Starlight Sympathy.

A sight to remember...

And just like that, Raven was gone. Her body was there. Right in front of me; eyes open. But mentally, she was somewhere else. But where? Just a few minutes ago I was holding her hand and stroking her hair, telling her it would be okay. I never wanted anything to end up like this, especially with Raven. She had been through enough already. And now... Everything was over. She had gotten her wish. She said she had been caged, jailed like a criminal in her own body, in her own mind. But now... She was free.

We had met two years earlier. One minute I was taking out the trash for an elderly woman (who had obviously had faked her injury and could do this dumb work herself), and the next, I was standing in the middle of the road, starstruck by a tall, starry eyed girl, with the blackest hair I'd ever seen.

I was startled out of my daze by a crabby taxi driver honking at me like nobody's business. Shoot. I thought. She must have seem me. But she just kept on walking. Okay, I contemplated once more. Maybe that old hag will let me go, just once more... "Ah, screw it!" I said under my breath, and simply threw the garbage to the side of the road and started running toward my brand-new mission.

"JAMES!" It was the old hag. "Now what the hell do you think you're doing?!" I thought to yell back, or at least flip her off, but I thought better of it, and simply gave her a sly grin as I trotted away along the illuminated pavement of the New York streets.

It was a crisp and chilly evening, but I had to catch her. I had definitely underestimated her speed. Her. A pronoun deciphering sex. Who even came up with that word anyways? When? Time is just a figment of human imagination; it isn't real. Other animals don't have a sense of aging or time, do they?

It wasn't unusual for me to get lost in my thoughts. I was a lost boy, maybe even a little lonely. I tried to sound professional, even in my thoughts. Especially in my thoughts. It was just me, myself and I, but I constantly sought the need to impress someone... Just another one of my undermining qualities. More of a defect, really. I guess we're all a little lost. Maybe she is too? I wondered. She seemed to be unfazed by anything, she almost seemed determined to get somewhere... But where?