I looked down the empty street that Edward had led me to. It was pitch black; we had been travelling into the night. We were standing in a deserted alleyway that was framed by high brick walls, but that was all. There was nothing else to mark that I had ever been there at all. “What is this place?” I asked quietly. Edward took my hand and peered at me carefully. “This…is where we found you. You were lying here.” He pointed to a specific patch of concrete ground. I knelt down and looked closer, running my fingers over the cracks. My fingers came back covered in blood. It was human blood, but I knew that it was still mine. I looked back up at Edward, whose lips were set in a harsh line. He pulled me up into his arms, and I buried my head into his shoulder. “I don’t remember it at all,” I whispered hoarsely as he rubbed my back. “Well then we’ll keep looking. We’ll go around this whole neighbourhood – and the next if we have to.” I took a deep breath and stepped back, hitching a fake smile onto my face. “Thanks.”

The next stop on Edward’s list was the flat he had found as my old address. It was actually the building on one side of the alley. Edward pointed to one name on the buzzer, a ‘Maria Samson’, that he said was my old name. We started to scale the stairs, but were soon interrupted by a door opening. A tall young man with sandy hair and dark eyes stepped out with a confused expression. “Sorry to have disturbed you,” Edward said graciously, “We didn’t intend to wake anybody up.” The stranger was staring at me intently. I would have felt uncomfortable, but I was staring back. Something about him just seemed a little too familiar…

“We’ll just be on our way,” Edward said. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me away, but I didn’t stop staring at the man until we were out of sight. “I think I knew him,” I breathed. “He would agree,” Edward murmured, “He thinks you look like a paler, hotter version of that Maria girl who used to live upstairs. And that was a direct quote, just so you know.” I frowned, thinking hard. “I think he might have been my landlord,” I said wonderingly. Edward stopped us outside a particular door and paused for a minute. “I can’t hear any thoughts from inside the apartment, and that guy’s already fast asleep,” he explained in a hushed voice. He concentrated once more and then forced the door open with a muffled banging noise.