Gray.

That was the very first thing I noticed.

Everything all around me was grey and black, even the floor. I assumed it had to be a floor, even though it was outside. The ground was never this firm, was it? Then came the loneliness.

There was something... Missing.

People hustled around me, starkly contrasted against the gray in their brightly colored clothes. I walked up to one woman with brown hair tied in a no-nonsense bun and dark blue clothes and asked her where I was.

She walked right by me as though I was invisible. No, as if she hadn't even noticed my existence. I asked more people: a woman with shoulder length back hair and a scar on her upper lip, the dark skinned man trailing behind her, a man with long brown hair and a cane that made me uneasy.

It's always been like this, I thought. I wandered silently though the tiny town, occasionally stopping right in front of someone walking by. They never even looked at me, just altered their course slightly to get around me. A brightly lit sign boasted the word Granny's. Curious, I walked in. A girl in a very short dress, heels, and a white apron held a tray and was serving people drinks and sandwiches. She didn't even glance my direction. I walked up to the old woman on the counter. When she didn't look at me, I told her that I was just going to take some food and she didn't mind, right?

No response.

I shrugged and walked around the counter. I made myself a sandwich and a hot chocolate, then sat down at an empty table. Two of the people I'd tried to talk to earlier sat near me, discussing something about digging up information on someone name Mary-Margaret. Strange name, I thought. Shouldn't it be Mary or Margaret?

I listened to them as I ate, but I wasn't particularly interested in the conversation. When I was finished, I took my plate to the kitchen and cleaned my dishes. I figured I'd taken food without permission (even if I'd asked), so I should at least clean up, right?

Once that was done, I thought I'd go back to the clock tower and check out that room I'd seen earlier. It had looked like a library. I looked up at the face on the giant clock. It hadn't changed. Maybe it's broken, I thought. I shrugged to myself and walked in.

It took some time to find the room again. There were hallways everywhere, even though there couldn't have been that many rooms. But eventually, I did find it.

I was right; it was a library. Rows and rows of dusty books sat before me, looking like they hadn't been touched for years. I ran my hand along the shelves in awe. How could a place like this not be popular? There was so much history here, so many stories to tell. The loneliness came back in full force and I read through some of the titles to keep it at bay.

One book in particular caught my eye. It looked old, maybe five or six decades. It was a dark green color, a little worn. It was nothing special, but I felt drawn to it. I tucked the book under my arm and looked around for a while longer before continuing my exploration.

There wasn't much else to see in this town. There was a tiny antiques store whose messiness upset me for some reason, the mayor's office, and a school. When it started getting dark, I figured I should find a place to stay. I remembered a staircase in the clock tower that led up to a platform. I could stay there.

As I settled into a corner with my new-old book, I grinned to myself. This had been a weird day, to say the least, but it was over. Propelled by some unknown urge, I grabbed an old pencil from the floor, dusted it off, and wrote a small note on the title page of my book. It now read:

Peter Pan and Wendy

J.M. Barrie

If found, please return to the clock tower library.

Then I started to read.

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this.

It would be great to not have to grow up, I thought. Never have responsibility or problems... I guess it would just be like I am now, wouldn't it?

I laughed to myself. "Rosalie Jones, you really are a strange one," I muttered, looking at the moon through the clock face.