OKAY! Here's another chapter! I hope to update this soon! So... read ahead! And please review! I think you're going to like this chapter...

-Jasmine

It didn't take as long as I thought for me to get to the cabin. I had managed to get a ride with a friendly stranger going the same way. In total I was there, standing before it, in three hours. I felt my stomach flutter when I looked in. The lights weren't really on... I nervously knocked on the door. No answer... I opened it anyways and rushed in.

Empty.

What had I missed? Why wasn't he here? Where else could he have gone? I screamed in rage and fell to the floor. This was not happening. Where on Earth could he be? I threw the picture on the floor. I wanted it to burn. I couldn't stand to see the smiling face of the younger Pony. It sickened me. But at the same time... All I wanted was him to just walk do the stars and come and hug me. Kiss me... I saw something poking out from under the picture. In my hurry had I grabbed something else? I reached down and picked it up. It was another photo. On the back it read, "Ponyboy and Sodapop – Last year at the cottage" There he was, smiling again. In a haze of red rage I ripped the picture in half. I was about to rip it again when I realized something.

I was stuck here with no other clues to where Ponyboy could be. Why not check to cottage?

It was a pointless thought but I was running out of options. I looked at the address on the back, it was actually not too far... just walking I could get there by tonight. But what was the point? Pony hadn't been here, what chance was there that Pony was hiding in a cottage. A cottage of all things! But there's still a hope. I should still try...

…

My feet are in so much pain. I don't think I ever want to walk again. Ever. But... here I was, just in front of the cottage. Pony wouldn't be there though. What's the point? There were no lights on in the house, he wasn't there. I sighed and walked in anyways. I looked around, hoping to see him there, sitting in the dark, maybe lost in thought.

Nothing.

I fought back the tears and turned on my heel. He was gone, and he wasn't ever going to be there again. I looked around at where I was. It was late, and there couldn't be any harm to stay for the night. It was that or be on the streets.

It was small cottage, not much there. There was an upstairs that lead right into the bed room and a small kitchen. It smelled so much like lilac that I was almost chocking. Though after I opened a window the smell lessoned and my fear of suffocating was fixed. There was a stray blanket on a chair and a book under it. I walked over and started to flip through the book. Maybe they had left it there when they went back. Or maybe there was another family spending time in the cottage now. That would be a shame, but hopefully they wouldn't come around while I was there. That wouldn't be a nice thing to explain. I would probably start crying. I sat down in the chair and read the book, turning on a table lamp.

It was a cute book, nothing hard to read. It's was full of bedtime stories. It smiled, even in England I had heard a few of these stories. When Ponyboy was little did he fall asleep to these stories? I could see it happening. I smiled. Ponyboy must have been cute as a little boy, it was easy to imagine him curled up on his mother's lap as she told him a story. Did he plead with his parents to let him staying up just five minutes longer like I had? That would be funny. After an hour had passed I walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. The bed seemed like no one had slept in it for a while so I figured that it was okay and that no one would suddenly come in and throw me out. I laid down on the bed. I didn't bother getting under the covers, it wasn't my home and I would only be there for the night. I looked at the night sky from out the window. It was beautiful, a nice clear sky full of stars. When I had been in Tulsa the stars weren't so clear but now it was just like when I was home. It was nice, and sweet. I feel asleep thinking about Ponyboy. I hoped he was alright. I wouldn't be able to live if he had been hurt. Horrible pictures started to flood my mine. A lifeless Pony, laying dead on the street in a puddle of his own blood.

Pony, beat up and stuck in an ally to die because he couldn't find the energy to move.

Pony, dead with a crazy smile on his face, a bullet hole in his forehead.

I let out a cry of anguish as I tried hard not to think about it. Pony would be smart enough not to let that happen... He wouldn't want to worry his family, worry his friends, worry...

me?

But if he had time to worry about that he would be using his head. Pony didn't use his head, that was common knowledge. But he wouldn't want to worry his brothers, that was why he had wanted to come back the last time he ran away.

But what if he couldn't?

What if Pony had gotten stuck in another murder wrap! What if... what if he went back to the church.

The church would have been a great place to hide! It was a great place to hind the first time! But wait, it had been burning in the fire. It wouldn't do... But then... where? Where could he-

My thoughts were cut short by the sound of a door closing. I tensed up. I thought that no one would be coming to use the house. What if it was a murderer? I quickly looked around the room for something to use as a weapon. In the corner I found a baseball bat. I quickly hurried over and grabbed it. I peaked down the stairs and saw a man standing by the chair looking at the light. Shot! I hadn't turned it off! I quietly went down the stairs until I was right behind the man. He wasn't that much of a man, more like a teenage boy... I raised the bat and struck him in the back of the head. He feel to the ground with an ungraceful THUMP. I smiled at a job well done but screamed when I saw who I had hit.

"Ponyboy?" I whispered in a horrified voice.