The biting chill of the autumn air did little to cool the fire simmering in Ana’s chest. Another day, another public humiliation, courtesy of her older sister, Kim. The memory of the cafeteria, the collapsing chair, the milk, the pig snout, and the mocking laughter still burned, hot and raw, behind her eyes.

She clutched the single, crumpled twenty-dollar bill in her hand, the last remnant of her meager savings. The bus rumbled to a stop, its pneumatic hiss a mournful sigh. Ana scrambled aboard, finding refuge in the back corner, tears tracing hot paths down her milk-streaked face. This was it. There was no going back to that hell.

The bus journey, a blur of sobs and shattered resolve, ended abruptly at the train station. A heavy-set woman with kind eyes and a knowing smile greeted her, offering not judgment, but a change of clothes, a few dollars, and a ticket to a place called Chance Harbor. "Find Louie's," she'd said, "Tell him Verna sent you." It was a lifeline, a desperate leap into the unknown, far from the cruel reality she'd fled.

But as the train pulled away, carrying her into the deepening twilight, Ana couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that she wasn't just running away from her past, but hurtling headlong into a future far more terrifying than anything Kim could ever conjure.