It was a lovely summer day, the day that I finally lost the ounce of patience I still had left inside me. The sky was blue and feathery clouds were whisked across it slowly by the wind. The sun shone bright on the pavement of the gross city streets I unfortunately called home. The cars were noisy as usual, and occasionally, I could hear the shouting of street fights and rod rage through the living room windows. A lot of bad had happened that day.

            I had simply had enough.

            I made up my mind in a matter of minutes and decided I would be better off homeless than in my toxic home. I had to get away, even if it was only for a few days or weeks. I had to take a chance – so I did. Simple as that.

            I was nervous, of course. I knew that I would be in deep shit if I ever had to return home again. I was shaking a little as I packed a bag with my most valuable – most needed, more like – possessions. I packed my computer (where would I be without my writing?), my favorite hoodie, my favorite book (Animal Farm), a snack for the road, and whatever bits of my hope and pride I could scrounge together. This was going to be rough and I knew it.

            It was easy to leave. My family was so busy keeping track of each other, they didn't even bother to wonder where I was going. It was midday, and a nice day for a walk, even if I wasn't quite going for a walk. I started on my way, hopeful and a little but scared. Ten minutes and I was in the main city, out of the slums. The rest of my day I spent turning street corners, window shopping, and avoiding confrontation – especially with policemen who could potentially take me home. Then I would really be in deep shit.

            On and on I walked, all the way across town, till my feet ached and the heat of the day wore off and most of the people emptied off the streets into their homes.

            Homeless.

            It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was homeless. It saddened me to think it had really come to that, but at least it was better than living in my overcrowded, chaotic home. Did they notice I was gone yet? Probably not. They never seemed to care about me. I would have ended up killing myself if I had to stay there any longer. I made the right decision, I told myself. But honestly, I wasn't too sure.

            Darkness fell on the city, and I became too scared to walk alone. Too many bad things could happen at night. So I found an alleyway that had a roof over it and was lit by lanterns up at the top and I laid down on the bench there. I used my laptop case as my pillow, shutting my eyes. It was uncomfortable as hell...

            Time passed and I couldn't sleep I was so scared. So many bad things could happen to me way out here... I cried some, then continued trying to sleep after I had eaten half the food I brought. I felt more alone than I ever had in my life, and that was saying something.

I must have somehow fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, I was woken by a clattering of metal. I jolted awake and looked around me. It didn't take me long to remember everything that had happened earlier and where I was – It also didn't take me long to notice what had made the crash. A trashcan had toppled over.

            I got up slowly, my eyes wide with fear. I could hear rustling inside of the trashcan, and my heart beat fast. I picked an empty wine bottle off the ground from where it had rolled out of the trashcan and held it up as a weapon. Hopefully, I could scare the stray cat off. I loved them, of course, but the feral ones could give me rabies and I was honestly just not up for that after the shit day I already brought upon myself.

            Then, when I was only a meter or so away from the can, I heard a trilling sound and the creature backed its way out of the trashcan. As soon as I saw it, I froze.

            It wasn't a cat.

            Its ears were rounded, a black mask of fur around its beady black eyes. It was little, with a black nose and a big bushy tail. It looked at me, chirping. We stared at each other for several seconds, before it cocked its head curiously. I screamed and threw the wine bottle at it and it screeched in fear, skittering back into the trashcan. I stared awhile longer, panting hard, but then I noticed that I hadn't been attacked in any way.

            I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I leaned down very slowly and peered into the trashcan. My heart instantly melted. The creature – the little raccoon – was curled into a tight, shaking ball of grey and black fur at the very back of the can. I swallowed. "Uh... Hey little guy... You okay...?" I hadn't spoken to anyone all day, so it felt good speaking to the animal. "...I uh... I'm sorry I scared you..."

            It stayed still for a few seconds, before it looked up at me slightly, so I could only see its eyes over its tail. It was adorable.

            I smiled at it, and then its gaze flicked to my hoodie pocket. Slowly, it lifted its nose and sniffed the air. I blinked and looked down, reaching into my pocket. I blinked and smiled before pulling out the baggie of crackers I had brought with me. "Aw... You're hungry..."

            The raccoon, obviously, didn't answer me.

            "Here." I pulled out a handful of the crackers and held it out into the trashcan. It looked very hesitant. "C'mon, I won't hurt you..."

            It stayed where it was for several minutes, but I was patient. For some reason, I could just tell it wasn't going to hurt me. It climbed to its feet very slowly and crept closer to me, keeping its eyes on me all the while. I stayed still and quiet. The poor thing was so skinny, it must have been starving.

            Finally, it reached my hand and chewed on one of the crackers experimentally. The next thing I knew, the baby raccoon was scarfing down all the crackers I had given it. I smiled sadly. "Aw, poor thing..."

            Once it had finished. It sat back, catching his breath. It looked up at me and trilled happily before climbing up my arm. I gasped in surprise, before I laughed, smiling big. The raccoon was almost like a cat. I liked it, a lot, despite how scared of it I had been before. Maybe it was just me going a little crazy from not eating anything but crackers all day...

            Suddenly, I felt something strong grab my shoulder. I shouted loudly in alarm and leapt to my feet, spinning around, almost tripping over the fallen trashcan. My newly adopted raccoon on my shoulder almost fell cause I got up so fast and hissed at the stranger.

            I froze as I saw them. Her.

            She was tall, dark skinned, dark haired, with silver eyes staring at me. "Whoa, relax, kid, relax." She had an accent I couldn't name – it was some European place, I think.

            I stared at her in alarm. "Wh-Who are you, what do you want?!"

            "Hey, hey, whoa, slow down." The woman said. "My name is Grey, okay? I just wanna help. I was walking down the street and I heard you screaming. Are you alright?"

            I stared at her, and glanced at my raccoon. It didn't look too afraid, so I relaxed a little and looked back to the stranger – Grey. "I-I'm fine."

            "You sure?" Grey looked around. "...Is this your bad? No offense, but it's a little... showy. And cluttered. I mean, there's trashcans all over and you don't even have a door." My eyes narrowed and she smiled at me. "Are you alone out here?"

            I was hesitant to nod, but I did.

            "You know... I can take you somewhere safe."

            "No thanks. I'd prefer not to be sold into slavery."

            Grey snorted. "You're a smartass, I like you. But no, it's alright, I won't sell you into slavery. I can give you and your friend there – hi little guy! – a bed for the night, though. And a place to charge your computer. Or, uh, laptop, right. You look exhausted."

            I wasn't really thinking straight, if that wasn't already made apparent by my new pet. I stared at Grey, this random stranger, and I finally nodded. "F-Fine..."

            Grey smiled. "What sold it? Was it the charge your laptop thing?"

            I was so tired I was half-listening, so I just nodded. She smiled sympathetically and reached out, gently touching my arm. "I'll take you somewhere safe, kiddo. Ready?"

            I grunted and the raccoon chirped uncertainly.

            She reached a hand, and I was too exhausted to notice what she did, but the raccoon wasn't. He saw my things on the bench vanish into thin air with a red flash. "Hold on tight!" I didn't have anything to hold on to.

            All I remember after that was suddenly feeling very dizzy, and then there was blackness. I had felt those symptoms before. I knew exactly what they meant.

            I had passed out.