---

... I collided into her, falling to the ground. Before I could regain my composure, she was off again, running faster than her age should have allowed.

I cried out, desperately... Wait! In a furious panic, I ran after her. I couldn't lose her! Yes, she might be able to provide some sort of solution to this mystery, but honestly, at the time, all I wanted was someone else to talk to. Someone who would look at me, smile or grimace at me... Anything! I had been starved of such basic human contact for so long and was hungry for it...

I chased her through many twisted streets and alleys, into the lowers parts of the city down by the river. Every time I thought I was about to catch up to her, she appeared suddenly more distant, waiting at another corner further on. Eventually, as I was about to give up, she stopped... The surrounding houses were in terrible disrepair and the narrow street was dirty and full of rats. I approached carefully as she stood at a doorway, looking straight at me.

As I reached her, out of breath, I started speaking, asking too many questions all at once, but she only stood there, with a finger to her mouth, waiting with a calm patience in her bright blue eyes. When it looked like she would never answer me, I fell to my knees and broke down, weeping.

I then felt her hand on my shoulder, and oh, to be touched again! The sensation rippled through me like an intense orgasm.

But when I looked up at her, all the joy I was feeling was immediately snuffed out by her expression of pure concern and anger. It was dreadful to behold... She straightened up, opened the door we had stopped in front of, and pointed inside.

What else could I do? I got up, and slowly walked inside, letting my eyes adjust to the dark. When I turned around, the woman in red was no longer there. No! I looked back out on the street, but there was no sign of her. It wouldn't be the last time I saw her, however.

Going back inside, I explored the house. It was small and surprisingly clean. A woman was in the kitchen, having just taken bread buns out of the oven. I helped myself to one, for later.

I couldn't understand though, why the woman in red had led me here, and I was about to leave when I saw a trapdoor in the kitchen floor.

I opened it up, and found a flight of stairs going down into what I at first thought would be a pantry. I was surprised to find that it was a bedroom... A girl's bedroom, by the looks of it, and there, on the bed, was a little girl sitting up in the corner under a duvet, with what I later discovered was her father, also sitting on the bed, reading a book to her.

I smiled at the scene, moving closer... I had no children of my own but still hoped that I would, one day.

And then I saw it... And I suddenly understood the woman in red's dreadful expression, for now it was on my own face. The father's other hand was below the duvet... He was obviously reaching for the girl with the most malign intentions imaginable. Rage filled me and I instinctively tried to pull him away. Of course, he didn't budge. In frustration, I ripped a loose floorboard up and hit him in the face, but in vain. It didn't even leave a mark.

But as I sat there trying to figure out what to do... How to save this poor girl... A sudden vague idea of why this was all happening to me entered my mind. Until this moment, I had been doing nothing but wandering around, lost, with no purpose, serving only myself, wading in self-pity... So perhaps if I started trying to fix things... Look for wrongs in the city, and attempt to right them... Perhaps that would be my salvation...

I had to try!