"U-Umma...?" you whispered, picking yourself off the ground. "Appa..?"

There was no reply. The only sound you could hear was your heavy breathing. The car that had hit them was nowhere to be seen. Were people really this cold hearted? Could humans really sink that low? They had just murdered two innocent, loving peopl---- No, that wasn't right. They weren't the ones that had murdered your parents. You were. Deep inside, you knew. It was your fault that you had chased after that stupid deer. Your parents had told you to stop, to stay back and protect yourself. Instead, you had run over to save a stupid little deer, just because you had been feeling heroic at the moment.

Water poured from your eyes endlessly as you slowly made your way to your parents. Your heart tightened with each step forward. It was all your fault. You always screwed everything up.

You felt dizzy. This couldn't be happening. These were your parents. They were always there for you. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't. 

You kneeled beside your parents. Their eyes were wide open in shock. Their mouths hung open, your mother's final cry still trapped in her now lifeless body. You lay your hand on theirs, still entwined, and placed your head on your father's chest, sobbing into it. "I'm sorry, Appa! I-I was wrong.. I should have-" Your voice faltered, and your hiccupped violently as the tears streamed down your face. You struggled to stop crying, with no success. "Should have listened to you.. I know I was wrong.. P-please wake up, Appa.. Umma.. Please come back.." 

They stared blankly at the sky. Your sobs grew more rushed, and you could feel your fear rising. This couldn't be real. It had to be a dream, a nightmare. You reached for your mother's other hand, which was just laying at her side limply. You grasped it and shook her arm, trying to wake her up. "Umma..! Umma!"

You began to hyperventilate. "Oh my god what did I do?" you gasped for air. 

Suddenly, something fuzzy touched your left arm, and you jumped up, hissing. It was the deer. Your eyes, still dripping tears, widened at the sight. The deer seemed to radiate something.. was it... happiness? It seemed to smile at you. What you did next surprised even yourself. But at this point, you just didn't care.

You screamed at the deer. "THE HELL DO YOU WANT!" You swung your leg in a kicking motion, ready to attack the deer. 

It shrank back in fear, but you just didn't care anymore. "THANKS TO YOU MY PARENTS ARE DEAD! GOD, I NEVER SHOULD HAVE SAVED YOU! IF IT WERENT FOR YOU MY PARENTS WOULD BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW!" Angry tears dripped off your face. 

The deer made a loud, bleating noise, and it retreated, stumbling on its hind legs in the process. You ignored the fleeing deer and collapsed next to your parents again. You wailed to the sky in defeat. No force on the planet could bring your loving parents back. You tried to apologize again, as if that would help in some way, but your words got caught in your throat. You continued sobbing wretchedly, your body shaking with each cry.

....

Your eyes suddenly flew open as you jolted awake. You sat up immediately, realizing that you had fallen asleep. It was a dream! Oh thank god! You managed to crack a small smile even though it had been so real.

And then you saw where you were lying. On the road. Where your parents had been hit.

It wasn't a dream after all. 

You stood up slowly, unsure of what to do now. You looked down at your parents, ready for the influx of tears once again, but to your surprise, your eyes were dry. Your eyes throbbed with pain, the sudden lack of water was causing them to become irritated. You blinked repeatedly, trying to get rid of the dry pain. When nothing happened, you just decided to ignore the feeling. The sun was beginning to rise now. You must have been sleeping for hours. Your head pounded something terrible, due to all the tears that you had lost. 

You knew you had to leave. Your parents were dead. There was nothing you could do here now. Although the thing you wanted to do most at the moment was to die alongside your parents, you knew that they would not be happy with your actions. They would want you to live life to the fullest. Even though they wouldn't be physically watching and caring for you anymore, you knew you had to live on for them. It was too early to die anyway; you were only eighteen.

You took your cellphone out and considered calling the police. They could you to someplace safe, and even possibly catch the murderer, but you stopped before you hit the call button. Calling the police, you realized, would only bring you trouble. They would bring you in for questioning or something of the sort, and the results would take weeks to return. The police would pester you with their questions, and news reporters would come knocking on your door as well, hoping to get information for the daily scoop. You would never live peacefully.

Your mind raced wildly, matching the rapid pace of your breath. Surely calling the police was the right thing to do... right? You could feel the intense feelings of panic in your system. It was clouding your ability to think rationally. 

Since you were of age, your parents' money and their house would go to you. However, you knew that you would also have to deal with the bills and taxes. You had only finished high school recently, and college was definitely not on your to-do list. With such a limited education, there was no way you could get a job to support a house such as that. Sure, you could sell it... but then you would have to buy another house, which meant dealing with papers and contracts... and then what would you do after that? Laze around at home all day? There had to be another option... that is, if you were allowed to go home at all. It's possible that you could be charged for murder. After all, you had indirectly caused their death... But you weren't the one that had hit them, that car was the one! The person driving the car should've been the one charged with murder! You had to tell the police.

They'd never believe your story though... It sounded crazy even to you. Deers couldn't regenerate. They couldn't come back to life.They didn't bow at humans in gratitude. What if they sent you to a psychiatric ward instead? What if they charged you with murder AND sent you to a mental hospital? The cellphone dropped from your hand. 

No. You couldn't do this. There were too many troublesome problems. You had to leave and restart somewhere else. 

 You began to drag your mother and father to the side of the road. Although you could not bury them or properly hold a funeral for them, the least you could do was to pull them off the street. At least cars would not be able to hit them now, not that cars drove on this road frequently anyway. You lay them down next to each other in the grass and linked their hands together again. You knelt down a final time and kissed both of their foreheads. 

"Bye Appa," you whispered. "Bye Umma. Goodbye. I love you two. Thank you for protecting me. I will live life to the fullest."

With that, you ran off.

-------------------------------------

You ran through the dark tunnel, gasping for air. A week had passed since your parents died. You could still remember their broken bodies... You could feel your eyes watering, but you forced them down. You had promised to be brave, to life as happily as possible. You could not cry now, not when you had not even accomplished anything yet. 

You laughed dryly to yourself. You could not believe that you had made such a promise to your deceased parents. "Live life to the fullest." What a joke, you thought. How could you live happily without even the slightest bit of survival knowledge? In addition, you had no money, nor a place to live. You had no idea how to get back home. You had been wandering around for the past week, hoping that a miracle would fall on your head, or that you would miraculously find your way home. No such luck, of course. 

Your stomach rumbled. You had not eaten a proper meal since that day... Whatever food you found came from scavenging the streets and bins, like a crow. You smelled absolutely disgusting, and probably looked even worse. Your hair, which you had always been so proud of, could not even be considered hair anymore; it clumped together in a mass of oil and grime. Your clothes were stained with dirt and blood. The thing you longed for most at the moment was a shower. 

You knew you would probably die soon. After all, it was impossible to live like this. You would most definitely die by starvation, if not by infection or exhaustion first. You came to the end of the tunnel at last, and stepped out. Perhaps you would have more luck in finding food today. You vaguely recalled something that your mother had told you when you were young. It was about "the scales of life" or something of the sort.It was something along the lines of "When something knocks you down, you are approached by something else twice as good, if you have the courage to get back up."

It had sounded great coming from your mother. Now, it just sounded pitiful. You knew you had no chance. You had only been living by yourself for a week, and you were already on the verge of dying. Maybe life just wasn't for you. 

You walked along the dark streets, taking note of the beautiful full moon tonight.

"Well," you thought to yourself. "At least I can die in the presence of a full moon. It's so pretty.." You sighed and continued walking. You were the only one on the street at this time. You deduced that it was probably around four hours past midnight. People usually weren't around at this time. In other words, this was your prime time. This was the time when you were able to openly hunt around the streets and search for something beneficial to you. Any other time was too embarrassing, for people would see and give you strange looks. Still, a hungry person is a desperate person, and quite often you found yourself not caring about embarrassment, and dug into trash bins regardless of the stares you recieved.

You sighed again. What a life. 

You neared an alley, and stopped. You pondered on whether you should enter or not. Alleys were known for being unsafe. Even though you did not read or listen to the news, you sometimes heard the people gossipping on the streets. They talked about young girls being in the alleys quite often.. 

You decided to enter anyway. It was probably too late for people to still be hanging around the alleys at the time, and sometimes their trash bins contained food that other homeless people were too scared to dig through. You were too hungry to care. Maybe if you gave up your body to someone, they would feed you...

You shook your head suddenly. There was no way you were stooping that low. You turned the corner into the alley, and stopped dead in your tracks.

There was a man standing in the middle of the alley.

The moon shone brightly on his pale face, making him glow in a strange, yet beautiful way. You stared in awe at the beautiful man. He had gorgeous golden-white hair that appeared to shine silver under the moonlight. He wore dark clothing, and it made him look even more mysterious. He just stood there, staring at the moon, and then suddenly he began to lift his arms in an enchanting manner. He sighed, his voice a bit deep and husky. You stared at him in awe, all hunger and disgust forgotten. You watched as he embraced the sky, and you felt a shiver go down your spine from the cold night air. You really had to get going. This man, no matter how handsome he may be, was not going to benefit you in any way. 

You turned to walk the other direction when you noticed a shadow on the brick wall. It looked strange and distorted. It was the shadow of the man. Your eyes widened when you saw his shadow extend and shrink. It had to be the moonlight, right? That was the only logical explanation, after all. The moonlight was just hitting him in an awfully strange manner.

You watched the shadow a moment longer, and then your eyes darted back to the man. His arms were still lifted, and his eyes were closed. He turned so that his back faced you, and then he began to rise... 

You gasped out loud, and immediately clamped your hand over your mouth. Wings! The moving shadow was his wings! Why did a human man have wings? And not only that, but they were invisible... Though you could see them clearly on the brick wall, there was nothing on the man's back! 

You quickly turned to run away, for fear that he had heard you gasp, though your exhaustion denied you the ability to move quickly. You bumped into something hard as you turned. It was him. He was floating a foot off the ground, and he glared at you, although his glare seemed to seduce you more than intimidate. 

"W-what do you want?" you stuttered. 

"What did you see?" he demanded. 

You took a step back while gasping," You.. You flew."

He nodded. "Yes, and what else?" 

You shook you head. "No.. That was it." 

He frowned. "You'd better not be lying, or else I'll have to kill you." he muttered. You nodded quickly and brought forth a burst of energy to turn and dash away. 

Before you could do so, he grabbed your wrist, and lifted it up so that you could not break his grasp. You winced at the sudden movement. Your body was getting increasingly weak right now.. Your heart was beating loudly. You knew that you would die soon. "Oh, no." He chuckled. "I am not done with you. " He stared at your face, and you stared back. His eyebrows wrinkled together and his lips tightened. Why are you so dirty?" he asked suddenly.

Your eyes widened. What kind of question was that? Before you could answer, his gaze fell on your hands, more specifically your gold and silver ring. "Where did you get this?" he whispered. 

You were utterly confused. Your mother had given it to you when you were little, though your fingers were not large enough to fit the ring at the time. When your hands grew to fit the ring, your mother had told you to wear it. "It's lucky," she had said. "Wear this, and I guarantee that you will be happy one day. Wear it for me okay? Wear that ring always. Treasure it."

"It's just a ring my mom gave me," you replied nervously. "Here, you want it? Just take it and leave me alone!" You reached up to take it off, but he grabbed your other hand! "No!" he said loudly. "Don't take it off! I'm not saying I want it!"

"Then what--" a wave of nausea suddenly overcame you, and you buckled to your knees. The time had come for you to die. At last, you could join your parents, but without regrets. You had tried, that was all that mattered. In the end, there just wasn't anything you could do. You felt yourself losing consciousness...

"Hana!" a voice cried. "Lee Hana! Please come to your senses!" 

It was that beautiful man's voice.. How did he know your name? 

Your eyes closed, and you fell into blackness.