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A small, black hair girl walks around inside of her home. Softly counting numbers to herself as she walks. This was her way of knowing where she was in comparison to the room. She wasn't doing it for fun. It was for practice for when she would no longer be able to see anything in front of her. Mahri was partially blind in both eyes, and the progression of her blindness would continue to affect her until she could no longer see. She was able to see a little bit still, however, it's only for anything that's four feet in front of her. Even at that range it's hazy. Like a thin fog over top of a lake in the early morning hours of a new day. Or at least that was how she described it. "Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen." The girl says to herself. From the entrance of the living room to the entrance of where the bedrooms were it was eighteen heel to toe steps. Now how many was it from here to her bedroom? She would start the counting process all over again as she took her first step forward. On most days like this she was alone. Tohma was either working downstairs in the bar or doing his shift on the wall as well as her own. The man who owned the bar was willing to let them stay in their childhood home as long as her brother worked for him like their parents.

And that's exactly what he did. He worked practically every day and took shifts every week. It was lonely. Ever since their parents died, Tohma has changed. He became both mom and dad to her, and Mahri felt awful. Things like that happened in a world like this. And yet, she felt like he had grown up way too fast. He had no time to mourn for their loss. At the same time, he became closed off. He sometimes would become closed off from her. When he would come back from a shift, he would go straight to his room and shut the door. Not a word was said to let her know he was home, but she could hear him walking around at least. Being blind and deaf would be maddening. There would be some nights where she could hear him through the walls. He would be crying, hitting something with his fist and cursing those who created the monsters that lurked outside the city's walls. Her heart broke for her older brother. He needed to have the support he gave to her when she was younger, but he wouldn't allow her to. Stubborn man her brother was. He got that trait from dad. Mahri makes it to her room in about nine steps, half the distance from the entrance of the apartment to the entrance of the bedrooms.

Since she was alone most of the time, she was left to either wandering around the house, which she does most of the time to practice, or her thoughts. One thing would come across her mind more often than she would like. The blackouts. They used to happen just out of the blue after she turned eight, but now she was having them almost on a regular basis. Why was she having them? It couldn't be from her medical problems, could it? The doctors at the Lab Corp told her that was something to not worry about, but it was something that couldn't be helped. There was another thing she was growing concerned for. Her strange urges for blood and spikes of hunger. No matter what she had in the apartment, she couldn't find anything she wanted when this hunger comes. It wasn't normal. Maybe her iron was down? She'd talk with her doctor the next time she went in to see him. Mahri was just about to start counting off from where she was to the kitchen when she hears a noise from outside. It was the fourth step out of the seven that it took to get up to the door. Someone was coming. Could it be Tohma? Strange. He shouldn't be back from his shift so early. The man who owned the bar didn't come up to the door either. He would always use a broom to tap on the ceiling, or their floor, to get Tohma's attention when he needed to work. Concerned, the teen walks into her room, counting softly to herself as she does so. She goes to her bed and pulls out one of her sai's hidden under her mattress. With her hand gripping onto the handle, she goes back towards the door, listening intently as there was a knock on the door. Obviously she wasn't going to just randomly open the door to who ever was knocking. She would keep the door shut until she knew who this person was. "Who is it?"

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She listens intently, the sai sticking close to her side. It was a males voice she heard. The tone of it was flat, but at the same time it was deep. It was enticing, but she still wouldn't let this person in. His name was Kastor Amsel. He some how knew her brother and her. He even knew her name! She licks her lips, her hand on the door knob. This was something she needed Tohma for. He could tell her if this guy was telling the truth or not. "I'm sorry, but I don't know you. How do you know about me or my brother?" Mahri wanted to know how this man knew of her. If there was a little eye hole she could look out of, maybe she might recognize him. Sadly there wasn't, so she couldn't see him. She wasn't about to open up the door. He'd have to explain himself first. "Why are you here?"

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She wasn't expecting him to bring up Lab Corp in the explanation of who he was. Not many knew she went there for her disintegrating eye sight. It was like a family secret that her parents didn't want others to know about. However, people started to notice a difference in her movements as she grew up. She was walking slower and had a tendency to run into things. They could only assume there was something wrong until Tohma confirmed it. Still, this Kastor fellow could be a stranger trying to get inside. The name was starting to sound more familiar as she thought about it, but couldn't be sure if was a name from previous conversations or a person she actually knew. The befriending of her brother was something she definitely remembered. She also remembered the friend Tohma had left suddenly, but it was a hazy memory. There was something about this friend that she could recall rather well. He had the same hair and eye color as she did. Her parents often joked about the two being siblings more than she and Tohma were. She releases the tight grip she had on her weapon slightly, becoming more at ease with his presence. She almost drops it, shocked at what he says. "...biggest blue eyes I've ever seen." "W-what?" The girl stutters. There was only one person who thought that she had rather large, doe like eyes, and that person was the boy who she called Kassie. She was four at the time of the nickname. It was small and cute. Mahri bites her inner cheek, conflicting thoughts pinging around in her brain. Was this the boy who she thought of as another brother? Was this Kassie? "If you're who you say you are, then what was the nickname I gave you when I was four years old?"

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Kastor didn't respond to her question right away. Was he trying to remember what it was? Or could he be possibly stalling for time? Waiting to hear the click of her lock to be undone so he can burst his way into the house. The grip on her weapon returned, her fingers tenderly touching the lock on the door. She was waiting to hear what his answer was. Still nothing. This man was posing as someone she knew. He had gotten his information from the Lab Corp people themselves. No one else would know all of the information he did. Mahri clenches her jaw. She was just about to unlock the door and kick the guy in the nuts and shove him down the stairs. That way he'd learn to not come back and mess with her. But then he answers. "Kassie. You called me Kassie. She immediately relaxes, dropping her sai to the ground and unlocking the door. Since he was in her four foot range of sight, or what little range she had at least, she could see if it was really him, right? The girl opens the door and looks up to the tall man standing on the other side. Black hair and blue eyes. Just like she remembered. "Kassie...it is you!" A large smile comes to her face as she practically jumps up and clings onto him, her legs going around his waist and her arms around his neck. She laughs, hugging him tightly for quite some time before finally letting him go and planting her feet back onto the ground. "Please, come in and make yourself at home." Mahri giggles, taking Kass's hand and walks him inside.

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Once inside, she shuts the door behind her and locks it once more. This was all a precautionary thing. Strangers liked to break into houses and steal anything they could grab their little paws on. It was sickening. It's happened more than once to some of the neighbors around the bar. Some wised up and started locking their doors during all hours of the day. Mahri kneels down and picks up her fallen sai. She wears a sheepish grin on her face. There was no doubt Kass had noticed it laying there on the floor. "Don't tell Tohma about this, okay? He...wouldn't approve." With sai in hand, she starts to count silently to her room, making sure that the numbers she had gotten earlier weren't a fluke. Luckily they weren't, and she places the weapon back in its hidden spot with its twin. She hears him sitting down on the tiny love seat they had in the living room. "We're doing what we can to get by. Well, Tohma's doing what he can for us to get by. He doesn't like me to do anything. He worries that I'll get hurt because I can't see what I'm doing." She enters back into the living room only to turn towards the kitchen go get Kass and herself a drink. She was still counting to herself. It would probably seem like to the man sitting on the love seat that she couldn't see at all.

With drinks in hand, Mahri comes back into the room and hands him a glass; sitting down in the seat next to him. "I have been better. The countless trips to Lab Corp have, well, essentially failed." The young girl sighs, taking a sip of her water. "My vision has gotten worse. The farthest I can see is about four feet in front of me, and even at that range it's hazy." She chuckles. "It's funny. With all the testing they've been doing on me, I'm surprised that they haven't found anything to fix it yet." Mahri didn't want to tell Kass about the black outs. Not even Tohma knew about them, and that was because she didn't want him to worry. He worried about her enough as it was. Kass would become just as worried if he knew of the black outs too. She takes another drink of her water and sets it onto the small table in front of them, beinding her knee up to turn and face towards the man who disappeared ten years ago. He was a lot taller than she remembered. His hair was longer too; his skin was kissed by the sun. "Enough about me. What's been going on with you? You're the one who's been living on the outside. Experiencing the world. What has it been like? Traveling all around the world, and seeing all sorts of different things?"

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She snorts at his words of what he thought. She wanted to go out and live. She wanted to help with what she could when she could. While she was still able to see. Even if it was just a little bit. One obstacle stood in her way, and his name was Tohma. "Try telling Tohma that. He forbids me to leave the apartment unless he's with me." The girl leans into the cushions of the couch with a huff, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "He thinks it's too dangerous for me to be on my own. I can handle myself. He just...doesn't trust me." A frown forms on her face. Since their parents died, Tohma became too overly protective of her. He babied her too much. What if something should happen to him? Then she'd be left all alone, defenseless and possibly blind permanently. She wanted to go out there and experience what it was like working on the wall. Looking at the walking corpses below them. She wanted to go outside the wall some day while her vision was still around. To see all that was out there. The hidden beauties underneath the vast veil of darkness that kept them from sight. Her brother would never approve of it. She sighs, shaking her head. "I don't want my disability to be thought of as a negative. It happens sometimes; it can't be helped. You just have to adjust and adapt to it. I just haven't been given that opportunity."

Mahri leans her head off to the side. She was rather confused. Wouldn't he want her to go to Lab Corp? Sure what they were doing weren't helping her, but they were testing different things against her genetics. Her DNA. They were searching for something positive in their work before actually testing out on her. Or so they were telling her and her brother. They still had no idea what they were doing to her. That she had become Kass's replacement. She wouldn't find out. Hopefully she wouldn't find out. "They told me that they were dong tests with my DNA to see if they had something that would come out positive in either curing or stopping the progression of my blindness. It's been seven years, but, they say that it might take them some time." She smiles slightly, leaning over to grab her glass and take a drink of it before setting it back onto the table. "Thankfully though, they've given Tohma and I mercy on the medical expenses. They said that because my case was so different than others, they took me on full time as an experiment to different things. Mainly the experiments of what they've come up with for my vision, but it's still a blessing. We don't have to pay for anything as long as I keep coming back."

The girl listens intently to Kass as he began to speak of his travels in the outside world. No doubt it was dangerous. There was danger around every corner. At any point during ones travel they could be attacked and could be killed. Only to return to add to the army of the dead. What made her smile, however, was the beautiful things he saw. The things that made the traveling all worth while. Those hidden gems that could be found if one looked hard enough. That was something she wanted to experience for herself before her vision was gone completely. "What were those beautiful things that you saw, Kass? Tell them to me." Her smile widens, waiting to hear what all he saw. Maybe they were things she could remember seeing in a book or from the countless stories her grandmother told her when she was young. The man seemed to be regretful in his decision to leave ten years ago. He could have had a normal life here. He could still have one if he wanted, but earlier he had mentioned something that she didn't pick up on at first. Kass was going to leave? Again? He only had just returned to the city. She didn't want to lose him again. "Kassie, why are you leaving again? You just came back, right?" She places a hand on his arm, her dulling eyes pleading to him. "Please don't leave. Tohma and I just got you back. We. . .we've both missed you so much. Won't you stay here?" The girl sits upright and scoots closer to him, an arm linking under his to pull it in an awkward hug. "We can be a family, just like we were before. You, me, and Tohma. All three of us. Please. . .I don't want to lose my brother again." Mahri didn't want to come off like she was begging, but it looked that way. She had lost him once already, and she thought he had died sometime within those ten years he was gone. To have him back only to lose him once more, the possibility of her seeing him again was slim to none. "Please Kassie."

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Oh sweet, little Mahri. So young and naive. She had hopes that she could convince him to stay. To finally mend the hole in both her and her brothers hearts that have been there for the last ten years. To have the closeness they shared amongst themselves. The way he whispered her name, how full of love it sounded, made her believe that he would stay. His travels of the world outside the walls was over. He was home at last. She felt his embrace with his free arm. She gives his arm a squeeze, nuzzling against it with her cheek. Oh sweet, little Mahri. She had no idea what was going to be said. She had jumped to conclusions to soon. If only she had waited for him to finish. . . "Oh Kassie, I just knew you wou-" Because I love you, I cannot stay. In that moment her heart shattered. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her body went numb. Kass wasn't going to stay. No matter how much pleading she could do, his mind wouldn't be changed. She releases his arm from her grasp after he gives the gentle kiss atop her head. When he looks at her face, he could see the pain she was feeling. The heartache. The liquid in her eyes became to much and it spilled over onto her cheeks. Mahri's bottom lip quivers as she tried to hold back a whimper. He promised to come back and visit, but she didn't want that! She wanted him to stay! "Why. . .why come back if you weren't going to stay? Why come back in our lives, just to leave us again?" The girl turns her head away from Kass, a soft whimper managing to slip past her lips as she stands up and walks away from where she sat. She walks to the doorway of the kitchen and leans against the wooden panel. She wipes her eyes of her tears, but more come only to replace them. "You don't know how hard it was for Tohma and I to lose you. I was only four, but, I would wander around the apartment asking where you were. Mom and dad had no answer for me. They just said you left. I thought you were dead, Kass, and Tohma did too. God Tohma. . ." she sniffs, "He blamed himself for you disappearing. For the longest time he blamed himself and up until this point he still did." She wipes her eyes once more, but tears continued to flow down her cheeks.