She looked in the mirror. The face of failure glared back at her. There was no mistaking it, she despised herself. The girl stared at her reflection, her wonky nose, her thinning hair, her sunken eyes. It was the face of someone much older than her, someone who had experienced much pain. Everything she had worked for lay in heaps at her feat, the regret stung like a needle.

She had made the conclusion that she now had absolutely nothing left. Her carrier was ruined. The money was gone and there was nothing else. She dug her nails into her forearm, hungry for blood, angry at her foolishness. There was nothing else for her to cling on to, she felt completely and utterly alone. It was in that moment that she made the compelling decision to leave. After all there was no money here, so what was the point?

The girl scrapped together the small amount of savings in the metal safe she kept beneath her bed. Other than that she packed a toothbrush, 2 sets of pants, 2 sets of clothes and a hair brush. There was nothing else of value to her. She left the small hotel room she had been staying in, shivering as she scurried down the train station to where the train would be leaving. There was a man, tall and broad, standing behind the ticket booth. He was not someone of particular muscle but he had a cutting edge jar line and deep, deep green eyes. The man had a kind face and a contagious, ready-made smile. The girl couldn’t help feeling slightly intrigued.

He grinned, “Hello miss, what can I do for ya?” She smiled back, feeling a light blush bleach her cheeks. “An adult s..single please.” The man smiled. “Travelling alone are you?” The girl felt slightly embarrassed, this must have projected onto her face since the man continued talking “I prefer to travel by myself, it means you don’t have to start awkward small talk for hours on hours!” She smiled back, feeling her heart bounce inside her chest. It was in that exact second that she realised her new purpose in life was to find out everything she possibly could about the ticket man. Money didn’t matter now, all that mattered was him.