Night had fallen a couple hours ago, though you weren’t too sure of the time. Home was a long way away, your mindless steps leading you through the twists and turns of the streets. The yellow dashes in the streets providing a guide along the way.

Your destination was unknown. You just trusted your legs to take you as far as possible, to take you as far away from this city as possible. It was suffocating. Limited opportunities, strict communities, and mean people. The creativity you once had was slowly being drained out of you like some sort of lifeless waterfall.

You prayed those streetlights would take you home. An actual home. A place where you no longer had to worry or fret. A safe place to just exist carelessly.

Your backpack was starting to weigh you down, the protesting aches in your ankles becoming more prominent with each step against the asphalt. Sure, walking in the middle of the road was dangerous. But it was the middle of the night, the number of cars on the road would be limited. Limited…not none.

That was when you heard it, the screech of a car behind you, its headlights blinding your periphery.

“Hey, kid, get out of the road!” A man’s voice called out, his tone made up of concern and slight frustration. Which was an understandable reaction for someone who could’ve easily just hit you with their car.