She sat still as stone in the straight back chair as she looked up at the figures who stood around her, all examining her with curious eyes. Her hands were folded in her lap, her hair had begun to dry and there was a towel around her shoulders. What was she supposed to think of these people? None of them could be much older than her, the oldest looking one there didn't even look to have breached the age of thirty yet and herself being about eighteen. At least, that's how long ago they had told her she had been in existence, how many years she had been raised as a tool.

''Red eyes?"

''Silver hair?"

"She's so thin."

"Where did you say you found her Abel?"

The silver haired man simply offered a shrug and a smile before replying, "I didn't find her, she followed me back."

Everyone then turned their attention to the eighteen year old who did nothing but return their gaze. She didn't like them all looking at nothing but her. Shifting uncomfortably in the straight backed chair she glanced back at the man she had followed who just as he had been doing since they arrived, smiling. She was beginning to think he did nothing else.

She didn't give answers or reply to any of their comments and questions, nor did she intend to. There was no reason to tell any of them anything, she barely even knew the man that she had followed here. What was she, a stray dog? She had might as well be the way that they were all talking about her. Maybe she had made the wrong choice in coming here, maybe it would have just been better to walk away from the man and gone back to… That was right, there was no where to go back to. She couldn't very well return to the place she had been running away from in the first place and there was no other place that she could have gone so maybe this wasn't so bad. At least she was out of the rain and despite all their comments, none of them really seemed like bad people.

The man whom she had followed back stood quietly at the back of the group, smiling. She had no idea why he was smiling by he was none the less. He was really a strange person, and the people he knew were even stranger.

It was a little odd. Never before had anyone really cared to pay her a second glance and now there was a group of people looking at her as if she were a picture hanging on the wall. She would have never thought that anyone would ever look at her like that but alas here she sat amongst these people. However; she realized quickly that maybe being a spectral figure in society wasn't so bad. She hated there eyes staring down at her with curiosity and wonder. Not as if she were a picture on a wall but as if she were an odd animal on display and they had all merely come to gawk at her. All of a sudden she felt choked and stifled under the weight of their stares; she no longer wished to be at the center of this group with her every move being watched.

"Abel, how do you come back with someone following you without your knowledge?"

"I suppose I was just distracted with other things."

"I think our first order of business is to find out where she's come from," a man with a pipe held between his teeth finally said after a short interlude. "Where are your parents?"

"I don't have any," she replied simply as she watched a wave of nervous glances go around the room.

"Well where are you living?"

"Nowhere, I don't have a home."

Another wave of uneasy looks circled the room as the man questioning her turned and whispered something to the woman who appeared to be in charge of the matter. Once again, all eyes were back on her.

"Well Caterina, what are we going to do?"

The woman looked troubled, no one could really blame her. An eighteen year old who had only an hour before tried to take her own life had simply shown up on her doorstep. Admittedly it was all a bit overwhelming.

"We can't just turn her away, so for now I suppose she will stay here."

"You don't need to do that," she replied as she rose from the chair, anxious to get away from their watching eyes.

"Nonsense," the man she had followed back here. "What kind of people would we be if we sent you back out in this weather?"

"I don't want to be a burden to anyone anymore," she sighed as her eyes fell to the floor.

"Don't be silly," another man said with a smile.

"Then it's decided," the woman whose office they were in as she sat tiredly behind her desk, rubbing her temples.

"Follow me then and I'll show you where you can stay."

She looked up at the smiling man who was motioning for her to follow him, which she did without hesitation, wanting nothing more than to be away from the prying eyes of the others. The building seemed even larger now that she was walking through the large hallways. Silently she wondered to herself if they would able to find her here, for some reason it seemed like the last thing she would do.

"Here we are!"

The man's voice broke her from her thoughts to let her know they had reached their destination.

"I really don't want to be any burden to anyone," she replied softly.

"Don't be silly," he replied lightly. "It's no problem at all."

"Why?"

"Why what?" he asked curiously.

"Why are you all being so kind to me? I'm a complete stranger."

"I'll be back to get you soon," he smiled as he turned down the hall and walked away, waving kindly over his shoulder.

Now she stood alone in front of the door not sure entirely what to do now. Slowly she pushed the door open to reveal the room it concealed. It was a nice room, not large not small and it had a very warm, almost welcoming, presence to it. Never before had she been in place such as this. It almost made her feel, happy, as if she had never really been feeling emotion till now.

Looking at the bed that rested against the far wall something caught her eye. Slowly, as if expecting something to jump out at her at any moment, she carefully made her way across the room to the bed. Picking up what she had seen she saw it to be a simple dark blue nightgown. She looked down at her still drenched clothes and allowed a gentle sigh to escape past her lips.

Quickly she was changed out of her wet dress and into the nightgown, which felt much better then her previous wet garments. Now, she really didn't know what to do. Sitting down on the bed she looked around the room, trying to decide what her next course of action should be. In doing this she caught a flash of her own reflection in a mirror on the wall on her right.

Rising to her feet she walked over to the mirror, trying to remember the last time she had looked into one, if ever. It was odd looking in only to see herself staring back. They had all been right, everything they had said.

She looked odd, her eyes the color of freshly shed blood and her hair silver like the moon and hung to her waist. Her skin was like porcelain and her skin looked as if it were a size to small for her skeleton, she looked stretched and skinny. The thin straps of the dress she now wore only seemed to amplify how thin her shoulders really were.

Sighing again she looked absentmindly at her hands, as thin as the rest of her. There was so much those hands had done, would these people really allow her to stay here if they knew what she had done, what she was?

A sharp knocking pulled her from her thoughts and pulled her attention away from the mirror to the door.

"Come in," she called as she turned to face the door to see the same smile she had seen all night.

"Are you hungry?"

Slowly she nodded as she realized she had not eaten anything all day. Seeing him motion for her to follow him she quickly did so, not wanting to lose him around any turns.

Moments later it seemed they were both sitting at a long wooden table, her staring at her plate as she slowly picked at the contents while he, for the first time since they had met, had her fixed with a serious expression.

"Is it true you have no family, relations or home?"

She nodded, not taking her attention away from her plate, she didn't want to have to meet his eyes.

"In that case," he smiled sheepishly at her, "you'll just have to stay here for now."

Her head instantly snapped up, unsure whether or not to believe him. This was all so new to her, people who seemed willing, almost happy to help her not knowing the first thing about her. No one had ever tried to help her before.

"No, I couldn't ask you to do that..."

"Don't be silly, it's no problem at all."

He hadn't stopped saying that all this time, like a broken record, since he had met her. That was proof enough that he had no idea what she was.

"You don't understand, I'm not what you think. I'm a monster..."

"What are you talking about," he replied gently, "you don't look like any monster to me."

It was as if her mind had detached from the rest of her body. She didn't here her fork clatter against her plate as it slipped from her grasp or his questions if she was alright. He could never know how much those words meant to he. For the first time in her life someone had said that to her, for the first time someone had said she was not what she had come to accept she was.

"Are you alright?"

He sounded worried. Unsure really how she had pulled her mind and body back into sync she looked up at him and for the first time in a long time she smiled. Words could never describe how happy she felt at that moment, how glad she was that she had chosen to follow him back from the bridge, and oddly, how happy she was that she was alive. This morning she had been completely resolute on killing herself and now that seemed almost out of the question entirely. She…wanted to live. She wanted to see what the next day held and, with the simplest thought that she would see him again tomorrow she wanted more than anything to see it come. For the first time in her life she truly wanted to live on just the way she was.

"Yes," she answered finally, smile still on her lips. "I've never been better."

He smiled before speaking again. "I don't believe I caught your name."

"My name in Annabel."

Never before had she been so glad to willing tell another her name, something she had kept like a close guarded secret. It was something people usually didn't need to know about her, an insignificant add on that was only to be used on selected occasions and of course when they had told her too. She had never liked people to know her name, a sort of defense she had put up against the world, and slowly those defenses had begun to crumble away since he had saved her from jumping from the bridge. Since she had met him, some hope for the world had arisen in her and made her…almost glad.

"My name is Abel Nightroad. I'm very pleased to meet you Annabel."

Holy hell this chapter took freaking forever to get up, though I haven't exactly had the best luck. Half of this was written on my mom's handheld while we were once again trying to save my dying computer, which we managed and I'm ecstatic. But anyway here is a long overdue chapter and hopefully the next one will come a lot quicker than this one did. Enjoy!!! (p.s. review! They make me smile)