A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Love you guys! I'm also glad you realized it was this story despite the tittle. I won't change it again! Also I will always, always, update ASAPP (as soon as physically possible). Just so you know. I never hold out on you guys.

Disclaimer: If you're looking for Stephenie I suggest two universes over.

CHAPTER FOUR:

TOWN

I walked down the street. I was the pedestrians around here. I strolled past the grungy stores and the antique shop windows. The sidewalk was covered in a thin coat of dirt and it was worse for wear. Scars and marks across the blemished surface. This town fit me. It was unique and cold and it was not the most populated place in the world.

It was a bit cloudy and the dull drizzle, I'll admit, was very vexing. But the green... yes, the green was this towns prominent feature. I had never seen this much green before in my life. As foreign as it seemed to me I relished the alien way it hung over the branches. It coated everything in an eerie way that belonged in a horror movie, but the difference from home was astonishing. It made me forget about my mother for a moment. A wonderful moment.

I walked up the street and down another. The stores I entered were all small. The cashiers reading as they waited for someone to approach the counter all looked at me as I came in. Their eyes steely and curious. These were the shops that always had the same kind of customers. Two kinds: the tourists and the regulars. I was obviously not stopping in to buy. The dress had not a single pocket and my hands were empty. I was not welcome.

But I enjoyed the quaintness that could only come with rows of knick-knacks on dusty shelves. One store had a remarkably cute coin purse fashioned from a child's sock. Another a mug labeled WASHINGTON in friendly letters that hugged the drawings of trees and apples and the ever present Space Needle. It was wonderful.

I skipped all the way across town before I realized I had nowhere to go. No home, no one. I had been abandoned. I sat in the small park to sort out my thoughts. There was a circle cut back from the trees. In it was a bench made from helpful Eagle Scouts that I sat on, eager to be off my feet.

No family. I mumbled to myself.

No shelter. I shook my head. This was ridiculous, I would never last a day alone in the heart of town. The woods were unpopulated, as cold as they were. In town it was all a matter of trying not to get caught in someones yard. I could imagine the conversation they would have over the telephone. The police and the unfortunate person who looked out their window to find a shivering stranger.

"Hello?" The woman asks frantically over the phone line.

"Yes, what is the matter ma'am?"

"There's a person sleeping in the middle of my backyard."

"We'll take care of that right away ma'am."

Yeah, I thought. All I need now is to get caught by the police. They would undoubtedly notice if I lied to them.

Okay, so orphanage if I sleep in the town. I ruled that out, along with the woods. I wasn't up for another visit to the hospital visit despite the kindness Dr. Cullen bestowed on me during my last near death bout. Relapses were not written into my day planner.

What to do? What to do?

I was stuck with no choice.

Of course, I thought, I could always sleep in an alleyway.

I shuddered. Gross.

I decided that until the sun had fully set I would stay in the small alcove of a park.

The sun I missed. It was nothing but a infinitesimal shade of lighter gray in the clouded sky. A needle in an endless haystack. I probably wouldn't have even noticed the difference in color if I had not been staring up so long. It almost instantly feel behind the trees. I decided to find a place to spend the night while thin beams of light still graced the streets.

I walked through town. It looked less beautiful with with every passing second. Surely nothing to the optimistic regal outlook I had on it earlier. The rain was pounding and I found little security in the night.

When I finally found a alleyway it was between two abandoned buildings with heavy padlocks guarding the door. Rust clung to the the steel sides like ivy. A smelly dumpster was to be my protector from the street and wind. A barricade from a small portion of the heavy rain. I was already drenched.

I dug into the grime behind the dumpster, soiling the dress the doctors daughter had thought to get me. It pained me to see it be destroyed so tragically. I swore I would make it up to her someday. When I get a job and a life.

I could see eyes red as rubies peering at me from the shadows.

Rats!

This was so beyond my comfort zone. Rain I could handle. I could even handle Hypothermia it seemed. But at rats I drew the line. I stood and stumbled to the refuge of the flickering streetlight. Scurrying sounded from the general area of the dumpster and I saw the flash of a soiled pink tail against the filth.

I fought to repress a shriek. I looked around. I was in an abandoned part of town. The shops all had boarded-up windows and the KEEP OUT signs blared at me from where I stood. Only one shop seemed to be open at nine. It was at the street corner. It seemed to be the first of many lively shops further up town.

I walked towards it, like a moth blinded by the light I tripped and staggered up to it. Beyond it I found a restaurant named In Place with a closed sign marring the stained glass door. Quite a strange name, but I decided to walk into the first shop rather than to search for another. A neon pulsing sign declaring that it was open. I raised my foot and walked through threshold to the sound of tinkling bells. And without a reason in my head I stepped right into Newton Outfitters.