"Giovanna?" I heard the door to my room creak open, my dad's voice coming from the soft light of the hallway. I looked up from my spot on the floor, where I had tried to draw myself out of reality. His silhouette was in my doorway, leaning against the frame. "Giovanna?"

"Yeah, dad?"" I leaned my head against the wall, running a hand through my hair. He walked over, sitting next to me on the floor. Something, some sort of paper, was in his hand. "I'm sorry." The words came out before I could even think about them.

"There's no need to be sorry. You're doing perfectly fine, Giovanna." He took a deep breath, putting his hands of his knees. "I need to be the one saying sorry."

"Dad, I hurt someone, I..." I felt my throat choke up as I thought back to the day before.

"Nadia's fine. But, that's the reason that I need to be apologizing. I've been trying to protect you for so long, too long, but all I've done is made you afraid." He took a deep breath. "That fear, that's why you never learned control."

"I'm not scared, dad." I looked up at him. He looked really tired. "I mean, I've been scared before. But I'm not scared of everything. I can learn control."

"Fear presents itself in different ways. Your nightmares, that's how it presents itself for you."

"Dad, you're overreacting." He wasn't, and I knew that, but I wanted to change the subject. "What's that?" I reached for the paper in his hand.

"It's well, don't panic, okay? A lot has been put on you today, so I don't want you to jump to conclusions." My dad smoothed the paper out, taking a long pause before continuing. "It's an eviction notice."

Now, I usually listened to my dad, but if jumping to conclusions was an Olympic sport, I probably would've gotten the world record right then and there. My brain flew through the different reasons we could've been getting evicted for. We were Superhumans. I kept getting in trouble with the law. Something happened with my dad's job and we couldn't pay rent anymore. Wait, no, that option doesn't make sense, everything seemed fine when I went to the dojo the past few times. So, it had to be—

"Giovanna, you're thinking." I felt my dad's touch on my shoulder, which made me jump into reality. I looked over at him, seeing the concern in his eyes. "I told you not to jump to conclusions."

"I didn't mean to, I'm fine dad." I stood up quickly, almost scrambling as I slipped on the floor. Before I could've tried to get out of the conversation, though, my dad stood up, standing in front of me. "Dad, I'm fine."

"Giovanna, I just wanted to say, I think this will be better for us. I still try to keep you in the same school, if you want, but the change in scenery might be good for you. And," he reached out, gently touching my nose, "we can stay away from people who want to hurt you."

With that, he walked out of my room. I stood there for a few moments, before deciding that I needed to take a walk. I changed out of my clothes into something that made me look a little less like I train wreck, before bundling up as much as I could, making sure my nose and eye weren't in plain sight as I waddled out of my room. The door to my dad's room was closed; he was probable taking a nap. I wrote a little note out, to tell him where I was, before heading out and down the street.

It had to be around two in the afternoon at that time, since I already began to see kids from my school walking down the street. I probably looked odd, compared to them, since it wasn't actually that cold out, judged by their clothing. But, they didn't seem to notice me at all, as they were all in their own little worlds. Even when I saw Adriana, in a small group of people, she didn't even bat an eye in my direction. That didn't calm my nerves though, as I ducked into an alleyway until her group were far down the street.

Then, I walked towards the park. I hadn't been there often, side effect of not being allowed out of the house a lot, but the way to it was relatively simple. A few turns, a Hail-Mary run across the street because I was too lazy to wait at the crosswalk, and I was in the empty expanse of grass. With it still being very early spring, and the fact that only the high school was out right now, no one was really making ventures to the park like I did. I saw a small group of teens by a tree, looking like they were doing something highly illegal, but that was really it.

I walked around the park slowly, pulling the scarf that was covering my nose down to feel the wind against my face. It stung, but in a good way. I smiled at the sky, though why I was smiling, I had no clue. Maybe that I was alone, and felt like no one could hurt me.

Spoiler alert: I could hurt myself. As I was looking at the sky, I happened to miss a dip in the ground, and nearly fell right on my tailbone. I kept myself upright, fortunately, but I felt my ankle twist as I hopped out of the dip. I heard the group of teens break into a laugh, and I felt my face flush, but as I looked back at them, they weren't even looking at me. It was as if I was invisible.

I liked that feeling.

I kept going on, this time a bit faster, going up the small hill that was in the middle of the park. As I got to the top, I sat down, looking around at the park below me. The hill wasn't very large, and it wasn't like I could see for miles, but something made me feel as if I was looking at the park from a higher point of view, and I loved it.

"Do I want to leave this?" I spoke to no one, as if some wind spirit was going to show up and give me the answers to life. "The demonstrations are bad, but what will happen if I leave?"

No answer. It's not like I should've expected an answer, but my shoulders still hunched as I got none.

I looked into the distance, where near the horizon, smoke was billowing up from some fire in some place.

"Angidev..." It probably wasn't him, since fires happen for reasons other than a guy committing an arson with nothing but his own hands, but his image glared into my mind as I saw it. I hadn't seen or heard from him in a bit, and I wasn't really sure was his deal was, but I still didn't like him.

I began to feel rain drip onto me.

"It'll help them put it out." My gaze turned back to the sky, even though the rain should've driven me back to my apartment. I'd get soaked either way, so I decided to stay. Down below me, I saw the group of teens scramble away, probably not ready for the rain showing up.

After that, I sat in peace for what felt like a good while, letting the rain slowly gain more strength around me. I wasn't in much of a rush, and I kind of enjoyed the feeling of the rain against my face.

I sat that way, in the closest I would get in my entire life to a meditative state, until I felt the rain suddenly stop on me. My focus came back, and as I looked up, I saw a cover of red over me. And then, I saw the person holding the cover, which I realized was an umbrella.

"Ray, how in the world did you find me?"