Just Rose

Chapter One

…and so I need to say goodbye. Not just to you, or to this town, but to everything- the entire world. Mom is probably getting lonely up there. It's time she gets some company. Don't bother trying to recover my body or hold a funeral- I would like this to be a clean break, if at all possible. Although, I guess, if you really want to, I won't be able to protest. Again, it's nothing against you. It's not safe here for me anymore, for reasons far beyond what you know. I just can't stand to be here for a minute longer. It's time for me to go.

Yours forever, Elisabeth.

I looked at the paper again in the dim light provided from the digital clock on the oven. Yours forever, Elisabeth. It was good.

I slipped a lock of my hair, tied with a small rubber band, under the paper. I had cut it in the bedroom I was staying in last night, along with  a huge amount of my previously-long hair. It now fell only a couple inches below my shoulders. I hoped it would do at least a little in making me less recognizable if people tried to search for me.

I still couldn't really believe that I was leaving- I had just barely been here for a few months. One? Two? I wasn't sure. I had kind of lost track of time after the numbness of Rose's passing faded away. I glanced at the calendar on the wall, but in the dim light, all I could make out was the big, swirly August at the top. It didn't really matter. I knew for a fact that it was August 30th- this was the day I had been counting down to for over a month. School would start soon here, in just five hours, according to the clock. I wasn't interested in going.

 I wasn't going to let anything, or anyone, get in the way of my leaving, and in my mind, once I would take a seat in one of the three high school- level classrooms at the one school in Mountain View, Texas, my staying here would be finalized. I wasn't planning on that ever happening.

My plan was all already set up, and every second that I spent in Texas endangered not only me but also everyone who I cared about. From her letters the past two weeks that she had suddenly began sending again, it was clear that Mother's patience was wearing dangerously thin. I would read what she wrote, but after Rose, I hadn't been paying much attention to the instructions she had been giving me, and instead just tried to sleep well with the knowledge that there were eyes watching me. All the time.

Needless to say, I hadn't been sleeping well.

And I had no idea what had happened to Kiley and her mom, Carla. One day they had been living (seemingly) normal lives, and the next their suddenly empty house had a For Sale sign in the front yard. A family emergency, the manager of the diner had told me. I knew better. Somehow, Mother had found out that Kiley had blown her and Carla's cover, and she had exercised her power immediately. A part of me hoped they were okay- I knew what it felt like to be on Mother's wrong side, and it wasn't fun.

Things were going downhill- they had been since Rose passed about a month and a half ago- and weren't showing any sign of stopping. Nolan was gone, probably drunk in Vegas if his few texts were any indication, James had become completely numb to the world, Taylor was long gone, and Jane, Ross, and Ella were gone, as well. Craig was putting a little effort into trying to become a fatherly figure for me, but not nearly enough. I spent most of my time alone, trying to sell my few things and planning every detail of my 'escape' that was coming up. Today.

I'd purposefully been acting very depressed for the past week or two, with hopes that it would make my story more believable, but no one had really been around to see how I was acting. Hopefully James wouldn't get in trouble for child neglect or anything. He hadn't exactly been the most supportive father, but I couldn't blame him. The love of his life was gone along with the only two of his three children whom he had actually raised. It hurt to lose your family. I would know.