Impulse

CHAPTER 1

Change is inevitable. We are born into it, to adapt into the world we live in. Change is in everything. Seasons, nature, technology, places, feelings, people and our circumstances. Circumstance, now that's a powerful word in itself. A fact or condition connected with or relevant to an event or action.

The event being my brother and I losing our parents to a fluke accident that caused an explosion in our basement. If our bedrooms would have been downstairs like our parents, we most likely wouldn't be alive. At least that's what we were told anyway.

Now, onto the action part, we believe caused the event. That would be Anthony Clark, known Arson that our father finally managed to put behind bars, who not only has ties to the Russian and Italian mafia but, the Mexican cartel as well. Of course, there was no evidence to prove this, since our father was the only one who could testify against him.

My father had been chasing him for the last fifteen year's. There had been a handful of times where he came close to catching him, but then poof, evidence would always pop up pointing to someone else.

This last time my dad actually caught him in the act. He received an anonymous tip informing him of where Clark would be. My father dropped everything and went after him. Unfortunately for him, that meant he was too distracted to call for back up, or his partner. When my father died, so did the only thing that could keep Clark behind bars. He had gotten a call two day's prior to the incident notifying him that Clark had made bail. That is when the FBI stepped in. They wanted to offer us their protection. Our whole family had been on lockdown. Agent's were stationed outside of our house at all times. The only time we were able to leave the house was for my college graduation. That's the day Clark arranged and carried out his plan of destroying my family.

This is why my brother Pacey and I are currently driving a rental car from the airport to the small town of Bar Harbor, Maine. The FBI decided that they were putting us in the witness protection program. We weren't even allowed to say goodbye to any of our family and friend's before we left or tell them where we were going. The agents in charge of our case told us that it is for the best. We couldn't have any ties to anyone or anything from Santa Barbara. It broke my heart knowing that I will never be able to see any of them again. For all intents and purposes everyone thought my brother and I had died in the fire along with our parents.

The days following the so called accident went by in a foggy haze. The agents didn't think that Clark would come after my brother and me since neither of us were an immediate threat to him. They still didn't want to take any chances with our saftey though. Especially since our house was under twenty-four hour surveillance and Clark still managed to murder our parents. We overheard one of the agents saying something about how they think they have a mole amongst them. That would certainly explain how he was able to get in and out of our home undetected.

We stayed in a hotel guarded by a few agents until it was time for us to sign over our lives to the government.

"I just need both of your signatures at the bottom and then we can get started with the process." Agent Jones noted.

I pried my eyes away from the over-weight, balding agent and placed my attention to the papers in front of me, reading and re-reading every single word. Since my brother was only sixteen I was now officially his legal guardian, which means I also had to sign at the bottom of his agreement.

This is it. In no time at all we will be living somewhere else, with new identities and no one will know that we existed as who we are before all of this.

"Alright, you two sit tight and I will be back with Mrs. Smith. She is the one who is in charge of all of this."

"Okay." My voice came out low and gravelly. I had been crying non stop the previous night.