Bells chime as she opens the door to the Shell. After doing a little shuffle dance in attempts to stomp the snow off of her brown leather winter boots, she goes to the back and opens the drink refrigerator. She hasn't seen this many drinks since she went into hiding. She has been drinking water or the occasional canned lemonade for over a month. Reaching for the closest soda, she closes the door, pulls her green sweatshirt tighter to her body, and quickly makes her way back to the front of the store. The attendant smiles and rings her up.

     "You from around here?"
She doesn't know how to respond because she technically doesn't know where here is. It has been months since she's been out in public alone. She normally has a body guards who drive cars with tinted windows that takes her from destination to destination.
      "Yeah, I live around the corner."
      "I've never seen you before."
      "Well I just got into town."

This wasn't a complete lie. She did just get into town the night before and she was scheduled to leave in a couple hours. Her guard had fallen asleep from the 24 hour shift he had just finished and this gave her the prime opportunity to get out of her hotel room for an hour or so.

      "Welcome then!"

     She's shocked at how friendly this stranger is being. His smile gives off the impression that he is genuinely wondering about where she came from and where she is going. And this scared her. People like him are the reason she's in the position she's in. They are the ones who put her in danger; They are the ones who made her leave her home. But most importantly they were the ones who made her leave her old life and live a new secretive one.

     It was a cool summer's evening when her mother had gotten the phone call. They had just finished making an apple pie and the smell of cinnamon combined with melted butter radiated throughout the house. Her father, who was on a tour in Afghanistan at the time, was scheduled to come home in the next couple day so they were expecting a phone call from him either that day or the next. But, it wasn't him who called. It was the Secret Service.

       "I regret to inform you that your husband has become a prisoner of war. Given his ranking and the intelligence he possesses, we need you to evacuate your home and report to base camp in the next hour. It is crucial that you do not tell anyone about your whereabouts. If you do we cannot protect you or your daughter from the people who have your husband."
       "I understand."
After she hung up the phone, her mother turned to her.
       "We have to pack up a leave to go on a trip."

The tears her mother had been trying desperately to hold back ran down her cheeks as she said the word "leave." She didn't know what that guy had said on the other end of the phone but she knew it had to be about her father.

     After they had packed up their belongings into their jeep, her mother sat down and rested her head on the steering wheel. She didn't know what to say. They sat in silence for a couple minutes; They needed to prepare for what was ahead of them. Just as her mom turned the key to turn on their car, she remembered the pie in the oven and ran to go get it. She burned her hand while trying to get it out without an oven mitt, but she still needed to eat that pie. It was the last one she ever had baked with her mom. She opened a drawer, pulled two forks out, and walked to her mom's car with the pie.

     "I said that will be $5.09 miss."
Looking up from the scar on her hand that is shaped like a moon to the attendant's brown eyes, she is transported out of her day dream.
    "Oh sorry, here you go."
    "Thank you. Hope to see you soon!"

    "Don't count on it..." She thought as she opens the door of the gas station store. Outside waiting for her is a black car with black tinted windows. A body guard steps out of the passanger seat and comes up to her, grabs her arm, and gently pushes her inside the car. He blocks her with his tall bulky frame to make sure no one sees her face.

     "This is my life now" she thinks as the car pulls away to start on a new trip to an undisclosed destination.