The One

My eyes filled with tears as the familiar sound of a flat heartbeat drifted through the air. I wish i didn't know what was going to happen next. I couldn't go through this again. we had to escape. The only thing left was to figure out how. How to escape our fate, our pain, our destiny. All things left up to us, all I knew is it wouldn’t be easy. 

My birth mothers passing was one of the hardest things for us to witness I was only eight years old and my little brother jack was 5. we immediately were placed into foster care. it wasn't long before someone adopted us being so young it wasn't difficult. for 7 years we learned and grew as part of a sort of family. But for some reason the universe insisted that we weren’t supposed to have a family. No matter what we tried the world was always one step ahead.  

Me being 15 now I knew that we wouldn’t blow in as quickly as we had as children. We would be separated, and I would be sent to a labor camp. I couldn’t lose the last member of my family I knew of.  

The night we escaped was cold and the wind seemed to blow right through us. We were expected to be picked up in 3 days for foster care. As we ran through the night the cold air stung our cheeks. I knew that the daylight would find us sometime soon, so we had to move fast. The fear of the orphanage flashed through my mind with each pounding step. It felt like each foot echoed of the ground like an earthquake. My breath began to become heavy as I panted. We seemed to travel so slowly but when I stopped and examined my surroundings. It was then that I realized I had no idea where we were. I decided to call it a night, so we found a tree deep in a forest and took a long deep nap.  

We must have slept for at least 5 hours because I was awoken to a chant then opened my eyes to the sun high in the sky. Based on its position it was around 3 pm. The voices got louder as if they were talking to me. Suddenly my vision became clear and it reveal the face of a man staring down right at me. I Immediately scrambled to my feet and began to slowly back up. The man looked as if he had been if the woods his entire life. He looked me right in the eye and asked in a deep croaky voice “are you children lost?” His voice made jack shudder and I quickly grabbed his hand and began to squeeze a message in Morse into it. He stood there deciphering and finally agreed. I gave his hand on final squeeze then yelled “watch out!” I pointed to a random direction and we both took off. I had never run faster then I did in that moment and I heard as the man cursed in our direction. he immediately raced in the opposite direction . Unsure of what he was planning we ran even faster after a couple minutes we crashed onto the mossy forest floor in tears. ”I almost lost you!” Jack cried out in a hurried whisper. I could almost feel the pain in his voice. I responded in my best fake comforting voice ”you will never lose me, I will do whatever I can to keep this family together.“ We hugged each other for a long time almost as if we were afraid if we let go we would be separated. 

Jack and I have been close ever since we were children. Ever since I could speak the only thing I could talk about was how I wanted siblings. Once he was born, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He seemed to attract me somehow and once you caught each others eyes it was impossible to look away. He has the most beautiful green eyes that could pull anyone it. We have always been so close and my mother used to tease us because the stories she told of her siblings were of punching and mean names and any other form of fighting and arguing you can think of. I can’t imagine jack doing any of those things. 

The years after that passed as fast as Christmas Day used to. We found a tree far away and built our kingdom from the ground. The next thing I knew it was my eighteenth birthday. I had been working for a old farmer since we first arrived and once I was eighteen we could come out of our hiding place. We began to pack up our memories and when we said goodbye I knew that this place was always going to be a part of me. Jack had changed since we first arrived. He was a lot taller and seemed to be able to do anything his mind was set to. Once we got back into society I was sure the girls would be all over him. His eyes still catch me off guard. When the light flashes into them they seem to glow. they were like a cage, capturing everyone that laid eyes on them.  They healed and broke my heart at the same time. They were just like my mothers, and even though I missed her I knew she would want us to do this. 

As we said our goodbyes to our home tears filled our eyes. We took one last sniff of the pine air and walked  into a meadow as  the morning sun shone on us, not sure if we should be crying or smiling, so we did both. Our hands clasped together as we silently promised that we would always be this close. I made him a promise. Nothing was taking us apart. Because that’s what mom would’ve wanted.