Epov

All I was doing was wandering around the town, bored out of my wits, and trying to block out the thoughts of all the shoppers bustling around me. It was late December and snowy, the thoughts of all these people were filled with last minute Christmas presents and wondering whether they could get to the shops before the closed and whether it was worth buying a card for someones Auntie Mabel, whom they'd forgotten. There was a time when I would have wondered who Auntie Mabel was but I was well past that stage now.

All of this was so boring. It was the same every year. Esme's excitement, Rosalie's impatience, Emmett's enthusiasm and carlisle's unfailing understanding as to why Alice and I simply could not participate in the Christmas preperations. Alice normally ended up sitting in the attic to escape the "fun" downstairs while I ended up wandering the streets outside, wishing I could go somewhere where these things were just not celebrated and Christmas day was just aother day on the calendar, somewhere where Christ had not descended to rid the world of its sins. Somewhere where I could get away from it all.

I was in the middle of wondering what Esme would try to put together to cheer us up and fill us with the festive cheer when something made me stop in my tracks. A smell. A pleasant, floral smell, not that much unlike the humans surrounding me but still different. Sweeter. What was it? It wasn't vampire, nor was it were wolf and it was not attatched to the now familiar painful sensation of bloodlust. Where was it coming from?

I searched through the maze of thoughts, searching for the mind of the strange creature who was the source of this smell, but I came up blank. Nothing. This was not good. If I couldn't read it's mind then I would have to look up to find whatever it was and I didn't want to do that, not when i didn't know what it was. Who knows, they might have some kind of power to tell who (and more importantly "what") was looking at them and I didn't want to put myself or my family in danger. Yet I had no choice. It would be dangerous not to know what kind of creatures lived near us especially not when I had no idea whether said creature was an enemy or not. So, very slowly, I raised my head...

The movement did not have quite as dramatic consequences as I had been anticipating. I had to scan the crowd to find her. A small head with lots of long, dark hair and, as she moved her head to glance at the shoes in the window opposite, large brown eyes. Could this be the creature I had been almost scared of a few seconds ago? Yes, I was sure of it because as she had turned her head I had caught a waft of that beautiful smell again. I wanted to laugh.

Then I stopped myself. Her appearance suggested that she was sweet and innocent and all of that but couldn't she be pretending? Could this be a part of some master disguise and she was really a huge danger to all of the people in this square, including myself? Yes, it sounded absurd but I could not afford to take risks. That is why I decided to follow her.

* * * * *

This girl at least was not Christmas shopping. She was immersed totally in shopping for winter clothes and all I did was stand around in womens stores (invisible of course) while she tried stuff on. After an hour of this I was forced to conclude that, even if she wasn't human (and she definitely wasn't), then she did not appear to pose a threat. However I was incredibly bored with the monotony of all the preparations for the festive season and I had nothing better to do so I decided to dedicate my holiday to following her. A mission, I told myself, not stalking, a mission. Ok I suppose I was becoming just a bit obsessed. This wasn't really neccessary, the girl was tiny and I could probably have taken her out even if I wasn't a vampire but still it was safer. And as I said, I had nothing better to do.

So I spent the afternoon following her around the town. I was invisible to all the humans hurrying around us and the girl hadn't noticed me yet so I assumed she couldn't see me either. I was becoming rather over-confident and was walking closer and closer to her as the minutes passed. Once or twice I even waved my hand in front of her face! Of course it was childish but I'd never followed anyone like this before and, well, to be honest it was kinda fun!

At least it what was until she suddenly stopped in her tracks and spun around to face me. I halted immediately, not even breathing, though I knew she hadn't seen me. Here eyes were not staring at me but wandering all over the place, looking. But then she caught my eye and stopped. Oh God. I started to move backwards and she moved with me, her hand stretching out towards me...
I ran.

I didn't go far. I just whizzed past her and stopped a few metres away looking in the opposite direction I had been before, but still she shouldn't have spun with me! I'd moved totally silently and at vampire speed so there was no way she could have known. Yet she did and I was sure of it. I was lucky though. I had broken our gaze and she no longer knew where I was. Lost again she stared wildly around but I dodged her look and eventually she began to move again, this time in the direction of the car park. I followed but more cautiously this time.