He came to see her every night; sometimes, on nights like this, she was covered in a crimson robe, blood. He would bring her pure-white roses, undefiled and clean; he would leave them by her face if she slept,or scatter them in her bed if she was crying. He knew she was fragile, so he kissed her, so he loved her.

A knock sounded on a smudged, dirty window; he had arrived, a bundle full of snowy flowers in his arms. A young girl, of about 16 or 17, with bleached blonde hair that went just past her ears, came to the stained portal, her only connection to the outside world.

She was young, beautiful, and scarred, not merely physically but emotionally; and as she let him in he could see her tears, diamonds in her eyes. They were something glorious and something sad, one of the reasons he kept returning.

"Sophia, are you alright?" he asked, taking in her countennance. Tonight she was wearing skin-tight leather pants, jacket, and gloves, it was black ensemble, and her hair was specked with red.

Her arms quivered as she reached out to him, her auburn eyes beckoning. Sophia let out a sob as he discarded the roses and took her in his arms. She let her diamonds fall; her soul became vulnerable as she poured out her heart.

He tried to soothe her with carresses, kisses, and it worked for a time; but the truth hung around them like a shadow on the wall, like the coming of dusk, it was an inevitable thing. Just like the day would have to end, so would their time together; eventually he would have to leave...eventually.

He drew her away, for a moment, to push back his charcoal-black hair out of his silver blue eyes. As she felt him shift she cried out, desperately needing, but not knowing how tomexpress herself, "P-please! Don't leave me, Dio!"

He pulled her back into his embrace, and with soft, kind words calmed her, "It's okay...I'm here...It's okay," he said in a comforting voice, and, like a child who need that comfort, she held onto him.

That's when he kissed her, full and sweet, tainted with neither regret nor deceit. "I love you..." he whsipered in her ears. She told him so, also, but the words she spoke were only tears.

He watched them fall silently; he wanted to take those jewels, lock them away, and make sure no one else saw their beauty. He wanted her to be only his but, at the same time, he wished she was free.

Without another word Dio began his ritual of removing her crimson robe. He gently slipped her out of her jacket, she had nothing on underneath it, only pale skin as soft as the moonlight. On her back was the reason she had to be called scarred, evidence of a beating, long, dark streaks down and across her back. Each mark held a story and a meaning, things Dio could only guess. Other marks persisted as well, black, tender bruise marks, of a more recent nature, hid her skin's natural glow. He touched these first.

He traced their lines up her back and she quivered beneath his touch; he traced them back down, until he laid his whole hands on her. Before long his tongue was carressing those marks, tracing them as well. He whispered of her scarred beauty for a time as he held her, as he loved her; and then he left, as if he was never there, like a memory.

---

"Dio...Dio...Dio, Dio, Dio..." Sophia cried as she swayed, her legs were cramped up to her chest, her arms wrapped protectively around herself like a shield. Her eyes were wide with fear like a crazed animals as a dark man peered at her through the bars that enclosed her, she was in a cage.

"Are you ready ro fight, Dog!?" he sneered as he jabbed a piece of sharp metal into the cage, it lashed into her arm but she grasped hold of it and thrust it back. She growled and barked, like a savage dog. The man only smirked, "That's right...Act like the dog you are..."

Sophia jerked out of it soon enough to resume her swaying and chanting of his name. "Dio...Dio...Dio..."

A second man approached, a chain and collar in hand. "Is she ready for the fights?" he simply asked as he shifted his thick cigar to the other side of his mouth. His cold, brown eyes stared unflinching at her. The first man, the shorter of the two, motioned the man a "go ahead." That was all he needed, as he opened up Sophia's cage; she only shrunk deeper in, this place was her sense of security, and she knew what would happen next.

The gruff man known as Clip thrust is big hands into the cage to fish her out. Her only response and instinct was to bite down on the hand; Clip quickly drew it out, as blood began to run. He grumbled as his boss laughed, "She's ready to fight! Tonight will be good!" Clip tried again, only this time, he seized her neck; she writhed against him but he pulled her out anyway and slammed her to the floor.

She felt him sit ontop of her as he began his work. "Hey, hey, Clip! You keep your hands off my dog!" yelled his boss.

Clip sneered, "Yeah, I know, it's just when she gets like this I want a taste," he said as brushed his hands down her back. "It's such a waste of warm heat...Such a waste in the fights..." he mumbled.

"Yeah? Come back Thursdays, alright, man?" laughed the first man, "Now hurry up!"

Clip nodded his head as he latched the collar onto Sophia's neck and clipped the chain onto it; he got off of her slowly as his boss called, "Kick her so she's nice and sore...It'll fuel her spirit...!" Clip did so as he dragged her by the chain, her wild eyes caught sight of a pile of bloody dog collars, one of those was on her neck, but she couldn't think; she had to let go of her human self, like the cruel man said, she was a "dog."

She was thrust into a crude pit, her chain lagging behind her. She crawled on all fours, trying to get a feel for the place, even though she had been there many times. Up above her was a dim swaying light that almost didn't pierce the thick smog that hung all around; she could her jeers and laughter all around the ring, and she knew there were people out there, she just couldn't see them, past the shadows.

In just a little while the spectacle began as a second girl was pushed into the pit; she was a frail one, with stringy brown hair, her countennance was already dripping with blood. She had already been through several fights it seemed, but Sophia was definitly the stronger of the two.

Without warning the ravenous girl lurched forth, baring her teeth as she tried to bite into Sophia. She missed, as the girl lunged to the side. After recovering the two began to stalk the other, and like a wounded animal, their eyes shined. Sophia was the first to move as she jumped on the girl and clawed at her face, trying to bite anything she could sink her teeth into.

They fell on the girl's neck and, only after minutes of bleeding, her body went limp. Sophia dropped the corpse from her mouth, she could hear wild cheers overhead, but her mind wasn't on that. In the back of her head came a voice, soft and calming, "I love you..." it said.

---

Dio climbed through the window again that night, a bunch of roses in his arms. Tonight he saw that his beloved slept, so he placed them with gentle care by her face, so when she awoke she would be greeted by beauty.

He sat beside her, not willing to leave, but he had to go, so he whispered in her ear, "I'll be back...wait for me tomorrow..." he said as he slipped away, to leave her to her dreams; but he didn't return the next night, or the night after that, and Sophia had to endure the fights alone.

---

Dio was flung roughly to the ground before an elegant man's boots. "We found him sneaking around one of the girl's rooms!" came Clip's voice.

A tall, lean man, with blonde slick hair and a scar over his right eye looked at the battered boy. "Oh? Which one's?" he asked in a smooth tone.

"13..."

"Her name is Sophia!" Dio yelled as he stood up and tried to swing at the man nearest him but he was kneed in the gut and crumpled to the floor, gagging and gasping for air.

"And who named her that? You?" the elegant man asked. "What a tragic sounding name...I'm sure you put a lot of thought into it..."

"It...It was my sister's name..." Dio whispered.

The man stared at him from above, "Sister? But the things you did with her a brother should never do to a sister..." Dio's eyes shot wide open as he looked into the man's wintry eyes, they knew, they knew everything. He started again, "What's your name, boy? I am called Scar, quite an original name...Don't you think?" he stated plainly.

"D-dio..." he replied. He knew what was coming; chances were he would never see Sophia again, so he had to do this now. "Please..." he begged, "Before you kill me can you give something to Sophia?"

"And what is that?" asked Scar as one of his men brought him a magnum.

Dio looked over at his bang, "Can you give her those roses?"

BLAM!!

Dio's body hit the floor, a hole in his head; blood seeped out of it and stained his lifeless corpse. "Consider it done..." said the man. He motioned for his men to dispose the body as he lifted up the roses, they were a seemingly harmless bunch. He smelled their sweet fragrance, "Well...at least he had good tastes..."

Dio had been flogged, his back now wore the same scars Sophia's had, their secret had been revealed to him, and now...He was dead, laying in a brilliant pool of red; if only he could have been covered in roses, it would have been more fitting.

---

Sophia's heart ached as she suddenly awoke in the night. It was cold outside, snow was falling, and the window was fogged. She couldn't see anything beyond it, so she opened it up, there was no trace of Dio.

Once before she had tried to escape and had been caught and beaten, that's when she had first met him; he had seen her in her most vulnerable state, outside in the cold, locked in a cage. He had seen her like that but no explanation had ever been given to him; he simply unlocked it, let her out, and helped her back into her room on the second floor; and no matter how many times he begged, he pleaded, she never went past that window, but tonight was different. Something stronger than fear fueled her. Love.

She slowly climbed out the window, when she noticed something, covered in snow, at her feet. She picked up the bundle to see that it was a bundle of roses; she looked around frantically as she descended the fire escape until her bare feet fell to the cold earth. Dio wasn't there either.

Then she noticed something, this bundle was different from the others, in the middle of the pure-white mass was a single, solitary rose, a crimson one. Sophia stared at it unblinking, it was as if Dio himself were asking her to run away with him.When he first started coming to see her he brought a crimson rose but she had told him she didn't like that color, the color of blood, so he stopped bringing them; but he always said to her, "One day I am going to bring a red rose...It will be the last time I come to this place...When I bring that rose I want you to run away with me. We'll leave it behind and start a new future with only us..."

In a sense the red rose held a promise. "But where!?" she cried as she sank to the ground. "You're not here! Where am I...Where am I suppose to go!?"

A light gust of wind blew up her hair, "I love you..." Sophia looked around. Had she just heard...? "I love you..." it came again, gently within her heart, "Run away with me..." it said. "Let the night take you..."

Sophia's eyes held tears again but they were of an entirely different nature from the ones she used to shed. "Dio...?" sme smiled as she looked at the flowers, "I'm coming...Wait for me..." she understood the pain in her heart now.

"I love you..."

"Yes...Thank you...For everything..." she whispered as she closed her eyes, hugged the roses close, and laid down in the snow.

"I love you," came Dio's voice as Sophia felt a soft hand wipe away her tears, "It's okay...I'm here...It's okay..."