Goosebumps rose on her arms as she felt the fleeting touch of cool metal on her arms. The jacket she wore was hardly enough to keep her from shivering in her spot. There wasn't a place in the city that wasn't being kissed by the coolness of winter.
After finding the tabs pulled up by the Winchester boys, Seventeen had made the conscious decision of leaving. She didn't care that she had no memories, only that she didn't lose everything (including her memories) just to be murdered by two maybe psychotic men. God only knows what kind of people searches for that kind of gruesome murder.
It was only once she got out of that town did she realize that the same town that she had run from was the same setting as the murder.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or maybe the Winchesters wanted to sightsee the place of a murder.
Either way, Seventeen refused to stick around long enough to find out.
"When's the next bus?" Seventeen questioned, looking around the small building. The woman at the train ticket booth gave her a sweet smile, told Seventeen an answer, then handed over a ticket after Seventeen had given her money.
The small station was hardly filled with people. It was Seventeen, the woman in the booth, and a couple of other people. Most people were still sleeping, or simply weren't ready to deal with the world yet.
There wasn't enough time in the day for Seventeen to escape from the Winchester brothers. It was probably going to end up being one of the stupidest things she's ever going to do, but it was needed in the face of it. She was a coward for running away from them, but she would hopefully find it was for the better. Murder does not seem like the pleasant way to go.
A woman sat down next to her, earbuds in. Seventeen now had someone to be social with, act like she belonged, but she wasn't going to start a conversation with anybody. If people like the Winchesters exist, who knows who else is out there.
"Hi," the woman next to her finally said. "I'm Mara."
Seventeen's eyes flitted to the woman and found that the woman was already looking at her. With a quick glance back to her lap where she had previously been keeping her eyes, Seventeen finally greeted the woman back.
Pressing her lips together because of the awkward tension, Mara looked away from the face of Seventeen. "So... it's cold out, huh?"
Name, Seventeen realized. This woman wants a name that she didn't have. Quickly finding one in her head, she spoke whatever name came to her.
"Mia," she quickly said, making Mara's eyebrows raise. "My name's Mia."
A smile quirked Mara's eyebrows as she held out her hand to Seventeen. "Nice to meet you, Mia. I have a feeling that this is a start to a very great friendship."
"I have a feeling that this friendship will end as soon as I board a train in two hours," Seventeen laughed.
Mara laughed along with her, and Seventeen briefly wondered how Mara managed to do it. She felt she hadn't laughed in centuries, yet it only took a few sentences for Mara to have her laughing. At the moment, she didn't care. Maybe this friendship would end when they boarded the trains, but for now it would blossom.
"Two hours? I board my train in two hours, too. My family didn't want to wait on me. Said something about having to meet up with my aunt."
Seventeen licked her lips, trying to come up with another lie. Mara was making her laugh, but it was necessary to lie to her. "I'm actually travelling right now. I don't have any family through here, just passing through."
Mara's eyes widened at the mention of travelling, glittering with what seemed like galaxies of hope and wonder. "Traveling? I've always wanted to! Tell me where you've been."
Thus, Seventeen delved herself and Mara into a web of lies that seemed like they had some sort of truth to them, like they were familiar to her. That wasn't possible, though. She remembered, let alone remembering that she took a trip to Switzerland for the summer before going to the Caribbeans for the winter.
Time seemed to fly by as Mara and Seventeen exchanged stories, one's true, one's fake. Mara seemed like such a genuine person, Seventeen began having difficulty lying to her. She wanted to divulge all her secrets to this girl, but she knew she couldn't.
When the train came after the two hours came up, both girls were found to be standing up and stretching.
At the same time, they questioned each other about standing up. Both laughed when they found they were both boarding the train that would take them to the great city of Chicago.
Boarding the train together, they sat next to each other, picking back right where they left off. Memories of the tabs that Seventeen found pulled up on Sam's computer were quickly pushed into the back of her mind as she filled empty places with the light of Mara's stories.
For a brief moment, the Winchesters filled her mind. Would they wonder where she went? Would they notice she almost depleted them of all their cash? She didn't take any of their multiple credit cards, the amount of which they had made her suspicious. Nobody had a need for that many. It was only their money that she took, and that's all she needed. Until she found somewhere she could create a life for herself under the pseudonym "Mia" that she adopted, she would pickpocket and perform petty theft for. It was simply the only way at the moment.
A concerned look from Mara brought her back to the present, and the girl once again had her laughing.