It Isn't Just Skin Deep.

Gavin wasn't exactly going to miss this place, it was like a hollow shell. He returned home from his studies at school every day and came home to nobody here. Although most adults weren't home by then, most adults were home before it was ten at night. Not his, though. He took care of himself.

His room upstairs was bare, minus the clothing and a few things that he had taken with him. It was even emptier in there now with just furniture and some clothing that wouldn't fit in the bag filling the space.

He sighed and headed outside, not turning see what he was leaving behind. In his mind, he was leaving behind nothing and would wish to see a vast abyss of nothing if he looked back.

Outside, daylight was beginning to fade and people would be leaving work soon. The woods weren't too far away from where Gavin resided and he moved at a slow pace, his stomach feeling like it was eating itself.

Eating wasn't something that was very big around here, so there was never much food but there were certain people who grew it and tended to the crops to feed the people every once in a while. Dying thin was desirable to nearly everyone, though; many lives were lost to this.

As he walked, he wondered if there would be food wherever he was going and prayed there would be. He could count every single one of his ribs that were jutting out from his chest like a sick xylophone.

Gavin shrugged, he knew he wasn't beautiful, or thin enough. Through the tight black jeans he was wearing, his hip bones jutted out a little bit but it didn't seem like it was enough. He still hadn't earned the right to a proper meal. It'd been nearly two weeks.

His stomach growled again as he continued moving ahead, the sound filling his ears. He lived in pain through this but beauty couldn't be achieved without pain- you had to sacrifice something.

Within a few more steps, Gavin was walking through the grass, into a maze of trees. He had stuck the paper back where he'd found it and tried to remember where it was. It wasn't too far in, that was for sure, but the area was crowded and that'd make things more difficult. Gavin didn't even know how he'd come across the paper the first time.

He meandered through a large amount of tall, limber trees, searching for his ticket to getting away. It was so close, he could nearly taste it. He could nearly taste food within his mouth as well.

Gavin walked a bit farther back, and scanned over a clump of trees. He remembered that the tree with the paper was an oak, and that there was a small space between that one and another oak. Within a couple of seconds, he spotted the two trees that stuck out of the group like a sore thumb.

He smiled and quickened his pace, reaching and taking the paper. The day that he'd seen it, he had never turned it over or anything and just marveled at the words. There was something better.

The paper did have another side to it, though, and it read: "Mutter these words between these two oaks, and leave this paper for the next person. Keep the escape route going. Now ,say it; "Escape from plastic" once the paper is back where it belongs. You'll wake up somewhere you wont recognize, but there will be people here to help you."

Gavin put the paper back inside the hole in the left oak, before stepping between the two oaks.

"Escape from plastic," he muttered, his eyes squeezed shut. "Escape from plastic."