"Wait here."

I didn't need her to tell me twice, my feet stopped automatically and I stood holding my bag as Rachel continued walking through the car park, I didn't know why I had been told to stay behind but I welcomed the pause.

I couldn't help but look back at the boardwalk across the way, which was now in the process of shutting down and people looked like they were beginning to walk out. The sound of breaking glass had me turn back quickly to see what had happened with Rachel, she beckoned me over towards a car she had just broken a window into the back seat of.

"Gimme your bag and get in." She ordered, I handed her the bag and crossed quickly to the passenger side, I guessed she didn't have permission to take the car. My suspicions were confirmed when she got in, "Keep watch." She told me.

I turned in my seat and looked out the back window, there were distant silhouettes of people getting into their cars but they were a few rows away, and soon enough she had the car started. She reversed so quickly I shot forward against the back of the chair, whirling around to right myself in the seat before she accelerated forward. I grabbed for my seatbelt and fumbled to get it secure as she pulled straight out onto the road, a car blaring its horn loudly as she cut it off.

"You're going really fast." I warned her, she glanced at me which didn't make me feel any better, she would have needed to keep an eye on what was up ahead.

"This is coming from a girl who hangs out with a motorcycle gang?"

I winced a little at the reminder of Paul and the others, "Not anymore." I answered, to which her lips pressed together in a grim line. The silence that followed was sufficiently awkward and I switched to staring out the window, watching the familiar streets I had grown up walking along were disappearing one after the other.

I tried not to notice the sign welcoming people to Santa Carla that we were now passing in the opposite direction than intended by the greeting, I caught a flash of the bright writing before it too was gone, along with whatever I had left there.

"Do you wanna put some music on?" Rachel asked, gesturing to the radio and cassette player in the car. I turned the dial and went through the stations, finally settling on one playing the latest hits in the charts. I hadn't had much time to keep up with whatever was fresh out, usually I'd have known about every new song there was, but now the songs were unfamiliar. I found myself missing the older songs Paul would play on the Rock Box in the cave.

I shook my head and drew my knees up to my chest, leaning back against the headrest and closing my eyes, willing myself to go to sleep. It was obvious staying awake would just mean I kept thinking of things that would remind me of them, I needed to keep my head clear.

It didn't help much to be asleep, my dreams were filled with fleeting glimpses of dark eyes and hair, soft lips and strong arms.

The sound of the car door slamming a while later had me jump awake, I rubbed my eyes quickly to clear the fogginess and saw Rachel looking at me with an apologetic expression, "Sorry."

"It's fine." I assured her, sitting straight in my seat, "What happened?"

She searched her pockets, "Oh I had to make a quick stop. Good thing is we can probably stay somewhere decent tonight."

With that she pulled out a pile of crumpled notes, holding them out to me. I opened both hands to catch the money and set it on my lap, "Guess I know where you got this." I mumbled, there was only one way a vampire acquired quick cash- from whatever bodies they had just drained of blood.

"Count that, will you?" She asked, I quickly smoothed the notes out and counted them, using the street lights we passed to help.

When I had counted twice just to make sure, I grabbed the hair tie that had been holding my hair in a ponytail and used it to keep the money rolled up and together, "There's about three hundred there. Did you find all this with one person?"

She shook her head, "Four people."

"Four?" I echoed in disbelief, "Wow."

"I hadn't been feeding great in Santa Carla, didn't want to attract a lot of attention. That was me making up for it, also I knew we needed some money so I just kept going until I was sure we had enough. We can even afford two rooms if you wanted your own space."

I nodded in agreement, "That'd be great, it's been ages since I've had a hot shower."

She chuckled, "Me too. I'll get some food for you as well."

"Thank you." I replied with sincerity, handing her the money before combing my fingers through my hair, trying to detangle it.

A while later I sat under the showerhead in my own little room, the warm water rushing over my skin and washing the hotel shampoo from my hair. I got out feeling a little more refreshed, my hair extra dark red as it hung in a damp braid secured with the hair tie Rachel returned once we checked in, she had taken the remainder of the money across the road to a pizza place for some food.

I sat on the bed wrapped in a soft towel and lifted one of my bags onto the bed, I didn't know which bag had which clothes so I opened the first one I could grab. I was surprised to find the clothes neatly folded and packed, not haphazardly thrown in like I would have thought. I carefully took put the first things I could find that would substitute for pyjamas, a pair of denim shorts and a grey sweatshirt. I had just hung the towel back up in the bathroom to dry when I heard knocking at the door.

"Hey." I greeted when I opened it to see Rachel on the other side, holding a large bottle of coke and a large pizza box. She set them both on the bed whilst I switched the TV on, quickly flipping through the channels for a movie to watch.

A Clint Eastwood film seemed to be the best option, I joined Rachel on the bed and we sat in silence watching as Clint Eastwood told a woman who looked like a nun why he didn't want to get married, Rachel let out a snort at his snarky reply.

"Man speaks the truth." She said, lifting a piece of pizza from the box and taking a bite, "I haven't had pizza in so long." She said wistfully.

"I couldn't live without it." I replied, her previous comment on the film stirred up a question in my mind and I thought for a second about how to ask it, "Did Max ever wanna get married? I mean, if he wanted a happy little family and all it would have made sense to be married."

She nodded at my explanation, "I thought about that too, he never really mentioned marriage and I had always wondered why not seeing as he strikes you as the traditional type. But I guess there was no way Max would have been able to get married without someone finding out he was probably a couple of hundred years old."

"Could have gotten someone to forge stuff."

She shrugged, "I guess he didn't really consider it that important, as long as he had a family he probably didn't care if it was official or not."

I went back to watching the movie and eventually we ran out of pizza slices, I paused after takign a drink of coke to look at her, she was watching the movie but seemed uninterested, so I closed the bottle and turned to face her on the bed.

"What was my real father like?"

She sat still as a statue for a few seconds and I thought about telling her to ignore the question when she went to speak, "Rebellious and extremely handsome." She summed up, I smiled and she returned it a little before looking back at the screen, "Turns out he wasn't great with responsibility, had a smart mouth which meant keeping jobs was tough. Things had fallen apart between us by the time he found out I was pregnant so I guess he didn't feel there was much worth staying for."

"Guess not." I agreed, "Do I look like him?"

She nodded her head, "Your face reminds me a lot of him, same natural good looks. Your hair's a mystery though, we both had dark hair so I don't know where the red comes from. When you were born it was really dark like mine, I would have sworn looking at you know your hair has been dyed."

I shook my head, "Never. Everyone at school kept thinking I was dying it too."

"Probably jealous." Rachel smirked, "Did you have many friends at school?"

"A few, some girls in my class I hung around with but they all either went to college or moved away when we graduated. There was one guy friend I had, Nick, he stayed and we got close."

"What happened with him?"

"He didn't like-" I stopped short, trying to find away around admitting when it came down to it I stopped being friends with Nick because of the guys, "We just drifted apart. He hung round with a group I didn't really like so we just ended up not hanging out anymore."

She gave me a sympathetic look, "That's too bad, but I guess it would have been one less goodbye."

"I didn't really say any goodbyes, didn't get much chance." I answered, lying back on the bed and staring at the ceiling.

"It's better that way." She said to try and comfort me, I could only nod in response.

Eventually she grabbed the pizza box and the now-empty bottle of coke and said goodnight, leaving me with the remainder of the film but I didn't feel like watching anymore. I switched the TV off and pulled the sweatshirt over my head, it was too warm in the hotel to sleep with it on, I was too used to having to protect against any chills in the caves.

I picked up the same bag I had been searching earlier and took my time going through the clothes, finally picking out a thin white tank top that would do the trick. I was about to close the bag over when I spotted the material of whatever had been under the tank top and lifted it out, unfolding it out on my lap and running my hand over the soft red scarf.

Dwayne's scarf.

I knew it had found its way into my bag when I had packed stuff in my house to bring to the cave, but I was confused as to why it had been put in with my stuff. He had given it to me but he had the opportunity to take it back and he didn't, and there was no way it was accidentally put in with how tidy everything had been packed.

I kept the scarf with me and closed the bag before setting it on the floor, climbing under the covers and switching the light off, the whole room was in darkness now and I listened for the sound of waves but instead heard only a few passing cars every few minutes. No beach, no caves, the bed was soft and fresh, nothing like the mattress that had been in the caves, which was stiff at first but became more comfortable the more I slept on it.

The whole room felt foreign, I wasn't used to it anymore, my own space and in an actual room. It felt a little confined and stuffy, I got up to open the windows and let some cold air in. It didn't smell like sea salt, and I was once again reminded how far from home I was.

Climbing back under the covers my fingers reached out and found the scarf again, I hugged it to my chest and closed my eyes, finally falling asleep.

Author's Note: Okay nobody kill me! I hope you enjoyed the chapters and the next ones will be up next weekend. See you guys then!