"Run!"

This thought echoed through his brain as his limbs finally caught up with his train of thought, and so he started to run. Reace didn't really know where to go as he had walked so far earlier and he just kept on running blindly. After several minutes he found himself at an old abandoned petrol station that was across from the road of a hospital that specializes in eye problems called Pasteur. He was still a long way from the Middestad but decided that he should first catch his breath and think for a moment or two to collect himself.

"Ok, you were walking down the street and kept on walking. You ended up in an area that you most likely shouldn't have been in and started looking into a house. You saw a man hitting a girl and then she shot him." Reace muttered trying to get his swirling head to stay still

Slumping to the ground, he hugged his legs close to him, arms around his knees, and shut his eyes. His head throbbed and he coughed from the cold night air. He opened his eyes and saw that the rain had not abated at all. It was then that a movement caught his eye directly ahead of him. It was a small figure and was looking around. He hoped that he hadn't been seen. His heart skipped a beat as he saw the person put its' hand to its' forehead and then stop as if looking directly at him. To his horror the person started running towards him.

He immediately got up and started to run, trying his best to shake the person. If nobody caught him then nobody would know what he had seen. Before long his lungs were burning from the cold air that rapidly entered his body from his breathing and he stopped to lean against a wall. Dizziness almost overcame him and he peered around the corner to make sure that his pursuer had not followed him. After a few moments of not seeing anything in the rain he slumped to the ground. He closed his eyes again and leant with his head against the wall allowing the rain to fall directly on it.

The rain felt good on his burning forehead and he slowly started to doze. He knew that he should get up, but his body ached and he really didn't feel like moving. His thoughts drifted on the nights events and finally the thought to move came into his mind. As he was about to get up he was startled to reality when a voice spoke.

"Hey… you there…" came a soft voice near him.

The person sounded out of breath and Reace felt a new chill grab a hold of him as he realized that he had not managed to shake his pursuer. Thoughts of running entered his mind but he decided that such a course of action was probably a futile one. Plus, there was something about the voice and the way it uttered those words that made him feel as if he was not in trouble. Opening his eyes he looked up at a figure kneeling next to him. What he saw was the girl from the house he had been at. She had shot the man that was hitting her. Then it dawned on him….

'I'm staring at a killer!' his mind yelled.

With eyes springing wide open Reace found that he was on his feet and about to depart when the girl spoke and he felt something grab at his arm.

"Pleasedonthurtme!" Reace muttered and closed his eyes awaiting the explosion that would announce the end of his short life.

After several seconds of nothing but the sound of the falling rain passed he opened his right eye and saw that the girl was still looking at him.

"I won't hurt you, I promise. I just want to talk with you. Please, you have to help me!" The girl spoke in a barely controlled voice, fear tingling the edges of the words.

"But, you shot that man…" Reace stammered, not really knowing what to do or say.

He saw in the dim light that the girl's eyes were red from crying and that her right eye was swollen from where she had been hit. As he stared at her he saw not a killer in front of him but, rather, a terrified girl that was in a lot of trouble. Her mouth was slightly open as she tried to find words to reply to his statement but his actions interrupted her before she could answer. She looked rather disheveled with long blonde hair falling about her in a rather strange manner that made her look like she had webbing all over her body. Her clothes were soaked and stuck to her body. He noticed what looked like strange dark streaks going down her eyes and wondered at this.

"Will you listen to me?" she asked breaking the silence.

"W-what do you want with me?"

"I, well, I need somebody to help me. I'm in, well, I…." and her last word choked off in a sob as she tried to regain control of herself.

Reace was puzzled at this. His natural instinct was to try and comfort her and tell her that everything would be ok and maybe even ask what he could do to make it better. But this was a different situation.

'Dare I help a killer?' the thought floated around in his head. He wished for an answer to come up but his mind didn't help any. One part of him wanted to run away and pretend he saw nothing while another wanted to see if he could help.

"What do you want with me?" he repeated, still not having any answer to the questions echoing in his head.

"I, well, I've done something really bad and need help. I, I've often seen you walking around looking around. You're a street kid, not, not that I mean anything bad about that. Something bad happened at my house and when I ran I saw you running. I don't know what but I decided to follow. I can't go back! I just can't! I…" again she stopped short as she tried to maintain control of her emotions.

"Something bad? That's an understatement!" Reace muttered softly, or so he thought, because she then replied to what he had muttered.

"You saw! I knew it! Then please! I implore you! Help me!" she almost screamed in her agitation.

'Dammit!' His mind thought realizing that once again he would have done better to keep his thoughts to himself and not open his mouth. Action was definitely called for this situation but a calmer approach was needed to make sure that he was not caught up in something that was out of his control and might even cost him his life.

"What do you want me to do?" Reace asked fighting every urge to run away and leave this troubled girl behind him.

But, that was the problem. This was a girl in trouble and still he wasn't sure what he should do. He decided to listen and hear what she had to say before making a decision. Maybe there was some kind of reason for her doing what she did. He's seen worse things on the street and people commit all kinds of atrocities for the most ludicrous of reasons.

"Help me… Hide me…" the girl gasped.

Reace squinted at the girl as the implications of what she was asking him set in. Could he hide her? On the streets this was easily possible. The living could easily disappear without anybody ever taking note of what had happened. Should he hide her? Well, she was in trouble and he still didn't find out why she had done what she did. She was being given a hard time from what he saw, so maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back? Would he hide her? Well, that was something that was tricky, but if he had to do something he should act now rather than later.

"Ok, you need to follow me and stick close." Reace said standing up and thinking of the best route to take to the heart of Middestad. He knew that it was only a matter of time before police showed up and the last place that they would look for her would be in Middestad. It was unusual enough that he was a young white boy living there, but for a young white girl, this was unheard of. He knew it would be dangerous, but he was sure that she would prefer it over the alternative. As they ran along, Reace kept on wondering what he had gotten himself into…

The two sat opposite each other where Reace would normally sit. The rain hadn't really abated but luckily the overhang did provide a fair amount of cover allowing any who would lie under it, enough to have a more or less dry so long as you don't lie under the corner where all of the water runs off. The raining was going at a steady downpour and not raining sideways as would often happen in Bloemfontein with a strong wind blowing sideways.

Reace's mind was trying to make sense of what had just happened. He looked at the girl opposite him and realized that he had just landed himself in a huge predicament that he had no idea of how he what he would go about dealing with. He had seen what was surely a crime taking place, although what he saw could maybe be considered as two wrongs the last being a crime of the worst sort. He couldn't think of things being much worse than taking somebody's life.

The girl looked completely distraught and she appeared to be in somewhat of a trance. He listened to the rain pouring with the continuous 'tump tump' sound of water hitting the overhang. The run off was almost a constant pour of water as it fell and splashed on the ground below. Reace loved this kind of weather, the white noise that is the best to just lose yourself in and fall asleep. The kind of noise that allows you to forget your problems and just enjoy the fresh smell of the rain. To him it always made him think of a way in which the earth was being cleansed of all of the filth that seemed to permeate every corner of the world.

The silence continued as neither individual knew what to say. Neither had imagined themselves ending up in this predicament, where they were right now.

"Why did you…" they both began and then fell silent.

"Sorry, you first." Reace said.

"No, no please, you first." She replied.

"No please, ladies first." Reace said recalling that one of the thing Gogo taught him was that gentleman always let a woman do something before them.

"Oh, uh, thanks. Well, there are so many questions that I have, but, the first and foremost of them would be; why did you decide to help me?" she finally managed.

'Maybe it's because you wouldn't let me go. Maybe because I saw you shoot a man.' There were so many responses that he could have given, some that he wanted to give but decided not to.

"Well, it's the right thing to do." He said without thinking much and almost surprised himself with his answer.

"Oh, well, thank you. That was very nice of you. What was it you wanted to ask me?" she said.

"I, uh, I can't recall. So, don't worry about it." He said with a hint of a grin and a slight wave of his hand.

Again the uneasy silence settled between the two. Only the rhythmic fall of the rain and the booming of thunder could be heard every now and again.

"What's your name?" she suddenly asked.

"Me? Oh, my name is Reace. And yours?"

"My name is Celest." She replied.

"Celest…" he said rolling the name over his tongue. "..that's a nice name."

"Oh, why thank you. Um, yours is nice too." Celest replied with a slight blush.

Suddenly the sky was lit up by lightning and almost immediately a loud clap of thunder caused things to reverberate below. Celest jumped slightly at the noise and then looked around her with wide eyes. Reace couldn't help but feel sorry for her, being out of her surroundings, her comfort zone, her home. He had to fight back a slight snort as realized he was feeling sorry for somebody that was better off than he was. Still, he did feel sorry for her and noted that she was shivering a little. He sighed and his breath turned in to a white vapour as the heat met with the coolness of the night air. The sigh was the result of him realizing that he would have to share one of his two blankets with her so that she wouldn't get cold.

"It's going to be a long night." He muttered softly to himself.

**Authors note: After some good critique I have changed a little of this chapter.**