Ashley chapter 1

Haii XP so this is the beginning of a story I'm writing with my OC (Ashley Hendrix) just wanted to see where this goes on this site

:)

Ashley presses her Vans against the edge of the second floor windowsill, holding her breath as she swings a leg out. The rooftop creaks faintly beneath her, and she winces. "Don't slip.. don't make a sound.." 

Her feet hit the road with a soft thud. Finally. Ground beneath her. Relief floods through her chest, but it's fleeting. She crouches for a moment, letting her flip phone's dim light guide her through the darkness. "Good. No one's gonna see me. No one's gonna know." 

The woods wait for her, thick and shadowed, and she slips between trees like she's part of the darkness itself. Each step crunches softly over fallen leaves. Her pulse hammers, but it's the kind of fear that tastes like freedom. "This..this is mine. No rules. No yelling. No questions. Just me and the dark."

She climbs a nearby tree, hands scraping against rough bark. Up and up, until she can see the house- a small square of light in the distance. She paused on a study branch, flip phone in hand, and stares back. "Stupid house. Stupid rules. They think I belong there. They don't know..I'm not part of it. Just..watching." 

Click. Flash. Another photo captured. She likes the fleeting glow that illuminates her hands, her vans, the nearest branches. Each picture is a fragment of herself, held close in the silence. " Nobody will ever understand why this matters.. why I matter. But maybe.. it's enough that I see it. I feel it."

Her chest tightens. She leans back, letting the wind bite at her face. Trees sway. Leaves rustle. The world feels simultaneously vast and suffocating. " Everyone else..inside. Laughing. Living. Meanwhile, I'm up here,. floating somewhere else, drowning in everything I can't say. Everything I feel."

She swings her legs over a higher branch, daring herself to climb further, to feel the height, to feel something real. Her hair falls over her eyes, obscuring the world, and she presses a hand to her chest, trying to steady the storm inside. " I'm okay..for now. Just..let me be okay a little longer."

A final flash. Click. She grabs a branch and closes her eyes. The world is quiet, the night is hers, and though the weight of everything she carries hasn't lifted, she's carved out this tiny pocket of control, this space where her pain, her chaos, and her isolation can exist on her own terms.

(I hope this is okay, I've been really trying to improve some things about my writing. Also, these chapters will usually be short)