I Am Anna

Prologue

PROLOGUE

        I couldn't come back. If I returned to that wretched place I called home my life would be made even worse than it already was.

        But I didn't want to end my life. I was depressed greatly by everything that had happened, but I wanted to make a new life for myself, not finish off the poor excuse for the one I already had. So that's what I had to do - start again.

        I had enough money saved for a train ticket to Augusta and I could find a job from there. I could change my name and shut off all my negative emotions, and maybe find someone who could help me. My twenty-six year old cousin could help me out, I knew she lived there. Maybe I could crash on her couch for a while until I got on my feet.

        She was, after all, the only one who didn't hate me.

        So that's what I did. I grabbed some bags and frantically packed a couple of changes of clothes, my washbag, underwear and a few other essentials along with my purse and cell phone, which I would have to destroy later in case I was tracked down, and snuck out.

        I sprinted down the street to a cliff on the outskirts of Portland and took off the boots I was wearing as well as my jacket, replacing them with a different pair of shoes and a thick cardigan from my bag. I deleted everything from my cell, also removing the SIM just in case, and dropped it in one of my boots in case someone tracked me down and then scrambled through one of my bags for an inkless reciept and some nail varnish. I wrote I AM ANNA in messy capitals and put a dry part of the note under my shoe.

        This would be the last time I was Anna Clayton. My new name was going to be Blair Samuels.