After hanging up the phone, I couldn't help feeling like I was slowly getting closer to finding out what had happened. I had managed to find one of her old teachers from the school. It was a good thing I hadn't thrown away my old school ID card, although finding the location of the school had taken longer than I thought. The town had been farther away than I had thought.

Walking over to the map I had placed on the wall, I added a bright blue tack to mark the town. Perhaps it was time to go on a trip.

Reaching down to my stomach, I began tracing my fingers over her name. Shina, sweet Shina.

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A history project, huh? What an interesting way for us to have met, although the teacher himself had been rather dull. Still, it was so nice of him to have held onto her finished project like that. And especially nice of him to let me have it, since Shina had never been able to get it from him before she had apparently dropped out of school.

I slowly traced my fingers over the painting that I was told I had given her for the project, feeling a soft blush warm my cheeks. I could feel the love that had been poured onto the canvas, even after all these years. 

I didn't even feel it as I began biting into my lip, the blood warm as it began slowly trailing down to drip upon my chest.

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I had spent days wandering about the town, walking up and down the streets as I thought about what I would do when I found my Shina. Every so often I would stop outside a building, feeling my heart grow warm. Had we eaten in this cafe? Watched a movie at that theater? Been inside this store shopping? Had we gone to that park over there? It seemed almost every street had someplace that made my heart flutter.

But it was at the empty, snow covered field that my breath caught, images of a fair flashing through my mind, going on rides while holding a soft hand, standing in a line as I listened to her voice wash over me, blue eyes bright as a beautiful face slowly leaned in towards me to press a kiss against my lips.

"Shina." I breathed out softly, bringing my hands up to my lips before I began biting into the flesh of my arms, trying desperately to relieve the pain I suddenly felt at not being with her.

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It had taken time, so much time, but I had found the place that we had once called home. Hidden in the basement of an abandoned building that was beginning to crumble with age. I had avoided the areas that my mind screamed at me were dangerous, although to my eyes they appeared just as safe as everywhere else, but I refused to take any chances with this forgotten territory.

Slowly, I began heading to the door that led to my, our, old home, my hands clenched hard enough to draw blood were nails bit into flesh.

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Placing another book into the suitcases I had found, I continued gathering everything I could that had clearly been treasure. Books whose pages were more worn by loving fingers turning the pages over and over again, movies whose cases had obviously been opened again and again to place the dvd into the player, clothes that had faded slightly from being washed so often, pictures of a younger me standing beside an angelic girl, my beloved Shina.

Placing the last item inside the second full suitcase, I sat upon the bed, my hand slowly reaching out to touch the aged red stain in held. How had she been hurt? How could I have let her be hurt? Had I somehow failed her before she had been stolen from my life? I had let her suffer...

Grabbing a small knife I had found, I began pressing the blade into my arm, tracing over where her faded name marked me as hers. I smiled as the blood began joining hers upon the mattress.

"I'll find you yet, My Sweet Shina."