The morning sunlight hit her face and she squinted and squirmed in her chair. A bird twittered past, and early morning traffic hummed through the open window of her second story apartment. She opened her eyes, and groaned. 'I must of fallen asleep in front of my easel again...' she thought. She dimly remembered working on her painting of the Tokyo Tower before dozing off.

Yawning, she streched in her chair. She twisted her head around to get the kinks out of neck, noting the time was ten, and went back to streching.'If it's ten, and my bus comes at 10:15...' she thought abstractly, 'then...'.

Her eyes popped wide open.

"OMIGOD!!!! I'M LATE!!!", she screamed as she bolted out of her chair, nearly knocking over the painting and easel, and sprinted across her apartment. Luckily for her, her apartment was sparcilly furnished, so she only had to hurdle her sofa and a small end table before sliding into her room. She frantically raided her closet for clothing, as she cursed herself for not setting her alarm.

"I'm Sooooooooooo Late!!", she wailed (almost matching the tone of a certain 14 year old meatball head we all know and love).

Ten minutes later, dressed in a light blue sweatsuit, her hair flowing all around behind her, she slide down the bannister. She adjusted her backpack as she jogged down the street. She saw the bus begin to pull up, and increased her speed. She leaped through the door before it closed, and slumped down into the first seat she could find. She tossed her backpack next her.

She looked out the window, and for the first time that day, saw a reflection of herself. 'I didn't even bother looking in the mirror before I ran out of the aparment', she thought ruefully.

She looked at the girl in the reflection. Luminious grey eyes stared back at her, set in a pale face with creamy skin. Pink rosebud lips curved into a smile. And the long wavy hair that framed the face was a deep red, like a fire flames.

It was a thoughtful, pretty face, with no make-up or adornmants. Her only jewelery was a small clear crystal pendant, shaped like a tear. It caught the morning sunlight and glittered prettily. And, of course, a watch, old and worn. The girl pulled out a light blue ribbon from her pocket, and pulled some of the hair away from her face into a half ponytail, with the rest trailing down her back.

She looked at the girl in the reflection, again, and analyzed her. A strong girl; a smart, creative one. And, she couldn't deny it, a lonely one. Her reflection was alone. All alone. No girlfriend to sit and chatter into her ear. No guy friend to talk about classes with. No boyfriend, no friends period. She was her only company. With a deep sigh, and a heavy heart, she looked away from the girl in the window, and settled back in her seat.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She felt tired. Nightmares may be considered sleep, but it didn't feel like it to her. 'The Dream...again' she thought with a groan.

She called it The Dream for as long as she could remember. It was always the same, repeating itself over and over, for as many as four nights in a row. The four voices cajoling her to do...to do something. She could never remember what it was......then that awful room, and the beautiful Woman, with what looked like silver meatballs, and her long silver pigtails. The Woman always looked so saddened, like Felicissa had done something to her. Something awful.. something unforgivable--

The bus suddenly jerked to a halt, and she realised it was her stop. She grabbed her bag, and walked down the steps, and hopped off the bus. She took a long look around. Young men and women wandered through a large wrought iron arch that said *Jubian University*.

A small voice echoed through her ears, 'What if they don't like me? What if it's like the orphanage all over again?'. She stood there, frozen with apprehension.

Then she shook herself. 'You'll be fine! Don't worry about it! You're a big girl, you can take care of yourself.'. Setting her shoulders, and taking a deep breathe, she headed forward.

"Name?" asked the grizzled woman at the registration desk. "Felicissa Murray." said the girl nervously. The woman typed in a computer, and a piece of paper was printed out. The woman handed Felicissa her schedule, gave her her student id, and a warm smile.

"Welcome to Jubian. I'm sure you'll fit right in." she said kindly.

"Thanks..." Felicissa grinned. She walked out of the office, tossing her hair behind her. She stood there, and took a deep breathe. It was a gorgeous day, she noted, on a equally gorgeous campus. She felt the undeniable urge to sketch. She glanced at her schedule; she had Self Denfense in a hour. She had plenty of time to start a prelimerary drawing.

She plopped down on a bench, and reached into her bag to pull out a well worn sketch pad and a black pencil. She looked at the picturesque view, and for the first time in a long time, felt happy. She finally felt she was somewhere she belonged. All her life, she felt like an outsider.....

Born of a prilvedged family, she grew up with a silver spoon, and a bitter feeling of always being left behind. Her parents, Lloyd and Maribeth, were of the Tokyo fashionable set; they went around the world, traveling constantly, never in the same place for a long period of time. They had her because it was "fashionable" at the time. But after her mother gave birth to her, Felicissa was shipped off to a wet nurse and a governess. Her parents went to the Rivera. They sent her dolls, and many other fabulous things, but she only saw them a total of ten times the first five years of her life.

So when her parents died when she was five, she felt an impersonal loss. They weren't her mother and father, they were just her "parents". While all their "fashionable" friends cried thier eyes out, she stood, dry eyed. She felt bad that they died, but you had to be given love to give it back. She had no other relatives, so she was sent to a rural Catholic orphanage, run by a group of nuns.

There, things went from tolerable, to worse. The other kids somehow knew she was different, and they were merciless.

"Why are you crying FELciSSa?" they taunted her, "No richy parents to feed you anymore? No more fancy dolls, or fancy clothes?"

"Leave me alone..."she'd mutter, trapped a corner as they pulled her hair, teasing her, pinching her hard. She got more bruises in that first year than she did in all her life.

She cried nights, and during the days learned how to be a shadow; how not to exist, how to hide where no one could find her. She never dared tell on her assailants, it would only make things worse for her. Then her life began to change, dramatically. It all started when she turned seven. Almost overnight, she could draw, ten times better that the kids her age. The nuns were impressed with her artwork. They told her that she had a gift from God, and they encouraged her.

With the sisters constant support for her work, she poured her heart into a portrait of one of the nuns. The nun in question entered it into a art show, and it won a first place ribbon. She felt proud of something for the first time in her life. She had done something extraordinary, and she didn't want to give it up, not for all the yen in the world. However, when she got back from the show, smiling, beaming in fact, *they* were waiting for her.

They tore the blue ribbon from her hand, and said "OOOOhhhh, pretty ribbon. What, they give it to you for best little rich girl?". They looked like they were going to tear it to pieces, but first they were going to get their jollies by torturing her with it.

She worked hard for that ribbon; she wasn't going to let them destroy it without a fight. "Give it back." she said in a flat tone.

A tall girl stepped in front of her, looming over her, and barked "Whattcha gonna do about, little rich girl?".

Felicissa was scared, but she wasn't going to back down this time. "Give it back." she said with a little more force. The girl picked her up, and slammed her into a wall.

"And like I said, whattcha gonna do about it?", the girl repeated with an evil smile.

Then it happened to her. As the girl held her to the wall, something sparked inside of her. It moved through her body, to her arm, to her hand, through her fingers. A flash of pure white energy flared out of her fingers, and zapped the girl holding her. Felicissa was dropped like a hot potato, as the other girl held her side in pain.

The group backed off, scared of what they had seen. There were murmers of, "She's a witch!!" "She's from the Devil!".

Felicissa stared at her hand, like she had never seen it before. Then she looked at the boy who had her ribbon. He looked like he was going to wet his pants any minute. She stood up and held out her other hand.

She said in a quiet voice, "Give it to me." The boy placed it in her hand, and backed away quickly, eyes wide with fear. She glared at the former mob of bullies, now a cowering crowd of children.

"Now.....BACK OFF!" she said in a menacing tone, holding up her *magical* hand in a threatening manner.

They ran away, and from that day forward, never bothered her again. In fact, they turned and ran whenever they saw her on the playground. She lived the life of a recluse. No one would be her friend; they were all too afraid she'd blast them. Lonely beyond belief, she began to draw her 'friends'. She drew hundreds of children, and drew herself into the drawings. She lived a fanasty life with her paintings. In her world, she wasn't hated or feared because of what she was. Her imaginary friends never judged her, just loved her. In a way, these paintings werethe only things that kept her from going crazy with lonliness and self-loathing.

Then, as if to add fire to the flame, was her freakish power. It only seemed to remerge when she felt she was in serious danger. She remembered walking back to the orphanage, after a rough day of junior high, alone, to find herself being followed by a group of five or six rough looking young men. She began to walk faster; and so did they. She suddenly found herself surrounded by them. A tall, well built boy with greasy brown hair and mean eyes came towards her with a sneer on his lips.

"Well...aren't you a pretty little thing?" he said in a leerish tone.

"What do you want?" she asked, looking around fearfully.

"We just want to know if you wanna have a little fun with us?", the man said. He touched a tendril of her hair. He sneered again.

"I've always had a thing for redheads..." he commented darkly.

"Please, just don't touch me....", she said quietly. She looked for someone to call out for, but there was no one. She moved around slowly, trying to find a way out, but she was surrounded.

"What, I'm not your type?", he said in a low menacing tone, "I can MAKE you like my type, little girl...." as he and his group closed in the circle.

She felt the zinging sensation roll throughout her body, and this time she was prepared. She simply pointed one hand at the man, and the power flowed through her fingers. Surprisingly enough, it was a larger blast this time, and knocked the man ten feet away into a wall. The other men, shocked, didn't even bother to pick up their friend. They just ran off scared, like the kids in the orphanage. She stood there for a moment, breathless, then ran back home.

'What's happening to me?', she thought to herself frantically as she ran through the streets. "WHAT'S IS WRONG WITH ME?" her mind screamed.

It was some time after this incident occured, when the 'Dream' started. She remembered the abject dread she felt when she first saw those images....

She woke up screaming, "I'M SORRY!!! I'M SORRY!!! FORGIVE ME!". She was covered in a cold clammy sweat, and she couldn't stop shaking.

The nuns rushed in to find out what was the matter. When asked what she was asking for forgiveness for, she replied "I...I don't know...I just know what I did was wrong..."

It was a frightenly real nightmare, and the nun on medical duty was forced to give Felicissa a sedative before allowing her to go to sleep again. It happened the next night, again, and again. The 'Dream' haunted her nights, and filled her days. Finally, after a month, they stopped. Only to begin again after another month.

The girls in the orphanage used to whisper about her, when they thought she wasn't listening.

"She's a witch!! She killed her parents with her weird powers..."

"I know, she has dreams about them...she screams for forgiveness while she's sleeping...."

"She's so strange...I'm afraid to be in the same room with her...."

In high school, it was the same thing. She sat in the back corner, while the rest of the class distanced themselves as far as they could from "Felicissa, the witch girl". Because of lack of socialization, she could concentrate on her studies, and she was usually the top in all of her classes.

But her true love, as it had been for years, was art. She had her own room in the orphanage that the nuns gave her for painting, and she spent most of her time there, doing landscapes and "other" works. These "other" works were the images of the 'Dream'. The four shadowy figures, the room, and the Woman, she painted dozens of paintings, frustrated because she couldn't remember one detail or another.

She dealt with being alone; she was tough. Sometimes though, sitting at the table by herself at lunch hour, she wished, just once, she could have a group of 'real' friends to sit with. To eat with, joke around with. A group of people who would understand why she was...like she was. It was just wishful thinking, though. She was a freak, and scorned by all who knew her.

She stayed in the orphanage till she was seventeen. Then came her salavation, from a surprising source. Her parent's will claimed, if by the age seventeen, if she was deemed mature enough by her caretakers, she could live on her own, with her full inheritance behind her. The Reverand Mother smiled, and said, "We'll miss your beautiful artwork, Felicissa, but we realise it's time to let you go....".

Needless to say, she was stunned, happy, and thankful. Finally, away from this nightmare she had been living for over ten years. She was determined to forget all the bad things that had happened to her. She could move to a place where no one knew her. She moved out of the orphanage as soon as she could, and got her own apartment in downtown Tokyo, in a beautiful section of town. Felicissa told herself that this was it. She finally had her chance....to find happiness...to find herself...to find peace...

Peace....It was so peaceful here. She looked at her sketch, drew in a few more shadows around the buildings, added more depth to the trees. She looked casually at her watch, and gasped.

"Oh no! Not again!! I'm going to be late!!!" as she shoved her pad and pencil into her backpack and ran past many other students, nearly knocking some of them over. They cursed her, but she was already too far away to hear them.

Darien walked to his third class of the day, lost in his own thoughts. The dream with that man, had occupied his mind all during his classes. He just couldn't shake off the silent fear in his heart. The way that man smiled at him...at Serena. It only boded bad things for his Princess. Darien felt chilled to the bone.

'Oh God, please don't let anything happen to her....I just found her again. I don't want to lose her now...', he prayed silently.

He was completely lost in his own world; or else he would of heard the whoooshing sound of someone coming behind him. He tripped, and his sunglasses dropped off his face and fell to the ground. Cursing under his breath, he leaned down to pick them up....and was hit by the force of a runaway train from behind. He fell forward, hitting hard on his knees and elbows.

Felicissa had just been running blindly, so when the young man in front of her suddenly leaned over, she plowed right into him, knocking them both to the ground in a loud crash of people and personal belongings. She felt herself flying to the ground, landing with a thump, face first.

"Ohhhhhwwwwwwwhhhhh," she moaned in pain.

Darien thought confusedly, still dazed by the sudden attack, 'Funny, I thought Serena was still in class..what would she be doing at Jubian?'.

He shook his head to clear it and finally got a good look at his assailiant. A slim girl, with long red hair, dressed in a blue sweatsuit, was laying back up on the pavement, moaning. He stood up shakily, and brushed off his clothing. He walked over the girl, extremely angry.

'Damn it, why didn't she look where she was going? !', he thought, enraged. He was prepared to let her have it. Then, the girl turned over, pushed her hair out of her eyes, and looked at Darien. She cringed...and avoided making direct eye contact.

Felicissa knew, just knew by the look in this tall, dark haired man's cold blue eyes, that she was going to get screamed at.

'Great going, stupid!', she thought angrily, 'Nice way to make friends, kill them all by running them over like a bulldozer! Oh yeah, that'll make you popular!'.

She winced...and waited for the angry outburst. But nothing ever came. The young man was instead looking at her with a concentrated manner. Felicissa looked at him more closely; didn't she know him from somewhere? He seemed so...familiar.

Darien felt the same way, 'Where do I know her from? She looks so familiar...'.

Drawing a blank, he inwardly shrughed. No sense yelling at her now, he was no longer angry. He instead stuck out his hand to help her up. She looked at it for a moment, then grasped it. He pulled her up, and got a better look into her grey eyes. He knew her! He knew he did....but where? He picked up her backpack and handed it to her, still not speaking.

"Thanks...", she said. Looking away for a moment, she thought to herself,'Cute....if not my type. I'm going to have to say something, at least apologize..'.

She worked up her nerve, looked him in the face, boldly stuck out her hand and said firmly, "Nice to bump--I mean meet you. I'm Felicissa ....and I'm really sorry I ran into, or rather, over you. I'm really late, so I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going...and um..yeah...."

She felt flustered, thinking, 'What a lame apology!'. The man looked at her hand for a moment, then at her. He looked at her for a long moment, then a smile flickered unto his mouth and stayed there. His eyes warmed to a brighter blue. He took her hand and shook it firmly.

"I'm Darien, and you're forgiven." he said in a amused tone, then asked curiously, "Say, do I know you from somewhere?"

Felicissa, who had been checking the contents of her bag, looked up, surprised. "I was about to ask you the same thing!" she exclaimed.

They looked at each other, shocked, and laughed.

"Our paths must of crossed at sometime or another.", said Felicissa with a grin, then she glanced at her watch again. "Oh man....I'm going to get it! Late on my first day of class.....", she sighed.

"Where are you heading?" asked Darien. He was dusting off his gray sweatsuit, and glancing at his watch. 'Seems like a nice girl, maybe we can walk the same way to class...' he thought to himself.

"Self Defense....the Sensei is going to rip me apart---say, what are you grinning about?", she said as she looked up and stared at Darien.

Darien was smiling like a cheshire cat. He said with a laugh, "Ohhhhhh, just the small fact that your watch is either stopped, or is fast....I'm in that class too; it doesn't start for another twenty minutes."

Felicissa frowned, and said, "I'm sure my watch is right...". She held the watch up to her ear, and jiggled it. Then shook it. She gave it an angry glare.

"Dead!!", she growled, "Damn cheap watch...". Darien laughed heartily. Felicissa gave him a look and poked him in the ribs. "You think this is funny?" she said with an annoyed tone.

"Downright hilarious.." he managed to get out between bursts of laughter, "You nearly kill me to get to class, and find out one, your watch is busted, and two, you're..." checking his own watch, "Actually going to be fifteen minutes early...". He chuckled for a few more seconds, and Felicissa had to join in.

"Come on, laughing boy....let's go to class.", she said with a warm smile.

"Okay...but only if we walk...I don't want to be responisble for the deaths of any other fellow students..." Darien commented with a wicked smirk.

"Why you--!!" she yelled, and Felicissa started chasing him down the sidewalk, both of them laughing.

"Watch out for little old ladies!!", Darien yelled as he darted through the crowds ahead of them.

Felicissa just grinned. She thought to herself, as she dashed after him, 'Well girl, it looks like you're going to be all right after all...'

The girl in the reflection was alone no longer.......

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