Under the Same Stars

The Beginning

     It was a hot summer night.  It was yet another year without my mom being there for my dad. 
Having to take care of me and my sister, AND having a full time job as a "superhero" was hard for my dad, and I can't blame him for being depressed most of the time.

    One day, my dad had to go save some terrible massacre downtown and left  my sister and I alone at our house because he said it was too dangerous for me and my sister to be out there. I was only 5 years old and my sister was 9, we waited, and waited for my dad to return home. He never did. Days turned into weeks, and soon it was almost a month since he left.

    My sister Catherine, couldn't provide a lot for us so usually she would either give me a piece of bread from the nearly empty pantry or she would ask the neighbors to babysit me while she took a walk to the grocery store with my dad's emergency money he left in this money jar in his closet.

    As soon as a month passed my neighbors got suspicious of my sister always walking to the grocery store alone almost everyday and called the police, that's when everything went downhill. "Where's daddy?" I would ask, "He's coming, don't worry, and when he does, WE'RE ALL GETTING ICE CREAM!!" my sister would say in a semi hopeful toned voice "Now go to bed".

    She would ever so slowly pull a blanket over me, which ALWAYS without a doubt would make me feel safe. As soon as she tucked me heard, there was a loud bang on the door. Catherine and I both looked at each other in complete shock and fear.

    "HELLO? This is the police, I would like to talk to the people who live in this residence". "Caitlin, go hide somewhere!" Catherine whispered in a panicky toned voice. "Why, Catherine?" "Go Caitlin..." I didn't move, in my little 5 year old world I didn't understand what was happening so I leaned over and attached myself to Catherine . "OPEN UP, IT'S THE POLICE"..."Chuck, if no ones opening the door we might just have to bust it open". "I know, I want to give them a chance first" "Just GO".

    The door pounded as hard as my heart was pounding *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* "Caitlin GO now" "But, Cather-" "CAITLIN, JUST GO!". I quickly took my small 52 pound body off the couch and ran as fast as my little legs could take me with the sound of the door almost bursting open.

    Each step I took I heard more and more *BOOMS* until *CRASH* the door came down. I quickly found a small closet I could fit in with clothes and small piles of random junk I could blend in with. "PLEASE, DON'T TAKE ME AWAY" my sister screamed and sobbed at the same time, "Don't worry, we aren't here to hurt you, we're here to help you" one of the officers said.

    I heard footsteps coming near my closet door I was hiding in, I made a small gasp and then, I heard small little crackles on the wall like water turning into ice, just as I looked to my right, I saw something I never thought was even possible. My hand was creating the ice that was FREEZING THE WALL.

    When I saw what my hand was doing I took another quick gasp and quickly removed my hand from the wall but as I took my hand off the wall, I saw footsteps in front of the closet.

    My 5 year old little brain COULD NOT take it anymore and I suddenly began to cry and do that weird little breathing thing you do after you cry too much. I buried my head in my legs and began to think about my sister and my family, everything I loved was taken away from me, right before my very eyes.

    A unexpected ray of light shined above me like the heavens were ready to take me to be reunited with my mom. I looked up preparing to see the man upstairs looking down at me, instead it was just another police officer, with what seemed as if a shocked expression smeared across his face, " Hey Chuck, why don't you take a look at this one, she's just like her mom". I guess the other police officer known as "Chuck" came over and said "I already put the other one in the squad car, seems as if-", he paused for a moment and looked at me in complete shock.

    Why the heck where they even looking at me like that? I looked to see if I had caused any more stuff to freeze around me, but it didn't take me long to realize that I had frozen a MAJORITY OF THE CLOSET without knowing.

     "Hey little one" Chuck said softly "Are you cold in there? Why don't you come out and join your sister in the police car, we'll take you to a nice facility where you and your sister can sleep for the night!" nothing came out of my mouth, I shook in fear only causing more things to get frozen in the closet, it wasn't going to take much more freezing to turn the closet into a refrigerator!

    Chuck held out his hand for me to grab so he could help me out of the closet, "Please...I'm...Scared" I said shakily. "You can come out, it's alright", I crawled out of the closet seeing everything I touched below me turn into ice, I got up and looked at my hands and stood there not knowing what was happening.

    "We"ll explain that to you later, Caitlin. Now let's head to the facility." We walked to the front door together with one person behind me so I couldn't run away and one person in front of me.

    "WAIT!" I shouted and stopped right in the middle of the doorway, "Yes? Chuck answered, "I need a picture of my family". "Ok, go grab one quick!", I quickly ran to my room and searched under my bed for my book filled with pictures of my mom and dad getting married to pictures of me, my dad, and my sister Catherine celebrating my recent birthday.

    I also grabbed my favorite stuffed plush teddy bear and necklace my mom gave me when I was born, I definitely could NOT leave THOSE behind! "Caitlin! We gotta go!" I ran out of my room and quickly gave it one last look before I headed outside to the car and drove to the facility with my sister and the two police officers.