Separated

Prologue

Wednesday, April 28, 1999

Sirens wailed. Lights flashed. Men and women rushed around the yard and in and out of the house yelling to one another and pointing everywhere.

I backed up to get away from the chaos and fell backwards. Pain erupted through me and I started crying at the top of my lungs, still no match for the blaring sirens.

I had been sleeping comfortably next to my twin brother when the sirens started. A man in a dark blue uniform had appeared in the doorway, taking me and my brother outside only to rush back in again, leaving us with another man.

The man watching us reacted to the sound of my screams. He crouched down beside us and set my brother on one knee, and me one the other.

His lips moved to my ear and he whispered soothingly into it. "Shh, you'll be okay."

I calmed. Gripping my stuffed panda to my chest.

It was my brother's turn to cry. I immediately seen the reason for his terrible noises.

Our parents had appeared from the door, forced out of the house by two more men dressed in the dark blue uniforms.

I matched my brother's cries and reached for my parents.

My mother broke away from the man and ran toward us.

Another person dressed in the blue uniform, a lady this time, stopped her and pushed back towards my father.

Tears streamed down my face as I cried out to her.

A brown-haired woman, who I heard called Ashley, walked over briskly and took me, then my brother from the man holding us.

I snuggled in close to her. The lack of the blue uniform made her arms feel safe.

Ashley brought us over to a black car. She opened the back door, revealing two rear-facing car seats, one on the seat right inside the door, and one on the opposite side of the car.

She set my brother in the closest one and buckled him in.

Shutting the door, she carried me around the back, and set me in the other car seat.

I listened as Ashley opened the driver's door behind me and climbed in. She started the engine.

I casted a glance at my brother out of the corner of my eye. His big gray eyes stared back at me.

Yawning, I felt my eyes droop and I forced them back open. I fought to stay awake, but soon I drifted off, the image my brother's eyes still dancing in my head.

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I woke in Ashley's arms. My brother was no where to be seen.

Big gray-blue eyes were the last I saw of Devaun.