(A/N: Avalon Code does not belong to me; all rights go to their proper owners.)

"Aaah!" Meenya threw her hands over her head in mock terror. "Somebody save me!"

"Don't worry! The hero will come to save you!" Duran ran up and hit Rex in the back of the head.

"Ow!" Rex reeled forward a bit, and then turned around to glare at the other boy, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, seriously… Why do I always have to play the demon lord?"

"My hero!" Meenya gushed, still in her world of make-believe. She pulled a flower out from behind her back and offered it to Duran. "For you."

Duran took the flower with a smile. Rex wasn't pleased.

"Is anybody listening to me?"

Still smiling, Duran looked over at him. "Not really."

Rex glared right back but turned away when Meenya started giggling. "Well… whatever. I hope you had fun, Meenya, because I'm not going to be the bad guy next time."

Duran glanced up at the darkening sky. "And I need to get home. It's getting late."

"Aww." Meenya pouted. "But I want to play some more."

"We'll play again later, I promise."

"Really?"

Rex put a hand on top of Meenya's head and ruffled her hair. "Duran's tired, Meenya. He'll be back tomorrow."

The younger sister pushed her brother's hand away. "Hey! Don't do that."

Duran laughed at the two of them and started walking towards the gate. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

"Bye." Rex and Meenya waved until he turned the corner out of sight.

"We should get inside too, Meenya. It's almost time for dinner."

"Alright." Meenya craned her head backwards to look at the sky. The orange color of sunset was gradually fading, and she scanned the dark blue for signs of the first star of night.

"Rex?"

"Yeah?"

Meenya looked back down to smile at her older brother. "Thanks for playing with me."

Looking slightly flustered, Rex quickly turned away. "It's nothing."

Meenya sat up in bed and yawned, rubbing her eyes. Sunlight was streaming through the windows. How long had she been asleep? The little girl quickly got out of bed, feeling like she was going to be late for something… What that 'something' was, she had no idea.

While she tried to remember what she was feeling so anxious about, Meenya realized that she was already dressed. That was odd. Had she gotten up earlier to dress herself and then fallen back asleep? Meenya smoothed out a few wrinkles in the blue print as she thought. This didn't seem like something that she would normally do.

She shrugged it off and looked around, hoping that something would jog her memory, only to encounter something else that was strange; she was the only person in the huge room. There were a few beds and an empty wardrobe pushed up against the wall as well as a few bookcases, but no other signs of life. Meenya started to wonder why she would sleep in a place like this, with no one around. There was no denying that the place seemed familiar to her, but at the same time she felt as if she never been here before in her life. Something was tickling the back of her mind, nagging her, saying that the place felt so foreign because the people that she expected to be there weren't there.

Who? Who am I looking for?

But she couldn't remember. Something else rose up inside of Meenya, like a soft hand, quieting the nagging voice and telling her that it was nothing to worry about; she didn't have to remember now. Still feeling a bit strange, Meenya decided to leave the place entirely. It made her head spin.

The front door creaked loudly as she pushed it open and closed with a thud behind her. Turning around, Meenya found herself standing in a front yard that had obviously been ignored for a long time. Weeds sprouted all over the grass, the flowerpots looked long untended, and two large pillars that seemed like they had once been gateposts were beginning to crumble. Meenya walked out to the middle of the yard and stared up at the house. With everything falling into disrepair and no one around, she was starting to think that it was a ghost house. She turned and ran away from it, heading down a short hill to the side that lead out to another road.

The place was also strangely familiar—Fortune-teller Alley, her foggy memories told her—but she remembered nothing else other than the name. A few slightly run-down houses lined the dirt road, and unlike the house that she had just left, she could see people through the windows, living out their lives. Meenya started to feel a little bit better now that it was clear that she wasn't alone. Despite the strangeness of her situation, now she couldn't help but think that a weird empty house would be a perfect place to play in. And it would be far less scary to explore it with someone else than by herself. She would just have to find someone willing to go with her…

Meenya ran up the road towards the center of town, sure that she would find more people there. She was not disappointed; several people were wandering in front of the houses and by the market stalls in the middle of the square. Meenya headed towards the nearest person, who was a red-haired man standing behind one of the shop stalls. He was counting mystic jewels with a strange grin on his face. Meenya had no problems interrupting him.

"Hello! Would you like to play with me?"

But he went on counting his jewels, completely ignoring Meenya.

The little girl waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?"

Still no answer. Meenya sighed and gave up on him. She looked around for someone else, and quickly spotted a slightly pale girl sitting on the front steps to one of the houses, smiling faintly at the passerby. Meenya quickly walked over to her.

"Would you like to play?"

The girl turned in Meenya's direction, but something was strange about her gaze. She was looking right at Meenya, but she wasn't focusing on Meenya at all. It was as though she was looking right through her… But that couldn't be right, could it?

Now that she thought about it though, Meenya felt something strange about the girl, as if something were wrong. She looked closer at her face. Maybe she was sick? If that were true, then it wouldn't be good for her to go running around. Meenya decided to leave her alone and moved on to the next person.

However, she had no luck with the next person, or the next. Everyone seemed to either be ignoring her or couldn't hear her. Eventually, the sun began to dip towards the horizon, and Meenya gave up. Why did no one want to play with her?

Maybe everyone was just busy today, she told herself. They'll listen to me tomorrow, for sure!

But days became weeks, then months, and still no one seemed to notice Meenya. At some point, she'd stopped wandering around town and instead waited at Fortune-teller Alley all day, excitedly running towards any passerby to ask them to play with her. But she could only stay enthusiastic for so long.

Meenya didn't understand. Had she done something wrong? She couldn't remember… The way that people seemed to look right through her was still strange. Meenya began to wonder if maybe there was something wrong with the townspeople, since besides the fact that she couldn't remember anything, Meenya felt fine.

She gave up on trying to talk to the townspeople and watched them as they walked by instead. People watching became a good time-waster for her. Although they always ignored her, Meenya felt like she knew who they were by the way they walked and acted when they bumped into someone else along the road. But there was always one person that, for some reason, held her attention more than the rest.

He was a blue-haired boy, older than Meenya, who always seemed to be frowning. Apparently he lived in a small house at the end of the road, so Meenya saw him often. She always smiled at him when he walked by, but like everyone else, he couldn't see her. Meenya wasn't sure why she felt the need to do that. For some reason, she felt that if she smiled, then eventually he would smile back.

One day as he passed her, he looked particularly angry. For the first time, Meenya was glad that no one looked at her; she wouldn't want that glare directed towards her. She stared at his back as he walked down the street and headed towards the town square. Meenya followed him, slightly curious about what could have made him so mad. But he didn't stay in the center of town for long. He turned down a side street and kept walking. Meenya stopped, suddenly remembering this path. Was he heading towards the abandoned house? Meenya was surprised. Did he know about that place? She ran after him.

As soon as she turned the corner, she stopped again. There he was, standing in the middle of the lawn, looking up at the house with that angry expression. And someone else was there too, sitting on the doorstep against the entrance with a wide hat pulled over his eyes. White flowers were tucked into the hat's brim, fluttering lightly in the breeze.

Meenya's head was starting to hurt again. This scene somehow seemed familiar, like something that had happened a long time ago in the shadow of a memory. But these two were older than the people that she halfway remembered, so it couldn't be them. Instead, she decided to stand by the old gate and watch.

"What are you doing here, Duran?" Meenya jumped a little; his voice was as full of anger as his glare.

The boy in the hat didn't move. "It's the anniversary. Isn't that why you came, Rex?" His voice seemed deliberately quiet, as if he were holding something back.

Rex shifted his feet. "Not really."

"Hmm."

A long silence fell between them. After a full minute passed, Meenya noticed that Duran's shoulders had begun to shake. Rex noticed too.

"You're not… crying, are you?"

Duran roughly wiped his tears away from underneath his hat brim. "You're right. I don't deserve to cry."

"That's not—" With a sigh, Rex rolled his eyes and looked the other way. "You're hopeless."

Meenya felt as if she could reach out and grab the sadness in the air. What had happened here? She tentatively stepped away from the stone pillar she had been hiding behind and out onto the overgrown lawn. Predictably, neither of them noticed her. Meenya continued walking until she was standing in front of the boy with the flowers in his hat. She could see that he was still crying, although silently. Meenya slowly sat down next to him and patted his shoulder. It changed nothing, he still couldn't see her, but something told her that he would appreciate the gesture.

The other boy was still glaring at the second floor. Meenya could feel sadness coming from him too, although he seemed determined not to let any of it show. Meenya glanced between the two of them and then up at the house. Perhaps there were more mysteries here than she had thought.

A faint memory was coming back to her now… A make-believe game of heroes and princesses, back when the front of the house used to be beautiful. Meenya smiled.

"Maybe… someday when it stops being so sad for you to be here… Maybe we can all play together. Just like the way it used to be."

She leaned back against the door. The reason why these two were so sad had something to do with her, didn't it? But she didn't have to remember it right now. She had time for it to come back to her.

Until then, Meenya would wait for the day when someone could see her again.