I woke up to a man shaking me gently. I stood up quickly and looked at him. He looked to be in his ealry 70s, so I wasn't too worried. "Scusarmi manca la sono ok?" he said, speaking Italian and looking at me with worried eyes.

I tried to remember the little Italian I was tought. "Um...Non posso parlare...l'italiano che la faccio bene...sa inglesi?" I said hoping that what I said was what I meant.

He chuckled a little bit and said, "Yes, I do. Now, as I was saying before are you OK?"

I nodded my head alittle bit. "I'm fine...I just want to go back to america..."

"Running away?" he asked as he stared at the tattoo on my neck. I almost stopped breathing. All I could do was stare at him. "Don't worry my dear, I'm not going to bring you back. In my opinion if you do not want to be with your Master then you shouldn't have to be!" I relaxed a little bit and started to breathe again. "Come on, I'll pay for your ticket home!" I looked at him questioningly, but he only chuckled. "Do you have a place to stay once you get back?" I shook my head no. "I'll pay for your hotel room as well!"

"Why are you being so generous?" I asked.

"Grandson is about your age and he has always dreamed of going to america. I think that you two would be good friends. Do not worry my dear, my grandson is gay!" he explaned as he held his hand out to me. I slowly took his hand and he led me down the streets towards his home. The whole way there I was looking around at everybody, making sure that nobody I knew was following us. I tried to cover the tattoo on my neck as best as possible without being too noticable.

When we finally reached his house I saw a boy that looked to be around my age, sitting on the steps of the house listening to an ipod. He looked exactly like Matt! "Matt?" I whispered as I stopped walking about 10 feet away from where the boy sat. His eyes were closed and his music was on so loud that he didn't even realize we were there.

"What's that?" the old man asked as he stopped and turned to me.

"He looks exactly like somebody I used to know..." I said as I stared at the boy intently.

The grandfather walked towards me and explained in a low voice, "Jake's mother adopted him. The adoption agency said that he had a twin brother out there some where but the woman who adopted him only wanted one. Maybe you knew his twin?"

I nodded my head. "That has to be it...but, Matt never said anything about being adopted..." I said as I continued to stare at the boy.

"He probably didn't know. Jake has never been told that he's been adopted, so please don't tell him, and don't mention anything about...Matt?...to him either!" his grandfather said in a low voice.

"I won't," I said as I continued to look at Jake as if he was Matt. I was amazed. He dressed exactly like Matt. He bopped his head to the music exactly like Matt did. He was even gay like Matt was. I tried to hold back tears as I remembered that matt had passed away.

The grandfather walked up to Jake and and gently took the ear phones out of Jake's ears. Jake opened his eyes and looked up at his grandfather angrily. "I was listening to that!" he said.

'God, he sounds like Matt too!' I thought to myself.

"We have company!" his grandfather said as he motioned towards me. "She is going to accompany you to america. You two are going to have to share a hotel room..." His grandfather continued to talk about the details of the trip we were about to take as Jake looked at me. Jake stood up and walked over to me, not caring that his grandfather was talking.

"Hey, I'm Jake!" he said as he smiled at me and held out his hand. He smiled exactly like Matt did. it was one of those smiles that could make anybody smile by just looking at it.

I smiled back and said, "I'm Kit...Kandi!" I couldn't believe that I was still introducing myself as Kitten to people.

"Kit Kandi...that's a very unique name," he said while he laughed. He laughed like Matt. His face hardened a little bit when he saw my tattoo. I instantly became afraid. He grabbed my wrist and drug me into the house. I was so terrified that he was going to hurt me...or worse...call Master and tell him where I was. He brought me to my bedroom with his grand father following close behind. He slammed his door in his grand father's face and locked it. Then he turned towards me. "Look I don't know how much my grand father paid for you but..."

"No, it's not like that at all!" I said interrupting him. "Your grandfather found me sleeping on the streets...he's just helping me get home to america!"

"Why do you have a collar?" he asked.

"It's long story..." I said, unsure if I should tell him I ran from Master.

"We have time," he said as he sat down on his bed and patted the spot next to him. I sat down and stared at the floor. I was debating on telling him, when he said, "Did you run?"

"What?" I asked, a little surprised.

"Did you run...away from your Master?" he asked.

I nodded my head slowly.

He smiled at me and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell...pinky promise!" He held out his pinky finger, and I intertwined mine with his.

I laughed a little bit as I realized I had nothing to worry about as long as I stayed near him. People would think that he was my Master and they would think nothing of it.

"If you don't mind me asking...why did you run?" he asked.

I slowly explaned to him everything that had happened to me over the past few months.

"Don't worry Kandi you have nothing to worry about anymore!" he said smiling. He stood up and showed off his arms. He barely had any muscle at all. "I'll protect you!"

I started laughing and sarcastically said, "I feel so safe now!"

He tackled me on the bed and tickle tortured me. As he was torturing me he said, "If anybody tries to hurt you, I'll tickle them to death!"