I sat on the stairs of the library, with my lunch in my lap. That woman at the soup kitchen had looked at me like I'd had three heads, but you know what? I really didn't care. I was always the youngest girl in those places. It wasn't my fucking fault that my parents died when I was little. And it also wasn't my fault that my foster parents were degenerate abusive assholes who decided that it was better for a sixteen year old girl to live on the streets than in their care. So, there I was, sixteen and penniless, taking shelter in covered front stoops and eating at food pantries and soup kitchens. I couldn't go to school anymore, because I couldn't afford it, but that was fine by me. I'd known of people who had lived on the streets like this for their entire lives, and had interesting stories to tell about it, so...I think I could do it. Maybe I'd become one of those standard issue street corner crazy women! I already seemed to look the part. People either thought I was a vampiress or a goth queen. No, it wasn't my fault that I was born with black hair. Or that I had really fair skin.

Not to mention the recent revelation I'd come to about myself. No, it wasn't one of those Lifetime movie things where I came to grips with the fact that I was a lesbian or whatever. I very much liked men. Not that I'd ever had a man to speak of, but...you get what I'm saying. But, I'd realized...that I could move things. With my mind. No, seriously. I was like, a bona-fide telepath. As if I wasn't enough of a freak already, add on a few mind melding powers. Seriously, at times, I didn't blame people for thinking I was a freak. And not only that, but...I could read minds when I wanted to. Yes, that was me. Piri Sullivan, freak of nature to the max. I sighed and finished the last of my turkey on wheat, standing up and going to take a walk through the park. That was how I passed my days sometimes. Just, walking through the park and watching in jealousy as happy families walked by. Kind of a miserable existence, but it was the life I led, so I'd deal with it.

I took a seat on a park bench and glanced up at a couple, my age, holding hands and standing at the pier of the Patoka Lake Park. Jealousy coursed through my veins, as, like I said, I'd never had a boyfriend to speak of, aside from stupid little kindergarten swing set kisses. I took out my notebook from my handbag and started to draw what I saw before me. The girl, the standard carbon copy of Britney Spears, and the boy, a true blue Ken doll, were holding hands and staring at the water as it rippled. I got halfway through the drawing, then scribbled it out with my sketch pencil and tore the page from my notebook, crumpling it and throwing it into the trash. I didn't need fake shit like that tarnishing the pages of my sketch pad.

Another glance around and I saw a young woman...well, she was probably older than me, but that was beside the point. She was pushing a stroller with what looked like a one or two year old baby, and she stopped and sat on a bench a few feet away from me. I listened closer and heard the baby crying, running a hand through my hair and grinning a little. Not because the baby was crying, but because the mother seemed...she seemed like a good mother. But she couldn't seem to get the baby to stop crying. I thought for a second. There were a couple toys that I carried from my childhood in my handbag, and I wondered if it would be creepy if I walked over there and offered one of them to the baby. I noticed that the mother was staring at me now, and I turned away sheepishly. Well, that was smart, Piri. I told myself. Make yourself stalkery-looking, why don't you?

I was about to get up and move on when I heard the baby's cry getting closer. Maybe she was just going to walk on by, but when I saw her sit on the bench with me, I looked at her shyly. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "I didn't mean to stare. I just...I love babies..." I felt heat rising to my cheeks, and I was sure that they were 9,000 different shades of red.

I saw her smile and look down at the stroller. "Her name is Cadence," she said as she took the blanket from the baby girl's face. I looked at her, now that she was closer, and saw that she had the most adorable hazel eyes, and a mussed mop of brown hair. Her skin was a bit of a lighter tone than her mother's, and I smiled a little. I glanced back up at her mother to see her looking at me. "...and mine is Grace."

I smiled as I looked at the mother, Grace, I now knew, and bit my lower lip. She was beautiful, too. But not in the standard, carbon copy, Britney Spears way that the girl by the pier was. She had curly black hair, skin the color of caramel and beautiful brown eyes. It made me wish I could be pretty like that. "Piri Sullivan," I told her. I noticed the baby still crying and reached into my bag to pull out a small, plush dog with felt eyes and a thread nose. No dangerous parts or anything. The only problem was that it might have been a bit dirty. "Do you mind?" I asked Grace. I watched her shake her head and leaned over the stroller, holding the toy out to the baby, smiling a little. "Here you go, sweetie. It's yours to keep..." I told her, and watched as she stopped crying, immersing herself in poking at the felt eyes of the dog instead.

Grace smiled at me and showed me an unbelievably grateful glance. "Thank you. She'd been crying since Minneapolis and I couldn't get her to stop..." she ran a hand through her hair. "Note to self, get more baby toys..."

I chuckled. "It's no problem...I figure I've grown out of it anyway, right?" I smiled at her. She wasn't creeped out by me. That was nice. I was about to say something else, when the sky seemingly tore open and it started to downpour all over Grace, Cadence and I. "Oh no...you better get her out of the rain..." I said as I put my sketch pad back in my bag.

Grace nodded her head and lowered the top on the stroller, smiling at me. "Thank you again, Piri," she told me. "Really..." she said, and rushed off toward a blue Mustang at the curb.

I smiled and nodded, but it faded when she ran off. I stood up and rushed over to the library again, taking shelter from the rain. I pulled my wet jacket tighter around me and curled into myself, staring out as the cars went by, pausing when I saw that blue Mustang pull up in front of me again. Grace got out and looked at me, standing beside the car so she wasn't too far from her baby. "Shouldn't you be going home?" she asked me.

I shrugged and bit my lower lip. "Um..." I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say to that. "I...don't exactly...have one," I stated simply, going shy again. She was virtually a stranger, but something about her...I just found her...trustworthy. I didn't think she'd laugh at me or make me feel like I'd done something wrong for it. And I didn't know why. She stared at me like she wanted me to keep going, so I did. "My mom and dad died, and I ran away from the foster home I was in because they weren't exactly...suitable."

She beckoned me down to the car. While I usually didn't get into cars with strangers, Grace seemed really nice. And I felt like I could trust her. I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked down to the Mustang, taking a seat in the passenger's seat and looking at Grace as she sat on the driver's side. "Why don't I let you stay in the hotel room with Cadence and I tonight? It's not the Ritz, but it's not the library stoop, either..."

I stared at her in shock and smiled wide. "Really?"

She nodded and pushed her hair behind her ears. "I'm not exactly rich, so it will be minimal, but it's a warm place to stay and it's a cold night out..."

I nodded and bit my lower lip. "Thank you...seriously."

The next few hours were awesome. Grace and I talked—got to know each other, and God help me, I think I may have made a friend. I was acting like a girl should, giggling and talking about hair and clothes—which was something I'd never done in my life, but...it felt good. Grace looked at me, once she tucked Cadence in. "So...can...I tell you something? Without you getting freaked out?" she asked me. I nodded and she kept talking. "John would kill me if he found out that I was telling you this, but...I don't know, I feel like...I can trust you. I..." she paused, and she looked like she was trying to think of the right way to say something. "What's your opinion on, like, spirits and demons and evil things like that?"

I looked at her and shrugged. "Well...I don't know. My dad used to tell me when I was little that...my mom had been killed by something really weird. Like...she was pinned to the ceiling of my nursery, and she caught on fire. He said that it wasn't anything human that did it...and...my dad...I believed everything he ever told me..." I told her, not mentioning what I could do. I wasn't sure how she'd take that. "What, are you a paranormal investigator or something?"

She looked at me like I had two heads. "You...could say that..." she shrugged. "Only...I...God, you're gonna think I'm so..." she took a deep breath. "I kill them. Things like that. Bad spirits and demons...I exorcise or kill them..." she told my shyly. "And...I...have a friend...his mom died the same way. When he was four. His dad...he taught me how to hunt—demons and stuff," she said, taking a glance out the window.

"Was your friend...Cadence's father?" I asked her, and watched her turn and look at me like I'd read her diary.

"H—how did you—I didn't..."

I shook my head. "My turn to show you something...strange. Promise me...you won't freak out..." I pleaded with her.

She shook her head. "It...takes a lot to freak me out, Piri, I promise."

I looked around the room for something small that I could move, and noticed that Cadence had wriggled out of her blankets. I pointed at the baby. "Watch the blanket..." I said, and focused all my attention on the blanket, my eyebrows furrowing and my eyes narrowing. And, without moving from the chair, I pulled the blanket back up and tucked it around the baby. I saw Grace look at me in disbelief once again, and I looked around the room again. "Um..." I looked at my handbag, and focused all my attention on it instead. Slowly and carefully, I pulled the strap open, then opened the top, taking out my notebook and a pen, and setting them on the bed.

"Wh—what...how are you...doing that?" Grace asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "With...my mind. That's not it, though. Um...think of a color. But...don't say it aloud," I said, and I watched her look up at the ceiling, seemingly in thought. I closed my eyes and tried to channel into what she was thinking. And sure enough, she was thinking of a color. "Red. No, blue. No...white. No...green. Grace...can you focus on...one color, please? You're giving me a headache."

She stared at me. "You...read minds?"

I nodded. "So, are you going to tell me to leave and don't ever talk to you again now?"

She shook her head no. "No. I hunt ghosts and demons, remember? Takes a lot to freak me out. Actually," she stopped for a second and took a seat in a chair across from me. "I was going to ask you...since you...don't have anywhere to go, or any reason to stay here? Would you like to travel with me? Watch Cadence while I hunt?" she asked me with a smile. "I'll pay you weekly. It won't be much. But...you know."

I think my jaw hit the floor. A chance to get out of Indianapolis? And it seemed to just fall from the sky? I smiled wide and nodded fervently. "Really? You mean it?" I asked, watching as Grace nodded, and throwing my arms around her in a grateful hug. "I'd love to," I smiled wide. I thought of it. Warm places to sleep again. People, seemingly nice people, to spend time with every day. A friend. In one day...thanks to one person...my whole life just...seemed to take a turn for the better.

And I had Grace Desrosiers to thank for that.