Star's POV

I open my eyes, only to shut them immediately again. This time I open them slower, to adjust to the bright lights. I look down, and see that I am tucked tightly in white sheets on a tall bed. There is a needle in the back of my left elbow, and lots of irritating noises coming from machines to both sides of me, but mostly my left. I look to my right, and there sit's the boy.

"Good, your awake." He says to me, smiling. I look at him, trying to think of what to say, but then I become a lot more dizzy and plop my head back on my pillow.

"W-what happened?" I ask, still utterly confused on my location as well.

"Well last night around nine thirty I was walking home, when I saw some guys lunge at you. I screamed to alert people around me, but then they stabbed you in the stomach and ran." He has an apologetic look on his face. "Its my fault. If I didn't scream, then they probably wouldn't have stabbed you."

"Don't take blame." A man says as he walks into my…room. He is in a long white coat and black pants. He has square glasses on and is carrying what I think is a clip board. "You did the best you could without a phone. Because you screamed, people came-people came and called us and the police. The criminals are behind bars and," He looks at me, "Because you came to the hospital we were able to save this young lady's life." I look at both of them.

"Wait, what? Did I, almost die? Was I dead?" The man chuckles slightly and looks at me again.

"No you didn't die. You might have, though. You lost a lot of blood, and needed a blood transfusion. But your blood type surprisingly didn't match up with any of the ones we have here. This kind boy here offered to donate his blood. We doubt it would work, but it was a perfect match." As he says the last part, a look of confusion enters the man's eyes. He slightly shakes his head and says to me and the boy, "Well, call me if you need anything." With that, he steps out of the room.

I take a better look at the room. It has mint green walls and a floor that was so white that a cloud looks like black mold in comparison. "Thank you." I say to the boy, then look at him and smile. He returns the smile and says,

"My name is Toboe. I live just about two blocks south from here." As he says his name, I see vivid images of him in his past life run through my head. Instinctively, I grab for the orb on my necklace, but nothing is around my neck! I look over at Toboe, wipe the worried look off my face and say,

"Nice to meet you, Toboe. My name is Star."

"The doctor told me last night that you would be able to go home today around one pm. Where do you live? I can have my parents take you, or if they're busy, I have money for a cab."

"Well, actually, I don't have a home." His warm smile fades into a worried frown.

"You and your family live on the street?"

"I have no family. My only friend left town about five days ago. Right now, I'm alone. In fact I don't have any money, either."

"That's horrible! You can't just go back out on the street." He gets up out of his chair and paces in the room for about two minutes, then turns to me with a small smile and says, "Hey, why don't you come stay at my place? Giving your situation, I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind." I take a second to think, when I hear the voice say,

"As long as you have the necklace, you will be safe. Don't use its powers, however, until you have all the old wolfs together in the same place."

"Thank you." I reply to Toboe, and the voice as well. His smile grows wider and he says,

"I'll go let the doctor know that we're ready to leave. I'll take you to get some food, because from what I hear, hospital food stinks." Right as he is about to leave the room, I ask,

"Do you know where my necklace is?"

"Oh," He walks over to a little table on my left, its view hidden until I sit up. He grabs it and holds it in the air, "Is this it?"

"Yeah, thanks!" He nods and then walks out of the room. To do what he called, 'checking me out,' I guess.

The taxi car stops outside a little building. I discretely sniff the air to see what food is inside. I smell steak, pork, chicken, and lots of other yummy foods.

"This is my favorite restaurant. I like to come here with my dad." Toboe says to me. He opens the front door and lets me go in first. A tall man in a black suit with a white thing hanging from his waist says to Toboe,

"Hello Toboe, would you like your usual table?"

"Yes please." The tall man leads us to the back of the building and puts large rectangular shaped things in front of me and Toboe. "Thanks, Kurt." He says to the man, whom nods and walks off. I mess with the rectangle-thing, flipping it apart and back, over and over. As Toboe looks up from his rectangle-thing, I open mine and pretend to be reading it. "Do you know what you want?" He asks me.

"I don't care, as long as it has lots of meat." He nods at me. Then the tall man comes back and asks,

"Do you know what you would like to order?"

"We'll both have the New York T-bone special with the dipping sauce platter." Toboe answers.

"And to drink?" The tall man asks.

"I'll have the Mango-Chill smoothie." Toboe says.

"Oh, umm, I'll just have that too." I say to the tall man. I can read simple things, but the rectangle thing has so many words, all so small, that I can't make out a single one of them.

"Let me get your menus." The tall man says, taking the rectangle-things away from us.

About fifteen minutes later, the tall man comes back with the food and drinks. While he was gone, Toboe asked me about my life, and since I obviously can't tell him the whole truth, I asked him to tell me about his first. He finishes as the food is put down in front of us.

I stab the steak with my fork, taking a big chunk off. I stuff it in my mouth and easily chew through it. I swallow it quicker than I'd like. But famine grips at my stomach so harshly that I swallow the food almost whole, not able to enjoy the wondrous flavors. As we eat a loud SLAM sounds from the front of the restaurant and I hear the tall man, Kurt I think is what Toboe called him, talking to them. Trying to get whoever has walked in the restaurant to leave.

"Please leave. You are disrupting all of our paying customers." Kurt says strictly.

"Well…well maybe we're people too." I hear a man reply, his voice shaky and distorted. It reminds me of the way my friend Kira talks when she would come back from being with the humans at what are called bars.

"Yeah, were celebrating…my…return to town. Don't be…such a stuffy ass." I hear a voice say, all too familiar. The group laughs. I slam my hands on the table and head towards the front of the restaurant.

"Where are you going, Star?" Toboe asks me as I angrily march to the front of the building.

"Excuse me, but I need to see to the issue." I sharply jerk my head at the now visible group of people. I reach the group and yank the arm of a younger girl. She has black hair. Her left eye is aqua and her right is sky blue. She is wearing a blank tank top, her white midriff jacket slipping off her right side. Her pants are white, gray, and black that reach as far as her calf. Her black converse are plastered in mud and the right shoe has no laces. Her first night back in town and Kira is already completely drunk. "What's your problem! When did you get back? You know I hate it when you drink!" I struggle to not yell at my friend.

"…Hold your horses. Everyone deserves to have fun." She leans in closer and whispers in my ear, "Whatever helps you fit in, right?" She straightens up, and smirks at me. My face turns red from anger, and I slap her across the face.

"Stop it! Just stop it! While you were off 'having fun' with those complete strangers, I was in the hospital getting surgery!" Kira's face grows long, and she hugs me. She starts to cry a little and says, "I'm s-s-so sorry! Next time I'll take you with me!"

"And drinking?" I croak out. She is hugging he so hard that I can hardly breath. She realizes this and backs off.

"I'll try." She says, wiping her eyes.

"Oh." I break my attention from Kira, and look around for Toboe. I spot him by Kurt, with shocked written all over him. I pull Kira over to where he stands and say, "Kira, this is Toboe. He paid for my medical bill and my dinner here tonight. He's very nice and offered for me to stay with him." I smile at Toboe, and Kira gives him a friendly nod. "Toboe, this is Kira. She is my best and only friend. In a way, she is also my guardian." He gives a friendly nod back to her. She crinkles her nose, but only I seem to notice. Then Kira says to me mentally,

Do you smell that?

The food? I ask

No, there's a weird smell coming from that boy, Toboe. I take a smell, small enough not to be noticed, at Toboe. I smell exactly what Kira must be referring to.

"That is the smell of a wolf's dead soul." The voice says. "Only other wolfs have the ability to smell it's foul stench."