Running to Freedom Chapter 1

A midnight song was playing for Anna as she fell asleep on the damp ground. The only thing to cushion her from the grass was a small blanket she had found in a dumpster. The frogs began to croak, the cricketts began to chirp, the stars shone brightly, trees began to sleep too. Anna had always had a rough life. Her father hated her with a passion, she was supposed to be a boy and after his wife died he couldn't bring himself to marry anyone else. Anna had loved her mother, in fact lieing in her pocket was a photograph of her mother with her, Anna was only two years old. The photograph was worn, torn, washed out, loved, and held tightly. Her mother had dark brown hair, blue eyes, pale skinned, and very tall. At least she thought she had brown hair, and blue eyes, because the picture was in black and white. Her mother Loretta was a very sweet woman, she loved to bake warm cherry pies for Anna and Dan, her husband. When she died Anna's father Dan became controlling of her, and hated her, always saying that he would like to have had a boy. At one point Anna's father tried to dress her as a boy and tried to teach her to act like one. This did not please Anna and made her feel even more unwanted.1

The stars began to fade into the dawn and the sun began to arise. Anna awoke to a familiar voice. At first she could not place it, it was deep, it had to be male.2

"Father?" she questioned herself.3

"She was only seven when she ran away, Anna...I'll kill her when I find her." said a man.4

"Oh, well...how old would she be now?" said a voice.5

"About sixteen...!" roared Dan.6

"I knew it...I knew it...it is my...father!" Anna check her pocket for the photograph of her mother, picked up her blanket, torn, and with holes, and brushed the water off of it. She picked up her basket filled with some stale bread, a crumpled cherry her mother had given her, and a yellow daisy. She couldn't remember why she always carried around that yellow daisy that was something she had hoped to find out.7

"Isn't it mysterious that Anna has been running since she was seven, you'd think somebody would have found her by now....Could she be...dead.?" said a voice.8

"Yeah well, you don't know my bitch-of-a-daughter, when she was little and rat-like she would hide around the house, and we wouldn't be able to find her for days. She's be under the damn cupboard, or even inside the big pot in the fire place. I threatened to cook her one day, and I still will if I get the chance." Dan laughed evilaly.9

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-" laughed the other voice, "You're such a joker these days."10

Anna gasped, she now recognized the voice, it was her Uncle Bill. He was her best friend as a child, she really wanted to see him, but then she realized she wanted something more;  freedom. She pondered for a moment as to why her uncle was talking as if he didn't remember her. She finished gathering her few belongings and decided it was time, time to run, time to be free and not be under her fathers watchful eye anymore. It seemed now she had the whole village after her again. Sometimes she could sneak to the corner stand on fifth and Quarter Street and steal a newspaper. Everyone in the village seemed to have thought her to be dead, but some however, thought her to be alive, or well hidden because a body had not been found. They questioned Dan in a local court but they simply came to the conclusion that she had ran away. Crime had never been a problem in the town Little Chimney. She had been running from her father, and the villagers for about ten years. It was now 1910 and she couldn't believe she had escaped from her father for so long. Now to hear his voice brought fear back into her mind. She had not felt much fear for a long time. Anna had always been able to get by on food by stealing it and the place she hid most of the time had a clear river running next to it.11

"I need to go back, go back and get some things before I run away from here for forever." she thought to herself.12

She turned her head toward the forest and began to take off running just as she heard her father scream,13

"Hey you girl!!?? ANNA!!!" he said14

Should i continue?15