Breakaway

Chapter 1: According To Plan

One bag, one girl and an abundance of determination. Evie set her eyes on the moment her mother's bedroom door shut for the night as usual. Sitting against her own door, the light off as it normally would be, Evie couldn't control the racing beat of her heart. After days of intricate planning, Evie crafted her seamless plan as well as her fully leather ensemble, complete with studs and her red heart necklace.

As she heard the stairs begin to creak and the whispers of her mother speaking to the remaining shard of mirror, Evie stood from the corner. Slipping her red purse filled with the essentials around her body she took in a deep breath. From the canopy and the vanity to the aging and dusty imperial rug and Othello's bird cage, she was leaving it all. Tiptoeing toward the window, keeping the weight off the heels of her combat boots.

"Caw, Evie!" Othello squawked loudly. Evie turned to him, her finger over her lips. She went to his cage and smoothed his feathers.

"Evie's asleep," she said trying to keep her plan secure. "I love you."

Turning back to the window, Evie slid it open, wincing at the squeaking noise that sounded. A rush of fresh air came through the open window, her loose blue curls catching the wind. Just as she planned, there were vines below her window as well as bricks sticking out of the siding of the castle. Given its age and lack of maintenance, the castle was falling apart.

Closing her eyes and slipping through the window, she was outside. Hanging on to the vines and keeping a foot balanced on a brick, she reached up to close the window, the frame not cooperating. She used her arm strength to try and force it to close but she was wasting precious time.

Leaving the window as low as it would go, she held onto the vines, the plants being her only harness as she descended down the castle's brick siding.

As she got further from her window, she felt a sense of relief. Despite not knowing where she was headed and how she would survive on the streets alone, the trade off was quite equal.

Grabbing onto another vine, it snapped before she could even get a grip. Losing her balance, Evie wobbled trying to hold herself up using a few plants between the cracks. The brick below her began to crumble as she stood on it's remains.

"This was not supposed to happen," she whispered to herself.

With a deep breath, she reached for two vines, hoping one of them wouldn't break. She slid down the vines, her hands beginning to hurt. But that was the least of her concerns. Being careful, it was taking longer than she expected to scale the castle's siding. Before the rest of the vines ran out of length, she looked around for another strong one and the next protruding brick.

Leaning to her right, Evie grabbed onto the lattice of vines growing. As she went further, the ground to her body ration, getting smaller, there was a familiar squawk and caw.

"Evie's asleep," Othello cawed. "I love you"

She glanced to the top, her mother looking out of the now wide open window.

"Evie!" She called, her voice frantic, despite the strange relationship she had with her daughter. "Evilette!?"

For a split second, Evie reconsidered her actions. Her mother cared. Or well at least was afraid that she had died. But that wasn't enough. Time was up. She was already on her way.

And coincidentally as Evie looked to her mother whose upper body was out of the window in search of her, Grimhilde looked down to see her daughter.

"How could you betray me!" The woman screamed, her voice rattling the weathering bricks. A few pebbles tumbled down the siding. "You!"

Grimhilde shut the window with a bang, prompting more instability.

Out of pure determination and a little fear, Evie couldn't risk going down the vines slowly any longer. She eyed the length she still had to go. Evie with her sharp eye and natural mathematical skills estimated nearly five feet. There was no way she would get there in time before her mother made it out of the castle.

Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, she turned around to face the outside world to where she could see her surroundings. Holding onto the vines, her hands behind her back, she exhaled and descended into the air.

Landing on her side, pain radiated throughout her entire body. But still, she rose to her feet fighting her body's signals that she was in pain. Running toward the dirt path created by the goblins that delivered things for them every week, she could see light steaming from the distance. That was the main plaza of the Isle. That's where she needed to be.

She wasn't sure of her final destination, but all she knew was that she would never walk this path again.