"Sam!...Katie!...We could use some help getting our stuff in!"

I came awake immediately. I felt like crap. I was still exhausted. I was really hungry, too. I raised my wrist and glanced at my watch. Ugh, barely noon. Not enough sleep for me. But I had to deal with this, I had to deal with mom and dad.

I was still debating what I was going to tell them.

I pulled the blankets back with a sigh, sat up, threw my feet over the side of the bed and planted them on the floor. I hadn't undressed before sleeping, I'd only kicked off my shoes and now I felt gross because of it. Definitely needed a shower soon. But sleep first...hopefully. Mom and dad would probably want a full interrogation once they learned the truth. I stood up, stretching and painfully popping my back and shoulders, then started for the door.

"Sam!? Katie?! Where are you?!" mom called again.

"I'm coming, mom!" I called back.

I made my way through the hall and emerged at the top of the stairs. My mom was standing among a pile of suitcases. A few seconds later dad emerged bearing paper sacks of groceries. "We stopped by the store on the way home, since we left the place kind of empty."

"How was your, uh, anniversary trip?" I asked.

"It was fine," mom replied. "Where's your sister?"

I stood there and stared at them for a few seconds, weighing what to say. There would be questions, lots of questions, and I imagine mom and dad would want to call the cops. I didn't want them to think that Sam had been kidnapped or something, so I had decided to give them one of Sam's notes, the very first one.

The one I'd found taped to the front door.

"She's not here," I replied, coming down the stairs.

"What? Where is she?" dad replied.

"I found this taped to the front door when I got in earlier and I looked all over the house. She isn't here and her car is gone and...so is some of our stuff."

"What stuff?" mom demanded, taking the note from me.

"The SNES and some VCRs," I replied hesitantly.

"What!?" dad snapped.

"Is there something I should know...did something happen with Sam? Because it sounds like she ran away."

"You've got to be kidding me," mom whispered as she read over the message. She didn't answer my question. Instead, she asked one of her own, lowering the paper to look at me. "You didn't find anything else? Anything that might give us an idea of where she's gone?"

I hesitated a brief moment, then shook my head. "No, nothing."

I couldn't tell them...I wouldn't tell them. Because Sam deserved to be free, and to be happy. Whatever she was doing, it was going to be hard, the most difficult thing she'd ever had to do in her entire life.

But she deserved to try.

If I had told mom and dad where Sam was, I think I would have told them one thing.

Sam had gone home.