The street cracked beneath her feet, her movements slow and jerky as her vision clouded over. She was being pushed by someone, someone she did not know.
All she could feel was the large hands clasped around her throat as they shoved her to some place unknown to the young girl.
She couldn't have been any older than 17, her hair was pale- even in the dark, and her eyes were almost completely closed so that the color of her irises were unidentifiable.
Her clothes were bloody, all she had on was a pair of knee-highs and a button up shirt that had been completely torn down the front, revealing a plain baby blue bra and the specks of blood that covered her chest.
The blood had to be hers- the skin that was visible had small, precise cuts and was colored a sickly blue-green from the apparent bruises she had sustained.
Was it a man that had his hands wrapped so tightly around her throat?
Why beat her so heavily?
No one knew, no one saw.
It wasn't even dawn yet but he seemed to know his way around the cobblestone walkways in the city of Skoteino, Korea.
The man stopped.
He pushed the girl and she tripped, landing on the rough pavement beside the large golden gates that surrounded the Victorian estate of Sheremont Academy.
He gazed around the area to make sure he hadn't been watched and with one last glance at the girl on the ground, he walked away, fading into the night like Lucifer himself.
Who was this girl, lying in a growing puddle of her own blood, screaming in agony after finding her voice?
Who were the people, running towards her with flashlights on the other side of the gates, and why had a young man stood frozen with the keys to the gates, barely able to breathe?
Who was he, what had he seen?
Why was he the first to reach her once he came to his senses, unlocking the gates and gently pulling her shredded shirt over her bared body as his fingertips grazed across her discolored skin?
Why wasn't she afraid of him as he picked her up and carried her into the academy, yet anyone who tried to take her from him was frightened once the girl shrieked at them as if she was being murdered?
I awoke with a start, a scream lodged at the top of my throat as I realized that the girl had been me. That dream, that memory, is the most I can remember.
That's how I got here. And how I met him.