Alex spent the night at a friend's place but he had already decided to leave by the next morning. He had a few savings and he had contacted another friend in his birth city, Gotham, to ask whether it would be viable for him to move there instead.

He knew his mother would try to track him out and persuade him to come back but he had taken his decision and wanted to be out of reach from them.

The only person he did care about and could not stop worrying for was his little sister Isadora.

He was waiting at the station for his train that would take him to Gotham city, his bag dangling on his shoulder and his eyes vacant but he caught sight of a call booth in the corner. For a few minutes, he weighed out the pros and cons of making a call then but deciding that he would take the risk, he stepped in.

He dialed his house's landline and waited, telling himself that he would disconnect the call if anyone other than Dora picked up.

Luckily for him, the phone was answered on the second ring and Dora's voice sounded from the other side, "hello?"

"Hey, Dora. How are you?" She recognized his voice immediately as a delighted gasp escaped her but before she could speak, he resumed, "don't be too loud and don't tell anyone I called. I just want to talk to you."

"Oh."

"How's Mum?"

"She's not okay," she mumbled in a low voice, taking care not to be loud enough for her parents to hear her, "their fights have gotten worse since you left."

He knew that would have happened as he remarked, "just don't worry yourself too much about it. If they start fighting, go into your room and stay there until it passes. Trust me, no good would come out of intervening."

"I know..." After a short pause she added, "I'm sorry, Alex."

He was surprised to hear an apology from her for in his view she had done nothing wrong. "For what?"

"I asked you to stop them from fighting and it got you kicked out."

"Hey, it's not your fault," he resumed in a gentle tone, his eyes flickering towards his wrist watch that indicated there was still a bit of time left until his train would arrive on the platform, "look I'm at the station and I had only called to check up on you. I leave for Gotham in a few minutes."

"Gotham? Why?"

"I have a friend over there, I'll live with him and the place where he works has some vacancies so I'll apply for a job there first."

"But Al..." Her voice was quivering as if she would break down to tears, "will I never see you again?"

"That's not the case at all," he spoke reassuringly, "I will call you over soon as I get settled myself."

"And will I never talk to you again in the meanwhile?"

He sighed sadly, observing the break in her tone and he could not help but speak up, "I'll not be using my phone number, but once I get a new one I'll call you and tell you about it. But you have to promise not to say a word of it to Mum and Dad."

"I promise," she readily agreed.

"Take care of yourself and Mum," he knew the time for the conversation was up, "my train is going to arrive so I have to go now."

"Take care of yourself too."

"Bye," he placed the phone back and stepped out of the call booth though his heart was heavy knowing that Dora was extremely sad about the prospect of him leaving the city as well.

But he had taken his decision and there was no backing off.

The train stopped at the platform and Alex boarded along with the other passengers, in order to head over to his next destination.

Gotham City.

***

After Alex's last phone call Dora had been upset, just like he had made her promise she didn't tell her parents anything about it. But the dread of having to put up with everything on her own was gnawing at her heart.

Before then Alex had always been there for her, whenever the fights between her parents got worse, she would go to his room and he would always get her mind off it one way or the other. But with him gone, she had no idea what she would do.

She was just a child and had been closer to her brother as compared to her parents because he had always looked after her and taken care of her.

That night, thankfully no fight broke out between her parents because Vincent didn't come home either and Camille was already down with the grief of her son leaving them. But Dora knew that won't be the case for long.

Some day or other, she would have to face it on her own.

The house seemed so lonely to her and unable to sleep in her bed, she tiptoed to the other side of the corridor, stopping in front of Alex's room. The door opened when she pushed it and she didn't even have to knock like usual because he wasn't inside so it hadn't been locked.

His room seemed dreadfully empty too even though most of his stuff was still lying there for he had packed up and left in a hurry. She bent down picking up the clothes that were lying on the floor as she neatly folded them and walked over to the closet.

Opening the cupboard, she realized he had taken very few of his belongings. As she placed the clothes back, her eyes swept over his record player which she took out. His collection of records was still there and she carefully took the case out as well.

Alex had had a very soft taste in music, quite similar to his own nature. He preferred to listen to soothing melodies that did not have the clamor and noise music those days contained.

Most of the tracks were old, classic pieces that he had collected. The Beatles occupied the major portion in his collection too and as she pressed the Play button, The Long Winding Road began to play, Paul McCartney's voice resonating in the dull lonely room.

Maybe it was the emotion in the voice of the singer or the fact that the music seemed to strike very close to her heart, Isadora felt as if it was for one such occasion the song was written for, when the heart misses a person close to it and wants to find a way to return to them.

The soft music still played as she laid down on the carpet, closing her eyes. And though she hadn't been able to sleep before, the music acted as a lullaby and shortly afterwards, she drifted off to sleep though her cheeks were glistening from the traces of tears that had escaped her wide brown eyes.

***