Rain opened her eyes and looked at her alarm clock; 1:20, it had only been 45 minutes. She rolled over and thought again of her plan; checked for flaws and even reconsidered. But this was not her life; she had to get out, even if it killed her. The thought came to leave early but that was soon thrown out the window when she heard her dad come in downstairs. The fridge opened and can popped, no doubt a beer. Groans from the stairs told her he was coming up. She pulled the covers up under her chin and closed her eyes tight. She didn’t know how drunk he already was and wasn’t about to test it.
Her door swung open and her father trudged in. He walked slowly over to the bed. Rain clutched her sheet and prayed he’d go, just go away forever. She heard more footsteps down the hall and heard her mother’s voice in the doorway.
“Kevin, what are you doing in here? Come to bed and for god’s sake throw out the beer.”

“Don’t tell me what to do Cheryl. She’s my daughter too and I’ll drink when I want to drink.” More footsteps and a creaking door, Rain’s hands unclenched and she let out her breathe. Down the hall she could here them arguing again. "Why do you drink so much? Where’s your paycheck? Don’t yell at me!!! Do you even realize how much Rain hates you?!" The normal insults being thrown around. From what she could gather, her dad had lost another job. Didn’t surprise her any, maybe if he could stay sober for more than 5 minutes he could actually make it to an interview. She sighed and listened for the inevitable slapping sound. It rang through the house, and she closed her eyes. A single tear rolled down and created a damp circle on her pillow.
The yelling had stopped and silence enveloped the house. 1:55. It was almost time, she silently pushed back her blanket and stepped lightly onto her floor. Her socked feet shuffled to her closet and grabbed a backpack. She grabbed as much clothes as she could fit into the pouch out of her closet. And other items she thought would prove useful on her trip, her cell phone, charger and one sketchbook with pencils all flew in on top of the clothes. She went over the list in her head and made sure she had everything she would need ‘til she could get to a store.
She quickly dressed in some jeans, a loose T-shirt, a hoodie, and her favorite pair of sneakers. Rain zipped up the bag and strategically tip-toed down the stairs silently. When she reached the bottom she turned back to the upstairs and listened for any sounds. All that she could her was the slight snoring of her ignorant parents. She walked in the kitchen opened the pantry and stuffed until the bag was full. It wasn’t much but it would last a few days. Her father had left his wallet on the table. She looked around, picked it up and took out six twenties. 'All he’s gonna use it for is beer anyways.'
Rain prayed a quicker prayer and slipped out of the apartment and walked down the stairs to the back entrance. As she stepped out into the brisk early morning air she took a deep breath. The door clicked as it locked her outside forever. She had passed the point of no return.
Her watch read 2:15. As she walked silently in the night, she came to the realization she was actually running away, she was alone and could never go back. A tsunami of fear and hopelessness flooded her heart. But a glimmer of hope appeared in the back of her mind. Rain remembered all the times her father had hit her and he had aimed the gun at her head only a week ago, which made her happy to be out of that hellhole. Her pace quickened and she reached the bus bench with five minutes to spare.
The bus pulled up and as Rain stepped onto the Greyhound and paid the fee, she took a deep breath, picked a seat near the back, laid her head on the window and watched as the darkened buildings sped past. Chicago was to forever be in the past, hopefully forgotten in the near future.
'Too late to turn back now…Lord please give me strength.'