Two Years Later

"My soul is dark - Oh! quickly string
The harp I yet can brook to hear;
And let thy gentle fingers fling
Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear.
If in this heart a hope be dear,
That sound shall charm it forth again:
If in these eyes there lurk a tear,
'Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.

But bid the strain be wild and deep,
Nor let thy notes of joy be first:
I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep,
Or else this heavy heart will burst;
For it hath been by sorrow nursed,
And ached in sleepless silence, long;
And now 'tis doomed to know the worst,
And break at once - or yield to song."

"You did an amazing job reading that, Aly-Jay. You were really able to bring out the sorrow in the poem. Thank you. Now can anyone tell me what Lord Byron is trying to say here?"

I avoided all eye contact with my professor. This is just what I needed, and some kind sad, mopey, poem to remind me of my depression. As the class started talking about how crying helps the soul or whatever, I couldn't help but think that it was all bullshit. I must have been crying on and off for two years now and I didn't feel any better. Maybe trying to go for an English literature degree was a bad idea.

As the class continued to talk about "souls" and "crying" and whatever else, I found myself playing with my bracelets. While things were going smoothly for the first year, it wasn't long after that when I could feel the pull of my demon sides again. Although, this time it almost felt worse. I didn't have the money to join any kind of dance classes so I would find myself waking up at four in the morning. Whenever that happened I would force myself to get up and go for a run. I had to get some kind of exercise; otherwise I don't think I could sleep at all.

It didn't help that my new step-mother had forced the whole household to go on a diet. She had taken one look at me when I had first arrived to make that decision. Sure, I might have been skinnier than her, but she had curves that I would kill to have. But that didn't matter because there is never any food in the house. Thankfully my dad was able to see how badly it's been affecting me. He might not always be around because of work, but at least he makes the time to give me money for the week so I can feed myself. It also gave me an excuse to stay out of the house longer and away from her.

The sound of papers being gathered and binders being closed brought me out of my daydream. Class must be over so I gathered my stuff and headed out the door. I must have taken about two steps before I heard someone calling my name.

"Hey, Aly-Jay! Wait up." Ugh. Trevor. "Do you have plans today?"

"Yeah, I have to get home." I really didn't want to deal with him right now.

"Oh come on. You need to go out. Have fun. Enjoy the life as a college student."

While he had a point, I just couldn't bring myself to actually go out and "have fun". When I first came back to Canada, one of the first things I realized was that my friends had refused to talk to me. I didn't call them or send letters while I was at Genkai's so they felt like I had deserted them. I couldn't really blame them, it was kind of true. It didn't make it hurt any less though...

"No, I really need to head home," I said as I opened the door leading to the outside. As we started walking down the path, we passed a group of Koreans.

"Hey," Trevor said, nudging me, "you're Asian, what are they saying?"

I forced myself to bite down on my tongue to stop myself from snapping at him. He did this almost all the time and it offended me every single time. If only he got the hint. "I don't know," I said eventually, "I'm Japanese, and I'm pretty sure they are Korean."

"Lame," he said as we continued to walk.

We continued to head towards the parking lot. I kept my head down, not wanting to give anyone the invitation to start talking again, especially Trevor. Unfortunately, that meant I was more likely to bump into people. This is exactly what happened.

"Oh sor-," the person started to say but the moment we made eye contact she stopped. "Oh, it's you. Never mind."

Did I mention that I go to the same university as my old friends?

"Whoa, that Jessie chick is a real bitch," Trevor said as he watched her walk away.

I picked up all my stuff as quickly as I could, so I could face him. "Look, I've gotta go. I'll see you next week, okay?"

"I'll walk you to your car." Ugh, does he ever give up? I saw Trevor look over my shoulder and frowned. "Whoa, who would have thought that there was someone as short as you."

My breath caught in my throat and I felt my whole body go tense. I was too scared to turn around and look for myself, but I knew I was going to have to turn around eventually. I braced myself as I turned my head to look. And there he was. Standing there. Wearing normal human clothes.

Hiei.

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