Toulouse.
Leon pondered over the name. It always reminded him of little girls with pigtails, running out from school eating cheese in fields surrounded by grazing cows. He always did have a vivid imagination.

In any case, he looked at the name on the board again. Did he want to do this? He would be leaving his life in Nice behind- along with all his pleasant memories of friendships and childhood. It was not the first time he was making this decision. He had left Nice twice before- yet he had always returned. He was never strong enough to leave Nice forever. Neither was he strong enough to leave Reese behind. 

He shut his eyes in a moment of remembrance. He knew there was never any point in blocking the memories. He liked thinking of times past- and at times of despair and depression- those times actually supplied him with cheer.

Her dark hair cascaded down her back in waves and her eyes peeped out from underneath the soft fringe. Her liquid gray eyes had that look- that dreamy faraway look that she always had when she saw him. Her small nose sloped down gently and curved up elvishly. Her smile- her lips- they had no words to describe them. At times- her smile would creep up slowly and she would crinkle her eyes and her cheeks would tinge with a ruddy pink. Other times, her lips would be pursed in a mysterious fashion, with her sunken cheeks and her eyes which scrutinised the scene before her. 

He never saw her anymore. It was strange. She never talked to him anymore either. Yet he frequently visited her grave. He sat beside the tombstone, often talking for hours on end. But she never replied. He'd cry sometimes at the silence following his words. But then he'd gaze into the sky and see her face staring down at him. A look of distress- of mystery and of pain was set upon her face. Her look always drove a knife into his heart. She'd look so dismal, so unhappy, that he'd often physically slit his wrists to punish himself. 

He first tried to run away. He first took a train out to Paris. He considered taking up a job- starting a whole new life. Yet the nightmares clutched him tight. They surrounded him, entangling him in their tendrils of torture and pain. The memories engulfed him within a few weeks. He could sleep no longer, nor eat. He talked to no one- and being in a new city, no-one knew him. So he returned. To her. She smiled down at him wickedly once more- causing him pain. It was then that he realised that she enjoyed his pain. She enjoyed his suffering. She was a demon.

Yet a demon which still pleased him in a perverse way. Thinking of her alive was enough pleasure to sustain his strength enough to carry on through the day. But it brought no other comfort. It was the sole means of his existance now. 

The second time- he tried to flee to Japan. He married a native in an effort to stray away. He shook his head. Did he actually think that he would be able to run away from the forces of evil? She was a beautiful woman- young and healthy, and exceedingly vivacious. She was struck by a speeding truck on the way to work one morning.

Leon knew it was Reese's demons. Her evil power and influence. He returned to Nice, subdued. His mother uttered a profane string of words when she sighted him. She called him a servant of Satan and turned him out of the house. Everytime he approached her, she would desperately attempt to ward him off with a crucifix and a pot of holy water.

He couldn't blame her. After having been doused thoroughly with holy water, he walked down the street to the nearest clothing outlet. There, he slunk into a changing room and sat for about an hour- studying his relection. His blond hair was now a sandy brown and hung well past his chin, straggled and unkempt.