He was watching her.

Rose could feel the stare, could see the worn ends of a frayed black coat flapping in the wind from her peripheral vision. A Raven. She didn't dare look again.

“Jamie, come on, we're getting late,” she said instead, turning to face her twin brother.

Jamie was rummaging through the plastic bag with their recent purchases as they stood outside the small corner shop. A frigid November breeze blew past, making Rose wrap her red coat around her tighter.

“Yeah, one minute, I'm just – oh, whoops.” He looked up, smiling sheepishly in a way she knew meant she wouldn't like what he was about to say next.

Rose blanched. “What did you forget now?”

“Chocolate. I won't be five minutes,” he added, in response to her groan as he darted back into the store, a blur of red as she was left on the empty street. Well, empty except for him.

She glanced back, quickly, nonchalantly, but he was still there, just across the road. Not watching her, but there. She allowed herself a longer look, curiosity winning her over. Though she would be fifteen next February, she'd never actually seen a Raven up close. Everyone tended to stay away from them, to keep their children locked away from them, to turn up their noses at the unfortunate souls.

At least, that was how Rose saw it. When she was younger, she'd found it strange that people could make all these assumptions just based on the colour of clothing somebody wore. She had once seen a Raven woman  trip on the stone pavement and hit her head, and gotten up with a bleeding forehead. Nobody bothered to stop, to see what had happened, to see if she was alright. If anything, they went farther out of their way to sidestep her, as though the taint of her blood was enough to pass them the plague. She was sure that if that had been an Ivory, people would have crowded around doling out their sympathies and offers of help within mere seconds.

But then, that was how their society worked. It was all that Rose knew. A long time back, in an age of blood shed and a world at war, things had been different, but the System had come in to make things easier. To separate people, to keep them in their place. To obliterate any farther chances of war. At least, that's what people said. Rose wasn't very sure sometimes.

Their society was divided into six groups, into which every family fell and stayed. Ivory was the highest rank, and they were distinguished by the shades of white that they were obligated to wear. Next came Scarlett, which was where Rose and Jason's family came under. Prosperous, but nothing compared to the Ivory's old money. They only wore red. After that came Teal, and then Azure, then Lilac, then Raven.

Ravens were the outcasts of the society. They were shunned by everyone and lived in the slums, hiding in the shadows of a world from which they have no acceptance in. True to their name, they blended in with the blackness of the world. People warned you not to go out alone at night, because of the Ravens that could be lurking under the veil of darkness. Hooligans, people called them. Uncivilized criminals.

He didn't look like a criminal, though. He looked like a normal teenage boy, hardly older than her. His frame was slender, his dark hair unkempt and in need of a trim, his eyes focused somewhere only he knew, facing heaven-ward. The black coat flapped around his knees, and the dark jeans underneath were artfully ripped, hands shoved into their pockets carelessly. She wanted to paint him, leaning against the run down building in all his haggard glory.

And then his gaze shifted from the sky to her, his eyes showing that he knew she had been watching all along. Rose's face turned the colour of her clothes. His eyes were green, a bottle-shade that contrasted with his hair perfectly. The corners of his lips turned up in a half smile as he held her gaze, daring her to look away.

In the distance, she heard a car speeding.

Hooligans. Uncivilized criminals. People of the shadows.

“Rose!”

She broke his stare to the source of the voice, where up the street and across the road her friend Julia was waiting, grinning widely. She hadn't noticed the Raven, then.

“Are you on your way to the party?” she asked, voice giddy with excitement.

“Yes,” she replied. “I'm just waiting for Jamie, he's inside.” She jerked a thumb toward the store behind her.

Julia and Rose had hated each other for the better part of knowing each other, mostly because Rose had once accidentally spilled cherry soda on Julia's new white dress at her birthday party, but they had managed to put it all behind them now. Julia was nice, if a little crazy at times.

The car became louder.

“Come here,” Julia said, still smiling. Rose didn't notice the slight shift in her expression.

Glancing behind her, she saw Jamie was still happily browsing the aisles of the confectionery section, in rapt conversation with an employee. He would probably be in there for a while, despite his claims on not being longer than a minute.

She shrugged, before beginning to cross the road. The Raven's eyebrows rose, but she ignored him. She didn't see the car turn down the road, only heard the roar of an engine speeding too fast and straight toward her.

And to her complete horror, her legs refused to move as she realised it would collide with her body in seconds. She heard herself scream, but it seemed detached from her body, as the car came head on, not even bothering to slow down. It was brown, with tinted windows. Expensive.

And then the impact of something hitting her pushed her down to the ground, but it wasn't the car.

It was the Raven.

The squeal of tires braking on the tarmac, and the crunch of... of bones, and the smell of death hung in the air as she heard Jamie yelling, and then Julia yelling, then the pain-filled groans of a broken person that shook her very soul. Arms wrapped around her, her twin's calloused fingers brushing her face, which was damp with blood, but with laboured breathing she managed to lift her head. She needed to see, even though she already knew.

He was looking at her, his limbs bent at grotesque angles and blood, blood everywhere, mixing with her blood as she reached for his face. He kept looking, each breath more shallow than the last. And as her fingers touched him, he let out a sigh, as if relieved, before his eyes shut for the last time.

He had saved her. The hooligan, the criminal had saved her. She didn't even know his name. She wished she did. And because of her...

The Raven was dead.