Under a blood red sky

With Murphy so angry with Harry because of her Molly didn't feel comfortable going back to the apartment, or even going for lessons anymore. It meant scraping for herself again, but this really wasn't the first time Molly has done that. Let's face it, in the past two years she has spent more time on the streets than off. Surviving like that was more familiar than not. She'd waited until she was certain that Murphy had gone out before sneaking back in to get some of her supplies. She kept the key...just in case. Plus she didn't want Murphy to know she'd left for good, and honestly her mind wasn't entirely sold on being gone for good.

She wished Bill were around. He seemed to have this way of pointing something out that made sense and should have been obvious but wasn't until he pointed it out. Stupid reasonable vampire. Sam was a big help, but she didn't want to impose on him too much since he had troubles of his own. Money wasn't getting too low yet since she'd been stashing it away all this time she'd been living with Murphy, just in case she needed it. She needed it now.

She was back to looking a bit rougher around the edges. Living in the elements didn't exactly leave you looking soft and pampered. She knew it so she was keeping on the edges of public life because of that, and not wanting to be seen by anyone looking for her. She took to haunting the back streets, alleys and the woods on the edge of town. Those areas were becoming safer though because of her presence since she took it upon herself to rid them of whatever nasty, creepy crawly from the gates took up residence.

She was about to start her rounds for the night, and had gotten a big bowl of soup to go and a large cup of coffee from the diner to charge her batteries. There was a drainage pipe that used to dump into a small river bed, but it wasn't used anymore from the looks of it. It made a good hidey hole for her so she went back there to eat, sitting on top of it and looking out at the neighborhood a few yards away. It definitely wasn't the Gold Coast by any stretch of the imagination, but that suited her just fine. No one really noticed her coming and going, nor cared if they did. And it was still better than Undertown.

It was Ash Wednesday, and Anita was out for her late morning run. She'd actually gotten up early, and gone to a Wednesday morning service--and maybe it was shallow of her, but it made her feel good to have gotten in the habit of going to Church again, on the days she wasn't actively working a case. Sometimes that was Wednesdays, sometimes Sundays, and sometimes she still had to skip, but it was nice to have at least some semblance of normalcy in her otherwise crazy life.

She'd wound up being in York longer than she'd originally expected, but she was starting to fall into a routine. Calling to check in with her people back in St. Louis a couple times a week, going in to the station to work with Murphy. Visiting Justine and Thomas. Having random dinners with Edward to compare notes. Etc, etc.

She had to remind herself, as she kept an eye out on her surroundings while she ran, not to grow complacent in the routine. Life may go on as usual, to a certain extent, but there were still greater forces at work than just the daily grind. Which reminded her, she was probably due to check in with the local spook squad again soon, to see if any new leads had turned up.

She'd finish her lap around the park, and then head back to the suite to do just that.