The train streamed through another tunnel. The lights blinked rapidly every time when under. The wheels rolled noisily along the rail way. When the train comes out into the sun again, the light revealed a young woman sitting by herself looking up at the map that showed where the next station was. The train compartment was empty except for an old lady with her grandchildren sitting opposite her, swinging their feet and grinning from ear to ear on their seats that were too tall for them. The old lady was holding a flax woven container covered with cloth in her hands. The container was filled with hot steamy buns.

The old lady smiled at the young woman and offered her a steamed pork bun.

“You look like you would do some good with one of these. Here, take one. My grandchildren has had one too many, bless them,” she said in a kind and loving tone.

The young woman glanced at the pork bun she was offered. She realised then that she was shivering from cold and hunger.

“Thank you ma’am,” she smiled gratefully.

The old lady nodded.

The young woman took a bite of the hot pork bun and could feel warmth coming back to her body. She finished the pork bun in two more bites and sighed happily.

At the next stop the old lady ushered her grandchildren out. When the train rushed by, the young lady gazed at them wistfully until they were out of sight.

Lilith White’s grandmother had died when she was little. She never had a parent that is even considered loving.

She turned her head towards the glass window and examined her reflection.

Her wide brown eyes stared back. Her straight brown hair worn to shoulder length framed a pale face. She had a fragile and slim body frame. A black woollen scarf was wrapped securely around her neck. She wore a green windbreaker with a simple pair of jeans.

Lilith had come all the way from Auckland to Alaska to get away from her life. To simply stop time, relax and take a look around the world. And she was starting with Alaska. The 18 hours on the cramped plane was unpleasant. Economy was all Lilith could afford. No one would help her but then, no one is to know that she had run away.

The train whooshed through another tunnel. Lilith had this all planned out when she had finished junior high. She couldn’t bear living with her step-father any longer. Her mother had left her for another world when she was six, leaving her alone. She had fended for herself when she was old enough to understand.

Lilith thought of the long hours that she had spent selling burgers and fries to customers at Burger King trying to earn enough money to afford a flight to England.

Lilith got off at the next stop which was the city of Juneau. She had picked this place because it would be the most unlikely place that her step-father would look for her. Although it would take some time for her step-father to even realise that she was gone so she had a head start.

Outside the station, she waved a taxi down and asked for the driver to go to her hotel. The taxi driver grunted and turned the key in the accelerator.

The streets were almost empty except for a few towns’ folk that were taking a stroll under the evening sky. Lilith stared out the window, trying to remember the streets so that she could come back here to check things out tomorrow.

When the taxi slowed to a stop, Lilith got out and helped the taxi driver unload her things. Once everything was unloaded, Lilith payed the taxi driver and started for the front door of the hotel.

Inside it was very bright and warm. Lilith walked up to the receptionist towing all her bags behind her and showed her the form for her accommodation. The receptionist took the form in her bony fingers, smiled sweetly at Lilith and gave her the key to her room.

“Last room on the left hand side on the third floor, honey.”

Lilith took her keys. “Thank you ma’am,” she said.

Lilith led her bags into the lift which was waiting for her and pushed the ‘3’ button. She watched the numbers light up from ‘G’ to ‘3’ and heard the ding when the door opened. She reached her room and unlocked the door. She walked in and dropped her things, relieving her muscles that were aching from tiredness.

Sighing, Lilith made a face plant onto the inviting bed. After a while, she turned over onto her back because she couldn’t breathe. Lilith stared at the light overhead her, thinking.

It has been a few months since Lilith had visited her sweetheart’s grave. Thinking about it made her feel guilty. Her boyfriend, whom she had loved dearly, more than life itself, had shielded her with his body when the car went out of control in the storm. His brother was drunk at the wheel and she was sitting at the back with her boyfriend. The memory would never fade away, not even in time. She could still remember every little detail. The look of shock on his face when the car crashed, the whites of his eyes rolling up when he left and the peaceful look on his face as if he was sleeping in the hospital bed. She could remember clearly the look of love and longing in his ice blue eyes before it went dull.

She had crept back into herself that day. She left her life and didn’t give a care in the world. He was everything to her. Everything had left her. Everything she cared about was taken away from her. Fate didn’t want a date with her. Her family wouldn’t be a bit concerned about her. ‘Oh, your reports are failing. Do you want to get a private tutor?’ was the closest thing to worry she would get.

Lilith raised her hand over her face trying to block out the light from the light bulb hanging over her had. She was just going to stay here for a few days and then go to Europe to look for a job and earn enough money to move to somewhere else. This was going to go on and on until she got tired of it and just decide to settle somewhere.

---

The night was as chilly as it was the last. The wind bent the young trees and blew the leaves off their branches. Lilith casted shadows as she walked briskly against the cold. Trying to find her way back to her hotel, she figured that it must be at least midnight now. How she ended up where ever she was, she had no idea. She remembered chasing after a flash of ice blue, after someone that had looked really familiar. Someone that had been very close to her. But he was dead. There was no way that could have been him but she still blindly ran after him. Half hoping that he was really alive and watching after her now.

Now thanks to her minds fantasy, she was lost in a town that she had never been in before. She had probably been lost for 6 hours now, still trying to look for something that she recognised will on the way to town.

In the corner of her eyes, Lilith saw the same flash of ice blue under the streetlight but it disappeared around an alleyway.

‘Stop!’ Lilith called after the flash before running after it.

The alleyway was colder than it was out on the streets. It was narrow but enough space for Lilith to run after Blue Flash without touching the walls on either side.

Desperately Lilith ran. She kept calling after Blue Flash and following where ever the alleyway went. Cold sweat rolled down her face as she pumped her legs. Knowing that she didn’t have the strength to run any longer but she had to follow and find out whom that was. She was falling behind; she was never going to make it. Her heart was going to burst any second-

And it did.

A dagger was thrust right into her heart. Blood dribbled down Lilith’s chin and fell on the ground. Drip, drip, drip. A puddle of her blood was forming on the ground.

Looking up, Lilith saw the man that she had been chasing after walk towards her. Her eye sight went blurry and she fell onto the ground beside the puddle.

He placed his shoe on her head and laughed. ‘Remember me?’

Lilith’s eyes widened.

He grinded his foot into her head. ‘This is for what you did to my brother. Thanks to you, he’s rotting away in his grave. The grave that wouldn’t exist, if he hadn’t met you.’ He spat at her and pressed his foot on her head harder.

‘At least you get what you deserve now, bitch. Our lives were perfect until you decided to walk in,’ he was getting angrier. ‘He changed so much that there was no way that we could have gone back to what it was like before.’

He punctuated with a kick, ‘You bitch,’ kick ‘you aren’t worthy to live,’ kick ‘you kill some other innocent,’ kick ‘slut,’ kick ‘no one’s even going to realise that you had vanished,’ kick.

Lilith didn’t feel the pain from the kicks. It was like every thing was in slow motion. She knew that she was going to die but she didn’t care. She couldn’t feel any pain. She realised now that she had no reason left to walk on this earth. Her only reason to live had left her. And he was waiting for her in another world. That thought comforted her and made her happy. Happy that she was going to be in his arms once again.

Lilith White closed her eyes for the last time.