How long had it been?

Emilynn gazed out into the gray alley. The sun had moved past the small strip of sky that covered her bleak alley, and the cold was settling in. Emilynn pulled her new blanket tighter around her, shifting her body and trying to seal up all of the open spaces inside her cocoon. Her stomach growled miserably, and she groaned in the same manner right back at it. She squeezed her eyes shut. The blackness that consumed her could almost be considered comforting. It was better than those walls. The hideous gray brick that she had to stare at every day.

Inside the security of her eyelids, she began to imagine. She brought on a picture of a huge sun, shining on her through a window where she sat, secure in her own bed and surrounded by a huge pile of luxurious pillows and blankets. She imagined the feel of it hitting her skin. She shivered happily. It was bliss.

Her stomach wailed again in desperation, and a sharp pain gripped her midsection tightly. She took in a huge breath with a moan, grabbing at her stomach. The pain wouldn't stop. She keeled over, laying her head on the freezing ground. The cold immediately stabbed her skull, making her entire head pulse with pain. But it was better than her stomach. Eventually she managed to make the pain in her stomach subside. She sat back up and re-curled herself into her massive new blanket.

She settled back into her imagination, seeing herself sprawled out on a soft, warm bed- No. It wasn't working. She was too cold. Her lungs were freezing. She held her breath, hating the icy feel inside of her body. She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to see only the illusion behind her eyelids. The longer she held her breath, the warmer it got. She smiled in her mind, happy. She lay on her soft bed and listened to beating of her heart. Slowly, the timing of the thumps grew more and more spaced out, and she felt warmer and warmer. Her head started to throb, but she ignored it. The slower her heart got, the fuller her stomach felt. And it felt good.

This is all I want. She thought to herself. Her lungs screamed in protest, but she ignored them. She was happy. She lay in her bed with a smile on her face. It was getting more and more real as every second ticked by. She couldn't feel her heart anymore. She couldn't feel anything.

"Hey."

Emilynn eyes shot open, and her entire body convulsed. She fell forward onto her hands and knees, gasping for air. Claws of freezing cold wind shoved themselves in her mouth, raking down her throat until it felt like ribbons. She gagged down the spears, falling to her side in pain. Her insides burned like they were on fire. She tried to stop herself, but she couldn't put an end to her own choking as her body forced itself to gulp down the pain.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Emilynn suddenly felt huge hands on her. As much as she wanted to, she physically couldn't protest as they lifted her up from the freezing ground and sat her upright. "Hey." The voice said once again, right in front of her face. It was panicked, and Emilynn vaguely felt herself being shaken. Emilynn couldn't see anything. Her vision was swimming with huge black dots. She couldn't focus.

Suddenly, Emilynn felt herself being smothered. She flailed, and only ended up making it harder and harder to move.

"Calm down, calm down." The voice said, suddenly gentle. Despite being terrified, Emilynn found herself doing as it said. She curled herself into a tight ball and stopped moving. Surprisingly, in a few moments she found that she could breath again. Her throat still burned, but the freezing air around her had slowly turned warm and thick, coating her sore hurt throat instead of ripping it apart. When she had calmed enough to think straight, she realized that she had been wrapped tightly in her own blanket.

"So... Are you okay in there?" The voice asked. Now that Emilynn could focus, she recognized the voice as a young sounding male.

She tried to murmur some kind of response, but her voice failed her. The sound she made was nothing more than a raspy gust of wind.

"You're not, like, dead in there, are you?" He asked. She heard a slight shuffle, and then felt what seemed like a very soft poke at her side. She recoiled slightly at the touch. There was a relieved sounding sigh from the other side of her blanket, but no other words were said.

Slowly, she uncurled herself and untangled her limbs from the blanket. She sat as upright as she could manage, and poked the top of her head out from the blanket. She didn't dare the expose any more than her squinting eyes.

The edges of her vision were still dark and specked with strange dots, but her eyes managed to make out the ugly gray bricks of the wall across from her. She looked around, but there was nothing. No one.

"Hello?" She rasped stupidly. There had been someone there. She wasn't crazy.

She heard a throat being cleared, then a moments later: "I'm above you." He said, which a quick, nervous sounding laugh.

She scooted forward, out of her makeshift home, weakly holding the blanket to her face.

"Wait." He blurted. She stopped, for a split second.

"You can't... see me." He said.

Emilynn twisted around as fast as she could manage, ignoring him and glaring at the dumpsters above her. There was no one. She dropped her blanket in frustration.

"W-where are you?" She cried, quickly grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around herself again as the cold air made her bones quake. She withheld the chattering of her teeth as best as she could.

"I just said you can't see me." He said, not seeming at all mad at her for obviously disobeying what had apparently been a request. Emilynn whirled around miserably, tangling herself in her blanket as she tried to locate where the voice was coming from.

"What?" She asked. "Why not?" She gave up on her attempt to find the mystery boy and grouchily looked down at her blanket that was now filthy from being rubbed on the ground so much. She held back a fit of coughs that was trying to crawl up her throat.

There was silence.

"Hello?" Emilynn whispered, despair filling her.

"I can't explain." He said.

The relief that washed over Emilynn was surprising. She was so sick of being alone.

"Okay." She whispered, not quite sure how he managed to hear her. "Okay." She didn't need to see him, she decided. She didnt need to know why he wouldn't let her. She just needed him to stay.

"You promise not to look?"

Emilynn nodded, then, realizing her mistake, whispered: "Yes."

There was a slight bang from the dumpster beside her, and she jumped.

"Well, uh... hi, I guess." He said, chuckling awkwardly.

"Who are you?" Emilynn asked. Her failure to play along seemed to upset him in some way, because his voice seemed deflated when he responded.

"My name's Mikey."

Mikey. Hadn't that been one of the people-

Suddenly it clicked in Emilynn's mind. She knew that the voice had seemed familiar to her. It had been the one from that dream.. or night... or whatever it had been. Mikey was the one who had been arguing to help her. The one that had whispered so close to her closed eyes. Don't worry. I'll take care of you.

"Uh, hello? Did you fall asleep or something down there?" Mikey's question interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh?" She murmered.

Mikey laughed, and it was such an unexpected, happy noise, it almost startled Emilynn. The sound of it brought a warm feeling to her frozen insides.

"What about you? Do you have a name?" He asked.

No, she almost said, surpised by the sudden sarcasm.

"Emilynn." She said instead.

"Emilynn," Mikey repeated. "of course."

Of course?

"What do you mean?" Emilynn asked.

And there was the laugh again. The happiness. "It just makes sense, you know? Pretty girl, pretty name."

Suddenly the image of the letter that she had found in the duffel bag a few days ago came to her mind, and she saw once again the writing on top of it: To the pretty girl by the dumpsters.

"You're the one who-" Emilynn murmured aloud, but was interrupted by an upbeat melody beginning to play from some place above her.

"Shell." She heard him murmer. "Um, one sec, Lynn, 'kay?" She thought he was leaving, and panic swelled in her chest.

"Dude. 'Sup?" He said, and it didn't take much for her to realize he wasn't talking to her.

The name he had called her, Lynn, played back in her head for some reason. As a young child, she had always opted for "Em," or even "Emmy" when she was exceptionally little. That's what her parents- the thought brought pain like a fresh cut across her chest- had called her.

But, now that she thought about it, she liked the sound of "Lynn" much better. It sounded older, more mature. Just like her. Out with the old, she thought, thinking of her young self with a shudder, in with the new.

"Oh, you know, out and about." Mikey answered an unheard question from above her in a nonchalant voice. He was silent, listening for an answer from his phone- or whatever it was he was talking through. Then he groaned. "Aw, Leo, come on!" He whined.

Emilynn shuddered. She had heard a Mikey say something very similar a couple nights ago. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence.

"Fine." Mikey said with a sigh. "You're really no fun."

Apparently the conversation was over.

"Lynn?" He said, using the nickname again.

"Huh?" She smacked herself mentally. She would never be able to talk to people properly. He didn't pretend to ignore how stupid he sounded, instead, he laughed in what could only be described as a grown guy's giggle.

"I have to go... but I- I got you this." There was some movement from above her, and suddenly something landed in front of her feet heavily. It was a dark blue, old looking backpack. She stared at it with surprise. More?

"And, try not to lose it this time, okay?" Emilynn flushed, but he just laughed. "I don't know what you did with all that other stuff, but it's not exactly easy to come by."

"Uh, I-i'm s-s" She began to stutter out an embarrasing apology, but he cut her off.

"It's cool, it's cool." He laughed loudly, and the sound of it once again made Emilynn feel so much better. "Just be careful, Lynn. Okay?"

"Okay." Emilynn managed to say. She was so stunned by him, she couldn't imagine how stupid she must sound to him. If he thought so, he didn't say so.

"Well, I'll see you 'round, Lynn." Despite the cheery sound of his voice, he seemed wistful.

"Wait." Emilynn blurted. "U-uh. Thanks." She said. She could feel her face turning bright red. It had been so long since she had actually had some sort of conversation with people she had almost forgotten how easily she blushed. She didn't forget how much she hated it, though.

"No problemo, dudette." He said. Then he laughed again, and the way it faded away with him told her he was gone.

With Mikey gone, the loneliness seeped back into Emilynn's being. She didn't know at what point she had grabbed her chest, clawing at it the way she did when she could bein to feel herself falling apart. Or at what point she had started crying. She buried herself in her blanket. She couldn't feel the cold anymore. Maybe tonight was just warm.

Emilynn woke up to a bright blue sky. Had she really slept that long? She looked up at the cloudless sky. The sun hurt her eyes, so she squinted and looked away. What time was it? It hadn't been late when she had fell asleep. Emilynn shook her head. She couldn't believe that she had actually lasted through the entire night.

Her eyes landed on the dark blue bag that still sat at her feet. She grabbed it quickly, remembering the way the last one had been stolen. She wouldn't let that happen again. Hesitantly, she unzipped the large pocket.

Just like last time, there was an envelope on top. The outside was blank. This time, instead of ignoring it until last, she opened it first.

On it was an address. And a time.

Meet me tomorrow.

Emilynn licked her lips nervously.

Well, it seemed like she actually had something to do today.

Hi, guys. It's me. I'm back. Half a year later, sure. But I told you I wouldn't give up on you, right? I don't have much to say really, but I've been trying to get back into writing and I figured this story was as good as any to try to get back on track with. I'm so sorry for making you wait so long :c I really hope you enjoyed this chapter as I really did try to get back into it. Please review, I'm dying to know what you guys think of itttt. Reading reviews on my stories really one of my favorite things. I just really enjoy knowing what you guys are thinkingg. Thanks everyone so so much for reading and if you actually waited this whole time for me to post again you are seriously the greatest. Wale, I'll be back soon, hopefully. Byee~