As the alarm blared, jolting her awake, Emma groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the pounding in her head to subside. The memories of the previous night were a hazy blur - all she could recall were endless rounds of drinks at the local bar with her friends, followed by an impulsive decision that she couldn't quite believe she had gone through with.
It took a couple ibuprofen and three large glasses of water to kick a handful of the functioning neurons in her brain into gear. The sequence of events and reality of her rash actions after one too many tequila shots, were starting to formulate as the sun peeked through the half closed curtains. Coming home sometime after 1am, she’d opened her laptop and booked herself a one-way ticket to some island halfway across the world. What compelled her to choose Sri Lanka she wasn’t quite sure. She had hoped in her drunken stupor that she might pick based on a good deal, but that clearly had not been the case. She doubted there was rarely a good deal to be had when booking travel with no return flight within 24-hours.
"What the hell was I thinking?" Emma muttered to herself, burying her face in her hands. Just hours ago, her life had been perfectly fine - she had a stable job, a comfortable apartment, and a nice circle of friends. But in a single drunken moment, she had decided to give it all up on a whim.
As the initial panic began to subside, Emma found herself surprisingly calm. Maybe this was exactly what she needed - a chance to start over, to leave behind the monotony and frustrations of her everyday life. After all, she had been feeling increasingly restless and unfulfilled lately. This could be her opportunity to rediscover herself, to find the adventure and excitement she craved.
The idea sounded so romantic, so clever and so very naive. She wanted badly to believe that was exactly why she had made the plan to jet off to some other part of the world but maybe ‘whim’ wasn’t exactly the right word to use. Necessity felt more like it.
With a newfound sense of determination, Emma packed a small suitcase, carefully selecting the essentials she would need for her journey and being mindful to leave no incriminating evidence behind. As she zipped up the bag, she paused, a faint smile spreading across her face.
"Here goes nothing," she murmured, taking one last lingering look around her apartment before heading out the door.
As the plane took off, Emma gazed out the window, watching the city that had adopted her as its own over the last few years shrink into the distance. She had no idea what the future held, but for the first time in a long while, she didn’t care about the hold he’d had over her and whether or not he would find her if she wasn’t careful. She had given herself permission to be free to explore the unknown and discover the person she was meant to be.
She just hoped witness protection wouldn’t be too upset when they heard she’d skipped town.