[b]”I’m sorry.  There is nothing I can do.”[/b]

Merrill walked away from him, leaving the man in the street, his hand outstretched, looking for coin and help that he couldn’t give.  

[i]How could I tell you?[/i]

Merrill’s mind screamed at him as he walked away.  [i]Nothing I could do could help you.[/i]  The beggar would be dead within the week, a knife plunged into his gut.  Merrill knew not who wielded the knife, but it might as well have been his own hand. 

He turned the corner, his vision blurring.  The rain poured, coming down from the heavens, soaking him to the skin.  Walking into the alleyway, Merrill leaned against the wall, sliding down it, head looking up to the sky as the droplets continued to fall.

[b]”I’m sorry,”[/b] he whispered.  

He reached his hands up, running his fingers down his face, scratching furrows in his face as the tears fell.  So much death.  He had seen so much......so little he could do.  He would have saved them all had he the power.

But he did not.

The visions....they always came true.

Finally, as blood mixed with the rain in the alleyway, Merrill’s hands fell as the stinging pain came from the tears he had ripped into his skin.  Bringing his hand back up to his waist, he touched the hilt of something attached to his waist.  A knife.  A knife carved with the hilt of a dragon.  Closing his eyes, he whispered again, [b]”I’m sorry.”[/b]

And then the knife was free from its fastening.  Turning it in, he placed the tip of it against his chest.

[b]”Its the only way.....”[/b]

Seconds passed.  A sharp pain from his stomach.  The knife fell from trembling, nerveless fingers, clattering on the floor of the alleyway.  Holding his head up to the sky and the rain, eyes closed, Merrill laughed.

And as he laughed, he committed the beggars face to his memory.  He committed the faces of all those he had seen die to his memory, to live there for the rest of his life.

[b]”I’m sorry,”[/b] he whispered once more breathlessly.  [b]”The world may forget you, but I will not.  I will remember.....always remember.”[/b]

[CENTER]***[/CENTER]

Merrill watched Callie.  He watched her as flames burst from her fingers, striking the creature in its chest.  As it screamed it’s agony, he continued to watch her.  Not the girl she had transformed herself into, but the woman that she was.  Time had hardened him beyond his years, turning him into the cold and emotionless person he had become, yet......

......he committed her face to his memory.  This one.  This one would hurt the most.  It would kill him, and he did not need any visions of the future to tell him that.

Shaking slightly, as the creature reeled from the blows, clutching at its eyes even as it tried to smother the flames, Merrill ran forwards, ignoring the pain from his right leg.

[b]”Come on.”[/b]

He grabbed her hand, and once more they ran.  

The forest came, and as the demon roared once more, they burst through into the thick foliage.  

Great oak trees, standing the size of two houses, shielded them suddenly from the outside world.  They loomed over the two as they crashed through the forest and into its depths.  Their tops blocked out the moon, and they cast great shadows over those below it.

Breathing heavily, Merrill held out his hand, and the globe of light whizzed through the air, hovering over his palm.  It shedded a small amount of illumination around their surroundings.  On either side, large bushes could be seen amidst the bark of the great oak trees.  The foliage was thick here, almost too thick and dense to penetrate.

With the exception of a small dirt path leading its way deeper into the forest.

[b]”I guess we have no choice but to go deeper....”[/b]

An explosion to his right cut off Merrill’s words, followed by the orange flicker of flames and thick smoke that started to billow in their direction.  His eyes widened in fear as he coughed, covering his mouth as his eyes started to water.

[b]”Its trying to burn down the forest....to smoke us out.  We must run!”[/b]

As the flames started to get closer, Merrill looked to the young Callie, his eyes showing the fear that he felt inside of him......

[@Guardian Angel Haruki]