The sun had dipped below the horizon by the time Mike pulled into the small parking lot of the rundown little motel, coming to a stop beside Audrey's little blue compact. He frowned as he stepped out of his car and zipped his jacket, immediately not liking the idea of a pretty woman staying alone in a dive like this, but he still wasn't idiotic enough to voice the opinion.

He'd learnt that the hard way with Jessica that one person's chivalrous knight was another person's chauvinist pig.

Mike reached up and smoothed a hand through his hair and stopped, realising that with how many times he had done the same in the last half hour he probably looked like he had been electrified. Smoothing the wrinkles from his jeans, he knocked on Audrey's door.

After a moment of Mike shuffling his feet on the doormat, Audrey opened the door. She was in simple blue jeans and flat boots, and her shaggy black hair was pulled into a neat twist at the back of her head.

"Hi." Her eyes seemed to dance as she smiled.

After a moment Mike managed to dislodge the lump in his throat.

"Hi." He sounded decidedly more squeaky than she did.

"Let me just grab some stuff and I'll be ready." Audrey stepped away from the door, affording Mike a brief look inside her room. The bed looked only slightly slept in, and a full backpack sat in the corner. A well-thumbed book sat on a forlorn desk. Nothing else appeared to have been touched. Mike frowned slightly.

Audrey shrugged into her long jacket before piling her wallet, keys and phone into her pockets. It struck Mike as odd with the ease the woman moved, like she was all too familiar with packing up and leaving.

Running.

Mike shook the thought out of his head. You've been watching too many movies, Newton.

Audrey caught his strange look and frowned. "You okay?"

"Fine." Hands in his pockets, Mike gave a lopsided smile, leaning casually against the doorframe. "I guess I'm not used to staying out this late on a school night."

Audrey's sweet smile took a slightly wicked bent. "Oh, I'm not making you play truant, am I?" She asked innocently.

"It's okay. I won't turn into a pumpkin until twelve."

She quirked an eyebrow. "I better make sure to have you in bed by midnight, then." She smiled innocently before flouncing cheerfully past him to the car, leaving Mike standing there, speechless.


The restaurant was hidden away from the main hub of the town, or what you could generously call the 'main hub'.

It was like Forks was stuck in some sort of time warp, nothing seemingly having changed since Mike had walked out of there at the end of high school, with a heart full of childish enthusiasm and a naive determination that he would be the one to bring about change in his hometown. He sighed. It wasn't until he was on the outside looking in that he noticed how oppressive and stagnant the town truly was.

Audrey gave him a strange look.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't mind me, I'm just depressing myself."

"Way to make a girl feel special."

"What? I didn't mean you! What I meant was-" Stop talking, Newton. "So, what movie after dinner?"

"Something with blood and explosions and car chases. Maybe a zombie."

"Baby, where have you been all my life?"

His date gave that megawatt smile again. "So, I suppose I never thanked you for fending off that sleaze on campus."

That almost felt like another lifetime ago. "I'm not sure whether to accept that when I know it just made me look desperate." Audrey smiled and Mike cocked an eyebrow, amending himself. "Is there such a word as desperate-er?" He stabbed a chicken-laden fork in her direction. "Besides, I don't know many girls that would go out with a guy they've known collectively for about a day. Well, any, actually. I'm sure those girls exist, but I've never personally known any, for some reason."

"Maybe you're not easy enough."

Mike grinned. "Do you think I need to practise?" He asked, with mock-seriousness.

She just raised an eyebrow.

"So, you're a long time Forks-er? Forksite? What's the term?"

"Eh. Take your pick. There are plenty of names I personally like to use."

"You aren't too happy with your town, then?"

"Eh, it has it's uses. Nothing really changes, though, nothing really happens. You know?" You definitely have a way with words, you twit.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You sure about that?"

For some reason, an image of Edward Cullen popped into his head. "Why wouldn't I be sure about that?"

Audrey shrugged. "From what I've noticed, small towns are notorious for their secrets."

Mike laughed somewhat nervously. Not long ago he would have said with utmost certainty that there was nothing whatsoever strange in this town. He used to be so absolutely sure...

"So, did you find what you were looking for on campus?" He asked, changing the subject, not liking the track his thoughts were going down. "You're taking classes or something?"

"Not me. I just had a little research to do." Her eyes flitted away briefly and Mike's hand tightened around his fork. A strange feeling was starting to bubble in his gut, and it wasn't the chicken. His gaze wandered up over her shoulder staring through the plate glass window of the restaurant and into the darkness beyond.

For a second, he swore he saw a glimpse of a silver Volvo drive smoothly past, and his eyes narrowed.

"So, tell me about you." Mike sat back in his chair, placing his cutlery on the edge of his plate.

Audrey shrugged slightly, a little too casual. "There's not much to tell. Born in Chicago, mom died when I was little."

"Sorry." Mike murmured softly. Open mouth, insert foot.

"Travelled a lot with my dad growing up. He taught me to find even the smallest wonder wherever I was. That everything was special in some way." She smiled fondly at some long-ago memory.

"Army brat?"

She hesitated before answering. "Not really."

She left it at that, and Mike didn't push.

"So what brings you to sunny Forks?"

Audrey cocked her head. "What makes you sure it's not for the lovely weather?"

Mike smiled and glanced back toward the window. Something was moving swiftly across the street, but he only saw the blur. Audrey frowned and turned around in her chair, searching for whatever had caught his attention.

"Whatever you're looking at, I hope it's fascinating." She said dryly, turning back to him. "I didn't realise I was boring you that much."

"Don't mind me, it's just my ADD acting up again." He joked weakly, managing to tear his eyes away from the window, swallowing down the bitter taste in his mouth and forcing back the feeling that something was shadowing them.

Something.

Small towns are notorious for their secrets.

"What about you? Your mom owns a business, right?"

"What about me? Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, she does." He blinked. "Me, I suppose you could say that I'm the invisible man."

"Huh?"

"You know, nothing to see here, move along." Mike's tone was unintentionally self-deprecating, and judging by Audrey's little frown, she heard it. "Only child, divorced parents. I suppose I was popular for a while in school, though for some reason everyone expected me to have the intelligence and personality of a houseplant. And I seem to get a lot of Golden Retriever comparisons. Sexy, huh?"

"I like Golden Retrievers." Audrey said mildly.

For a moment that actually stung. His brow twitched in annoyance before smoothing with a practised ease. "I suppose I should be thankful that I eventually moved up the evolutionary ladder in the first place." He joked, masking his brief hesitation.

"You should. I seemed to get stuck on the 'startled squirrel' level in middle school and never really progressed from there."

Mike laughed, but with her big eyes and the restless, twitchy movements of her hands, he could see why Audrey would have been dubbed so by her peers. He coughed, immediately feeling bad for finding it funny.

"Sorry."

"So you should, you rotten poodle." She sniffed primly.

"Hey, I'm a Labrador. And that's Mr Labrador to you."

She smiled at him, and raised her beer. Mike had been willing to buy her wine, but Audrey didn't want anything too pretentious. Said wine was for business lunches and church.

"Here's to the furry four-legged quadrupeds of the world. May the haters never get us down."

"Amen to that." Mike tapped his bottle against hers in a toast. "We wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction."

The next moment, the entire town of Forks was plunged into darkness.