a kiss could be deadly [troy]

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

Falling into darkness and despair. That was how the young woman felt, she felt alone and out of sort with the world. She didn't have anyone she could turn too and she didn't feel like she should let anyone in. To much death revolved around this little beautiful angel. She was death, the mere thought of death could make someone near her kill over and take their last breath. But who was this strange girl with such a deadly ability? She was none other that Vasilisa Ira Mishima. Heiress to the Mishima fortune and only child of Rose and Satoshi Mishima. Just by looking at this beautiful young woman you wouldn't be able to tell if there was anything wrong with her. She walked and talked, as if she where a carefree girl. But then you would see the fear in her eyes, the way that she didn't like to get near people, that she kept her distance for a reason and that she didn't want anyone to hurt because of her.

It was too much to bear for the tiny girl who didn't look any older than fifteen. She didn't look her age and appeared more child like than anything because of how small she was, but if you looked into the haunted green eyes you would see that this young woman had seen more than anyone in this world should have too. She had seen and caused more death than anyone should have to see or deal out. It made the young woman feel more alone and dangerous than she wanted to feel. Her emotions where out of sorts and her control was not the best at the moment as she stood in the park looking out over a pond where a beautiful swan swam about with her offspring. Oh how she wished that she could be a swan, so carefree and not have to worry about anything. Vasilisa crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her arms trying to ward off the cold that she constantly felt. It was then the voices started, at first they where just short whispers of insults and rude remarks.

Vasilisa took a deep breath as she felt tears fill her eyes, she didn't want to think about them right now. She didn't think she could handle it at the moment, not with it being almost the anniversry of Kai's death. Lissa closed her eyes and squeezed them shut, she didn't want to think, she wanted to remain blank and immune to the world of the dead. Silent tears slipped down Vasilisa's slightly flushed cheeks. It always appeared like Lissa was blushing, when really it was the extra energy her body absorbed from the life forces of living things. It made her heart beat much more rapidly and her blood rushed threw her veins. It was during this time that she heard the cry from the swan, the cry of death as she felt the invigorating rush of life running threw her. Lissa gasped and she opened her eyes to see the squealing swan's head finally fall to the water and it was still. Killer! Murderer! Monster! The voices all shouted at once as the swan lay still and her offspring cried out for their mother.

Vasilisa fell to her knee's and she gave a sob of pain as she watched in horror as the swan slowly continued to drift toward the other side of the pond. She knew the voices where right, she was a monster. How could this be fair? Why would she be born with such an unnatural gift, one that made her feel like a monster. You don't belong to this world... You belong with us.. They shouted at her from all directions. "Stop it! Go away!!" She pleaded quietly as she covered her ears and tried to block out all the bombarding taunts and insults that where being thrown at her from all corners of her mind. Lissa.. We will never go away.. Came her brother's voice. Lissa sobbed even louder as she pulled her knee's to her chest and burried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry Kai.. So sorry.." She muttered weakly as she shook her head back and forth. The wind then decided to pick up and whip her hair about her tiny frame. The blue black strands a startling contrast to her pale skin. She looked like a dark goddess, a dark goddess filled with pain.. And sorrow.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

Troy had been up early, as always. Five am on the dot he rose from his bed without the aid of any alarm clock. Just like when he'd been in Ireland. Of course, the timing had been off for a few weeks and it had taken a while for his body to adjust to the time difference, but now it was back to its usual settings. So he'd risen early in the morning and quietly tiptoed down the hallway, past his mother's room and her door halfway open. He didn't peer inside. He had no desire to see her angelic peaceful face twisted with agony as she had yet another nightmare about the fiery crash that had ended her husband's life. He couldn't count the times that he'd been woken in the middle of the night to her terrified screams and forced to hurry to her bedside where she writhed in a nightmare filled with pain that she couldn't wake up from, no matter how many times Troy tried to help her. Eventually he'd started to sleep with his iPod blaring in his ears, and refused to check in on her in the morning for fear that he'd see her in the middle of a soundless hellish nightmare. It wasn't only hurting her each time she experienced one; it hurt him, too, and as much as he loved his mother it just wasn't worth the pain anymore. He'd already lost one parent, and it felt like he was losing his second in an even more agonizing way.

He shut the backdoor carefully behind him and picked up his basketball from where it lay on a blanket of frost beside the door. It was chilly to his hands, but he didn't care. For the next two hours he dribbled the ball on his driveway and shot hoops at the basket above the garage door in the chilly fall air. Tomorrow it would be hockey. The day after it would be volleyball, and then soccer. The cycle of his training repeated day after day on a precise schedule, like any professional athlete, or at least an amateur with high hopes for his future.

At seven am, when he returned indoors to take a shower, his mother was still slumbering in her room. He stood with his hand on her door, preparing to open it fully and check in on her, and counted to ten before he sighed and walked away to the bathroom. She'd wake when she woke. No sense on rushing it. It took him roughly a half hour to have a shower, brush his teeth, do his hair, and everything else necessary for a good day. At seven forty-five when he woke again his mother was in the kitchen, huddled over the stove. The smell in the room showed that she was making eggs, which was a welcome change from the usual cold cereal he made for himself each morning. She often wouldn't even be awake by the time he left for school. But though she was actually awake today, their routine was much the same. Silence, as always. A polite 'How are you doing?' 'Fine, thanks, and you?' and then later 'Have a nice day, honey!' as about as much conversation as they got. Yeah, just another normal day at the Johnston house.

School passed by in a blur. Bodies moving through the hallways, teachers droning on and on at the front of the class. Troy had learned all of this stuff last year. He should be in college by now. There was no point to paying attention. By the time the end of the day bell rang, he could almost jump for joy. The weekends were a hell of a lot duller than the rest of the week.

He almost went back to his house, but halfway to his car he stopped. No. He didn't want to. Not yet. So he sent his mother a text, saying that he was going to practice basketball with his friends, and went for a drive around the town that he barely knew. The streets seemed to be endless amounts of the same thing, with a few landmarks like the Sports Centre, the high school, and of course the park. Troy had stopped by here a few times before. It was a good place to go when you just wanted some alone time, which was pretty much all that he wanted right now. It was as good a place as any to hang out until he decided to head back home and face his monotonous mother again.

He parked his car on a street nearby and walked into the little piece of nature in town, noting for a moment that this would probably be one of the last weeks of the year when the park was no shrouded in a sheet of white snow. He started to wander towards the pond, deciding to get a last glimpse of the water before it froze over for winter.

As he drew nearer he saw that he wasn't alone in this area of the park today. Concern instantly flooded the young man as he saw the girl kneeling on the ground, obviously in distress, and he picked up his pace into a run, shouting out as he came nearer. "Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?"

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

The voices, they started to fuse together making little sense. She could make out bits and pieces of the things they where saying to her but she didn't want to hear them. She wanted them all to go away and leave her alone. She knew she wasn't meant for this world, yet she walked and breathed. She was living, but she was touched by the shadows of darkness and death. They held her so tightly in their grip that it was as if she where one of the mystical undead. Vasilisa tried to curl up into a tighter ball, she already looked so tiny and delicate as she sat on the banks of the pond. She shivered from the cold, or fear of the voices she didn't know. All she knew was that her head was starting to hurt and she knew soon enough the nosebleed would start and she would have to get herself under control or else the voices could do some real damage. Lissa's hands tightened over her ears with a futile attempt to block out the voices of the dead.

Why did you do it Vasilisa... Why did you kill us... The voices cried out. Their agony and screams filled her super sensitive ears and all too soon she could feel the blood slowly dripping from her nose and onto the ground below. Slowly, ever so slowly Lissa opened her eyes, she realized that she was still crying though the tears where still silent. Tenatively as if she moved any faster the voices would break her. She touched her fingers to the blood and then pulled them away to look at the blood. Slowly her bright green eyes widened when she looked at the blood. It never ceased to amaze her that she could bleed so easily. Apparently she bleed more than she should because of her rapid heart rate. She wished that for just one moment in her life she could be normal. No voices, no death, no fear. Just a normal happy person... Like she had been before Kai had died.

Lissa was so distracted that she didn't even hear the voice behind her. Until she heard the footsteps closing in on her and she was reminded of the pounding of her brothers feet as he ran around the baseball diamond those many years ago. Vasilisa then gasped as she got to her feet and whirled around in a tangle of raven black hair that for the briefest of moments covered her face until it settled over her shoulders and gave birth to the angelic features of the beautiful young woman. Crystal like sea green eyes looked out at the blonde haired man who approached her. Thick black lashes covered those sea green eyes that on anyone else would seem too big for her face. Those beautiful green eyes widened in fear as she looked at the person who was coming right straight towards her. It wasn't until she could see his facial features that she realized something though. The voices had gone quiet, and she was no longer in pain.

The closer the man came to her the more fearful she became. She should have thought about how close she was to the water. And also that this pond had no shallow end. It was easily ten feet deep right behind her and had a terrible drop off. Lissa's instincts told her that she shouldn't let him get any closer, that she would be a danger to him. Lissa couldn't live with herself if she took anyone elses life. The depression was starting to become something she couldn't deal with and she was thinking suicide was the only way out. She wanted nothing more than to leave this world where all she saw was death, and she was the one causing it. Vasilisa took a step back and immediatly her foot went out from under her and the next thing she knew she screamed just before her head went under the water. Everything happened so fast, the weight of her clothes pulled her down towards the bottom of the pond and she was quickly loosing her breath. Lissa flailed about trying to raise herself higher and out of the water but the more she struggled the more she sank. It was quite obvious that Lissa, couldn't swim.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

Troy had a moment, as he was running toward the girl, of wondering what the hell she was doing out here alone. She looked to be in high school, and the impression he'd gotten during his time at St. Michael's was that giggly teenage girls in this area didn't go anywhere if they weren't in a pack. Need to go to the car to get something? Take along your fifteen friends. Need to get something from the soda machine? Take along your fifteen friends. Need to go to the bathroom? Take along your fifteen friends. So either this girl was incredibly independent and went out to the park alone, or her 'fifteen friends' had ditched her for some unthinkable reason. Yeah, that was basically the kind of random train of thought that ran through Troy's head as he was worried about another human being. Didn't say it was logical.

He could see the red glint of blood against the pale skin of her face as he came nearer, which worried him even more. Had she been in a fight? Been punched? If so, why was there absolutely no one else around? Or did she have some sort of disease that caused her to bleed often? In either case, blood never ever signified something good. He remembered all of the blood when he and his mother had first ran to the hospital in Ireland after receiving the phone call telling them of what had happened, and swallowed back the memories before they could overwhelm him. Yeah, blood didn't ever mean something good was going on.

He got a better look at her as she looked at him, but for the moment at least he still didn't recognize her. That didn't mean anything, of course. He didn't judge people over whether they were new or old or tourists or anything based off of looks. He had a brain for sports; for quick decisions during a play and for the angles involved in connecting a tool or body part to a ball or puck. His brain wasn't hardwired for most day to day things, so he had a terrible memory for recognizing people or putting names to faces. It was easier to just assume he should know everyone and to be friend to everyone than have to get to know each individual person again because he'd forgotten about them. She was pretty, he noticed that, but not familiar in the least to him.

He slowed his pace as he came even closer and it became clear that the girl wasn't in any immediate danger of death or anything, but he wasn't about to turn away just because she wasn't dying. Troy watched her expression, watched as her eyes widened in terror (though he couldn't fathom the reason) and watched as she took a step back straight into the cold waters of the pond behind her.

He expected her to pop up from under the water a second later and slowly tread to shore and warmth, but the second dragged on and on before she resurfaced, and not in a calm manner at all. Within another second by her thrashing and panicking it became clear that the girl didn't know how to swim, and so Troy was in panic mode again. Yeah, he seemed to be in that a lot lately.

If he cared to remember what had been drilled in his brain through every swimming lesson and every lifeguarding lesson, he wouldn't have jumped in after her. Going in after a panicking drowning person was suicide until they calmed down. They would drag you under with them, and neither of you would ever be heard from again. But this was hardly the time to remember the textbook rules of swimming. It had never been Troy's favourite sport (though it was an excellent way to exercise muscles not normally used in everyday activities). He jumped in the pond after her and ducked under the water, grasping for her clothing and waist so that he could get a firm hold around her body. She was tiny, probably about a foot shorter than he, and so it was actually fairly easy to get a good grip around her without the threat of being drowned himself. Once he was sure he had her he kicked his feet to bring the two of them to the surface, struggling to hold them afloat despite her extra weight and the weight of both of their clothes. When their faces broke the water into the air he gasped for air and focused on holding her up, grabbing on to the side of the pond and pulling her over to the edge so that she could do the same, if she could think clearly to do so, at the moment.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

Darkness started to pull her closer into its grip. She would have never thought that this would be the way she would die. And then it struck her that she didn't want to die, she had so much that she still wanted to do, so much she needed to make up for. There where so many people she needed to appologize too and she still wanted to learn to control her power. She was growing stronger and stronger each day she spent at Power's Academy. With each day that she learned to control her power she was begining to feel not so afraid of it but starting to accept it as part of who she is. Sure people feared her, and people ran from her. But once she got her power under control and she stopped killing people she was sure she would be able to hopefully make friends. People had once swarmed to the beautiful girl, she had once been the center of attention when it had come to the real world. She had been miss popular, but that had all changed when her brother had died in her arms. It had all changed when she had killed her own brother.

'Kai i'm so sorry...' She thought to herself as she waited for her air to run out, she finally stopped fighting and closed her eyes. She knew that this was the end, and she was going to die here after she ran out of air. She never thought that she would die in a pond in this place. She had always thought that it would be some vengeful person who was hellbent on killing her for what she had done to a family member or a friend. Never would it have dawned on her that she would fade away into nothing at the bottom of a beautiful pond in the park. Her favorite place. She was going to die in her favorite place. When she thought about it that way it didn't seem so bad.

It was then that she felt the arm about her waist. Her eyes shot open and even though she couldn't see the person she knew instantly that it was the man who had been coming towards her. She didn't think or else she knew she would push him away and she would surely die. This man was offering her a second chance and she was going to take it. Lissa hooked her arm aroud the mans neck as he kicked up towards the surface. Vasilisa's lungs felt like they would burst if she held her breath any longer, she was starting to feel light headed but just as soon as she was about to inhail water they broke the surface. Lissa inhailed a deep breath and instantly her breathing started to become normal. Her heart rate dropped just a bit and she instantly let out an adorable sneeze and her teeth began to chatter. Her arms felt like noodles as she lifted herself out of the water with feline like grace. Lissa turned instantly and helped pull the man out of the water. But as soon as he was out of the water she released his hand and took a step back.

"T-Thank you..." She muttered softly. Her voice was light and melodic, but barely above a whisper. She appeared even more child like with her clothes clinging to her like a second skin and her hair plasted to her forehead. Water dripped from her tiny body to the ground as she looked at the man. Her bright sea green eyes locked with his blue ones and then she gasped in surprise. Lissa hesitantly took a step back towards him and then slowly, tenatively reached up towards his cheek, her eyes searching for the answer that she knew she wouldn't recieve. Why couldn't she hear the voices when she looked into his eyes? It made no sense to her and she didn't know if she should be even more afraid or intrigued that because of his eyes the voices disappeared. Not even a whisper. A deep flush settled into her normal pink cheeks as she watched the man. She then dropped her hand before she touched the man. She was afraid to hurt him. He had just saved her life and she hadn't been thinking. She had almost touched him, she didn't know what would happen if she touched him. Would her powers even work on him? She didn't know.

It was then that the shivering set into her tiny body. She didn't have the body fat that most people did that would keep them warm and save them from hypothermia. Vasilisa didn't move though, she was lost in his eyes. She couldn't think past the fact that she knew she had seen those eyes before. Yet she couldn't place where she had seen them. Those beautiful fathomless blue eyes she knew she would be lost too if she didn't look away right now. But that was the problem, she didn't want to look away. Too long she had heard the voices, and now there was silence. She wanted that silence to last. Was this boy a Supernatural like herself? She didn't recognize him, so she guessed not. But what other explanation could she give for the fact that she didn't hear the voices when she looked into his eyes. But then another question came to her mind. One that troubled her more than anything else. "W-Why did you s-save me..?" She asked as she looked innocently up at the man, her eyes for once in a great long while not clouded over with fear, but with uncertainty. She felt more confused than ever, and all because of this mans eyes.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

Jesus Christ the water was freezing cold. The shock of it only reached him after the adrenaline rush began to fade. Troy didn't know what else he'd been expecting, honestly. It was October. There was frost on the ground. The pond would be freezing soon enough. Of course it was going to be freezing cold waters. There was a reason why you didn't see kids swimming in the pond at this time of year. Eager to get out of the cold, though he knew that the air would feel even colder for a little while, but he forced himself to accept the girl's aid and drag himself out of the water, anyways. The longer he spent in this water the more his chances of getting ill increased.

He didn't respond to her grateful thanks, not sure what he could say. 'No problem?' well, really it hadn't been, but that seemed like such a generic idiotic thing to say. It was best to just keep silence, and let her recover from the shock of plummeting into the water without a warning. He himself was pretty shocked, though it was likely just the adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins wearing off, letting the sudden temperature change wear in and send random sporadic shivers shaking his body. He was pretty good at keeping them under control. As an athlete, this wasn't the first time that he'd been cold. Rain, snow, sleet, or sun, he always felt like he had to train and his body would just have to deal with the weather and temperature, no matter how extreme they were.

"Wh-why?" Troy's brow furrowed in confusion as he thought for a moment. What a ridiculous question. What sort of a world did she come from where she didn't expect another human being to help her out when she needed aide? "Well... why not? You couldn't have expected me to just let you sink, could you of?" Troy wasn't the heroic type, but he saw no problem with helping another person, unless the problem was in hesitating to do so. It was simple manners and a way to live your life the best you could. If you could do something for someone, you could. Besides, Troy knew that he would have felt absolutely terrible if he'd just stood by, watching her flounder in the water, knowing that he could have done something but not doing anything anyways. He'd had the ability to help her out, and he'd done so. It was as simple as that.

Troy notice didn't read into her strange fascination with him that she appeared to be showing; her staring him and lifting her hand to touch him. It was probably just some sort of reaction to what he'd just done, or what she'd just gone through. He didn't let things like that irk him.

He frowned, watching her tiny body shiver shiver, and glance down at his soaking wet tan fall jacket. For a moment he wished that he'd pulled it off before launching himself in the water after her so that he'd have something to offer her to warm her up, but after reminding himself that the few extra seconds it would have taken to do that could have been a big difference between life or death for the girl he figured that her catching a cold would be better than dying. Still, it was definitely cool out, and he didn't want her to get pneumonia or something. "How far away is your house? Or..." he thought for a moment. "My car's just a few minute's walk away. We could go there to warm you up, if you'd like." He really didn't care about getting the precious interior of his vehicle wet. It was just a gift from his mother's new employers, trying to convince her to come work for them by bribing her and her son with all sorts of fancy gadgets they couldn't have dreamed of affording before. "I'm Troy, by the way. Troy Johnston," he added as an afterthought.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

Vasilisa's shivering was becoming uncontrolable as she stood watching the man before her carefully. Her tiny body just couldn't seem to warm itself and her lips where slowly turning blue. Lissa's brow furrowed in confusion as she watched the man and listened to him speak. She was caught on every word, she had never been so enthralled with another being in her entire life and now she was becoming more afraid of him. Afraid of what might happen if she stayed close to him. She didn't want to hurt him and she surely did not want to kill him. There was a light, a light in his eyes that she hadn't been close enough to see in anyone else. Slowly Lissa lowered her eyes as she began to think of the people who's lives she had taken and she thought that she should have died, that he should have just let her drown. "Y-You shouldn't have saved me..." She whispered softly, her voice barely audible. She was a monster, a terrible abomination of this world, and the truth was that she knew she had the power to decide a persons fate. Just by being near her was dangerous, she was a danger to the people around her and she knew that she needed to die. Because for as long as she lived, people would continue to die by her hand.

Another adorable sneeze escaped her pale lips as she stood there dripping wet. Her body continued to attempt to warm itself by shivering but to no avail, her body was just too small to warm itself quick enough. Vasilisa slowly drifted into her world of thoughts that made her want to kill herself even more. But she was a coward, she could never go through with it. The only thing she was able to do was hurt herself, which could be seen with the cuts across her right and left wrist. They ran all the way up to her elbow, scars and fresh cuts even peeked out from beneath her black leather jacket. Vasilisa felt so very alone at that moment in time. She felt like she didn't belong anywhere in this world, that this world had only let her live so that she could be miserable and destroy. That was all she was good for, destroying the beautiful thing called life that this world was known for. How could someone like her exhist? When she could only kill? Lissa wanted to love, she would have given anything to give up her power and just be a normal girl again. But that was never going to happen. She would never be normal again.

When Troy spoke again she was pulled from her depressed thoughts and she blinked. "I-I go to the Power's Academy.." She muttered softly as she wrapped her arms about herself. "I-I can walk.. Please don't trouble yourself with me.." She added. Lissa clutched at her jacket sleeve with tiny little fingers so tight that it made her knuckles white. She knew that she should move away from him or else risk hurting him or even killing him. That was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn't want to cause any harm to the man who had just saved her life. Though she still thought that he shouldn't of done it and should have let her drown. When he gave her his name she couldn't help but look up at him and gave him a shy smile. "My name is Vasilisa. But you can call me Lissa.." She said softly and for the first time she didn't stutter her words while speaking to him. She couldn't help but smile at him, he was breathtaking. She had never met anyone like him, hell she had never talked to anyone this handsome ever. She flushed even deeper as she realized where her thoughts where heading. She shook her head and tried to get those types of thoughts out of her head, the last thing she needed was a jealous girlfriend coming after her.

At that thought her eyes widened and she took a step back away from him. She shouldn't have even been talking to him! It was bad enough she had been staring at him, but most likely his girlfriend would show up any minute and would try to put her in her place. Lissa didn't need that stress, for she knew she would lose control and would probably end up killing someone on accident again. "Y-Your girlfriend will probably be wondering where you are.. You shouldn't bother with someone like me.." She muttered as she turned on her heel and started walking towards the parking lot. Which was empty save for one car, and that car was not her own. She had walked all the way to park from the Power's Academy, and she knew she would get sick from the cold, but she knew she would manage somehow. Its not like anyone cared if she got sick. Or even if she died. No one cared anymore.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

She muttered something under her breath; Troy knew that, but he couldn't make out what the exact words were. He almost would have thought that the word 'shouldn't' had been mixed in there, as though he shouldn't have done what he did, but that was just as ridiculous as her questioning why he'd helped her out earlier. He chose not to make a comment, sure that he'd heard her mutterings incorrectly. Best to just let the sentence slip by as though he hadn't noticed it to avoid any awkward questions, or having to ask her what she'd said as though he hadn't been paying attention to her.

"It's no trouble at all," he assured her with a slight shrug, still not liking how her body continued to shake. He was pretty sure that she needed to warm up ASAP or else she might land up in the hospital, which wouldn't be good at all. She didn't seem like the type of girl who really liked attention, so he doubted she wanted all of the visitors and people asking her questions that would come with landing herself in the hospital with hypothermia or something of the sort. "It's nice to meet you, Lissa." He was pretty genuine on that, actually. It'd definitely been an interesting meeting, and he'd prefer that it had gone another way than her almost drowning, but she seemed friendly enough, if a little quiet. He'd generally kept to himself since moving here from Ireland, but that didn't mean he was against any social interaction. In fact, this was a nice change from his silence to anyone but his mother.

He'd heard things about Power's Academy. Bits of conversations here and there between two joking teenagers in the hall at school or two seniors at the cafe. There was a joke around St. Michael's High; whenever something was weird they called it a Power's Academy phenomena. 'Cept they never really seemed to take their mocking saying seriously. To most of the kids it was all one big joke. Troy assumed that Power's Academy was a joke to the residents of St. Michael's because it was supposedly some big fancy boarding school for the rich to 'store' their children at for the year and keep them out of their parents hair. He felt bad for the students there, actually. He didn't have the best opinion of the rich, and he'd hate to be one of those kids dumped at Power's like trash. He preferred a public school, though he wasn't much for socializing here, than a private snooty school like he'd assumed Power's was.

"Whoa, hold up!" he urged her as he realized she was on the move, running after her to place and hand on her shoulder and stop her rapid movement away from him. "A) I don't have a girlfriend, and I did she certainly wouldn't be a jealous bitch who wouldn't allow me to look after a girl who nearly drowned, and B) you gotta be crazy if you think I'm allowing you to trudge a half hour back to that school while you're soaking wet." He was adamant that he was not going to let her wander wherever she pleased just for him to hear on the news the next morning that the body of a student had been found on the outskirts of St. Michael's. He wouldn't let himself have that guilt on his conscious, so she was just going to have to see things his way and let him win.

"C'mon, just come with me," he offered again. "I can... I'll bring you back to my place. My mum's got lots of clothes she doesn't use, but you might like. They're obviously dry. You can warm up, and then I'll drive you back to your school. Okay?" His mother's employers had tried to make the Johnstons as comfortable as possible in their new surroundings, which included buying his mother tonnes of clothing that was considered fashionable around St. Michael's before she'd decided to move here. The clothing was much too young for Mrs. Johnston, and had ended up stashed in the closet in the spare bedroom, but Mrs. Johnston was a pretty tiny woman herself, and Troy figured that there might be something in the forgotten clothing collection that Lissa would be able to stand wearing for the drive back to Power's Academy. "I swear I won't mug you or anything," he added after a pause with a cheeky grin, feeling a need to try and break some of the tension and stress that he assumed Lissa was feeling based off of her behaviour.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

She just wanted to get away before she lost control and she hurt Troy. She would never forgive herself if she took the lover of another woman. Lissa's thought where a jumbled mess as she walked along. She felt a single tear slip down her ice cold cheek. She couldn't stop shivering it would seem as she trudged along. Her feet felt numb and slowly, ever so slowly the voices where starting to come back the farther away from Troy she got. Why don't you kill him? You killed us! The voices in her head seethed. She knew that they where angry with her and she knew that she should have never been born, but that made no difference at the moment. At the moment she was saving a life. She was making sure that Troy would live to breath and love another day. It would break her if she took the life of someone she was starting to consider a friend. This guy was so nice to her, but ifhe really knew who she was she was sure that he wouldn't be so nice and that he would actually fear her.

They all came to fear her eventually. She was dangerous, though she didn't appear dangerous at all. She looked like a normal teenage girl who went to a school for rich kids. Little did people know that she was indeed a very rich girl but she had been alienated from her family. Sure they sent her money every month. But there where never letters, notes, or anything to show that they knew she was still alive. It was rather sad how it had all turned out for Vasilisa. She had killed her brother when she was fouteen and then had been sent away by her parents because they thought she was a monster. You couldn't find a tale much sadder than Vasilisa's. She knew pain, she knew death. She had looked death in the face. She did it every morning when she got ready for school. She was the Angel of Death. Lissa knew about the whispers that happened behind her back when she walked down the hall. People did their best to get out of her way when she went by.

No one said goodmorning, no one smiled. It was as if she where the plauge and she wasn't welcome in the halls. Lissa wished that she could go back to the days in middle school where everything had been perfect. Where she hadn't had to worry about controling her power and having to deal with the normal drama that high school brought. It never ceased to amaze her that so much drama could happen in such a little school. Once more Lissa was pulled from her thoughts as she heard and then felt Troy's hand on her shoulder. Problem was she had been so distracted that she hadn't known it was Troy touching her. Her eyes widened and she spun about quickly looking up at him with fear in her eyes and she flinched as if afraid he would hit her. Vasilisa mentally slapped herself for being so stupid as to let her thoughts distract her again. But with his touch the voices faded away again and all was once more silent. What in the world was it that made this boy drive them away?! Lissa's mind screamed at her.

Lissa listened carefully and slowly the fear left her face and eyes. She had thought that she had made him mad and that was why he was coming after her. She had expected him to hit her and knock her to the ground. God only knows that it had happened plenty of times before when someone had gotten the courage to face her. Lissa's fear was always apparent whenever people where near and this time was no different, except this time she was slowly starting to feel comfortable. She felt safe around Troy, as if only he could keep her safe from the terrible world that loved to torture Vasilisa. Lissa's brows furrowed in confusion as he said he didn't have a girlfriend, that just wasn't possible. There was no way any girl wouldn't go after this beautiful blonde god in front of her. He wasn't going to allow her to walk back to the academy? Did he have a death wish?! Troy didn't know her though, he didn't know what she was capable of. And lord only knew that she wasn't going to be the one to tell him about the supernatural world. He would probably think she was a nutcase and laugh at her.

The last thing Lissa wanted was for someone to laugh at her. She had been laughed at enough in her life. She couldn't take much more of the bullying and rudeness. She had delt with it for three years. There was only so much pushing that a girl could take before she finally snapped. And Lissa was close to that snapping point. Vasilisa nibbled on her lower lip in thought as she contemplated his words. He wanted to take her back to his house where she could change and then he would take her back to Power's academy. Vasilisa lowered her eyes from Troy, as if she didn't deserve to look at such a wonderful person. She had never met anyone who was so kind and selfless. And she knew that she would never find someone who she felt so close with in such a short time again. This was a miracle in the works. Lissa wasn't meant to have friends, or lovers, only enemies. She was the dark to this worlds light. She wasn't even human, she was an abomination of this world. A daughter of darkness, an angel of death and destruction. Never had the world seen a creature with her type of power.

Finally Lissa made her decision. She finally nodded her acceptance of what he was saying. She knew she could run, or at least sneak out of his house while he was getting the clothes. She wasn't about to spend more time with him than was necissary. But it was surely tempting. She wanted nothing more than to sit beside him and learn more about him. This man, Troy, was something she had never expected. Slowly Lissa raised her eyes to look up at Troy and she couldn't help but smile softly at that cheeky grin. A small giggle escaped Lissa's lips as she listened to his final comment about not mugging her. The sound was sweet and melodic, it had been so long since Lissa had laughed. She didn't believe that this man could hurt a fly let alone mug her. Then again he wouldn't be able too, Lissa's power had a mind of its own when she was in danger, Troy would be dead before he could touch her. Lissa's beautiful green eyes met Troy's blue hues and she finally spoke after what seemed like a thousand years of silence.

"Only if you promise to let me repay you for the kindness you have shown to me..." She said softly as she smiled up at him in that gentle and caring way that only Lissa could seem to manage without looking like an awestruck fool. This was going to be a very interesting day.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

The way that she looked even more fearful and flinched away when he put his hand on her shoulder worried Troy even more. He wasn't a guy who liked to pry. No, he realized that everyone deserved their privacy and he had no right to intrude on their personal life, but it did make him wonder why she'd react in such a way to a simple touch. Mind you, he was pretty much a complete stranger in a nearly empty park. Any woman would be bound to be jittery after nearly drowning and finding themselves alone with a weird man.

He smiled as she showed her first signs of positive emotion- a giggle and a smile. They were certainly a welcome change from the look of a scared little dog that she'd had before. Troy really hoped that he wasn't that intimidating of a guy to her. He didn't mean to be. He'd never hurt another person in his life. Well, okay, there was that unfortunate time in his junior year in Ireland when he'd accidentally broken a guy's leg in basketball, but that hadn't been intention and he'd apologized for it millions of times afterwards. He'd been too focused on getting himself and the ball to the basket, and Christian had just sorta gotten in the way, forcing Troy to roll over him like a bowling ball ending up in them both lying on the floor with Christian's leg twisted at a very, very bad angle. Other than that incident he'd never hut anyone. He might be a jock but he wasn't the type to bully others or start fights on the sports field or in the cafeteria to pick on the 'nerds'.

He shook his head, still smiling to keep her comfortable. "There's really no need," he assured her with a slight shrug. "It's not any trouble. Not as though I have anything else to do today, anyway. 'Sides, some company'd be nice." He couldn't have imagined himself saying that at any other point of the day earlier on, seeing as how he'd been expecting the whole day to go as usual with complete silence between him and other human beings, especially his mother, but he didn't mind the change to his plans. He hadn't really spoken to many people since moving here, other than a few classmates for school projects, and a conversation with someone his own age, though if she were a student at Power's she'd have to be at least a year younger than him, was welcome.

"C'mon, let's go." For a moment he debated placing his hand on her shoulder and guiding her toward his car on the street where he'd parked it. He didn't know much about the vehicle, though he figured he should've. Cars just didn't interest him that much, so the extent of his knowledge about this vehicle was that it was from the early two thousands, four doors, and was navy colored. He couldn't for the life of him name the company that made it or anything like that. as long as it drove well he didn't care about any other specifics. He pulled his keys out of his pocket as he walked forward and stupidly tried to command start the car, but it of course didn't work. The remote was fried from the water. He sighed as he realized that he wouldn't be able to conveniently start it from indoors anymore, though it was a small price to pay for saving someone else's life.

Once they were at the car's side he used the keys to open his door and unlocked hers, opening the passenger side door for her from the inside for her to get in. Once she was he started up the car, thinking that it couldn't warm up fast enough.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

Lissa was so surprised by the instant attraction that she felt for this man. She had never felt so close to someone other than her brother in a very long time. It was a miracle in the works as far as Vasilisa could see. She wanted to know more, her power's be damned. She needed to know more, know that there was someone out there who could care about her and enjoy her company. Even if she was pretty much lieing to his face about who she was. Sure she hadn't lied about her name, or where she went to school. But she was leaving out one very important detail. The one detail that could either make or break this newfound friendship that she was starting to devolp between the two of them.

When he smiled at her it made her feel warmer and she could feel her cheeks heating considerably. She knew she probably looked like a blushing little freshman girl with no brain. Which was far from the truth. Lissa was far from a blushing idiot though it sure as hell didn't look like it at the moment. No, Lissa was a very intelligent young woman with almost perfect grades. She was smarter than most people gave her credit for, because quite frankly she kinda looked like one of the girls who would be smoking in the girls bathroom. And to be honest, they would have been right. Lissa smoked cigarettes to get rid of the voices, it calmed her down. Or at least it had calmed her down until she had quit smoking almost two months before. At that moment in time Lissa really wished she hadn't quit smoking and she could really use a cigarette at that moment in time to calm her frayed nerves.

She shook her head when he spoke though. "Please Troy, I would feel so much better if you would allow me to repay you in some way.." She muttered softly, and for once her light japanese accent slipped into her speach. It was light, but it was there. You could tell that she wasn't from here, that she wasn't born in this boring place. That she had come from some place much more beautiful and exotic. If you looked close enough you could see the oriental slant to the corner's of her eyes. Those eyes which never left Troy's face as she watched him. He said he didn't have anything better to do than drive her around, but she didn't believe that for a moment, just like she didn't believe for a moment that he was single. That was wishful thinking on her part, and Lissa had given up on dreams a long time ago. Her dreams had been shattered the day her brother had died.

"D-Do you live close..?" She asked as she slipped into the passanger seat and he started the car. It took a minute but finally she could feel the heat coming through the vents. Slowly her shivering started to abate and she knew that she wasn't going to get sick now. Vasilisa twiddled her thumbs nervously. It had been so long since she had had a normal conversation that quite frankly she had forgotten how to have one! She was used to people calling her a freak, and a monster. She was used to people running away from her and fearing her. But she was not used to people being nice to her, not like Troy. She had never had someone like Troy in her life. Well that is, for the last three years of her life she hadn't had anyone like Troy in her life. Slowly Lissa looked up at Troy, her large green eyes filled with sadness and a lonliness that she figured would never be filled. "Y-You don't have to be nice to me you know.. I-I'd understand." She muttered.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

"Relax, Lissa," he chuckled, really not understanding how she could be so insistent on repaying him. It was nice that she wasn't one of those bitchy, selfish girls that took everything for granted, but he was really fine with her not repaying him. There wasn't much that she could do for him anyway, and his helping her out had been instinctive. No one should ever be paid back for something that any decent human being would do. Surely she had met a decent human being before, right? "You don't have to repay me. There isn't really any way you could, 'cause there's nothing I need. I just helped out. That's all."

As soon as she was in the vehicle he buckled up, looking to her to wait for her to do the same. "Eh, it's on the other side of town. But that's like... a five minute drive in this tiny town." He wasn't used to places of this size. He'd lived in a rather large city back in Ireland where it took at least a half hour, in the middle of the night when traffic was practically non-existent, to get from point A to point B. This town was practically dead compared to where he'd come from.

As he pressed down on the gas and began to drive, it was clear that he was uncomfortable. Once upon a time, in Ireland, he'd been very lax about road safety. He'd have fun with his friends as he drove, hollering out the window at the poor souls walking by on quiet nights and standing up in the vehicle (when others drove) to have the upper half of his body visible above the sunroof from outside the car as he waved a beer or some other alcoholic beverage around and having an all around great time. Those days had been dashed to pieces, never to return, from his father's accident. He didn't exactly even like driving anymore. It made him beyond nervous now that he had experience of how dangerous a simple vehicle could be. It wasn't just a means of transport, it was a deadly weapon that easily became fatal under the right, or would you call them wrong? circumstances. His knuckles clenched the wheel a bit too tightly as drove down the road. His blue eyes didn't even stray from the road as he spoke with a slight chuckle, not looking at her. "Will you stop being so hard on yourself? You've done absolutely nothing wrong. It's not as though you're forcing me to help out."

He figured that a cheerier, more conversational topic was in order to lighten the mood for a bit. "So, Lissa. Why're you our at the park? I was told that kids from your school aren't supposed to come to the town, or at least you really rarely do." It was just another thing that made some high school students at St. Michael's laugh at the Power's Academy students. Apparently, or at least how the rumours went, they had little to no freedom for some unexplainable reason. The school was more like a jail than a school.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

Lissa blinked when he told her to relax. It was the simplest thing that he probably could have said to her, but added with her name it made her flush even deeper than she had been before. It was so different to actually be having a conversation with a person, though she felt completely out of place as she sat in Troy's very nice car. Vasilisa had her own car, but she never used it. There was no point, it drew too much attention to herself. It was hard to miss a brand new, and bright neon green 2007 Dodge Challenger. It had been a gift from her Uncle Akira, the only family member who knew nothing about her power and assumed that she was still the little angel that she had always been when ever he had come to visit. Almost as soon as she heard the click of the seat belt she buckled her own up. She wasn't one of those people who loved to break the rules and not wear their seatbelt, oh no. She was one of those people who where terrified of car accidents and in being in a car accident.

An adorable giggle escaped her lips as he called this town small. He didn't know exactly how small this city seemed to her. She had lived in the largest city in the world for most of her life, and had only been here for three years. "If you are from somewhere else in the world, as I am I understand why you would see it as small." She said with a calm smile as she turned and looked out the window. She watched with a steady and calm expression until she realized that she was starting to hear the whispers again. She quickly looked back at Troy and then they disappeared. It would seem that she had to look at him or at least concentrate on Troy for the voices to go away. All of a sudden a bout of anger flashed threw her and she gritted her teeth as she fought for control. She could feel the power within her rising to take control of her and to take the life of another. It had been weeks since she had killed someone and now she was even less in control than before since it had been so long.

The headache started to set in even though she couldn't hear the voice she knew they would be screaming at her. Lissa gasped in pain and held her head as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block off the energy that was flowing through her. Troy was the closest living creature to her, he would be on the recieving end of her power if she didn't get it under control and soon. 'I will not lose control.. He is my friend!' She told herself. She cold almost hear the smile of her brother as the energy disperced and the headache instantly went away. Her eyes shot open and she looked over at Troy in shock. He was still alive. She had overcome her worst enemy, herself. Lissa gave a sigh of relief and rubbed her temples. A small shudder ran threw her body as she realized that she had come so close to losing control and had almost killed Troy. That was the last thing that she wanted to do, but she knew that by some miracle she had been able to control herself, where as other times she had not been so lucky.

The remnants of Vasilisa's power crackled with electricity in the air as she calmed her breathing and slowly lowered her hands to her lap as if nothing had happened. She hoped that he didn't ask questions or anything like that. She didn't know what she was supposed to tell him if he asked what was wrong with her. Would he believe that it was a simple headache? Probably not, not with the way she had acted. So she remained quiet, waiting for the inevitable question that where sure to come.

[troy nathaniel johnston.]

Troy was glad that he had more in common with this girl than the fact that they were both soaking wet on the leather seats of his vehicle, though he didn't know how long she'd been in the area for. "Dublin, Ireland," he informed her, chancing a quick glance towards her to grin at her. It was obvious how much more relaxed he was around her now that there was a conversation going, though this steady focus on the road was just as intense as ever as soon as he looked away from her. "You could probably tell from my accent. But yeah, coming here from there is just a little bit of a difference in environment." He missed Ireland. God how he missed Ireland. All of his friends, the scenery, everything about the land he'd been raised in. But a change was kind of a good thing, too. Less memories here. Less things to remind him of the worst time in his life. This was a new start, he only had to make up his mind to take it.

He was so focused on driving and not killing himself, or the precious passenger in his vehicle, that it took him a moment to realize that Lissa was not replying to any of his other comments. She was suddenly completely silent. He wasn't really that frightening, was he? He'd been thinking that their little meeting was going along pretty well, but the silence was making him rethink how comfortable Lissa must be with the situation.

He looked back over to her, eyes narrowing in worry when he noticed how she looked. There was some sort of tension in the air; Troy couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was but there was something strange in the atmosphere of the interior of the vehicle. "Hey, are you all right? Do you feel sick or something?" He remembered the state that she'd been when he'd first seen her, before she'd plummeted into the pond behind her. Of course he should have figured out what was wrong with her then before trying to strike up a completely unrelated conversation. "I've probably got some advil back at the house, if you've got a headache or something." He felt so awkward, not being sure what was going on with her and therefore powerless to help out. She was probably thinking that he was an annoying nag right now. She probably just wanted him to leave her alone. Of course, he wouldn't do that until he was sure she was all right because it wasn't in his nature to abandon anyone, even if they wanted him to leave. But he wouldn't blame her for thinking that he was an idiot and just wanting to be left alone. "Or maybe you'll feel better once you're dried off." Oh God, he was rambling again, wasn't he? He always rambled when he was nervous or felt like he was bugging someone. It was just one of the many quirks of Troy Johnston. He'd better shut up now.

[vasilisa ira mishima.]

So he was from Ireland, that was where his accent was from. She had known that he had an accent but usually Vasilisa couldn't pick out where people where from just by the way they talked. That is unless they spoke Japanese. Then she would be certain that they where either an otaku, an american obsessed with Japanese cuture, or they where truly from the place of her birth. When Lissa thought of her home it made her heart lurch with pain, because home reminded her so much of her brother and the parents who wanted nothing more to do with her because she had killed their beloved son. Lissa tried to smile but it was obviously forced as she looked at Troy. "I was born and raised in Tokyo Japan.." Her voice trailed off slightly as she looked out the window and noticed that it was was starting to rain. "I've been here for three years though.. I havn't been able to go home.." She muttered softly. Pain and sadness filled her voice as she continued to think about home. She missed the city more than she cared to let on and she wished more than anything that she could return home. But Tokyo wasn't her home anymore, her home had been with her family. But now that family was broken.

Lissa let the sadness wash over her. It was almost suffocating with how overwhelming the depression was when it set into her. Once the depression had a hold of her like it did right now, it didn't let go very easy. She should have never been born.. That was the only thought that was going threw her mind right now as silent tears slowly started to fall down her cheeks after her inner battle. She was losing herself to this power that was taking over her life. She wasn't aloud to be happy ever again is what it seemed like. Her world was an empty place, as if she had been wandering a desert for a thousand days. Her heart yerned for something much more, her heart begged to be released and that she should be able to love and be happy. There was no way that could happen though, she was a monster and monsters never got a happy ending. Fairy tales didn't come true. Her prince charming wasn't going to come riding in on a white horse and take her away from this life and introduce her to a better one.

Lissa blinked and was pulled from her thoughts as she looked at Troy when he spoke. She blinked again and then cocked her head to the side cutely as she wiped away her silent tears. "I-I'll be alright, please don't worry about me.." She said softly as she started to twiddle her thumbs in an attempt to distract herself from staring at Troy again. She knew staring was rude and she had been raised as a proper young lady, but she just couldn't seem to help herself. When she looked at him from the corner of her eye and she could see the look on his face, it was plain as day what he was thinking. She wasn't a mind reader or anything but she knew well enough how to read people's facial expressions. "I don't think your annoying Troy.. I just.. I'm not used to people caring.." She said as she slowly turned her head and looked at him when he pulled into a driveway that she assumed was his house.