he air was heavy with the scent of rain but the clouds were still a long way off, barely visible over the horizon. A collapsed umbrella hung from Vitória's wrist as she walked briskly down the street. She didn't have a destination in mind, though her purposeful pace implied otherwise. She just had to move. She didn't want to go home to that shared apartment with the woman she had thought she loved.

This disinclination to return home was not a new or strange one. "Home" had never been a safe place for her; not for her. She had foolishly thought things would be different here. She had thought she had finally found a place where she could be safe and free and happy. She was wrong. And now she wasn't sure she ever would feel that sense of security most people seemed to find at home. Maybe it just was't meant to be. Maybe she needed to stop hoping and wishing and just accept misery as a bosom companion.

She was loathe to do that, however. Tori had felt that sense of wellbeing vicariously through others. She knew it was possible. She wanted it for herself. She wanted to feel it for herself, for real, not just picking up echoes of other people's emotions. It wasn't the same.

The air was calm, the autumnal leaves barely whispered on the trees as she passed. Inside of her heart and mind, however, there was a maelstrom. She didn't even notice that someone had just rounded the corner just ahead until it was a second too late to avoid a collision.

"Caralho!" she blurted before her bronzy cheeks flushed crimson before turning an unhealthy gray cast as she looked down, staring at the sidewalk under her feet rather than looking at the face of the person she had just blundered into. "I'm very sorry," she said, voice a bit halting and fearful.