a/n: reviews are always appreciated...

Illusion

She stared at the ground, a soft smile playing on her lips. The stereo was playing a little ways away and her friends were dancing around her. She was leaned up against the railing on the roof. It was all so perfect.

But the perfection was an illusion.

She was enjoying this part of the game. She was pretending to live again. She had grown up before she was even thirteen. It wasn’t fair. Her house had been turned into a prison before she knew what was happening.

She wasn’t used to this freedom. The laughter. She was used to running. She was going to have to run again. Her alcoholic mother had long since passed away, but it wasn’t her that she was ever afraid of.

No, it was him.

When he wasn’t drinking, he was beating her. It was a favorite pastime of his that she’d learned to run from at the age of sixteen. And she’d been running ever since. She was twenty-one now. And still so vulnerable.

“Are you going to dance with us?”

She looked up to see a young man that she was good friends with staring at her expectantly. She smiled before shaking her head.

“I don’t really feel like dancing right now,” she answered, tucking her dark locks behind her ear.

He tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow, but she merely shrugged. She didn’t want to get anymore attached that she was. She was going to have to run again tonight. He was going to be on her trail soon if she didn’t leave.

It had been a long time since he’d actually caught her. Sometimes she wondered if he’d given up, but then she’d get a postcard in the mail with three familiar words on it.

You have sinned.

She shivered, remembering them with chilled exactness. He enjoyed the hunt. He lived for it. He especially loved it when she tried to run. Except she’d gotten good at it. Too good for his liking.

Now he had to teach her a lesson. One she would never forget.

She sighed and looked up at the stars. Only a little while longer before she pretended that she never knew these people. That she never knew this place.

That she hadn’t fallen in love here.

She closed her eyes to drive the memory out. He never knew of course. The one she wanted more than anything… It was purely one-sided. But it had happened. And that was more than she could risk ever again. If he ever found out that she was… yearning for something…

She drew in a shuddery breath as she thought about the consequences. It didn’t matter. She was going to run. Now.

She pushed off the railing and started towards her friends. She said good-bye to them, one by one, giving each of them an excuse about being tired. She made her way to the young man who had asked her to dance earlier and smiled wistfully.

“I’m leaving,” she said softly. “I think it would do me some good to retire early tonight.”

“Okay,” he replied easily, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She smiled sadly and attempted to keep her eyes from watering. “Yes. Same as always,” she lied.

He grinned. “I’ll see you there then. Get some sleep.”

She couldn’t quite keep the tears from her eyes as she nosed forward and kissed him tenderly.

“Good-bye…”

Forever…

Owari