Yet another new story! This one will be updated more often, I hope. I still have a week of freedom.

The sun winked through sheets of clouds, the struggle to shine becoming more strenuous as the increasing threat of rain made the clouds thick with darkness. Unclouded eyes of clear blue stared at what was once a mirror image of their depths in a state of concern. A silent wish, Please don't rain, was aimed at the heavens, but the sky didn't seem to show if the god's honoured the single request and the young girl crossed the street smoothly with lingering hope as she came upon the booth sitting behind a wired fence, it's slightly rusted gates only half open, providing little welcome to civilisation.

Lilly Truscott kicked up her skateboard as she bounced off of it and went over to the cubicle to find a middle aged man sitting inside with a vacant stare. The joyful smile on Lilly's face instantly fell and she moved closer, leaning into the small window to find a surprisingly clean environment containing very little. There was no decade old computer, no food wrappers, no coat rack. The box, as Lilly liked to call it, was empty and it caused a fear to lie heavily in her stomach.

"Hey Blake, what's going on?" she asked with uncovered worry.

"You don't wanna know," he replied grimly, a lost expression crippling his ageing features as he kept a lowered gaze, nervous for reasons that evaded Lilly.

"I do. Please tell me." Reluctant in his response, the man examined his thoughts carefully, needing to pick his choice of words delicately, but his sadness and rage were in a chaotic war, in need of release, and he couldn't hold it in for as long as he thought he could.

"You know how I never profit from this place, Lilly. You knew that someday some government bastard would see this location overlooking the ocean as the perfect spot for something profitable," he said as softly as he could manage. He cared too much about the girl to tell her flat out that the skate park had been purchased.

"No... No, Blake! Please don't tell me you agreed to sell the park!" The desperation in Lilly's voice and the grief she brazenly displayed twisted the man's heart sharply and he looked away. He'd basically just sold a large portion of Lilly's life.

"Sorry, kid. They offered me a check that would keep me livin' fancy for a long time and I knew denying them wouldn't end well... so I just agreed. Today's the last day it's open and I'll even let you keep the key since it's not gonna be any use to me anymore. Don't lock up and don't stay too late, I know your mother wouldn't want that," he said, tossing Lilly the key, but her reflexes were shot. It jingled as it hit the ground and she stared at it with a sorrowful gaze. The last time. It didn't sound right. Lilly bent down, retrieved the key and looked up to see Blake, no longer in the box, watching his skate park for the final morning and when he faced Lilly, she was in his arms, fighting off tears that she didn't want staining her face. She wasn't just losing a part of her life, she was losing the man who had watched her grow up, who had given her his old skating gear out of kindness and tended to her wounds when she fell off and hurt herself. He was like the father she never knew.

"I'll miss you, Blake," she whispered.

"I'll miss you too and you know where I live... but that area isn't somewhere a girl should be wandering around. I'll try visit," he promised as Lilly let him go and made her way back over to her board. She kicked off and Blake walked away from his park and the young lady he had guided as a child for good.

Prayers went unanswered and the sky cried as Lilly cried. She didn't stop skating as the rain drenched her clothes, skin and heart and weighed her down as she rolled over the smooth concrete with little to no control over her board. She fell numerous times and the jolts of pain made her bawl harder as images of her life flashed with the lightning. The concentration it took to keep her balance and have control over her board even when airborne always distracted her from the things she didn't want to be reminded of. Memories were like a brain tumour to her and she knew eventually they'd dig her grave and bury her alive if given the chance. Without the wind setting her free and the bumps and curves of the skate park demanding her full attention, her recollections wouldn't hesitate to cage her in again. She would be stalked daily by past events and she knew running from them for as long as she did was close to a miracle.

Shivering and chilled to the bone by not just the rain, Lilly whispered her goodbye to the park that offered her solace when no one else would, picked up her board and trotted home. She knew her skateboard would be ruined, but it was of no use to her anymore and that thought alone hurt more than the small grazes that striped her white skin with reds and pinks. Water pooled around her soaked shoes as she closed the front door to her empty house behind her. There was no one there for Lilly anymore and there hadn't been in many years. Not even her mother was someone she could talk to, though she was certain ignoring the woman wasn't the right thing to do. She loved her mother, but she couldn't bring herself to dive deep enough into the past to relive what had happened. Lilly ignored any haunting thought and dragged her feet as she sought out the shower's warmth to melt a gradually growing coldness that she hadn't been so painfully aware of in such a long time.

Friendless, secluded, a skater. Such a small description was all that could be supplied for who Lilly was, though it was as precious as the sun to the girl who was not only a stranger to everyone she met, but also to herself.