(Parts of post taken from Rihanna-Photographs)

Winter cleaning kept her mind detached from the ever present front of her thoughts of Devon's disappearance. Maybe he had found a way to return home. He always had missed home in his own way and sure AJ probably did too....but AJ had a family here now. A husband and the baby and the whole perfect world. Why would she need to go anywhere"

Charley sighed to herself as she drew up her leg, arm embracing the denim clad knee as she rummaged through various items as she sat on the floor. Even Blue had found his home in New York City.

Heres a little story I gotta tell 'Bout this boy I know so well Back in the day was cool and all He fell in love I fell in love I thought he was the one for me Other boys I could not see And look what happened to our love I'm like how could it be

There was no envy when it came to Charley. She was happy for them all but she had to wonder what was becoming of her when even the Gypsy Rose and her 'Big Brother' Brandon looked over her with such worried eyes. Like she might shatter.

Fingertips lifted one of the pictures of her and Devon together. The day on the beach. Snapped pictures of both of them grinning, arms around each other. A wrinkle of nose as she sniffled and set the picture down. Was it just a Summer fling" Come the winter was just something that was meant to die? Did it mean come the next summer he'd come back....

It shoulda been me and you It coulda been you and me But boy you broke my heart And now I'm standing there It shoulda been me and you It coulda been you and me

Dusting herself off, the boxes were shoved aside and straightened as those sapphires spared a glance over to her jeweler's work station. Maybe she could get lost in work. Maybe she could open her own shop. Maybe she could run away to New York and hide in Jacob's shadow. Maybe Maybe Maybe.

Now all I got are these photographs All I've got All I've got All I've got Are these photographs All I've got All I've got

Its nothing without you, you, you Got nothing without you, you, you Got nothing without you

She wasn't falling apart but something had become a bit broken in her spirit. After mulling it over, she knew what it was that had shattered. Her heart.

Now baby its killing me I'm saying its killing me The fact that you aint around Baby, I'm falling down I need me a remedy Been looking for remedys I need you to be around Baby I'm hurting now I know you're a better man (when I was your girl) This land is a better land (when you're in my world)

It was time to move on. Time to say goodbye. It didn't seem like he was coming back but still she was grasping at those strings of hope. Charley would still smile. She would still find a way to laugh. If only to live in her sweet world of make believe. She knew this time she had not made him up. There was too much that existed around her to make his presence real rather then illusion in her life.

All I've got are these photographs I remember when I used to make you laugh I don't wanna be stuck in the past But you're all that I have that I had And I don't wanna lose what we've felt this far This is me and you, you're my superstar I'll give anything baby, heres my heart My heart..my heart

Moving on. It would be the hardest thing she had to do. Maybe come the summer he'd come back. She had waited but the months....had grown and he wasn't back.

All Charley could to was pick up the broken pieces and learn to live with all that had been left behind. Because in the end....that was how it had ended....with her left behind

He's standing in a place so very much like a graveyard, marked with crude wooden crosses. At least a score of them.

A man standing there with him, telling him that they are alike. That their powers set them apart, that they should be used for the destruction of the enemy.

Why was it the enemy looked so much like they do"Had similar gifts, abilities...these were not the dark creatures the man, with his dark eyes and bronzed skin, had said they were.

Well, some of them were. Bloodthirsty creatures that tried to feed on their flesh.

But others...others pleaded not to be subdued, begged not to be placed in the cage, screamed in grief and frustration as they were buried.

One or two even offered their understanding.

And yet, despite it all, he kept on.

He could have left, but...

...he discovered something.

He liked it.

And so, he stands there, facing the crude wooden crosses, with the dark man's hand on his shoulder next to him, listening to him say it.

"We are the same, Cyrus..."

"NO!

Darkness of the room meets his eyes as he sits up in the bed, no longer the barren ground studded with crosses made of thick branches torn from trees.

Just a dream...and yet, it had all happened.

He had come to this place to get away from the darkness in his life, away from the violence and killing, and instead he had taken it right back up as if it were second nature.

Turning to the side of the bed, his feet finding the floor, he starts to put his head into his hands, only to find the motion halted as he stares at them.

His hands. Deadly hands, capable of horrific things, deadly purpose.

And he had used them for it, just as he had sworn to himself not to.

He had believed the dark man and his words of promise, of purpose.

And had almost slipped over the edge into the darkness he had hoped to avoid.

"Why am I here...?"