I took a breath after telling Makoto what had happened.  The story was somewhat long and odd, but I could tell he had sensed my worry about explaining this to my grand parents.  His eyes seemed to search the horizon for answers, as he rolled the problem through is head. It was hard enough for him to believe let alone, my grandparents.  The only reason I thought Makoto believed it is it explained me being her and my injuries.

                Then Makoto looked at me with that certain look in his eyes that meant he had solved it.  "I've got a plan just play along.  You  OK with that KoMaigo?"  With that I nodded and he helped me up and started to walk over the rubble to the sidewalk.  I turned back to Sunder with a questioning look.  Behind me Makoto rolled his eyes.  "Oh yea, the dog.  What are we gonna do about him?"

                I walked over to Sunder and started shaking him softly.  He raised his head and whined softly.  His eye's looked at me pained but his tail waged slowly seeing me alive.  I smiled as he tried to get up slowly succeeding then started limping towards Makoto.  Makoto gave the "that works" look at me and started walking.  Sunder and I followed slowly behind.  We were almost halfway home when none other than our friend Burandé came skateboarding up to us. 

                Her hair was about as black as hair could get, yet probably bleached then dyed (so the color would show up) red in the very front of her grown out bangs.  The red was obviously fake and a little to bright for my liking, unlike Makoto's red which was natural.  She was wearing her usual clothes promoting some type of punk rock.  For some reason I found my self noting our differences.  Burandé wearing the typical punk, Makoto wearing his usual green shirt and jeans.  Man if he didn't look to calm already his outfit made it seem like he did nothing but study all day.  Me I was dressed in all black like usual, probably due to the fact that I was always in a gloomy mood (being forced to shop for clothes) so I picked out stuff to match how I was feeling.  As for the cape I was wearing I had picked it out to go along with the rest of my black stuff, and to scare some of my friends.  Boy I loved doing that.

                I was really starting to scare myself.  Why was I pointing out differences?  I was hoping it was just out of nervousness but something about it seemed more ominous.  But now wasn't the time for I was being poked on the forehead by an impatient Burandé, who's brown eye's looked at me questionably.

                "Hey!  I said what happened?  What's with the whole zoning out thing?"  she said once again poking my forehead.  "And why were you looking a us like that, like you've never seen us before?"

                "Hey she's been through a lot.  We need to get her home."  Good old Makoto sticking up for me again.  Burandé would have probably said some sly remark like she usually does to annoy us (most often saying Makoto liked me or I liked him) but the fierce look in Makoto's eyes warned her to think better of it.  She decided it best just to tag along so she'd have something to do I guess, and probably still wanting to hear what happened.  Makoto probably had hoped for this because as soon as we were walking again he was telling her about what had happened and what he planed to do.  I just stumbled along beside them listening and adding a little more when needed.  Occasionally Burandé would glide up to Sunder (since she had wanted to skateboard beside us even though she would have been more comfortable walking judging by our slow pace) and pet him.  He would whine a little each time.  She didn't need to ask why because  it was explained soon enough.

                As Makoto explained the plan of how to tell this to my grandparents with what was probably the best way for none of use to get in trouble, he assigned us our parts.  We had the whole walk to fine-tune it into a rather believable story.  As we neared my house we all hoped that it would work at least enough for them not to question us to much, but as usual Makoto's plan was fool proof and my grandparents fell for it.  Even though it's odd that my grandparents would find it acceptable that we beat "the kid" that did this to me into submission then let the school handle it.  But that's my grandparents for you, gullible.

                I did a lot of thanking to Makoto and Burandé for saving my butt.  Although I had at least twice as much thanking to do to Makoto than I did to Burandé.  Sunder also wagged his tail and licked their hands.  I could almost hear him promise not to chew up their stuff the next time they visited, but he would have probably forgotten by then.  So we waved goodbye as they both realized it would be best to head off home.  It was getting late and the golden sun was swiftly fading into a blue tint that covered everything that wasn't artificially lit. 

I must say I sat out there for a few minutes and thought about…bet you were thinking I was going to say Makoto or what had happened earlier.  Nope, oddly enough I thought about how I was going to get my homework done.  I must have been out for a long time before Makoto found me judging by the time.  Then for a moment I started to think about how he had found me.  I mean how if he hadn't seen me right and gone up there then did he know to look?  Wouldn't he have gotten help if I had been out for that long?  That was on my mind for an amazing ten seconds before I got back to thinking homework.  I walked up stairs, as my grandparents busied themselves with the norm.  I set my stuff down in my almost emotionless room.  No posters hung from the walls except a drawing I had done a long time ago.

The drawing after seeing it everyday meant almost nothing to me when I walked.  It seemed no different now.  I gave a quick glance at the picture by my bed.  The only thing I had ever seen of my mom, it had her and dad standing there hugging.  They looked at the camera with something in their eyes.  Love, the kind of love you wouldn't let boundaries of any sort separate.  No matter how much things tried to pull them apart they seemed like they would hold fast, together.  That why I liked the picture so much.  Strangely there were no pictures of the three of us together so I often imaged myself there.  Like my Dad had said, someday we'd all be a family again.  But tonight I didn't have time to stare at it and reflect on the past I had homework to do in a rush, and so I started not looking up until I was finished.

Once I was done with probably the crapiest job I've done so far that year (which was almost over) I allowed myself the luxury of another quick glance at the picture and the usual wondering, why am I blonde?  My dad's hair had been black with the usual short cut lacking uniqueness, yet he still seemed to be handsome for a dad.  Hey also seemed intelligent with his glasses and something in his expression which I couldn't quiet put my finger on.  I knew he had, had a very important and complicated job and so I guess he had to be smart.  Never once when I was little did he seem to have made a stupid choice either.  Maybe I got it from my mom.  Her hair was an odd shiny blue color with a silver streak on the longest two strands near the front.  The color gave her a distinct look, making you think she was someone how stood out from the crowd in a good way, and yet the pony tail made her feel oddly refined and quiet.  Her hair had to have been dyed that color, and I'm guessing I also got my blue eyes from her to.  Her look was more an emotionally strong and cunning rather than flat out intelligent like Dads.

Then I took my shower and got ready for bed.  Thoughts of what had happened that day bled slowly through my mind all throughout my routine.  I wasn't consciously aware of trying to blot them out until I was brushing my teeth.  I stood there for the first time in my pajamas shaking with fear.  I once again fought them away but when I laid myself in bed I realized that getting to sleep at all would be a miracle.  I watched the shadows from the tree out side dance lazily in the wind as the always do.  Nothing in my room was out of the ordinary, except the fox skull keep by me bed.  It was the only thing that seemed to have a large impacted on any of my entering guest.  I owned it because I had found it incredibly interesting the first moment I saw it.  Don't ask me why, I just find that stuff interesting.  A few books lay on the floor casting shadows or resting in the shadow of my desk. 

Suddenly as I tried to keep my mind off of what had happened a strange tiredness seeped into me;  like something wanted me asleep.  This time nothing inside me was objecting, which I guess was a objection in it's own right.  But I decided not to fight myself (after where that got me before would you blame me?) and to fall asleep.  Drifting silently into what would be the most restless night I had encountered up to that point.

*This place.  Where was I?  A dream, this was a dream.  But where was I?  The landscape seemed to be a pastel drawing of a park not far from my house.  A very realistic pastel, but slightly smeared and fuzzy.  The park had no people in it which was odd but this was a dream, meaning it was supposed to be odd.  But then I got the strangest feeling of something else being there.  I hadn't moved an inch since the dream started and now things seemed to start to move around me.  It was no longer my pastel version of the park, it was now an almost real place.  Somehow it seemed to be part of memories.  Memories that weren't mine, yet in some odd way they were.  I stepped forward awkwardly in this all to familiar place.  The green grass and other vegetation seemed normal, but the air seemed different.  Not that I knew what was wrong with it, it was just one of those things that makes perfect sense when your dreaming it.

And that thing I had sensed before everything changed it was there to.  I was searching for it and it was searching for me.  Unable to see it I just walked around, the creepy feeling of already knowing the place growing somewhere inside me.  I was still the only living thing in sight other than the plants covering the whole place as far as I could see.  Yet something was there.  Approaching faster than I was looking.  But something inside me chimed that what was coming was a good thing a very good thing.  And some other part again was in disagreement.  If a major case of the creeps wasn't enough, suddenly I had contracted schizophrenia.  But curiosity prevailing I stayed to see what it was that was looking for me.

Then in an odd never heard before but familiar voice a name was called out, "Alice!"

The voice itself seemed male, but in so many ways inhuman.  It had an underlying grow that defiantly spoke no language I could understand perfectly what it was saying.  It was like meaning came out more than words.  But that meaning had to be put in words I could understand, and the voice in which they came from was deep and powerful.  That name he had said…it to had some meaning in all of this.

I had yet to see him but I could feel that I would get that chance soon.