"I dont f***ing care anymore..."

'Dammit, do I have to make everyone else happy before me?'

Before Adrian could respond, he found himself in an oddly colored meadow. Dawn's hair was in loose curls and she wore a long white toga. "This is one of the Light Gardens. We can talk face to face here."

He saw her, as beautiful as ever, but he turned away and crossed his arms. He realized he had a glowing physical form back. But his clothes different, he wore the traditional garb of the spirit of fire. A bright red Curaiss trimmed with gold, matched by gauntlets, greaves boots and a cape of the same fashion. An intricate sword hung limply at his side and a sheild was clipped to his back, under the cape.

Without thinking about it, he managed to materialize a bench, and he sat down on it, still facing away from her. He didn't want to talk with her anymore. He realized he was being selfish, putting his needs before hers. It was her job in life to love everything, everything except Adrian.

He understood why she didn't want him. It was an assortment of reasons. Adrian was still so young an naive. He was afraid, and he still had some mental instability inside him. But first and foremost of those reasons was that tradition prevented them from loving each other. He was supposed the love the spirit of darkness...whoever that was. The logic made no sense, why would opposites be thrown at each other. Fire made light...without either, one could not exist. Why was it that they were forced apart as opposed to being drawn together.

Her motives were honest, but Adrian didn't want to talk. He would never find another person like this, not in the eternity of his life. Not during his living moments or his immortal afterlife. It would not happen, ever. He would be alone. He would refuse anything pushed upon him and eventaully isolate himself from the other spirits of the pantheon.

Considering fire was the most important element to be constantly maintianed, because it was the one with which mortals interacted the most, it would eventaully run rampant. He didn't care. Let them pay for his broken heart. It was their fault anyway.

" Adrian, please don't be sorrowful!" Dawn was speaking in an old accent, older than any other. "Be loving! Be happy!"

"God Damnit!" his fist flung down on the marble bench, crushing it into dust. The grass below it caught fire.

"Don't you get it! I can't be happy! I need you...but you don't want anything to do with me anymore! I'll never be happy! I'm dead already Dawn...and you killed me..."

The red aura around him flared and he swung his left hand through the air, a balzing trail of white hot fire tracing behind it.

Light exploded out of her body and shielded her. "Adrian stop it!" Dawn stepped back and whimpered.

"Stop what...STOP WHAT! Being depressed? That won't f***ing happen Dawn! It's too damn late for that! I've lost you already, and here I am in your mind. You said it yourself...youn can just forget to bring me back to life. Do that...I don't want to deal with you, or Donald, or Edward of any of the others assholes on the planet. I just want to be dead...maybe then I can find some peace. My dad always told me there was a fire in me, that couldn't be put out. He wasn't wrong...no, it's been obliterated. It'll never come back...it's gone forever."

Dawn was crying. "Please don't say that Adrian! You can't, I won't let you!" Dawn stepped foreward and grabbed his arm. Despite the smoke rising and the obvious pain, her hands stayed gripped tight. "You can't."

He wrenched her hand off of him and stormed away, making sure to light a few trees on fire as he walked off.

He didn't know where he was going, the garden seemed endless, and he knew only Dawn could close it and allow them to return to their normal state. He didn't care. She was hurting him. Her touch caused too much pain to bare.

He lost himself in the trees and plants until he found a gondola witha small fountain and a marble bench.

She hadn't managed to catch up with him, if she had even followed him. He drew out the sword from the sheath and threw it like lance. It came alive with dancing fire as it soared through the air and wedged itself into a tree. The tree burnt down so quickly, it was ash within seconds. He turned toward the gondola and glared at it until fire consumed it, and the wooden structure crumbled into a pile of rubble. He kicked the bench over, shattering it, and evaporated the water in the fountain before bruning the ground all around him and moving on. If she was following, she wouldn't like what he was doing to her garden.

He continued along a winding path, up a steep hill, incinerating any plants or strucutres in his way. He scorched the rocks of the path and evaporated the streams, fountains and waterfalls. The sky grew ever redder the more enraged he became. His hair was turning back to a silky white. He was sick of this new life already. He already wished he was a kid again...a young boy controlled by something else. He hated dealing with other people. They lied, cheated...did horrible things.

He reached the top of the hill and came across yet another gondola, but this one had staues of each of the spirits at the top. He smashed the staue of his father and burnt the gondola, but left the remaining statues standing, before he found yet another marble bench to try and sit on. He burnt the surface in his anger, but eventaully cooled down. The sky was still red and the air around was so hot, he could have sworn he heard it boiling.

Dawn had followed, and was crying on what was left of the first victim. The plants were screaming in pain, and she felt it. "My lady!" Dawn said nothing as Eli came to her. "What foul soul has saddened you?" Dawn shook her head and pulled away, going to find Adrian. Eli followed slowly.

Donald walked into the classroom after tossing his cigarette out a window. He dropped into his seat, looking ahead sleepily.

Great. I'm starting out the day by pissing off a girl and having a hangover. Not only the day, but the year. This had better not just be a taste of what's to come.

The sky turned a deep scarlet. It was such an intrusive sight, that every object was bathed in the color of blood. He yelled out something in his mind and held out his right hand. His sword came to him and fell softly into his palm, as he had insrtucted. He needed something living...

But then he remembered...he had promised himself a long time ago he would never kill again. He turned around from his bench and took in the sight before him. Burnt plants, whithering flowers, even several hurt animals. He stood up and heard Earth speaking to him.

"Child, what you have done, was done in anger. I do not forgo you for this, for you have the means to right your wrong."

He nodded, and knealt down. The red that surrounded him interacted with the surface of the garden, and the area was lush again. The whithered plants bloomed, the animals returned to their feet and scampered away and Adrian seated himself again, burrying his face in his hands. What had he become? It wasn't Dawn's fault, but he was blaming her. It was his own fault. He was foolish and angry.

The sky was still red. The red permeated even the darkest of corners, and a perpetual glow covered the garden. It started raining ever so gently, only a fine mist from the heavens. The cracking roll of thunder fell across the garden at regular intervals. It was a gentle noise, soothing, sad.

The rain fell just as his tears, and the thunder, the beating of his heavy heart.

"Adrian?" Dawn was timid as she stopped a few feet from him. Eli hovered far behind, but close enough to help if needed. But before he could respond, Dawn returned to the school. She trudged into the classroom, head down. Terrible burns covered her hands, and they throbbed.

Donald faced Dawn.

"So Earth tells me you and Adrian had it out in the Light Gardens. What was that all about?"

"He still loves me, but..." Dawn curled her fingers and gasped at the pain.