, keeping up with schoolwork and a job, taking care of my mother. Just a month into the school year she got sick enough that I had no choice but to admit her into a hospital. Only two days later, she died..."

Youma paled. "I'm so sorry..." John held up a hand to silence him.

"It doesn't end there. After the hospital called me, I left to find Tanya, needing some comfort... Only to be told that for the past two months, she'd been dating someone else, and dumped me. I'd hardly had any sleep, my grades were falling and I was pretty sure I'd be fired from my job. At the time, suicide seemed the only option I had left.

"That night I took one of the kitchen knives and walked all the way to the lighthouse a few miles out of town, where Tanya and I would always go to watch the sun set on the ocean... I wanted to leave this world with only the good memories. I cut my wrists and slowly bled to death as I watched the sunset.

"I guess the next day at school, people noticed I was missing. Some of my friends must have tried to call me or something and panicked when I didn't answer. They eventually found me in that lighthouse... I vaguely remember being carried out, and then nothing for the next three years.

"At the beginning of summer last year, I finally woke up. They kept me busy with my physical therapy, not wanting me to falling into depression again. I guess it worked." He ended the tale with a shrug.

"Oh wow... That really sucks." Youma realized they'd stopped and moved to start walking again, then realized they'd stopped right in front of their door. "Oh..." He pulled out his card key and opened it. "Did you get one of these yet?" he asked, holding up the bit of plastic.

"Not yet. The principal said I'd get it before the welcoming assembly tonight."

"Good, you're really going to need it." Youma stepped into the room, noticing Ishrael sitting on his bed again, most likely to stay out of the way.

John followed the violet-haired youth into the room and set his bag on the floor, noticing the lack of sunlight. Just as he looked up to find the window, he to spotted the angel.

"They said I'd have only one roommate. Who's he, a friend?"

Ishrael blinked, and Youma turned to stare. "You can see me?" the little angel asked, clearly surprised. John nodded.

"Are you a gh-"

"Angel." Youma interrupted. "And he can't go back home; at least not yet. Until his curse is broken, he's stuck here. And we have yet to find anyone that can break it..."

John nodded. "How did you two meet?"

"We just kinda bumped into each other." Ishrael explained. "It was kinda scary when I realized he could see me... I thought he was a demon at first." The angel smiled sheepishly, and Youma snickered.

"Long story short, I told him he could stay with me until we found someone to break the curse." Youma finished.

John grinned. "That was very nice of you." He then walked over to the window and threw open the curtains, sneezing as dust flew everywhere. "Geez, no wonder you're so pale." He muttered, and opened the window. "When was the last time you opened these? They're so dusty."

Youma shrugged. "I don't really spend too much time in here anyway, so I don't bother with them."

"Shame..." the blond grinned. "I'm gonna have to drag you out more. Won't that be fun?"

"...I'm too busy to have fun."

"Aww, come on..."

"It'll be good for you!" Ish piped up. Youma frowned, giving in.

"Alright you win." He relented.

"Great!" John cheered. "So, what's your schedule?"

Youma stood and walked over to the small desk, grabbing his laptop. "Let's see..." He brought it up on the screen. "Here it is. I have English at eight-thirty, Calc at ten-thirty, lunch at noon, art studio at twelve forty-five, and then my journalism class at two-thirty. Then we have a small amount of free time until dinner at five-thirty, and then afterwards from whenever we finish dinner until nine, then it's lights out."

"That's a long day..." John mused. It would figure English is two hours long." He made a face.

Youma laughed and brought up John's schedule. "We both have English at the same time, but you have Ms. Swanson. Then we have Calc and lunch together. Then you've got American History and... that's it."

John grinned. "Only three classes? Awesome."

"You'll most likely have four next semester." Youma replied, smirking. John pouted.

A soft snore interrupted them. They both looked toward Youma's bed to see Ishrael fast asleep, basking in the sunlight and fresh air.

John smiled triumphantly. "See? It's good for you."

Youma stuck his tongue out at him.

--

Updates will be sparse because:

1) I'm lazy.

2) I haven't even finished rewriting yet.

n.n'