The turbulent symptoms of the storm eased overnight, leaving behind a heavy rain and the occasional rumble of thunder. Though the house was unusually quiet, my sleep was restless and broken. I woke up feeling groggy and swollen, and I'd had to peel sleep from my eyes.

Dallas looked almost as bad as I felt, and he eyed my stolen sleepwear with raised eyebrows when I clambered into the kitchen to down a cup of black coffee, but he didn't comment on it.

"I'm going to drop home for some clean clothes and then head back to the hospital, do you want to come with me?" He asked as he poured himself a bowl of Cheerios and grabbed a clean spoon from the drawer to dig in.

I swallowed through the lump in my throat and shook my head, watching my coffee swirl around in its mug. "No, thanks. I need to pack up my stuff here first and then I'll take Sarah's car back to the hospital and say goodbye to... uh, everyone."

My dad had messaged me early this morning to tell me that he'd booked my flight for 1pm this afternoon, which gave me plenty of time to organise myself before I headed to the airport.

"Okay well, call me if you need anything, alright?"

I nodded in response and took my coffee upstairs as I set to work packing my clothes into my YSL suitcase. It felt like just yesterday I'd walked through the McCormacks' door and lugged this thing upstairs, no thanks to Brooks. I left out a spare pair of clothes to change into, planning to put the grey hoodie back where it belonged, but as my fingers gripped the hem I realized that it was the only thing holding me together right now. I settled on changing into some black tights and throwing a sports bra underneath, but leaving the soft fleece where it was.

I would give it back to him at the hospital, I convinced myself as I continued to pack.

Half an hour later, all traces of me were gone from my room, and I looked around at the emptiness with a heavy heart. I glanced out the window, swiftly avoiding looking at the neighbour's yard, but allowing my gaze to sweep over all the places and hiding spots I had played in as a kid.

I outlined the shape of the swing set with my index finger on the glass and smiled, before rolling my suitcase out into the hallway and down the stairs. As I locked the door behind me and trudged down the driveway, I stole a glance back at the house and was hit by an overwhelming sense of loss.

Leaving had always been the plan, but having this much difficulty doing so hadn't been.

"You win." I said quietly to Luke— or whoever was listening, now that we would never be certain who it was— knowing that they were and always had been listening.

"You hear me?" I yelled angrily into the abyss, throwing my arms out to the side and spinning around once. Heat boiled my blood. "You win! I'm leaving. I don't know what the point of all this was, but you told me to leave Brooks and I am. Message received. Are you happy now, you sad fucker?"

A few doors away I noticed that an elderly man who had been taking the garbage out was staring at me with distaste as he held a purple umbrella over his head, but I didn't care. I would never see him again anyway.

I snatched the handles of my suitcase and stormed towards the car, chucking my stuff inside and propelling myself into the driver's seat. I flicked the car into first and tore away from the curb, my anger forcing me to drive a little faster than I should have been.

I made it to the end of the street before I breathed deeply and forced myself to relax and slow the vehicle. In the very same second that the thought occurred to me, out of the corner of my eye I saw the flash of headlights. They approached faster than I expected, hurtling towards me with blinding speed.

Panic rose in my chest as I reached frantically for the stick shift to force the car into reverse. My fingers couldn't budge the gears even as my foot slammed down on the clutch, and I realized an instant too late that the car had stalled.

Cursing, I glanced up at the road to see how much time I had. The headlights flashed in my vision, blinding me for a millisecond, and then everything went black.