• She ran as fast as her little legs could take her. Breathing heavily, and looking back constantly with fear running through her veins she cried as she ran, warm tears running down her face. The snowy winter air blew at her, as if it was trying to slow her down. As pale as a ghost with terror in her heart, she could hear her abusive father screaming in anger after her. Ignoring her father’s screams at her, she continued to run through the snowy parks and streets, until she could no longer hear his screams and footsteps. Breathing heavily, she falls onto her knees and holds her face into her mitten hands crying in fear and exhaustion. From the mist of the cold winter, a boy who looked a little older than her approached her with a sympathetic expression on his cute soft skinned face. He stood on front of her, and leaned forward, “Are you okay…?” he asked. Upon hearing a voice apart from her own crying, the girl quickly shuffled back in the snow and stared at the boy before her, scared and afraid. The boy’s soft green eyes continued to stare at her, he smiled softly and asked again if she was okay, and let out his hand, “Here, I’ll help you up.” She sat there for a minute or so, staring at this strange boy with a black beanie and a huge snow coat on, and grabbed his gloved hands, and stood up and wiped her tears away. She nodded to say she was okay, but the boy knew there was something wrong – upon looking at her he knew she had gone through a rough time, her clothes were torn at the sides, and her face was slightly bruised in areas.
    “Help me…” she uttered under her breath as she looked up at him, with tears falling from her tired brown eyes. The boy gently reached for her hand and held it tightly and smiled, “I will… I promise.”

    [18 years later]

    “Ever had that feeling that something’s like… missing in your life, Doc?” he said as he sat in his chair, staring out the window. The therapist who sat across from him, whom he just called ‘Doc’ cocked his head to the left and asked,
    “We’ve all been through that stage, tell me what you mean by it though, Kaoru?” The boy named Kaoru, let out a sigh as his green eyes continued to stare out the window. Gently moving his black hair from his eyes, he closed his eyes for awhile and replied,
    “It’s not a stage… I’ve felt like something has been missing in my life for almost my whole life. And I feel like it’s nothing just something but rather --” he then paused, opened his eyes again and looked at the therapist. The therapist nodded and looked at Kaoru with a stern face,
    “Rather someone?” he said, finishing Kaoru’s sentence. Kaoru nodded and looked down at his hands. Being 22 years of age his life seemed almost complete, as he was close to finishing his Degree, and living on Campus with a steady local job. Kaoru looked at the clock, and realized his session was over. He shrugged and stood up and smiled at the therapist,
    “Thanks, this has been a good session.” Kaoru picked up his bag and began to walk out the door,
    “Next one is at 3pm tomorrow, Kaoru” the therapist mentioned as he watched Kaoru walk out the door and gave a casual wave.

    Kaoru is a good student, he did the best he could in everything he did. He had a pretty good life, but for some odd reason he’d feel incomplete or rather as if he was constantly missing somebody in his life, but no matter how hard he thought about it he wouldn’t know exactly who it was. He would have repeated dreams of a young girl standing before him crying, but he wouldn’t know who that girl was or what significance it was to him. As he pondered to himself, he stared at the pavement he walked upon, heading to the on Campus Dormitory. In his deep thought, he had bumped into another person. With his quick reflexes, he reached out quickly to grab the person he had bumped by the arm to stop them from falling backwards. Both their books had fallen to the floor, but he was glad he had caught the person before they fell back. He looked up and saw that he had grabbed a girl. Her brown eyes stared right back at him in shock.
    “S-sorry I wasn’t looking,” apologized Kaoru as he let her stand up straight and he began to pick up her books. She shook her head and bent down to help him,
    “No… it was my fault I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking” she replied as she handed him his books and took hers from his hands. She brushed her blonde hair back and smiled and shrugged,
    “I was too busy thinking, you see,” she explained. Kaoru shook his head,
    “Well, we’re both sorry then,” he said as he smiled back. An awkward moment of silence arose from them as they stared at each other. Kaoru then turned around and began to walk,
    “I’ll see you around then!” he said. She stepped forward, and grabbed his arm with her eyes staring at his face as he turned his head to look at her,
    “D-do I… do I know you?” she asked observing Kaoru’s face. Kaoru had a feeling about this girl but he wasn’t so sure if he knew her or not either, but to be safe he shook his head but smiled,
    “But would you like to know me?” he said. Her face lit up and then blushed,
    “I wasn’t getting at that… but I suppose. Let’s go eat!” she offered. Kaoru nodded and they walked to the nearest café on campus.

    As this girl spoke about her scholarship in the University, Kaoru couldn’t help but get stuck in his own train of thought. Where did he know this girl from? It felt like he knew her from somewhere, but he had no record of even seeing her at any friend or family events. And for some odd reason that feeling of being incomplete seemed to have disappeared, with her here, but was it only temporary because he was occupied with someone in his life to be able to tend to his own self needs? Kaoru then snapped out of his own thoughts and looked at her,
    “So Reni, where’s your family if you live here on Campus too?” he asked, trying to make sure that he was still up to date with whatever she was saying. Reni’s smile dropped and her face became serious,
    “I don’t have a real family … per say,” she replied then looking away from him. Kaoru sighed and felt bad,
    “I-I’m sorry, you don’t have to --”
    “They’re dead to me, I have a foster family,” she interrupted as she looked back at him and then continued, “They mean a lot to me and took me in when I was just a small child. They live in the next town over, so that’s why I live here just to study. They tell me that a boy not much older than me when I was a child helped me get away from my real family that abused me.” Kaoru’s eyes widened with shock, but then slowly drew it back and corrected his posture a little,
    “Oh that’s great, do you know him?” he asked. Reni shook her head and sighed in disappointment. She then looked at her cellphone, and realized she needed to be going. She smiled at Kaoru,
    “We’ll do this again sometime?” she asked. Kaoru nodded and stood up as well with his bag,
    “Tomorrow afternoon, same time and same place,” he said as he gave her a wink and a smile.

    As months went by Kaoru and Reni became best friends, and Kaoru’s feelings of being incomplete seemed to have disappeared. Kaoru believed that it was because his attention was elsewhere rather than on himself. He still felt like he knew Reni from somewhere before, but later just came to the conclusion that maybe he had met her in a past life.

    As the Autumn warmth disappeared, the snow began to cover the campus; the winter season appeared. As Kaoru walked down the street, just leaving his work he began to think of Reni as his best friend; somebody he could talk to and rely on. He felt like he could practically talk to her about everything, and ever since she entered his life, therapy was never needed anymore. With his hands in his snow jacket, and his boots dragging through the snow on the sidewalks, he looked up at the winter grey sky with a smile. He was glad to have Reni in his life, it felt complete – but little did he know what Reni was really to himself.

    As Kaoru continued to walk back to the Campus, he went through short cuts through parks that were deserted in the winter. He stopped and felt an ill chill run through his spine. He stood still for a few minutes just looking around the park. Witnessing the snow covered trees, and the swings and playground that were ice frozen in the snow. He then heard footsteps, and quick ones too. He looked around, but the winter snow mist became thicker. He heard a girl breathing hard with quick footsteps in rhythm, he knew this girl was running, but was she just running in the cold for exercise or was she running to get somewhere? Or even worse, running from someone? Kaoru’s blood pressure rose as he began to take steps left and right trying to find where this girl was running. Then faintly he heard a man shouting and screaming, followed by a loud gun shot. Kaoru’s fear rushed through his veins. He could still hear the girl breathing heavily through the mist, and as he looked ahead he saw a figure staggering, it was the girl he could hear. He quickly ran to her, he didn’t know who she was but he didn’t care, she needed his help. He sprinted towards her and quickly caught her before she fell forward to the ground in exhaustion, as he looked down at her and brushed her hair from her face. He recognized her and gasped,
    “Reni!” he shouted as he looked down at her bruised face. Her eyes opened and stared into Kaoru’s green eyes and smiled,
    “Kaoru...so…it was you after all,” she said softly as she brought her hand to his face and gently placing it on his soft cheek. Kaoru lifted his right hand and saw blood and his eyes widened with shock,
    “Reni you’ve been shot! We need you to get to the Hospital NOW! We have enough ---”
    “No… no we don’t have enough time Kaoru… just please…take this moment to understand…” she interrupted; her breathing became softer but quicker. Her death was coming but at a slow rate, Kaoru shook his head as tears began to build up in his eyes. He knew he couldn’t save this girl because the Hospital was too far from where they were, especially when he had no car, but he didn’t want to believe it. He looked up and saw her Father in the distance, shocked at what he had done. Kaoru narrowed his eyes at him,
    “You…!” Kaoru screamed as he held Reni close. The Father staggered back in shock and wide eyed; unable to comprehend what he had just done out of hate, anger and misery. Seeing his daughter dying in the arms of the boy who saved her before,
    “No I…” he mumbled, unable to even form a sentence in his shock. The Father turned and ran away, disappearing into the mist. Kaoru gritted his teeth and shifted a moment, wondering if he’ll ever be able to see this unforgivable man. Reni slowly turned Kaoru’s face down to hers with her hand and smiled,
    “Kaoru…it was you after all…” she said as tears ran from her eyes, and suddenly Kaoru’s dream of that small girl standing before him flashed before his eyes,
    “Wh-what? …That girl I ---”
    “…Saved long ago? Yes. You see… My father and brothers abused and bashed me when I was a child because my wealthy mother had died and left me her belongs and what was left of her money. I ran away with what I could… and my father ran after me threatening to kill me one day, because he was a twisted, angry and greedy man. And I guess he finally got me… 18 years later…” Reni explained as she began to cry. Her heart was slowing down, and her lungs were beginning to fail. She began to cough, and blood ran from her beautiful brown eyes, however her brown eyes were fading away with time. Kaoru held her tightly,
    “You were that girl I brought to the Foster Clinic. And you were that someone I needed in my life to make it complete…I finally have you after all this time, and you’re leaving me!?” he shouted as he lowered his head, trying to hide his tears. Reni lifted his head and smiled,
    “I felt like I’ve known you all my life… and from here on, now that we’ve finally connected, neither of us will have the sense of incompletion, and loneliness… I promise…” she said as she lowered his head with her hand, and kissed him on the lips softly. Kaoru shut his eyes and enjoyed the very last beats of Reni’s heart as he broke from the kiss,
    “From the moment we spoke, I knew in my heart that you were that missing piece of me… and I promise too, that this feeling of incompletion will no longer haunt me now that I have found you once again…” Kaoru said and kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear,
    “Thank you, Reni,” Tears ran from her eyes as she closed her eyes, and smiled for the very last time. Her head fell back, as her heart stopped beating and the warmth of her body disappeared and became as cold as the winter air around them. Kaoru cried as he held her tightly, hours after her death, and swore that her father wouldn’t see the last of his daughter, even if he had to see her through the boy that saved her 18 years ago.