The Girl In The Window

Chapter 1

When my father discovered my true talents, he took me and moved to the other side of the country. He told everyone we knew that I was dead, killed in a car accident.

It was quite easy since I didn't have any family other than him, my mother had died when I was very young. I didn't have any memories of her.

I blocked out the unpleasant memories as best I could. When I thought about them too much, I'd fall into a hole of self-destruction.

I inhaled, then exhaled.

My fathers house now, was a lot different to the one I lived in as a young child. It was very large, though I'd never properly seen it.

I wasn't allowed to leave the attic. That was where he kept me. Like a madwoman in a Victorian novel.

The house was old, first built in the seventeen hundreds. But most of it had been renovated, equipped with modern furnishings and other ridiculous embellishments that ruined its authenticity.

My attic was the only thing in the house left untouched. The only thing which had maintained its beauty.

It had three rooms. One of them was very small, with barely anything in it, I used that as a bedroom. There was another room, windowless, which held a small makeshift bathroom. The final room being, the old library.

The library was my favourite room, it was by far the largest of the three, and took up most of the attic's space. I spent most of my time in there reading, un-ironically.

My Piano was there too, but I liked to pretend it wasn't. It was positioned in the center of the room, as if purposefully trying to torment me. It only brought back painful memories...

There was small narrow hallway that went through a gap in the bookshelves. Back when the Library was first built it would have been used as a secret passageway, a quick escape route in case of an attack on the house.

But now it led to a door which was always locked, the only thing connecting the attic to the rest of the house.

Made out of metal, much like a prison cell door it was practically impossible to break open. It had a small hatch that my father used to pass food to me. He often forgot though, sometimes leaving me without food for days.

Before more unspeakable memories could plague my mind, I looked out of the window, in the hopes of finding a distraction.

It was well into the night by now and my eyelids began to get heavy so I crawled onto my bed, a thin mattress on the floor.

As I lay on it I stared at the ceiling, looking through the skylight window at the clouds. I liked to look at the stars too, and find all the different constellations.

I only had two windows in my attic, both bolted shut. The other window was in the library, it was a large bay window, fitted with a window seat, that was my favourite place to be.

But it was dangerous, if I wasn't careful, I would start thinking about freedom. The wrong kind.

What can I use to break the glass? The drop was easily eighty feet, there was no way I'd survive the fall... Just jump, then your free.

I had a few thin blankets and a patch work quilt that I cocooned myself in tightly before the cold could get in.

It worked...... Mostly.

~~~

I woke up the next morning to the sound of heavy bolts being unlocked.

Dread enveloped me while I sprinted towards the sound knowing it was my father.