The sun was setting and hues of pink and orange splashed across the canvas that was the New York sky, like an abstract painting for all the world to see. Ty lay on the grass in nothing but a tee shirt, jeans, and his usual sneakers and green fingerless gloves. His red hair was strewn about him as he lay, arms behind his head, staring up at the sky.

His mind was restless, but right now...it was calm, despite the fact that there were what could only be described as gaps in his memory. Things he could remember doing, but not why he did them. It seemed like a huge chunk was missing. But as he lay there, none of that mattered.

A smile crossed his face, something he couldn't remember legitimately doing for some time now. Not on his own like this, anyway. He felt...relaxed. No one trying to kill him, no cop chases, no stress.

As the sunset faded to darkness, the ginger mutant stood to his feet, stretching and shaking the grass out of his hair as he did so.

Dark headphones melted into blond hair, and music blared loud enough that passing individuals could hear bits of the music playing. The slim figure that was wearing them seemed oblivious to the world around her, fiddling with a cell phone in her hand. There wasn’t much on there, a few numbers she had exchanged, a few numbers she was considering deleting now. The music didn’t drown away the painful sting those names held, but it did numb it just a bit.

Left in the darkness
Here on your own.
Woke up a memory
Feeding the pain
You cannot deny it
There’s nothing to say
It’s all you need to fire away.

DELETE. The war is coming. The name Chrys vanished from her contacts.
DELETE. You feel you want it. The name Colt was soon to follow.
END. Just bring it on today. She skipped the last contact, and shoved the phone in her pocket.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t press that button one more time. That would be all it could take to make it final, create some closure. Closure, if she could ever really call it that. There was no place for anyone in her life. There was no reason to try again. The music in her headphones burned into her mind.

You can’t live without the fire.
It’s the heat that makes you strong.
‘Cause you’re born to live and fight it all the way.
You can’t hide what lies inside you.
It’s the only think you know.
You’ll embrace it and never walk away.

She turned down another path, and left her phone where it was.

Don’t walk away.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the figure nearby. As darkness was settling in, her dark t-shirt and jeans would have let her blend in if not for the music she was playing so loudly. Her path was pointed towards the Alice in Wonderland statue, and she planned on stopping there and relaxing like she often did. She almost ran into a figure in the grass though, and jumped sideway in surprise. ”Watch it.” She snapped, glancing up at the figure.

Her stomach twisted when she saw an all too familiar face and red hair.

Ty was lost in his thoughts, or lack thereof, and therefore wasn't paying attention as someone almost ran into him. He blinked at the voice, turning to look at the blonde girl.

The girl herself, or hell, even her voice alone should have opened the floodgates of his memories. It should have brought back so many moments, good, bad, and ugly. Remembering a time where he would have done anything under the sun just for one person's heart. Just for one girl's love...

But no. That part of him was gone now. And worse yet, he'd voluntarily given it up. Every bit of it. So the girl in front of him was now just another stranger. "Oh...sorry about that," he replied meekly. "I wasn't paying attention." His eyes were apologetic, though they showed no pain, no sign that he recognized her, no nothing.

Tses faced more painful things in her life than she could count. She broke bones, got stitches, got shot and got stabbed. She'd fallen off buildings, fallen on glass, but nothing, nothing compared to the pain that hit when she saw the expression on Ty's face.

There was nothing.

No irritation, no anger; no sadness, no pleasure. There was no flicker of memory, no acknowledgement that he had any indication he knew the female in front of him. If Tses was still holding her cell phone, it would have dropped to the grass with a clatter. Instead, she took a few steps backwards, face ghost white and throat unnaturally tight. "What....what did you do?" She felt herself say, the accusation coming out in what felt like a sad mew.

How could he not remember her? How could he look at her like that? Like a stranger? The music in her headphones blared loudly, but she pushed the headphones down, fingers shaking on the plastic.

Ty quickly noticed that she didn't look too well. Something was wrong."You okay? You look like you just saw a ghost or something," the young man's eyes showed concern now, but still not much else. He still didn't remember the times his hand rested on those now pale cheeks, his fingers running through her hair, their lips meeting tenderly, or even their eyes locked on one another when having an all too common shouting match. Nothing...

The redhead blinked, looking confused at her question. "Huh? I'm sorry, but...I don't understand. I think you have me confused with someone else; I didn't do anything." He stepped closer. "You sure you gonna be okay?"

It was Ty. Every action, every word was the punk she knew. The guy she teased when he got chased by a dog, the guy she became friends with, fell in love with, got dumped by and parted ways with. But as clear as all of that was to her now, she saw the confusion on his face. This must have been what it felt like when she had amnesia not so long ago.

But why would he have the same behavior now?

"Ghost... I guess you could describe it that way." She said, trying to control her talking. "And I don't have you confused with anyone. We know each other. Knew each other... I just... I don't know why you don't remember." She finally said.

It would have been smarter to turn around and leave. Turn up the music, drown out the sting. But she couldn't understand, couldn't stop herself from questioning. Why...

She made the choice to remember him. Made the choice to deal with the pain of her past, the pieces of her life she hated to have burnt into her mind. If he somehow did this on purpose...

He wouldn't have. He couldn't have.

There had to have been an accident. That was the only explanation.

It wasn't an accident. If Ty had any shred of memory from this left, he'd have thought it was the dumbest idea he'd ever made. But as it stood, he didn't even know. It was all just a blank.

"I'm sorry...I just....I can't place you." The awkward silence that followed this statement was so thick it could have been cut by a knife as it settled in like a fog.

"I wish there were something I could do..." he murmured softly.

A string of emotions went through her as he spoke. Confusion. Anger. Disbelief. Pain. Mostly pain. Pain that hadn't gone away when they last spoke at the zoo. Pain that never left when he broke up with her. Pain that hadn't gone away when she refused to take him back. She thought it would have been easy, forcing someone out of her life. She could have turned, walked away. Pretended this never happened. She never saw him.

But she couldn't move. She just felt frozen. "There's nothing you can do... Not unless you can rewrite the past." Tses said quietly. She punched buttons absentmindedly on her CD player. There had to be another song she could play. Something less painful. But the lyrics in the headphones only hurt more.

"I'm....no one really. No reason you'd remember me. Just...a ghost..." She stopped pushing buttons, and looked up at him, face momentarily calm. Then she turned and started walking away. Standing there looking at him was too much to take.

She didn't feel the moisture on her face. She didn't feel much at all.

Ty did feel pain as he looked at her face. How could he not? Something had hurt her, and something told him that he was the cause. The reason he forgot, even if he couldn't remember. But he had this sinking feeling that he screwed up. Badly.

"Wait," he pleaded as he walked after her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I have this feeling...the look on your face says you were very much somebody...someone important. Somehow I feel like this is all my fault...I...please don't cry. That's just not fair." There was a flicker of something familiar in his face now. Concern. And the fact that he didn't want her to leave.

He never did want her to leave. Even now that he didn't have a clue who she was.

Tses flinched as the hand touched her shoulder, and yanked her arm away. She backed away a few steps, tears springing to her eyes with a mixture of anger and pain. "Don't touch me, don't you ever touch me again." She hissed, swiping a hand across her face and flicking the tears away. She couldn't handle this. Couldn't handle seeing him, hearing him, and didn't want him anywhere near her. It hurt. Like a knife cutting through her lungs and leaving holes so the air couldn't reach them. Her lungs burnt and she couldn't think straight.

Don't cry...that's just not fair...

"Let me tell you what's not fair..." She found herself saying, hissing through her teeth. The rock music coming from around her neck sounded quiet compared to her heart in her head. "What's not fair is being alone. Trying your best to not get close to anyone because you know you're not good with people. What's not fair is meeting someone, and having them convince you to trust them. Care for them. What's not fair is letting someone into your heart, then having them leave. Without a word, without a note. Then come back and beg for forgiveness and say it was a dumb thing to do. What's not fair is giving them another chance, trying to make it work, but they think you're too much to handle, even though you warned them from the start. So you get dumped, think that's that, and life can go on, right? What's not fair is loosing your memory, and the person who tries to help you through it is the person who left you. You make the choice to remember who you are. Make the choice to accept all those bad memories, because you think it's the better choice. What isn't fair is knowing you could have forgotten all that pain, forgotten all that misery, but it wouldn't be the same. So you remember, and you loose them all over again.

"And you know, the thing that really isn't fair?" She jabbed him in the chest and the shook her head, backing away again. "What isn't fair is running into that someone...and they don't remember you. You made the decision to remember. But apparently, all they wanted to do was forget." She took her headphones, shoved them back over her ears and pressed the next track on the music. She turned and started heading down the hill, trying to drown out whatever he would say in return.

In this world you tried
Not leaving me alone behind
There's no other way
I'll pray to the gods, let him stay

The memories ease the pain inside
Now I know why...

All of my memories
Keep you near
In silent moments
Imagine you'd be here
All of my memories
Keep you near
The silent whispers, silent tears....

Ty jerked back when she suddenly lashed out. Every word cut deep, every bit of hostility, even though he still didn't have the first clue who she was. He felt himself grow nauseous, taking a few steps back. "I don't know why I can't remember," he replied weakly. "I can't remember..."

The redhead bit his lip. "But...if I'm as bad as you say I was...then this is my second chance. Or maybe on the other hand...you just gave me a good reason to not remember..." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I tried to help you just now, even though I have no clue who you are. And all you did was verbally destroy me. Think about that next time you're alone...maybe then you'll figure out why..."

Tses looked at him for a moment. The tears had stopped as suddenly as they had come, but if he had remembered anything about her, he would have realized how wrong everything was about her. There was no confidence. There was no smug smile, no saunter when she walked. There was no poise, no catty smirk, no snarky retaliation.

The music nearly drowned out his words, but now all of them. Then they just sparked what could only be described as a haunting expression. Almost a smile, a slight curve of the mouth. But her eyes were sad. Broken. She nodded, and crossed her arms, "Don't worry about it too mcuh. I'm not a problem that will be around much longer ruining things." Then she started into the darkness. By the time he would have a chance to follow she would use her skills from living on the streets to get away. She was just a ghost light, once more fading from existence.

Ty felt the very chill of her words, but as she left he didn't try to stop her. It would probably do as much good as it had the first time. His mouth felt dry and his heart was a lump in his throat. And the worst part of it was he really didn't know the half of it.

But what he did know was that he'd dug himself into a hole it would be nearly impossible to dig himself out of again.