Chapter 1
> Her head leaned gently against the cold window of the train. Her bag lay on the empty seat beside her and her reddish-brown eyes stared outside. The landscape whizzed past her at over 150 kilometers per hour. A female voice, no doubt from a tape, announced that the next station would be reached in about 15 seconds. The girl didn’t look up or down. All things considered; she was quite a sight. If you were to board the train right now, at this station, scanning the compartment with your eyes for an empty seat, you will keep your eyes on her at her just a second longer than the other passengers. No need to be embarrassed, everyone does it, she almost didn’t notice it herself anymore. Only once in a while, she wondered why people found her so special that they had to stare at her a little longer when they saw her. This time, this little question of why triggered a chain reaction of other questions in her mind. The cause of this chain reaction of questions was a passenger who had just boarded. A boy about her age, with a pale face and almost white hair entered the compartment. He was almost sickly pale and was thin. So thin that he might be blown away by the wind, but when he flexed his frail arms, you see the muscles in them swell. He moved slowly and deliberately, he was almost transparent, but strong as iron at the same time. His pale blue, piercing eyes searched for a place. The second they lingered on her, she looked up startled and turned her head in a vain attempt to discover the owner of the pair of eyes that had given her a stinging sensation in her neck. This owner had by now found his seat across of her and the train set in motion again. The girl with the red hair glanced at her watch for a moment and then sank back into her thoughts. Twenty more minutes and then she had to get out. The slight rocking of the train back and forth had a relaxing effect on all her passengers, but one exception sat up straight. All his muscles were tense and he was looking tightly at the girl who had already caught his attention the moment he entered the compartment. She had an attraction to him, he had to keep his eyes at her. He was attracted to her like two opposites of a magnet being drawn to each other. She was so uninhibited. She filled the void in him that had always plagued him. He had always prided himself on his perfect self-control and manipulative abilities, but there was also something he had missed all this time and she had just that. He was so focused on the girl that he hadn’t noticed that the train had started to slow down and the station came as a surprise to him. He shot forward out of his seat as soon as the train stopped and his gaze was jerked away from the special girl to the floor of the train which was coming up to his face far too quickly. Just before the boy’s piercing gaze was snatched away by the, for him, sudden stop, the prickle in her neck had returned and now she turned around. She had chosen just the right moment to see him shoot forward and almost fall off his chair and to see someone else beside him for just a moment. With a blink the person was gone again. The oppressive feeling that they had been watching her crept up on her and she quickly turned around again so she wouldn’t have to think about him again and to forget about what she saw for just a moment. Strangely enough, only the boy kept haunting her mind. For one moment she had seen his eyes. Pale blue and piercing right through everyone and those eyes had shown her a world she had never known. A world of control and peace. His eyes gave her a peace she had never felt before. She couldn’t give a reason for it. Why would one single meeting between two pairs of eyes matter? She didn’t know. She just tried to shake it off. Time crawled and she also had the strong feeling that she had not seen him for the last time. Finally, she heard the voice call the right station. The crawling time was over, she was allowed to get off. When she got out of the train, everyone around her was in a hurry. She wasn’t in a hurry and she looked up at the setting sun. She couldn’t believe it, so quickly that this day had gone by. She hoped by walking she would shake off the thoughts again, but again in vain. She found that she really needed some distraction. And yet, to her he was a creep, she resolved to believe. Anything to get rid of memory of him. Even the peace he gave her was not enough for her to want to keep thinking about him. She actually wanted to be disgusted with him. Just thinking about that body of his. He was skinny as hell; the wind would blow him over. Softly she laughed at it for a moment, but it wasn’t for long. As soon as she thought of his muscles she stopped laughing. Eventually she found the destination she had been asked to come to. Parents separated and she is the one making that journey every time. It wasn’t fair. This time it was her mother’s turn. She stared coldly at the door and pressed the bell. No one answered. That too. She comes and no one is home. She walked to the curb, set her stuff beside her and sat down on the curb. Her head rested in her hands that were leaning on her raised knees. None of it was easy for her today. First, she had to make an entire train trip because her mother wanted to see her so badly, then she ran into a creep on the train who demanded her attention and she didn’t even know why and as if that wasn’t enough. Another closed door too, because her mother is not even home. Slowly it was already getting dark, almost her reddish-brown eyes were no longer visible to the world.
* He finally found his peace at the station, after having stormed off the train because he had noticed it so late where he was. Even with that, he didn’t have his mind on it. The girl caught his attention. He knew full well that he was actually just staring with his icy, blue eyes. She was doing something to him, but he wasn’t able to place it. She was special that was something for sure. One more time he looked back with a puzzled expression. The train was already gone. It was strange, but he was sure he will run into her again. By now he had found the exit and was continuing on his way to his destination. The memory of the girl didn’t go out of his head. Those two beautiful, reddish-brown eyes that met his for a second. What was it about those eyes. Maybe they were the opposites of his own. Her eyes were warm, but with her there was restlessness. His eyes were cold, and his were calm. Next to him a loud horn brought him out of his thoughts. Gestures made it clear that the driver was not happy at all. He shrugged his shoulders and continued walking. He actually enjoyed thinking about her. That is to be expected from someone who thinks about the usefulness of life. He wondered if she did too and if that was why she stuck in his mind so much. Of every girl he could have seen, every girl he could have sat next to on the train. He chose the spot next to her. Just so he could look at that beautiful girl staring out the window? Or was there more to it for him after all. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t answer the questions that were so easy before. Once upon a time, but not anymore. By now he had also reached his destination. Seeing from the keyhole, the key slowly entered and turned, opening the door that was closed to the outside world.
