Breakthrough

Prologue

She woke up to the sound of tiny, muffled sobs.

Her eyes were swollen and crusted when as she pried them open. Disoriented at first, she saw the dark room and unfamiliar surroundings.

After a moment her eyes adjusted and all the dark objects of the small room became clearer. A dresser, a desk and a chair, a small tv mounted to the wall. Just a plain, simple room.

A sniffing noise brought her attention to the small bundle in her arms.

Tatum's heart stopped when she saw her sister's tiny, tear streaked face.

Memories from earlier in the week came rushing through the haze of her mind. A gasp of pain escaped her chapped lips at the force of it all.

"Evie," She murmured, pulling her only sibling tighter to her chest and into a sitting position.

Her small hands gripped the front of her shirt as Evelyn buried her face in her older sisters chest. Tatum felt her own eyes burn with tears as her tiny frame shook with gut wrenching sobs.

Every tear, every sound sent a dagger deeper into Tatum's already shattered heart. The intense sorrow seeped deep through her veins, into every pore of her body, making it hard to breath.

So, with tears of her own running silently down her pale cheeks, Tatum hugged her little sister to her chest. She was the only one left in her life, so seeing her sister in so much pain only worsened Tatum's.

"I miss them Tee, I miss them so much." Evelyn gasped out as she started to become hysterical.

Tatum ran her hands over Evelyn's head and pulled her face up to look at her own. Her big brown eyes that once shone with happiness were now dull and lifeless. Her sweet little sister was gone, replaced with an empty shell of a child who lost everything.

"I miss them too Evie, so much. But they're in a better place now. Up in heaven with Grannie and Gramps, watching down on us. They're happy, and they want you to be happy too." Tatum whispered, wiping her sisters tears with the pads of her thumbs.

Her face crumbled as another wave of tears hit. Where her now dead heart sat in her chest, throbbed with sorrow.

"But I want them here! I want my mommy and daddy down here with me! I don't want them to be in heaven! I don't want-"

"Shh, shh."

Tatum cut her off by dragging her back into her chest as her voice became a desperate plead. She didn't want to wake anyone.

The two sisters sat like that for another ten minutes, holding on to each other for their dear lives. They grieved together over their misfortunes and tried to comfort one another. They had lost everything.

Their only family.

Nearly two weeks ago, on the night of their anniversary, Tatum and Evie's parents were in an accident coming home from dinner. A drunk driver swerved left of center and collided head on with Greg and Bethany Rossey's car.

Both of them died on impact.

The doctors wouldn't even let the sisters see their parents bodies. They had been so mangled.

In a matter of hours, Tatum and her baby sister were orphans. They didn't have any other family. Greg's parents died when he was in college and Bethany's parents both died last year. Both of them were only childs.

Since Tatum was only sixteen and Evelyn only seven, they would have gone into foster care but their mothers best friend took them in.

So they ended up at Sara Kingsley's house, staying in her family's spare bedroom.

The girls didn't know Sara too well. She lived in Texas, a far way away from their old home in Michigan. So they had no idea who her family was, or how many of them there were.

"Tee, what's going to happen to us?" Evie asked suddenly, bringing Tatum back to the present time.

She had calmed down by now and was sagging against her chest, exhausted. Tatum gently stroked her hair.

"We're going to live with Aunt Sara and Brent and behave like Mom and Dad would want us to." She murmured, kissing the top of her head.

Evie sighed dejectedly.

Neither of them spoke a word after that. They snuggled back under the covers, holding on to each other tightly, and Tatum hummed a lullaby as they drifted off to sleep.

Their dreams were filled with anything but happiness.

UNEDITED