Part 4: Memories

*At first everything was peaceful and dark, but before long Kiara found herself in an ice cream shop. The same ice cream shop she was in on her thirteenth birthday.

'No... Please, not this again.'

Despite her mental begging she was forced to watch as a helpless bystander to what she knew was going to happen. To what had already happened. Her chest tightened painfully as she watched a younger her bounce excitedly at her mother's side. Her mother was a thing of beauty, she could have easily been a model with her silky red locks and soft blue eyes. She was gorgeous. Kiara watched on, almost choking on the desperation to get away from here. From this memory that she suppressed, and yet could remember so clearly.

When it finally came to their turn the woman ordered something, and even though the weird didn't reach her ears she knew what she said.

A few moments later the smaller Kiara was handed a chocolate ice cream cone, much to the girls delight. If only she knew. If only she was less oblivious and naive. The woman walked the girl towards the door, a gentle smile gracing her lips as she watched her only daughter... But they didn't make it to the door. Just as quickly as it appeared the smile was gone and the woman placed herself between the girl and the door, effectively blocking the hail of bullets and saving the child the physical pain of a few bullets that probably wouldn't have actually killed her.

She wanted to scream, but nothing would come out as her mother fell onto the younger Kiara who was too terrified and confused to do anything but watch her mother's life blood spill out over her. There were wounded people everywhere and screams of pain, fear, and confusion, but Kiara could only lay helpless under her mother's body as it became cold until the police and medics arrived... Far too late.*

Kiara woke up with a start, first noticing the tears soaking her cheeks, and second the man from the previous night sitting a couple get from the couch where she slept. She quickly wiped away the tears and ignored the odd look on his face. The same look she got from everyone she met after the incident.

She didn't need their pity though. It wasn't their business anyway. With a huff she gets up and heads to the kitchen, closely followed by Jerriah who watches from a corner as she prepares a cup of ramen for herself.

"So...." Jerriah starts, "Don't fucking ask. Just mind your own damn business." Kiara cuts in before he can continue with whatever he was going to say. He was only here to kill her, so he didn't need to know anything about her.

He falls silent and she scarfs down the unhealthy breakfast before grabbing her shoes abbs walking out. She needed done fresh air after that. Hopefully clearing her mind with a nice walk would help with burying that memory back in the dark abyss it belonged in.

To no one's surprise Jerriah followed from a bit of a distance, like the damn stalker he was. She contemplated going to the local police, but quickly decided against it. Berserker made up most of the police force. They acted as the peacekeepers while also sucking up to Odin whenever he wanted something done.

In case it wasn't already obvious, she hated the gods. They were just a bunch of stuck up, lazy, assholes. This particular situation proved that. Instead of removing the curse Odin decided to send one of his lackeys to kill her for the apparently horrible crime of existing near one of his many children when she died. It's not like she could have done anything to prevent it. It's not like she asked to get cursed...

The streets were relatively quiet except for a few cars and a couple other pedestrians here and there. That was probably her fault. Terrible accidents like a helicopter falling from the sky and killing a few people tended to have this affect on people. Everyone became all hush hush and avoided going outside for the most part until the shock of the event passed, then the town would come to full life again as though nothing had ever happened. Not that it really mattered to her though.

After about ten minutes of walking the library came into view, just the sight of the huge stone building designed after a castle lightened her mood a little. This place was her sanctuary, whenever something was troubling her she came here for some peace and quiet. Jerriah falls behind a little and Kiara quickly heads inside, breathing in the soothing scent of paper and countless books. Her feet took her straight to the far corner of the massive building, weaving between book case after book case until she reached her table. It was a simple round black table with one chair and a couple beanie bags nearby against the wall. This little area was completely hidden from view and surrounded by book shelves. After finding an interesting book she sits down in one of the beanie bags and starts reading, enjoying the relative silence, only interrupted by quiet murmuring and the vent next to her that spewed out pleasantly warm air.

The story took place in a Mideval world filled with knights and a princess with powers who ended up with her own reverse harem of sorts after traveling the world in search of a weapon powerful enough to help her save her kingdom from demons. It filled the time and she found herself feeling a lot calmer then before by the time she finished reading the short novel and stood up to put it back. Her hand skimmed over several different titles as she slowly wandered down the isle, but a sound from the opposite bookshelf caught her attention and she glanced over just as it began tipping over towards her. "Shit." Being halfway down the isle it was unlikely she could get out from under it in time, but the one thing that really terrified her, even more then the thought of how painful it would be to get crushed under the weight of the massive shelf and all the herders of books, was the sight of the little girl just a few feet away.