I visited Hayley again. I couldn't just leave her there, starving. That would mean I was a rude, heartless person, which I wasn't. But she wasn't there. There was no trace of her. None. I couldn't sniff her out, and it wasn't like I had her phone number if she had one. Panic started creeping in, and my heart rate was getting faster and faster as minutes went by. Where was she? What if she was hurt?

I try and think of all the places she could be, and realised I didn't know anything about her. She was a stranger. But it felt like I knew her. It felt like I had known her for years. Decades even. Yesterday I hadn't memorized her scent, because I just assumed she'd be here a second time. I will never make that mistake again.

And then it hit me. Her scent. It hit me like a wave, coming to shore. I ran. I ran to where her scent was the strongest. But I couldn't see her. She was no where. What if I never see her again?

But there she was. Underneath a tree, huddled into a ball. Just like yesterday, she was shivering and her skin was all red from the cold. Her eyes were closed, letting me see her veins running from her eyelashes to the end of her eyelid. I wanted to wake her up, so that I at least knew that she was alive and not dead.
Hayley moves from one side to the other, multiple times, before I get the courage to whisper her name.

"Hayley." I ask, shaking her shoulders. She starts to talk, but I say her name again.
"Hayley, wake up." I say. She slowly opens her thin eyelids, and rushes out of her ball she had formed with her cold,frozen body. Her veins on her collar bone were more visible, and her bruises were the slightest bit lighter. I had taken the cream from Dylan, so that she could use it against her bruises.

"How did you find me? If I'm on your land, I promise I'll leave. I''ll get going." She says, while getting up and scrunching the blanket in her hands. I was hurt, does she not remember me? But I looked at her outfit, and saw she had my t-shirt I brought yesterday on.
"Hayley. It's Alec. From yesterday?" I prompt. She closes her eyes for a couple of seconds and then smiles.
"I remember! Sorry... I've got a bad memory. Ho-How did you find me here?" I could see her flattening her hair down and making a fuss about what she looked like.
"That's not important... anyway, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you go home?" I suggest. She bites her bottom lip. It was when she didn't answer, that I realised she was trying to hold back tears. The bottom of her chin was shaking, and I could see her grip on the blanket getting looser and looser. As soon as the tear rolled down her blushed cheek, she wipes it away, clearly embarrassed.

"I need to go." She says, breaking off into a run. I take off after her, and grab her hand, making her almost trip. When she fell forward I got a long look at her feet. They had cuts, bruises, and scars. One of her toenails had obviously been wripped off, and her other toenails had dirt piled underneath.

She was broken. She was hurt. And I was going to change that.

What did ya think?
-Lily