It really is much easier to take a chance when you've got absolutely nothing to loose. Since Derek and I were grabbing at straw to begin with, what was their to risk? A trial? News coverage? Reporters swarming my pretty pretty house to find the dirt lying in its ugly gutted insides? No, I wouldn't be missing any of that. I can honestly say my face was the last one I wanted to see on the six o'clock news. I could just see the look on people's faces at school on Monday morning. If they didn't avoid my like the plague they sure as hell would after all that mess. It could have been worse I suppose, they could have swarmed me almost as incessantly as reporters had begun to swarm the house to find life inside its creaking walls.

Its funny, after everything else that went on inside, they chose to focus on the one thing that mattered the least. Death isn't as serious as the things that happen when you're alive. So many better, juicer, more explosive stories lay behind the houses walls and instead they chose this one as their cover. More power to them, I wouldn't be sticking around to see it.

Throwing some odds and ends into a bag, it was a lot harder than I thought choosing what to take and what to leave behind. I had no intention of every coming back for anything, so decision now were pretty important. Everything that ever meant anything was making its way into my black duffle bag at lightning speed. Scraps of paper I had scribbled upon, teddy bears I had clutched to my chest and bled upon, things that at first glance weren't important were suddenly fighting for space as Derek watched the show from his stance against the door frame.

"You know none of that matters right?" He asked, a cigarette gripped between his fingers as he stood overlooking my pacing process. I would have been angry at such a callous statement, but I was too tired, too worn to care about anything but what I would be taking and more so what I would be leaving behind. "Why take anything from your past to remind you of it?"

"Because in order to start over you need to know where you've been." I shrugged, throwing the last tidbits of my life into the bag. A case of rusty razors purchased so long ago were stealthily disguised in a bright red make-up bag as I zipped it safely against all the other odds and ends of a life I would soon be ending to start a new. "Besides, it means something to me."

"Are you finished?" He asked, dropping the smoking cigarette to the carpet with abandon as he took my bag over his sinewy shoulder. "Say your last good-byes, we won't be back here for a while." His voice ringing through my ears as he made his way down the steps and out to a sneaky getaway from camera flashes and prying eyes.

Glancing back on my room once more, I shook my head heavily. It wasn't what I remembered. The corners weren't so dark, the monsters weren't so real. It looked more hollow than I had ever seen it, the last look upon its curves and bends reflective ones. It was so empty and turning my back on it as I made my way into Derek's tracks, it was more beautiful than it had ever looked before.