The ringing phone filled her with dread. Dawn quickly looked around, trying to find the phone she had misplaced. As she tossed a few books aside, there it was. She slowly picked it up, and flipped it open, staring at the screen. Raising it to her ear she said hello. Within a few seconds of answering the phone, her mother responded. In a very quiet, shaky voice, her mother said, “Dawn, honey. I need you to leave the house, right now.” Was that fear in her voice? As Dawn was about to respond to her mother’s command, she heard the line go silent. Dawn closed her phone and sat down in the closest chair, a chair her mother had gotten her when she was younger. It was just a plain purple fuzzy chair. She flipped her phone back opened and dialed her mother’s number. Ringing, but no answer. What could possibly be going on? Should she follow her mother’s command to leave the house?
Dawn ran up the stairs and into the bathroom. As she was reaching for her duffel bag, she stopped and looked into the mirror. Her long black hair looked very smooth and had a nice shine to it. Her green eyes reflected the lights and made them look absolutely astonishing. For a split second she made eye contact with her mirror self, then pulled away to start packing the duffel bag with all of her toiletries. As soon as she finished doing that she went back downstairs to her room. Opening the closet door, she reached in and pulled a bunch of her shirts off the hangers and stuffed them in her bag. Just as she was finishing packing her shirts into the bag, she heard a noise. What now? Dawn thought as she moved to the window. Police.

Dawn started to panic. She tossed her bag into her closet, them jumped on top of it and closed the door. What are they doing here? She thought as her head throbbed and her heart pounded against her ribs. Calm down. Calm down Dawn. She recited as she started to control her breathing and relax her body.
“Do you think she’s even here?” said a voice she’d never heard.
“Probably not, she could be out with friends you know, that’s what most teenagers do, or she actually could be dead like her mother said,” said another voice she didn’t recognize.
“I’m not sure. Should we search around here?” said the first voice.
“Nah, that’s not our job. We were just told to find the criminals daughter, according to the chart, her name’s Dawn Adams,” said the second voice.
Oh my gosh, they’re looking for me. ME. What the heck did I do?! And my mother told them I’m dead? She thought frantically as she began tearing up in fear. No. I have to be quiet. They can’t know I’m here. She put her head down on her knees and took a few deep breathes.
“Well, we should get back to the station and report that she wasn’t here. We can come back and check later,” said the first voice, followed by the door to her room slamming shut.
As soon as Dawn was sure they left, she opened the closet door and crawled out onto the floor. Standing up, she pulled her duffel bag out of the closet behind her. She had to leave. Now. After her bag was full of clothes, she ran to the door. I’m dead. Dawn kept thinking about this as she started walking.



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2 months had passed by and the whole investigation with Dawn and her parents had finally died down. By this time, Dawn had moved in with her uncle and was staying undercover. Her uncle understood that no one could know that Dawn was still alive. Dawn found out about everything shortly after moving in with her uncle. It turns out that her parents had been running a meth lab in the basement of their house, and she never even knew until now. When she found out, she was flooded with emotions. How could they keep this a secret from her for so long? Did they not trust her? Did her parents really have to go to the lengths to tell the police that they killed their own daughter? They were trying so hard to protect me, but at the same time, hurting me. Dawn thought as she went through some of her old family pictures. Will I ever get to see them again? Dawn sat in her room, just pondering these questions she kept asking herself over and over. Because of them, she had to drop out of school by force, leave all of her friends behind, and leave her own home to come live with an uncle she barely knew until he took her in.
Her uncle came into her room and asked her if she was all right, and if she was settling in okay. Dawn said yes. She told him that she did miss her previous life. Her uncle suggested that they could legally change her name and enroll her back into a new school system, that way, Dawn could make new friends and work on her social life. Dawn’s uncle told her to pick the first name she wanted, and that they would go by her uncles last name. Dawn chose the name Melody.
Dawn was now to be known as Melody Anderson.
Shortly after the name change, Melody was then enrolled into a new school. She was glad to be able to continue her life, even if it meant taking it to the extremes.
2 more months had passed since Melody enrolled back into school. She’d made new friends and began to be more social again. For one time in 4 months, she was happy again, until she found out that her new best friend from school, in which she’d trusted with her whole life’s story, was the daughter of the police chief that was in charge of her parent’s case.