Get Out If You Can

One Year Ago

Caitlyn Tejada pressed her back against the uncomfortable leather seats of her parents' car. Her eyes followed the backward-rushing landscape from the black tinted glass.

She was not happy she was home, but she wasn't sad either. She was glad she'd left hell — but the downside was she was now entering another remote extension of the place.

She watched as her sister, Kari, pressed her nose against the window, regarding everything outside like she was seeing it for the first time. Caitlyn wondered how — she wondered how it was possible for her to act like that, when she knew she was the reason Caitlyn was sent away.

Either way. She was back. She wouldn't stop. She wasn't crazy. She knew what she needed to do — and she wouldn't stop till she completed her mission. Yes, she had one. She'd spent her twelve months in the rehabilitation facility — more like hellhole — planning for it. It'd be hard, doing everything on her own, but she would do it, somehow.

She watched Kari. She watched how the fake smile dripped from the corners of her mouth. She watched how her sapphire blue eyes, the same color as Caitlyn's, flashed every time she spotted someone she knew outside.

How the fuck could she do that?

Kari turned around, as though she'd heard Caitlyn's thoughts. She didn't lose the smile.

"How're you feeling?" she asked her, without even the slightest dip in enthusiasm. "How?"

Caitlyn simply shook her head and looked the other way. She'd asked her that question about fifty times and Caitlyn knew she would never be able to answer it without getting violent. She would have, though. She had nothing to lose — because everything had already gone. She'd already had everything taken away from her.

She stole a glance at Kari again, squinting to see what she was looking at through the window. A girl with honey-blond hair, jogging on the sidewalk with another dark-haired girl, waved at her. Emilie Badeaux.

Caitlyn looked away. If Emilie knew they'd arrived, the entire place would know in a moment. Maybe they already did know. Who knew whom her sister had been texting all this while? Caitlyn was basically living in twilight. She didn't know anything about this place, and whatever she'd known, she'd forgotten. Except for one extremely important detail. Something she would never, ever forget, no matter how many hospitals they sent her to.

She watched the pretty town of Callenfield as it slowly re-revealed itself to her.

They could keep their secrets for now. But how far will you go to keep yours hidden?

***

"How're you feeling, Cait?" Her mother ruffled her shoulder-length hair, like everything was normal. Like everything was fine.

Like everything was still before.

Caitlyn stayed silent.

"Honey, something's wrong?" The tone her mother took wasn't one in which she sounded concerned for what her daughter felt like. It sounded like she was worried the rehab center hadn't done a good job.

Caitlyn looked out of the window of her room, tapping her fingers in a slow rhythm against the white pane. Such a pretty little town. The place she'd come from wasn't exactly dirty or anything, it was just too neat. So neat it was eerie. And there were those schedules they had to follow — you get up at this time and you get your ass down for breakfast at this time, and if you don't, prepare to remain hungry. Caitlyn doubted that it was the right way to treat people who really had issues and needed support. They could boast all they wanted about maintaining discipline on the premises, but she didn't think it was discipline. It was like they were having their personalities drawn out of them, cut and trimmed according to how society liked, and stitched back to their bodies.

Like a human factory.

Anyway. She didn't have to bother about it. She was out of there, and she was here. She had work to do.

And she'd either do it or die trying.