text: I was sick. Weak. Dragging my past along with me, my old name, my old identity. No one had bothered to watch as I changed, no one had heard my quiet comments, hidden beneath layers and layers of the unchangeable past. They. The simplest of corrections. The shortest of sentences. But it spoke of stories, of pain that I could never quite articulate. A second. That was all it had taken to change everything. One second to say it. Five to realise my mistake. Ten to hear the screams of resentment. Thirty to get up and run. One hundred and twenty to find the keys to my car, climb in to leave. But none to look back. I had overreacted, that was true, but I had been suffocating. I was always going to leave, to find another place to live, to breathe in air that had not been tainted by the harsh glares of others. I had simply been given an opportunity. My car window was open, the trees dashing past me, filling in the gaps I had left behind, whispering to each other, to me. You can’t go back. Not now, not ever. I knew that. I did. I did. But if I did, why would I act so brash, I was never one to make spur of the minute decisions. I had a plan, I had sorted it all out. But caution was thrown to the wind in that one second. Those five. I couldn’t go back. I didn’t want to. The wind howled beside me, silencing that tear soaked laughter that spilled uncontrollably out of me. I was ridiculous. I could not erase my past. But I could try. I could make a new name. I could get a new job, buy a new house. I could stop running. The laughter silenced. When I thought about it, it did seem quite appealing, to find a home in a town hidden within these trees. The trees that held my secrets. My pain. I started to yell. Not screams, but words. Everything I had felt in those years hidden away, all of my insecurities out there, dancing with the leaves. One I started, I could not stop. The words kept coming, speaking of thoughts and feeling I had tried my hardest to ignore, the ones that I had buried so deep down that I had forgotten they were there. Suddenly, I was so glad I had left. The world was waiting for me. A nameless person on their own. A nameless person who paused on the side of the road. Who got out of their car and stood in the middle of the road. A nameless person. Hannah. Vex. The name was a whisper, I was not sure if I had even said it, but it was there, and I liked it. Vex. Louder this time. Vex. A yell disappeared into the sound of the forest. Echoing over and over in my mind. Mingling with the world, a proposition, a question to whoever was watching over me. Anticipation prickled under my skin. The universe let out a breath. A sound of acceptance, a moment of freedom. I was making my way though life, forging a new path for myself. There was an empty ache settling over my heart, but it was almost silenced by the relief. I was still sick. But I was getting better.