Love and War

Chapter 1

I woke up to my little brother pushing my shoulder.

"Emily. Get up. Mom wants you downstairs. The men are coming."

That gets me awake. My brother is only 16, old enough to be taken to fight but not old enough to survive. I'm older. 19. Our father died in the army from hypothermia a few years back. His service wasn't during the war and if the men are coming I know exactly why.

I get out of bed and hastily drag my fingers through my blondish hair. It falls past my shoulders and about halfway down my back in slight waves and curls. I look decent enough, tanish skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, but my dad always said the men were afraid of me. When I get to thinking I tend to get a fierce look on my face. Almost as if I hate the world. But I don't.

When the knock sounds on the door I run down the stairs and shove my brother back up them. He runs down to my room and slides under my bed, just like I told him to.

My mother is at the door, talking to the men there. They don't sound nice. I slowly inch closer, dying to get a look at all those army men the girls around town are swooning over.

And as soon as I catch the eye of the man standing before my mother I know why. He's tall and built. Thin but clearly muscular. He has thick brown hair and daring eyes. I think they might be blue but when I look closer I only see gray. He has a uniform on. Dark green, clearly military. It seems to be made to show off every indent and bulge of muscle on his body. I jerk out of my trance when my mother invites them inside. They don't look happy. Do they not belive her?

Earlier in the year when the war started my mother, brother and I decided that he was going to war. Our father served well and gave his life. My brother didn't need to go as well. When the army men came he would hide under my bed and we would convince the men that my brother died over the summer, tossed then trampled by one of our horses.  We all agreed that it had to be done. But when the men come inside they don't just glance around the room. They search it. My heart begins to pound as they head towards my room. If they find him they'll send him off to war. It feels as though my heart will burst if is beats much harder and then it bursts.

They found him. Of course I run forward, yelling and screaming and kicking them, telling them not to take my brother. The bald one, the one I hadn't been ogling at picks me up and none to gently tosses me down on the other side of the room. The landing hurts but my heart hurts worse. They hand my brother a slip of paper to be turned in when he arrives tomorrow and they write his name down on a slip the dark haired one keeps.

"If you don't show up tomorrow ill know just where to find you. And I will send you to the front line, without training or supplies."

The bald one speaks with a menace I know is true and the dark haired one simply glares angrily at everything. My mother escorts them out and my world begins to fall apart. I already don't have a father. And to lose my brother too? That's just too much. We look almost exactly the same. It would be worse than losing one of my friends. It will be like losing a part of myself. My day is bland. After doing the chores I just sit in my brothers room, watching him pack. He doesn't have many clothes and seeing them all in a small bag makes it look like he has even less. Its painful to watch him go over everything he can't take with him. At last he is finished and mother calls us down for supper. The meal is silent, giving me plenty of time for thinking.

After everyone else is asleep I get out of bed. My brother's bag is by the door downstairs and the slip of paper is ontop. I creep down to our father study, he was a doctor, and rummage through the drawers. Eventually I find the medical wrap I was looking for. My chest is small but it would be noticable if I didn't do something. I carefully and tightly wrap my chest, making it look like its mostly just muscle. As long as no one touches me there then I should do fine.