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Chapter 1

Enough with the yelling, I thought as I walked out of the front door of our blue, two story, run-down house. My parents had been yelling at me for an hour, or so it seemed. For as long as I remember, they have hated me. They always wanted a son and only a son. That's why they love my brother, Malcolm, and hate me.

I can see why they love Malcolm more. With his perfectly curly blond hair and sky blue eyes compared to my frizzy blonde hair and dull grey eyes, he's just easier on the eyes I guess. Not that I've ever really cared enough to make my appearance look better, but I still look ugly compared to him.

I walked out of my house pretty excited, even if I was angry with my parents. Right now is one of my favorite times of the day. This is the time of the day where I get away. I have no voices yelling in my ears, no people I have to talk to, no annoying brother asking what I'm doing or thinking about. This time, when I can just be me, not pretending to be the "perfect" child my parents want me to be.

At this time of day, I take my walk. I walk every day, and always to the same place. My favorite place, where I can be alone and just do whatever. My place, what place? you may ask. An abandoned warehouse in a deserted part of town.

My special place is about 2.5 miles from my actual home, but I don't mind the walk. I actually depend on it. I walk every day rain or shine. There could be a blizzard, a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder sounding every few seconds, or hail the size of softballs, I would still go.

Ah, there it is! My palace showing in the distance. That gorgeous rundown building that serves as my favorite place in the whole wide world. Even with the graffiti covering the walls, it's beautiful to me! This building holds my life and all of my secrets.

As I step inside, that familiar feeling of contentment washes over me. I head to the part that I always stay in, which is about fifteen feet to the left as soon as you walk in. I see it, covered with pictures from my favorite memories and my favorite blankets and pillows from back home. It has a bookshelf of sorts (it was actually made from a storage rack) that holds all of my favorite books. It even has my best friend since I was born, Hoot, the owl stuffed animal that my favorite aunt, Auntie Aphrodite, got me when I was three days old. Hoot is grey, like my eyes, with a white belly and face. He is named Hoot because as soon as I could talk, I looked at him and called him that. As soon as I get close enough to pick him up, I kiss him on the top of his head, like I do every time I come in here.

As I sit down to read one of my books, curled up with Hoot on my lap, I smell something. It smells like smoke. That's impossible! There is no way a fire could start in here! So I just ignore it, and just get absorbed in my book. Eventually it starts to get very hot in here, but I don't notice. I just keep on reading. Soon, the smell of smoke and the burning in my eyes is too much for me to read anymore. I look up and see, not 5 feet away from me, a blazing, orange and blue fire. I immediately scream for help, but I know that no one will hear me since I'm in a deserted part of town. I am trapped. The fire has blocked all of the exits.

Just when I feel I'm about to faint, with my eyesight blurry from smoke, I pretty sure I see someone crash in through the window high above me. They fall right next to me, pick me up, and carry me to the window and out of my favorite building, burning to the ground.

I hear someone say to me, "It's ok, you're going to be fine." Then I black out, with the last picture in my mind is my abandoned wearhouse burning to ashes.