Chapter 1
My name is Isha, and I am 18. Two years ago, I ran away from everything I knew to hide away from people in a secluded woodland cabin. Let’s start at the beginning. I never knew my parents, my real parents. All I knew was that they died when I was very little. I spent the rest of my life bouncing from home to home in the foster care system in Vermont.
Crack! I was startled out of my reminiscing about a life that was no longer mine by the loud noise, likely one of the perimeter alarms I had set up. I quickly rushed to the window and seeing no one, I quickly closed the curtains before unlocking my shotgun from its storage container and heading out across my large forested yard filled with beautiful flowers of every kind, past the shed that housed my tools and passed the stream that trickled nearby where I got my water. I slowly rounded the corner of my handmade fence, aiming my gun at the spot where I knew my alarm had been triggered, but there was no one there, just a cut piece of wire; someone had purposefully cut it to trigger the alarm, which consisted of a suspended rock falling from its position where the wire hung it over a tree branch to land on another larger rock placed below creating quite a loud cracking noise. Confused, I pulled a spool of wire from my utility belt and cut off a piece to rewire the trap. Once I was finished, I headed back in.
The sun began to set as I got out my old pans to cook dinner over my even older stove. As I began to cook, so many questions swirled around in my brain: why had someone cut the wire on purpose? Had I been found? Would I have to run again and start all over?
After dinner, I headed through the small cabin through the quaint living room next to the kitchen with my ratty old couch that was so comfortable to my small bedroom with its adjoining bathroom with its old toilet and nearly rusted sink and shower that barely worked. I went to my wardrobe and grabbed my pajamas. I changed quickly into them, then headed to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I slid into bed, flicked off the lights, and drifted off to sleep. The next day, I woke up from a nightmare with a start and the lights flickered on around me. I quickly unplugged them and headed outside to grab breakfast from my veggie garden.
I’ve learned over time that it’s easier to grow my own crops than risk going into the town about 5 miles away named Stowe. I pick what I want, then return inside to prepare my food, eat, and wash my dishes. Then I get dressed in my workout clothes and head back outside and sit by the river to meditate. My mind quickly relaxes to the sound of the flowing river as it follows its journey to the ocean. Unfortunately, like many of the times I’ve sat by this river, my mind quickly snaps to my memory of that day, the sirens and the screams and cries. I close my eyes tighter and try to get rid of the thoughts before it happened again, but it was already too late. I felt the air around me start to change, so I quickly submerged my hands in the river as white, hot golden flames shot out of my palms, making the water boil and evaporate. I quickly removed my hands, feeling eyes on me. I scanned my little clearing, but no one was there, so I shrugged, dried my hands on my pants, and headed inside.
