Love Me Like You Do

Chapter 1

When I was a mere 6 years old, my parents passed away in a horrifying automobile accident. The result left me, Emma, to care for my 3 month old brother, Lane. Our situation panned out decently at first, we were taken to my grandmother's and blessed to have been able to stay with her until Lane was just over a year old. Sadly, she passed away, and that was when my personal hell began. Lane and I were thrown into the hectic world of foster care, where in our case, the only ones who won were the foster parents who received the paychecks. To our dismay, the paychecks were rarely used for Lane and I's well being, and I usually pushed my personal needs on to the back burner in order to care for Lane and keep him as safe as I possibly could. Throughout the duration of my time in foster care, I fell into a deep depression, and I would be lying if I said suicide was never an option that crossed my mind. Lane was my rock. To this day, Lane doesn't know how much he helped me, but my need to protect him kept me from giving up and leaving this world behind. 

*10 Years Later*

Lane just turned 10. He was bubbling over with excitement. Knowing I would receive punishment for it later, I went to a nearby store and purchased a small birthday cake for us to have our own little celebration in the small room Lane and I called home. The only times we left the room were when our so-called "parents" wanted us to person various tasks that classified us as slaves, or when they were drunk and threw us around in order to relieve built up stress and anger. As of now I was able to to keep Lane from being hit, but the beatings were becoming harder and harder to bear. We were laughing and remembering memories we had of when we were both younger. A large portion of our memories involved us sneaking out to the local playground to have our little piece of freedom for a few hours. During our reminiscing, we heard a yell from downstairs, "Emma! Get down here right now!" Lane immediately began to start shaking in fear as I stood up and headed towards the door. Lane was and always will be my first priority. "Lane, baby, I love you okay? You stay here with the door locked until I come back, okay? Open this for no one else." Seeing tears begin to flow out of his pain stricken eyes and down his cheeks crushed me to pieces. "Okay, I lo-love you too sissy." Lane managed to get out through his sobs as I closed the door with one last look at his cowering form. 

Arriving downstairs, my palms were sweaty, my knees felt ready to to buckle and give out and my stomach felt ready to release the few contents it contained. When I finally turned the corner that led me to the kitchen, shock overtook all traces of fear. Standing in the middle of the kitchen were my "parents" holding two book bags. My initial thoughts went down the path that led to Lane and I being thrown out on the streets, but why would they give us new bags when we already had a few? They had a few holes, but it's not like that ever stopped them before.

"Emma! Hurry up! Get over here." My "father", Leon, ground out through his yellowing teeth that were in dire need of a brushing. "We are tired of having you and the brat home all day, starting tomorrow you will both be attending the public school that's in the area." 

I honestly was not positive if I heard him right or if my brain was tired of being full of disappointments and was forcing a made up memory in to head. They had never allowed us to go to school, the closest we have been allowed was online schooling. 

"These bags have the supplies you'll need. Be ready tomorrow by 7am or you know what will happen." Leon said in a no-nonsense tone. I grabbed the bags a muttered a quick "yes, sir." Turning to leave, I was stopped by Julie grabbing my shoulder. "Don't think we don't know about the cake you thought you were able to so cleverly sneak in, you're just lucky we're in a good mood." With that she gave me a quick slap with enough force to push my head to the side and Leon then gave me a shove in to the fridge that was placed nearby.  After the saw I was on the ground and were apparently please with the amount of pain I was in, they walked away calmly while cackling. The pain began to fade while I laid on the floor thinking, "finally, a safe haven for Lane."

Once I finally found enough strength from deep within, I managed to stand up while gripping a nearby counter for support. I slowly trudged to the stairs in order to tell the good news, as of now, to Lane. My main hope was for Lane to make friends with other boys and girls that were his own age. I have long been yearning for others besides me to give Lane affection in order for him to see that not all others are deceitful and void of kind emotions. A deep concern I hold is Lane closing himself off and not allowing himself to become close to anyone besides me. 

Reaching the top of the stairs that seemed to drag on forever, I walked the distance of the hallway to our room door. "Lane, open up, it's me." The door creaked open to reveal Lane with a wide smile when he saw I possessed no serious injuries. When he saw the bags hanging loosely off my shoulder I saw the confusion pass over his features. "Emma, what are those?" He asked rather tentatively with the confusion clear in his tone. "Those monstrosities have finally given us a light in the darkness, something you and I have always wanted." I said watching as his eyes lit up more and more with each word that effortlessly flowed out of my mouth. "They are allowing us to go to school!" I said while Lane and I both began to squeal in excitement. I handed Lane the blue bag possessing the supplies he would need while the red bag I continued yo hold held my own. I looked at the small alarm clock and noticed it was nearing 10 o'clock at night. "We have to be downstairs and ready at 7 tomorrow morning, so it's time for bed." I told Lane in a no-nonsense tone although I didn't want to ruin his excitement. I tucked Lane in once he crawled in to be and gave him a tender kiss on the forehead while wishing him sweet dreams. Before I settled in to my own bed, I set an alarm and turned out the lights already hearing Lane's light snores and shallow breathing from across the room. Right before I allowed the darkness to take me into dreamland, I thought, "God, please keep Lane safe, no matter what happens to me."