CHAPTER 1

Emi's P.O.V.

It was half past midnight. My phone vibrated signaling me that it was time. I sat up in my bed and nudged Kanna and Miyuki. "Come on!" I whispered. Kanna shot out of bed, and Miyuki slowly opened her eyes. Today was the day. It was the day we escape.

Kanna and I were ready in a flash, but Miyuki insisted on making sure that Clarissa, her favorite doll, and only doll, was ready to go. Eventually Kanna got annoyed and had to drag Miyuki across the room to the window. I looked down at my phone once more. 12:35. "We're running out of time." Making sure to be quiet as not to wake the other children in the room, we carefully climbed out of our second story window.

We carefully and slowly traveled down the noisy fire escape. "Shhhh! Be quiet guys! We're going to wake everyone up." Kanna said in a harsh tone. As we were about to reach the end of the fire escape, Miyuki slipped on the wet metal. "Fucking morning dew!" Kanna cursed under her breath. Voices could be heard coming from the room we had just fled, as well as the room we were now by. "Run!" I yelled. Kanna grabbed Miyuki's hand and pulled her up, as we all started running for the street. The orphanage director could be heard yelling in the background, threatening to call the police. I took out my phone and looked at its reflection. I could see multiple staff members from the orphanage standing outside the building yelling for us, a few were on their cellphones, most likely contacting the police. Being the three fastest people to complete the mile run in our school was really paying off, but we weren't far enough away yet. Kanna was ahead and we were following right behind her. Not like Miyuki had much of a choice though, she was being dragged along behind Kanna, tripping now and then.

We ran across a main road, there were few cars since it was still early morning. Sirens could be heard now as the sun rose over the horizon, but we were far enough away; for now. We reached the bus stop, miles from the orphanage. Kanna and I sat down on a bench taking a breather, a sleepy Miyuki draped across our laps. "Well, that's one way to lose weight." Emi sighed. "We can only stay here for an hour. We need to find something to eat and then start running again. There are people looking for us now." Kanna said, looking at us with a serious expression on her face. "We can never risk having to go back there" Emi said in a dark tone. Miyuki whimpered simply because of the thought of it. "I hope we never see that fucking abusive director again." Kanna grumbled.

Miyuki's P.O.V.

I could still remember the day we met. They might have saved my life that day. It was my first week in the orphanage, and the director did not like me at all. I was separated from the other kids. They thought they had it bad when the director hit them, but they had never spent a day in my shoes. I cooked most of the meals, with supervision of course since I was cooking when I was six years old. When they finally saved me I was ten. I would have to set the table and clean the dishes and the floors. No matter what I did though, the director was never happy. My room was a closet, and sometimes she would kick me if I made a mistake. Emi and Kanna had gotten in trouble for the millionth time, and the director was fed up with them. I had the day off and they were given kitchen duty. The day they were given kitchen duty, Kanna was asked to sweep the dining area so the cleaning ladies could have the day off. It just so happened that the broom was in my 'room'. When she opened the closet door, it appeared to her I was sleeping. The truth however was that I was passed out. She immediately called over Emi, but also got the attention of the director. The director couldn't very well keep them quiet, so she made a deal with them. A deal with a very strange set of rules. Keep a hat on my head, and tell no one about me. Keep me low on the radar, and stay out of her way. Until now, we kept that deal.

I was awoken by Emi shaking my shoulders. "Miyuki, we have to go now. I used google maps to find a McDonalds that's right down the street. We have fifteen dollars from our allowance. Let's go." I dragged myself off of the bench, and we walked to the McDonalds. It was two in the morning now and I was beyond tired. Where are we even going after this? We're not running forever right? We don't have to live on the streets... right?! Before I knew it we were sitting down at a table with a variety of meals. Kanna with her big mac and fries, Emi with her hamburger, and me with my veggie wrap and ice cream sundae. I never liked meat. The thought of people killing animals just so its body could be put on my plate made me shudder.

"What are we going to do now?" I wondered aloud turning to both of my friends. Emi shifted uncomfortably in her seat "I don't know. But any place is better than where we were." I knew she was right. They barely gave us enough allowance and we sometimes went to bed at night without dinner. It was more of a cage than a home. There was nobody we could trust besides each other, and it was about time we ran away. "We have to figure it out soon though. My phone is almost dead. Once it dies we're on our own." Kanna rolled her eyes. "Nice job remembering to charge it like I told you to" she said sarcastically. Emi sat there, embarrassed. BUZZ

Emi's phone vibrated on the plastic table. She picked it up and pressed the home button. "We need to get out of here… now" Emi said in a worried voice as she slid her phone across the table to where Kanna and I were sitting. Our faces were on it. Everything about us was on it. Our ages, our pictures, everything.