"Every morning, I'm staring Shadows in the eye. Oh good morning, will you just wait until I die?" ~Fallen, Imagine Dragons

The grinning red face loomed over her, his face only a few inches from hers. "This ends now. The valence will finally be thrown to the side of the darkness!" Her heart beat with fear, and the metal cuffs on her hands and feet were cold and tight.

"Power? Are you sure you should go through with this?" It was a small boy, with strange purple eyes. "Yes boy! Now shut up!" The red faced man hissed, glancing at two shapes watching from a tower that observed the courtyard.

"Goodbye, child of Fyre." He whispered to her, taking out a large sword. Her heart beat even harder. He raised his voice, chanting back and forth from a language she understood and one she didn't. "I banish the goddess with the blood of her chosen, Never to reincarnate!" With that he raised the sword, and she cried out, straining at the chains. Then, everything went black.

Aspen sat straight up, gasping and shivering. It was the third time she'd had the nightmare this week, and each time she saw a little more. She got out of her bed, careful not to wake the other children. Auntie Annie's home for Orphans was poor, and all the girls shared one room, as did the boys.

Aspen needed out. Out of this stifling home, where meals came infrequently, grow ups cared nothing for children, and it was every kid for themselves. Out of this boring routine, out of the suffocating atmosphere. Away from the nightmares, where she died in greater detail every day. Away.

She changed from her pajamas (really just oversized hand me downs from the older children) into her clothes, then put a sweater over that. She opened a window, wincing as the old frame groaned in protest. A few girls stirred, but none woke. Aspen slipped out, into the night.

Aspen did not know where she was going, only that she must return before dawn. She liked taking long walks at sunrise, especially after a nightmare. They calmed her, and she loved the city at that magical moment right between night and day. The lights twinkling like stars, the quiet, the moon. It was all so beautiful.

Aspen walked along an alleyway, hands in her sweater pocket. The first greedy winds of winter were attacking the warm summer air as summer turned to fall. She picked and acorn off the ground and played with it in her hands. She was generally enjoying herself and thinking about ways to get out of school (it was much too easy, as well as very boring.), when she heard the boy.

"Help!" He standing-no, hanging-from a fire escape on one of the tenements. "Whoa!" She ran over, looking up at him. His floppy purple hair hung from his head, and sunglasses sat on his nose (though they were slipping), he wore a black sweatshirt, and one one the legs of his jeans was snagged in the railing of the fire escape, leaving him hanging upside down. Something about him was oddly familiar...

"Thank the goddesses!" He exclaimed. "I was beginning to think I'd be stuck here forever!" Wolf smiled, and climbed up the fire escape to were his leg was tangled. "How'd you manage to do this?" She asked, looking at the odd positioning of his leg. "Um..." He smiled sheepishly up at her. "Oh well. Let's get you down." She began to work at getting his leg free.

At last his leg came free, and the boy came free. He crumpled to the ground. "Oomph." "Ah! I'm sorry!" Aspen ran down to help him up, smiling. "Thanks!" He said, brushing off his pants. He glanced at the now-ruined leg of the left pant leg. "Aw man. I liked these jeans." Aspen chuckled. "Would you rather you were still hanging?"

The boy shook his head, grinning. "Well, thank you anyway." "I'm Aspen." She said, sticking out her hand. He shook it, and as he did his other hand brushed agains his pocket, revealing a crystal in his palm. "I'm Shadow. And your coming with me!"

His grip tightened on her hand, and he threw down the crystal. It shattered, and the pieces flouted up and surrounded them two, and started swirling faster and faster. "Hey, let me go!" Aspen yelled, pulling against his grip. By now the shards were swirling so fast she could barley see the world around them. A wind picked up, ruffling her hair.

"Sorry, no can do."  The boy -Shadow- said. She kicked him hard in his shin, and he recoiled in pain, still keeping his grip on her wrist. Now the world around them had gone black, with only the swirling shards to be seen. The wind whistled faster and faster, tearing at her cloths and whispering in her ears. It ripped the sun glasses from Shadow's face, revealing two bright purple eyes. Aspen suddenly realized why he looked so familiar.

He was the boy from her dream.