Dear Selena,
You probably have this chest because somewhere along the line, our plan has gone horribly wrong. In this chest is everything you need to survive on your own. You may choose to continue the plan as you think makes sense to you, but I won't be able to help you. Yes, I know, it's scary, suddenly having to make decisions by yourself, but I can't accompany you otherwise your father will come after you and that's not good for either of us.
First off, if you followed my directions and found a good place to hide, even temporarily, CHANGE. Your mother's dress will not do you any favours, no matter how pretty it looks. The first thing you probably took out of this chest (aside from this note) are a change of clothes, I don't care how you do it (that dress looks too much of a complex piece of work for me to understand), or what you do with it in the end, do the both of us a favour and change in the clothes I provided you (I even provided you with two sets). You'll thank me later.
Along with clothes, I gave you a knife, freshly sharpened. Now, I know why you might be a little afraid of it, don't worry I won't bring it up, but the knife is a versatile tool, it just is. Able to be used from self-defence, to simple mundane tasks such as...I can't think of anything really, but use your imagination, there's more to a knife than just being an instrument of...you know. I also included a small sharpening stone, just scrape the blade against it lengthwise whenever it goes dull.
I also included two loaves of bread (that's the pack wrapped in cloth), a matchbook (I'm sorry that I can't provide you with a full one), and some money, which is probably your most important resource, since you can get yourself pretty much everything else in this chest including the chest itself if you have enough of it. All of these will run out and have to be replenished in one way or another.
Last thing I have for you is a simple empty glass milk bottle. Carries any liquid you wish to contain in it.
That's all there is. I know you're scared, I know there's a lot to take in. But you could do it. I know you can, I bet everything I have by putting it in this chest that you can. Good luck.
-Richard
Name: Selena Dosett
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Personality: Selena is conditioned to basically be a doormat. She is soft spoken, never puts herself first, and rather be at the end of the line. She also is pretty clueless, never knowing that war broke out, and the sounds she dismisses as something from the TV her father has. However, she is surprisingly literate, gathering information from eavesdropping on reading lessons her father gave to her brothers that came after her. The other thing is that, while clueless, she is not naive. If anything, she is rather cynical and pessimistic, assuming that everything will lead to worst case scenario and has distrust in everyone. She sees her submissive nature as something she has to be, rather than something that she can get out of.
Appearance:
...yes, she literally escaped in that dress (an heirloom from her mother in her more fortunate days). Luckily, she has two alternate sets of (more practical) clothes, more about that in the Other section.
Bio: Selena was born into a somewhat higher class because her family was lucky enough to own one of the factories in the city (someone's gotta be manager, right?). Or at least she would've been had her abusive father hadn't murdered her mother, forced the doctor to keep her birth a secret, and raised her as more of a slave than a daughter, all because she was born a girl rather than a boy. One day, when she was ten, Richard, a friend of her mother discussed with her about a plan to escape to her aunt when she turned 14. However, the car that they were escaping from got hijacked by an eavesdropping friend who is loyal to her father. Realizing that their plan has failed, Richard left her with a wheeled chest with orders to run to the streets for somewhere safe she can hide.
Other:
Those two extra sets of clothes look like these:
Also, she likes French toast.
That's the best I could do in regards to the theme of someone from a higher class being forced into poverty since I really want to experiment with the idea.