DISCLAIMER: Hey Arnold does not belong to me although I wish it did. It/everything about it that I don't muck up is (C ) Craig Bartlett and Nickeodeon!

Now that that's over with, this is my first ever HA fanfic. It is angsty, hopefully suspenseful, and romantic. Please enjoy. Takes place after season 5 minus the "Jungle Movie" arc. Please, please, please review!!!

One Last Breath- Chapter 1

Helga stood in the pouring rain gazing up at her best friends house. She stared at the locked door, hugging herself tightly as the rain soaked through her long-sleeved shirt and jeans, her bare feet frigid in the puddle beneath her, blonde hair sticking to her back. She shivered and fought back the tears she wanted so badly to shed.

She had run. Finally. She had taken off out of that miserable prison they called a house for good. She had only the clothes on her back, her cell phone in her pocket, and some measly change. She didn't know where she would go, but she wouldn't go back.

That was her long-term plan anyway. But at that moment she couldn't quite figure out where exactly to go. Phoebe and her parents weren't home. Now that she thought about it, hadn't her friend mentioned something about going on a trip to Japan to visit family? Or something? It had been weeks ago. Weeks since she had been to school. Just days since she had finally started to walk around again. Eons it seemed, since she had seen the sky.

A pained, self-deprecating smile found its way across her mouth onto her cheeks. A brutal, twisted, sad smile. She had taken off, split, fled. How long would it last though? I mean, how long could she possibly escape the inevitable? It was no ones fault but her own what had happened, the way her life had turned out. She was guilty, very guilty. She knew that she couldn't run or hide, because she would always have to go back. Staying was the only chance she could ever have to make it up to him, and it would still never be enough. She was responsible…and only deserved what she received. No…she knew she deserved much worse.

She had been in a worse mood than usual that day. Olga was coming home, visiting on her way to some big shindig where she was no doubt going to get yet another damn award. She would brag about her wonderful life--her beautiful baby, fabulous husband, dream home. All in that sickeningly sweet way as if she had no idea that she was condescending and vapid even in her kindness. She'd flounce around and flaunt her gorgeous figure, perfect at 27, with her long legs and tiny waist and nice chest. Helga had her beat there though, some cruel someone somewhere had granted her a lovely pair of C's--practically D's actually. As much as they trumped her sisters B's they were quite a curse. Guys teased her and ogled her all the time.

Helga realized where her thoughts were dwelling and shook her head out of it. She couldn't believe her stupid perfect sister was dropping in again—and right during the week of her birthday. She knew she wasn't going to have a party anyway, but her parents—stretch of the term though it was—might have remembered to at least grunt the words if Olga hadn't been flying in. But she was, and they would forget, and gush over her stupid sister even more than when she wasn't home. And she had no where to go to get away from it because the one place that she escaped to was now over a thousand miles away.

Helga's stomach turned at her memories. She never could find solace from them anymore. They constantly harped on her, loomed and contorted her life. All of that had happened far way from New York. She used to question if it still would have if they had still been in Hillwood on that day. After all, if they had been she would have left and gone to Phoebe's. Or Slausens, or Gerald field or anywhere but that miserable house. She wouldn't have been cornered. It didn't matter though, and she pushed those old hopes away because they didn't change anything. They had not been in NY, they had been in California, end of story. She was to blame.

The blonde 16 year old continued to stare at the stoop of her once best friends home. What had she been thinking coming there? Phoebe wouldn't have let her in even if she had been in the country. Helga wouldn't have let herself in either. She continued to ponder where exactly she was going to run. And then the rain stopped.