You spot a rather disheveled man dragging a stop sign down the side walk. There is still chunks of cement stuck to the bottom. You cover your mouth with your hand. Then suddenly his head turns towards you. He stops dead in his tracks. He drops the stop sign, which smashed into his foot. He bites his lip hard and lets out a muffled scream, but quickly shakes it off. He walks across the street towards you, a slight limp in the foot that was just crushed by the sign.

As he gets within a couple of feet of you, he is instantly struck by a car, and flies several feet into the air. He lands hard on the pavement. The driver of the car jumps out, but the man quickly jumps to his feet, and waves the driver off. In the same manner as though they had just brushed arms walking passed another. He took another couple of steps towards you, clearly struggling to even stand.

He then smiles, blood begins to fall from him clearly injured lip, and starts to speak.

"Hello there Darli..."

His eyes then roll to the back of his head, and he hits the ground hard.

Melinoe was just taking a walk to catch some fresh air before yet again having to go inside and face her boring home. She does not know how to react when she sees the maniac in front of her, and covers her mouth to downplay her laugh. Looking to her sides to make sure her imaginary friends saw it too, she whispers and asks them if they had seen it.

She waits a moment to see if the man gets up, and admits to herself she feels quite weird looking down on him. 
“Lunatics everywhere,” she mutters to her friends before walking towards him and kneeling next to him to check on him.

”Sir?”

She carefully places her hand on his shoulder and shakes him gently to see if he is alive, but is interrupted by her friends swarming around them, making so much noise in her head that she gets up in a rush and yells loudly at them to disappear and go to hell. 
“Ah. Finally some silence!” she says to herself, while watching her friends becoming silhouettes and disappearing around the corner.

She kneels down next to the man again, tilting her head a bit to get a better view.

”Are you alright, sir?”

Gunther slowly opened his eyes and say her leaning in front of him. It was her! She was real! It wasn't a dream! He grinned and tried to speak, but there was too much blood in his mouth. He simply nodded his head. Nodding his head, he grimaced. What was he? A simpleton? Can't speak? What is she thinking? This simpleton is staring at her like a puppy dog, nodding senselessly. No.. 

He swallowed whatever was in his mouth, and grinned menacingly. 

"I am absolutely in my prime miss. Honestly, I am overcome with relief. I was worried you were a dream."

He jumped to his feet, hoping she didn't hear the obvious cracking from various parts of his body. He bowed slightly, another loud crack. 

"My name is Gunther, and I must say, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you miss?... miss?"

Melinoe wrinkled her nose and stood up at the same time as he, wondering why he was thinking she was a dream.

Was he dreaming about her? She wondered and stood still without saying a word, till she realized and started blushing very faintly. Out the corner of her eyes she could see something white getting closer and closer, so she turned her head quickly and gave them a fierce look, telling them to leave. Frustrated she ran her hand through her part white, part black hair, mostly to get it out of her face but also as a mere habit that she found a bit of comfort in.

"No fucking privacy in this world." She said under her breath, before turning back to the man.

After hearing his name she gave him a faint smile. Gunther. Not bad, pretty modern yeah? she thought to her self, before reaching out her hand for a greeting. Most people would judge her for getting so close to a stranger she had just met, but to her it made much more sense to make sure he was unarmed.

"Melinoe. Pleasure to meet you," she smiled.

Gunther was in a trance before her. She was absolutely drop dead amazing. He didn't really hear anything she said. Once again, he felt like a fool. He could literally feel the drool coming from his mouth. He quickly wiped it, and then remembered, right... blood, not drool. Thank god! As he snapped out of her trance, he just caught it. Her name.

"Melinoe.."

He repeated softly.

His eyes then shot wide open, his privileged upbringing in his early child hood, the constant tutoring, the constant lashings. The Greek history lessons. He thought he was in the presence of an angel this entire time. No... no angel.

"Nymph?" 

He whispered before realizing he actually said it aloud. His eyes locked onto hers.

She laughed loudly and felt even more confident hearing the laughter around her. As she raised her arms her imaginary ghost friends came running towards them, circling them, chanting something in the old language, making her feel powerful. In her eyes she had a crazy look as she locked them on his, it was truly a magical night, she thought.

”Nymph? Now you are insulting me, dear.” She placed her hand on his shoulder and took a turn around him, lifting her hand but tracing his chest and around him, before ending up in front of him again.

”I am Melinoe, bringer of nightmares and madness,” She winked.

Melinoe burst into laughter and smiled sweetly.

”Okay no, but thats what I’m supposed to be.” 

Her friends ran around them, telling her to quit lying but she waved her hand and told them to disappear.

”Enough about me, tell me about you. What’s with the sign?

Gunther shivered slightly feeling her touch as she circled him. He didn't know what it was, but there was something about her that just made him feel at peace. A rare thing in his life.

"Nightmares and madness." He said with a grin. "I can certainly understand how you could drive a man mad, that's immediately apparent." He paused and then grinned even wilder. "Then again, I suppose the moment you leave, there's no telling how much the longing for you to return would haunt my dreams."

He shrugged. "Perhaps it is true then."

"Wait hm? Me?"

His mind raced, he was caught completely off guard, he felt that he only had just scratched the surface getting to know her, and now she wanted to know about him. 'I suppose that's fair.' he thought to himself.

"Well, let's see. My name is German I think. I grew up in a rich family in the south, until I was a teenager, then I got sick of the fake behavior everyone has. So I beat my father to death with a brick, stole my mom's coke she kept hidden in the bathroom, snorted all of it. Then I woke up in New York City and started a whole new life. Pretty average childhood right?"

Melinoe stepped closer to him, and looked up to reach his gaze.

"Gunther.. Yes that should be German," she nodded and checked with her friends who nodded along with her. "But that sounds lovely," she said while smirking. "What is the new life about?"

She felt oddly attracted to the weird man, and could not help but stand and talk with him. She eyed him up and down and talked to her friends, "Not bad.. Not bad at all." but sent them weird looks when they agreed, who were they to have an opinion?

After a while, she noticed he had ignored her question regarding the sign, and started smirking.

"I'll ask again, whats with the sign?" she said with puppy eyes, and reached out for it. "Can't have a lady dying of anticipation now, can we?"

Gunther was completely awestruck by her. Every single thing about her, was it even possible. Could she feel the same about him? Could this be love at first sight. It was just like a fairytale. He snapped out of it.

"Umm.. yeah. So basically my new life is whatever I feel like. I spent my entire life doing what was expected, being socially acceptable, and hating my entire existence. So, now.. I do whatever the hell I want."

He leaned in while placing his hand on the back of her neck, kissing her passionately. He then pulled back away from her, smiled and continued.

"Oh right, so I found this perfectly good stop sign at an intersection. It took a couple hours to get it out of the cement, but once I got it free I figured hell. I bet I can pawn it for some cash right?"

He flashed her a devilish grin.

Melinoe stood in awe after the kiss and looked him straight in the eyes. No one had ever dared to do such bold a move to her before, and she was shocked. A few seconds passed while she let him finish talking about the stupid sign, till she grabbed it and swung it in his direction.

”How dare you!” She said as it hit him in the side, with enough force to make him tumble and she took that as an oppotunity to push him down, so he was now laying down on the ground.

She threw away the sign and crossed her arms for a few minutes, waiting for him to get up, but the devilish grin he had on his face before, was still apparent as he looked up on her.

”Now this! This is a man.” She said out loud while nodding to her friends all running around hyping her up, “take note darlings.”

A little while passed till she layed down, on her side, next to him and gently grabbed his chin so they were facing each other. With a dreamy look in her eyes she kissed his cheek and moved closer to him. Could this really be the one? She thought while looking at him, trying to understand how he made her feel the way she did.

Gunther was in such an absolutely blissful state of mind, that he couldn't feel his body giving him clear signs that he was in terrible shape, first the knock on the foot, then getting hit by a speeding car, now having a sign slammed into him. His body was in shambles. He felt her lay next to him, and with everything he had left, he lifted his arm around her. He tried to turn to face her, but couldn't. So instead he used the last of his energy to say a few words.

"Don't leave me... because when I wake up from this.. I've got something to ask you."

He then slowly closed his eyes and passed out, a stupid grin on his face even while unconscious. 

To Be Continued...