Nowhere To Go

Elena was up before the sun.

She had barely slept, but that wasn’t new.

She picked up her bag, what little she had stuffed inside. Clothes, her phone, a few crumpled bills—

She thought about telling her mother that she is leaving but decided against it.

She stepped outside, closing the door softly behind her.

The air was cold, the kind of coldness that only existed in the early morning before th