Prologue
Alex woke up to the sound of her alarm at midnight. She quickly shut it off, and got up silently. Walking around the room like a ghost, she collected her things and threw them out of the window. Haley stirred where she lay, and Alex stiffened. But it was a false alarm. The girl breathed a sigh of relief. Before leaving her childhood home, she looked around for the last time. The mirror caught her eye, and she walked up to it. It had been so long since she had smiled properly at someone. She gazed at herself, her empty eyes, her unsmiling lips, which was cracked and dry, her pale face, gaunt and sunken. She was almost shocked, but really, what had she expected? Its what happened when...
No. She wasn't going to think about it. She was going to escape, to her new life. She looked around at her sister. She passed by without saying goodbye and entered her brothers room.
There he was. Sleeping peacefully. She let her face muscles work into a real, small smile, the first genuine one she'd had in months. Alex leant over and kissed him on the head. "Goodbye, Luke," she whispered. He smiled in his sleep, and turned over, mumbling. Alex gazed at her brother sorrowfully, wishing she could take him with her. But it was time to move onto bigger and better things. She stroked his hair one more time, and then she ran and jumped out of the window.
She didn't look back as she climbed into the taxi.