One Thing I Won't Forget

Three

                                                                                                Alaina

"A-Alex," a girl said, she sounded as though she was scared out of her mind. I was frightened as a tall figure walked over to me and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me in the shadows. I stood there frozen, frightened that they'd hurt me.

Being locked in this attic with the only interaction being my mother has left me clueless on human interaction. "Who are you?" The male asked angrily. I was terrified. What do I say? What do I do? Do I try to run? Try to escape?

 "I-I'm Alaina," I shakily spoke up. I had no recollection of who these people were and why they were in here, but with the girl looking as if she was me, I assumed she knew who I was even if I didn't know who she was. "Please don't hurt me." I tried to look around for a hiding spot but had no luck.

 "Alaina? As in my twin sister Alaina?" The girl spoke up with hope filled in her voice. She took a couple more steps towards me as I took a few back, now against the wall of the attic.

 "Where's my mom?" I asked, ignoring her question. I wanted my mom. She would tell me who these people are, and why they were up here instead of her. Why is she saying I'm her twin sister? Mom never told me I had siblings, she always told me I had to stay up here because it wasn't safe for me if I didn't.

 "M-Mom passed away," The male said as he turned on the attic light. His voice sounded sad as the words escaped his lips. "Her and dad were in an accident and neither survived." The more he spoke, the more anger came into his words. "How long have you been up here?" The question was asked with worry as he looked around, taking in the surroundings of the attic I lived in.

 "Mom always told me it wasn't safe for me down there, so I've been locked away up here my whole life." I spoke, looking between the two of them. "She never told me I have siblings, let alone a twin sister."

 Why didn't she ever tell me I had siblings? Why was I locked away and not them too? I had so many questions, questions that from the sound of it, would not be answered.

 "How much longer do I have to stay up here? When is the funeral?" I asked in hopes that I wouldn't have to be locked away any longer. I was tired of always being locked away with no interaction with life outside of the walls I had become all too familiar with. I craved the outside more than anything in the world. I was in the middle of trying to leave the attic when I accidentally knocked something over and it broke.

 "Th-The funeral has already happened," the girl paused as she looked up at me for a moment. "It was set up a few days after the accident."

My heart shattered into a million pieces as I fell to my knees. The tears kept coming, and there was no stopping them, regardless of how hard I tried. Suddenly I felt two arms wrap around me in a comforting manner.

 "I'm so sorry we didn't come up here sooner Alaina," the male spoke as he hugged me tighter.
"We were always told to not come up here because there were valuable items up here that Mom didn't want broken."

 "C-Can we go to their grave? I need to say goodbye," I asked shakily, pulling back from who I now knew as my brother. I didn't know what to do now. We had no parents. No one to look after us. What was going to happen to us? All I've ever known growing up is my mom, and now she's not even here to help me through this confusion and heartbreak. I can only imagine how my siblings feel.