Prologue

Dear Diary,

It's 2:03 am. I am officially 13 years old! Only five more years to freedom. Five more years then I'm finally on my own.

I hope.

But that's not what woke me up this early. I had the weirdest dream ever! I dreamt that I was flying over this huge castle in the middle of nowhere and landed in front of a woman who was scribbling in her journal the way I am now.

She looked up at me and smiled. We had an excitingly long conversation. I told her all about the places I've read about the world that I wanted to visit once I was officially old enough to leave. I complained about the orphanage, Mrs. Mathews in particular. I told her about my attempts to escape this prison.

She told me that I'd be out of here before I knew it. I just had to be patient and be certain that destiny had great things in store for me.

Then we spoke about her life; how she had a thousand-and-one responsibilities over her noble shoulders. And, above all, she was pregnant! She felt that life, as she knew it, stopped instantly, and she had no idea what her future will hold now that she's expecting. At the end, she made me promise that I would always follow my instincts because they would never fail me. We shook hands on it.

She wished me 'Happy Birthday' and I woke up feeling at ease. I wonder who she was, or if I'll ever meet such a woman.

She did seem strangely familiar.