Freedom - Nicole Khatchadourian

One

My name is Nicole Khatchadourian.

My twin brother's name is Kevin.

We just got out of jail from the massacre five years ago.

It started when we were seven.

Well, in all honesty, it started when our mom Eva got pregnant. She didn't want to have a child, let alone twins. But dad was ecstatic. He loved us from the moment we were born, but Eva took a long time to even remotely warm up to us.

Kevin vaguely remembers the one time Eva broke his arm when he wouldn't potty train when we were little. I remember that day pretty clearly. It was the only time I ever called her mommy.

I remember the look in her eyes as she flung my twin into a wall  and the look on his face. It was one of the few time I could sense that he was almost near tears.

That was the moment I knew I hated our mother. I had run over to Kevin and sat beside him, glaring at the woman who had hurt him.

We had Eva wrapped around our finger for a long while after that. All it took was for Kevin to run his hand over the scar he had received, or me to catch her eyes and glare at her, to get her to do whatever we wanted.

It was fine for a few years after that, until one day Kevin was ill and I was forced to go to school. Franklin, our dad, picked me up from school, and I ran up the stairs to our room, only to see Kevin leaning against her as she read him the story of Robin Hood.

I never understood why he did it. But the end result was a good one.

Franklin had bought us and archery target, and a bow and a set of arrows each. The plastic type though, but it was still pretty cool though.