Xai and Lily rounded the corner of a block.  As they walked, they talked about a wide variety of topics, covering the latest episode of their favorite show that aired last night, how prepared they were for the history test they were taking tomorrow, new movie releases that looked good, and so on.  While they walked Xai kept glancing at Lily, letting himself fall deeper in love with her at every glance.  Without him knowing, Lily kept glancing at Xai, letting herself fall deeper in love with him.  Xai kept feeling the urge to reach over and take Lily’s hand, completely unaware that she felt the same urge.

   The two kept walking for several minutes before they reached an ally on their right.  Lily stopped walking and looked down through the ally.  “Xai! Let’s cut through this ally.  It looks like it can get us to school faster!”  Xai stopped and turned back to face Lily.  “Do you really think that is a good idea?” Xai asked.  Lily started to walk into the ally, “Come on!  We are late as it is!  This will be a lot faster!”  Without another word she disappeared into the ally.  Xai stood there for a moment, “Man… She is a lot braver than I will ever be…” he thought to himself.  He took a deep breath and let out a sigh.  He started towards the ally.  As he rounded the corner, he saw that Lily was already on the other side of the ally.  She raised her hand into the air and gestured for him to hurry up.  He smiled at the sight of her, and began his trek towards the end of the ally.

   As he got closer to Lily, he began to see the details of her smiling face get clearer.  Xai thought to himself about how much he loved Lily, and he vowed that he was going to tell her how he truly felt by the end of the day.  He looked down at the ground to hide his reddening face as he got closer to her.  He gathered himself, “Not now,” he thought to himself.  “I can’t give myself away just yet.  I have to wait until the moment is right.”  He looked back up to see that Lily’s expression had changed.  Her face that was once filled with joy was now filled with horror.  Here eyes had widened, her mouth was hanging open slightly.  Xai cocked his head to the side slightly as he wondered what was wrong.  He opened his mouth to ask what was bothering her, when he suddenly felt a hot, hard object strike him in the back of the head.  Pain shot all down Xai’s body as he fell to his knees screaming in pain.  He heard Lily screaming his name, but he lacked the strength to raise his head to look at her.  He heard her screams get cut off suddenly, and he forced himself to look up at her.  He saw a figure wearing a black cloak lifting Lily off of the ground by her throat.  Xai forced himself to get to his feet, and he charged at the figure.  “HEY!  LET HER GO!”  Just as Xai was about to tackle the cloaked figure to the ground, he vanished into a cloud of dark-purple dust, taking Lily with him.  Xai quickly came to a stop.  “What the hell?!” he said under his breath.  He turned around to see the figure now standing at the other end of the ally holding a knife with a black blade to Lily’s throat.  “NO! NO! PLEASE DON’T HURT HER!” Xai pleaded.  “I’LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT!  JUST LEAVE HER ALONE!”.

   Xai slowly began walking towards the figure holding Lily.  “Please… I’ll do anything you want…  Just don’t hurt hurt her…  Please…  She is everything to me…”  Xai began to cry.  He continued walking towards the figure.  “How sweet…”.  Xai spun around to face the voice that had just came from behind him.  For a split second he saw a second cloaked figure holding a dark-purple glowing flame in his right hand.  The figure punched Xai across the face with the hand that held the purple flame.  Xai was sent flying into the wall of the ally.  He was moving so fast that the wall cracked when his spine came into contact with the stone wall.  Within a split second the cloaked figure was in front of Xai, and with a wave of his hands he forged purple flames around Xai’s wrists and ankles, and pinned him to the wall.  Xai fought back with all the strength he could manage to muster, but it was no use.  The harder Xai fought, the tighter the straps became.  The figure holding Lily turned to look at the other, “What do we do with this one?” he gestured towards Lily with the blade of the knife.  “Kill her and taker her Essence.  She is too weak in her current form to be of any use to us.”  Xai quickly looked over at Lily with tears pouring down his face.  The figure raised the knife into the air, and suddenly the blade grew longer, until it was the length of a sword.  He spun Lily around and stabbed the sword through her stomach without hesitation.  Lily turned her head to look back at Xai.  She smiled at him one last time, then she turned her head back to face her murderer.  

   With a quick movement of his arm the cloaked figure pulled the black sword out of Lily’s stomach and delivered a quick slash across her chest.  With a last gasp for air, Lily dropped to her knees, and then she fell onto her side.  “Li-Lily... Lily... Please... Talk to me... Please... Don’t leave me...  LILY!” Xai screamed.  Suddenly, a golden light encased Lily’s body.  With a quick flash the light was gone, and so was Lily.  All that remained of her was a sparkling pile of hazel colored ashes, and her golden locket.  The cloaked figure reached into his pocket and produced a small glass vile.  He removed the cork from the top of the vile, and waved his hand the ashes flew through the air and made their way into the vile.  The cloaked figure forced the cork back onto the top of the vile.  He looked at the figure that had attacked Xai.  “It’s done.”  Xai’s mouth was hanging open, and tears were flowing down his face like waterfalls.  The figure closest to Xai turned to face him.  “Now that that is over with we can get down to business.”  Xai lowered his head.  As he closed his eyes, he prepared himself for the worst.  “Don’t you dare give up,” said a voice, “Keep fighting.  You have to escape so you can get stronger.  You have to escape so you can save me.”  Xai’s eyes shot open.  “... You... You... You BASTARDS!  I’LL KILL YOU!”  Xai began screaming at the top of his lungs while he pushed against his restraints.  He felt ever fiber of his body start to burn as if he was standing in the middle of an inferno.  He suffered through the pain and pushed harder with ever passing second until he finally felt the restraints start to give way under the pressure.  The two cloaked figures jumped back in surprise.  “How is he doing this?!  That shouldn’t be possible!”  With one last push, Xai felt the restraints around his wrists and ankles break.  He was free.  Without hesitation Xai charged the two cloaked figures.  Before they even had time to reach Xai had begun to throw a left hook.  The cloaked figure holding the golden instrument felt Xai’s punch connect with the side of his jaw, which was followed by a loud cracking sound, and a sharp pain shooting throughout his entire body.  The cloaked figure went flailing onto the ground.  Xai turned to face the figure that was holding the sword.  He stared into the murderer’s eyes.  “... You’re next...”
   Xai pushed off the ground with his feet and began running full speed at Lil’y murderer.  The cloaked figure quickly began stepping backwards in an attempt to put some distance between himself and Xai.  The figure stopped his retreat suddenly and thrusted the point of his sword forward.  Xai reached forward and grabbed the blade of the sword with his bare hand.  He felt the blade begin to slice deep into his hand.  Xai felt his hand start to burn as blood began pouring out of his hand.  Xai began screaming in pain as he forced the blade to his left as he kept running at the cloaked figure.  As Xai felt his left hand reach the hilt of the sword, he brought his right fist back as far as he could.  Xai swung his fist forward  at full force until he felt it come into contact with the figure’s cheekbone.  The cloaked figure felt his hand release the handle of the sword as he fell back onto the ground.  In a quick motion, Xai grabbed the handle of the black sword with his right hand and with a loud, wet tearing sound, ripped the blade out of his hand.  The cloaked figure staggered back to his feet.  As he turned to find Xai he felt a sharp, burning pain quickly tear across his chest.  He looked down at his chest which was now gushing blood, he looked up in time to see Xai stab him through the heart.  Xai stared deep into the figure’s dying eyes.  With one final push of the sword Xai drove the rest of the blade through the figure’s heart.  Breathing heavily, Xai slowly started pulling the sword out of the figure’s chest.  Once the blade was fully removed from the chest of his opponent, Xai lowered his arm, and let the sword slip out of his grip.  Xai watched as the cloaked figure fell onto the ground.  He turned to face the only remaining attacker.  Just as Xai caught a glimpse of the other figure he felt his flaming fist connect with his cheek, which sent him flying through the air.

   Xai felt his skull come into contact with the concrete, accompanied by a loud cracking sound.  As the rest of his body fell to the ground, his vision became blurry.  He spastically looked around for the cloaked figure while trying to make sense of what was around him.  Xai felt a hand tighten around his throat, and he felt his head being forced back onto the concrete.  He gasped for air.  Xai’s vision started to fade into black.  “This is it...” he thought to himself, “I’m sorry Lily... I couldn’t save you... And now I can’t even avenge you...”  Xai tried to suck down one last breath of air before he died.  Just as he felt himself start to slip away, he found he could breathe again.  He inhaled deeply, taking in every piece of air he could.  Xai rolled over onto his knees and began coughing up blood.  He lifted his head to see where the cloaked figure had gone.  As he looked up, he saw three pairs of eyes staring back at him.  Xai felt his arms buckle, and he fell back onto the concrete.  His vision faded to black, and just as he lost consciousness, he felt two people start to pick him up by his arms.