If you know me at all, even just a little bit, you’ll know that I’m amazing at keeping secrets and hiding my feelings. It’s what I’ve been doing for months now and nobody suspects a thing. I seem happy on the outside, with a warm smile and sparkling eyes like golden orbs. But on the inside, I’m slowly shattering, piece-by-piece. The only thing in this whole world keeping me together is my brother. My twin brother. The one I have told everything to, the one I cuddled with at night until we were fourteen because we were afraid to sleep by ourselves, afraid to be afraid from one another for too long. After Zach and I had been kidnapped as young children we would never leave each other’s side. We were inseperable. Now that our life has been ripped out from under us, I won’t leave his side at all because he’s like the glue that is holding me together and I’m centimeters from ripping at the seams.
Sitting in anatomy class everything had seemed normal. It had seemed like a normal Wednesday morning. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, Mom, Dad, Destiny, Zach and I all riding in the car together to school and work. But it seemed as if in a split second that all changed.
“Zach and Serendipity Carson need to follow me now.” Our principle had come into our class with a pale look on his face. “Your parent’s” He chocked out almost silently. Zach stood up so quickly as I sat there trying to process what he was saying.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked quietly.
“They’ve been in a severe car wreck Sera. We need to get going now. They don’t think that they have much time left” And then, it felt as if all of the air had been sucked out of my body. I felt Zach grab my hand and as I looked at him, I saw his lips moving but I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying. Is this a dream? Are my parents dying? What is going on? Where is Des? All these questions were running through my brain all at once, and I couldn’t sort them out or stop them. They just kept coming.
“Sera, we have to go.” Zach urged pulling on my hand. I looked at him slowly and saw that he had tears in his eyes. My brother, who has a heart of steel, is crying. That’s when I snapped. I then knew that this was all too real.
“No.” I whispered. I could feel myself falling, falling, and I closed my eyes waiting for the impact to hit me and to see darkness surrounding me like the velvet night. But the hard ground never met my body, I was met with my brothers strong arms carrying me out of the classroom and secondly out of the building. I snuggled up into my brother’s warm chest. “Zach, I just want to sleep,” I mumbled. He looked down at me quickly and smiled softly at me.
“It’s going to be alright Sera. I’m here. Go to sleep.” He urged as tear flowed down his cheeks. I whimpered slightly and tried to tune out everything around me other than Zach’s footsteps. I pretended they were rain pitter pattering on my roof. I loved rain. It was my me and mom’s favorite sound. We would snuggle up under a thick wool blanket with hot tea and listen to the rain as we enjoyed each others company. And thinking of my mom then was bittersweet. At the moment, I didn’t want to think about my mom. So I was just going to pretend this was a dream and let the darkness over come me.
