Running Away

Chapter 1: Gone for Good

Living in a surburban town, it's easy to find me. There's almost no cars this time of year, for some reason. I pushed my long brown hair back over my shoulders and kept running.

I've never run a long distance before, except when I have an unusually high amount of adrenaline. I kept running, past the Walmart and the small neighborhood grocery store.

Past everything I've ever known.

I stopped in front of a house, out of breath. There was a girl who didn't look much older than me standing there taking photos on her phone. She turned around and saw me.

"Hey, who are you?" she asked.

I shrugged, trying to catch my breath. Then, once I could talk properly, I said, "Hi. I'm Diesel. Delilah, actually. I'm trying to get away from my foster parents. They're abusive to me, but not to my little sister."

The girl walked over to me and said, "Hi. I'm Lydia Deetz. Come on in, my parents would love to meet you."

I smiled and walked into the house.

Lydia slammed the door behind her and said, "Dad! Delia! Barbara! Adam! Can you guys come here, please?"

A redheaded woman and a man with a mustache came down the stairs first. They noticed me and stared at each other. Lydia said, "Dad, Delia, this is Diesel."

The man said, "What, is this your friend from school?" The woman clapped her hands and said, "Lydia! You have friends! Oh, I'm so proud of you!"

"No, Delia." Lydia said, rolling her eyes. That made me laugh a bit. "Diesel stopped in front of our house. From what she told me, she's running away from her abusive foster parents."

The man looked at the woman and the woman said, "Well, hi there, Diesel. My name is Delia. I'm Charles' fiancee and Lydia's life coach. Stay as long as you like. We have a spare bedroom, or you could stay on the couch."

Charles pulled Delia aside and harshly whispered, "We don't even know this girl! She could be a criminal for all I know!"

"Charles." Delia said calmly. "She's a teenager. She can't be much younger than Lydia." Delia turned to me and said, "How old are you, Diesel?"

I blushed and said, "13. 14 in February."

"See, she's just a kid! Give her a chance." Delia said. I already liked Delia, and by the looks of it, she liked me too.

"What's all the commotion?" I heard a voice say. Lydia happily turned towards the stairs as two ghostly figures floated down them. "I didn't know we had a guest!" a woman in a green dress said. I felt awkward. Now there were ghosts in this house?

"Diesel, this is Barbara and Adam. They're ghosts, but they're really nice people." Lydia said. I shyly waved towards the ghosts. "Barbara, Adam, this is Diesel."

"Diesel. What a nice name." Barbara said. "Is it short for anything?" she asked.

"Delilah." I said. "I got the nickname as kind of an insult when I was in fifth grade, people called me 'Diesel' cause I looked so greasy. But I guess it kinda stuck, and now when people are mad at me, they call me Delilah!"

I shook a bit. My foster parents were always mad at me for having to beg for basic necessities, like food at a restaurant. My foster parents had a daughter of their own, who was not much younger than me, and they LOVED spoiling her. They taught the daughter never to talk to me.

They only raised me for the money.

"Diesel? Is everything alright?" I heard someone ask. I snapped back to reality to see Lydia looking at me.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said. "I was just thinking of my foster parents. They only took me in because of the government money they got. They had a really low budget set aside for me, I think it was $10 a day. I wasn't allowed to order food from restaurants, I could only get the leftovers. And as for clothes, I could only go to the consignment sale twice a year to pick out one outfit to last me six months. If I refused to comply, they would slap me."

"Oh my God...Diesel..." Barbara said.

"It's fine, I swear. That's why I ran away, I couldn't deal anymore."

"Do you want to stay here for a couple of days?" Delia asked, with Charles nodding in approval.

"Sure, but I don't have much stuff..." I replied.

"That's fine! We'll take you shopping!"