24 Harry's POV

Soon, between me, Thomas and Katherine, we made up an effective plan to escape. It involved Thomas creating a distraction and Katherine driving out of the gate while I was in the boot during the night time guard change. The plan was frankly ridiculous, and if it worked I'd be shocked, but it was all we had. I had to get out of this place before Dad got any worse, and before it became obvious to the public that I wasn't around. I had to go, and soon.

Time was of the essence, so we planned to get out on a day when our parents were out, so the only people keeping an eye on me were my siblings and the guards. We'd worked out that they slacked off during the night, not bothering to check where I was because they assumed I was asleep. Mostly they wandered off and didn't even bother to stand outside my door. With Thomas distracting the guards, who were already changing, me and Katherine could run down to the car unseen.

All we had to do was inform the boys and wait for our day to arrive, Thomas had a distraction planned already. I would have asked what it was, but thought it better to stay in the dark about that. It felt safer to not know the entire plan, Katherine swore I'd watched far too many spy movies, but I didn't care. Better safe than sorry. All I needed to know was when Thomas was acting, so I knew to be ready.

The day came; the boys had been informed that they'd be expecting me by 5am, and to be on standby to get me in the house. They were ready; it was all just a waiting game now. Everyone had their roles, they all had to play them to the letter, nobody could screw up. No guard could be lagging behind; the camera security team couldn't glance at any camera looking at us instead of the other side of the building. My God putting it that way this sounded like a suicide mission, it couldn't all go right for us could it? Something had to go wrong; surely something would go wrong...

I started feeling nervous, leaving my short note on my bed 'bye parents, I'm not coming back and you can't make me. I'm sorry you can't accept my friends and my lifestyle, but they make me happy. You want to make me into something I'm not and I can't take that, I'm sorry. Maybe one day we can make up, but not until you accept who I am. Hopefully see you sometime, Harry.'

Thunder cracked across the sky, almost deafening, rain hitting the glass sounding like gun shots. I looked to Katherine, who looked ridiculous calm right now, her ear pressed to the door, listening for the guard change.

"We have an emergency! Escapee on the North side of the building!" a radio crackled outside the door, footsteps running down the corridor.

"Ready little brother?" she asked, smiling a little.

"As I ever will be." I nodded, watching my sister count down from five on her seconds, before opening the door and running through the South side of the house.

I chased after her, keeping to the shadowy, rarely used stairs. We were silent as we ran, and I was suddenly thankful for the carpeted floors to help us stay under the radar until we reached the empty garage. Only Thomas and Katherine's cars were inside, Katherine's boot already opened and ready for my dive inside.

The door slammed on top of me, plunging me into the dark, yet I couldn't bring myself to worry about that. As long as the car moved and got out of the gates without a check I'd be fine. I silently prayed that all the guards would be busy either changing over or on the other side of the house, looking for me. If Thomas was as good an actor as I thought he was, he could distract the guards long enough for us to get out by pointing them in the completely opposite direction.

The engine rumbled to life, the car started to move. I daren't move a muscle, barely daring to breathe in case someone noticed something outside. But they couldn't surely hear anything over the sound of the thunder and lightning? Surely not... I wasn't taking any chances though. I was silent as the car drove down the drive, stopping briefly at the gate.

No sound of talking. No sound of anything. I strained my ears, getting nothing in return. What was going on out there?!