Hearts of Stone, Hearts of Gold

Prologue - A Day of Destruction

"No! I hate you!" Shane screamed as he jumped up from his seat, pointing an accusing finger towards Rachel. Gasps echoed around the church as the fourteen year old screamed at his older sister. Never had anyone heard either of the two teenagers say anything bad about the other. They loved each other to bits and were each other's best friend, despite the age gap.

Rachel gasped and looked down from her position on the Alter at her younger brother. Tears stained her cheeks. She had promised herself she wouldn't cry at their funeral. She had done enough crying in the last week and she needed to stay strong for Shane. Much to no one's surprise, she had broken her promise. Of course she did. How could any eighteen-year-old stand up at their parents' funeral and not cry? They couldn't; it was impossible.

"This is all your fault! I hate you! It's your fault they're dead!"

Tears continued to slide silently down her cheeks as her brother continued to scream hateful comments towards her. The church was silent as they waited for her to respond to her brother's remarks. How could she? What was she to say to him? If this was his way of grieving she wasn't going to stop him. He had just lost his parents and he needed to get his anger and sorrow out. Who was she to tell him how to do that?

Of course he blamed her. He had no one else to blame, at least not yet anyway. The police believed it was murder; they just couldn't find the culprit. There wasn't enough evidence. No one really knew what happened that night, no one, apart from three people. Two of those were dead and were lying in two coffins beside her. The third? Well, no one knew anything about him, or her. They could be anywhere; they could even be sitting in that very church.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Shane screamed, he was beyond upset. He had just lost his parents and during that time, when he needed his sister most, she closed herself off like she was doing now. He needed her, didn't she understand? She was his everything; his best friend, his rock, his support, his guidance, but she had shut herself off from him and from the entire world.

She wasn't his sister anymore. No, she was only what was left of the wonderful, bubbly young woman he used to call his sister. He knew that the tiny thing growing inside of her was only one reason for her to be fading away the way she was. Their parents' deaths also had a major affect on her; it was slowly killing her. She couldn't function properly anymore. Shane was scared; in fact, he was petrified. He couldn't stick around and lose his sister as well as everything else. Maybe if he weren't around to witness her deterioration, it wouldn't seem real to him anymore. Maybe if he ran away from it all, it would all just go back to normal. That seemed to make sense.

"I hate you," he screamed at her once more, knowing very well that his words were hurting her, but not as much as she would hurt him. "I hate you and I never want to see you ever again!"

He ran from the church, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed. Unknowing to him, his sister burst into tears as soon as he left. The social worker, who informed him just yesterday that she would be taking him to foster parents after the funeral, ran out of the church after him. 

She wrapped her arm around the broken boy and slowly guided him towards her car. It was time he moved on from all this heartache. She knew that the couple that was taking him in would help him move on from this. They would see that he grew up surrounded by the love and support he needed. Some may think it cruel to separate the two siblings when all they had left in the world was each other, but she knew it was the right thing for Shane. Rachel was eighteen so she wouldn't be in the state's care. So according to the state, she was old enough to look after herself. However, the social worker knew that she wasn't in the correct mental state to look after Shane.

Shane watched the door of the church as the social worker drove slowly towards the gates of the grounds. He watched and waited, hoping that his sister would race out of the church after the car. He prayed that she would pull him into her arms and tell him that she'd look after him, that everything would be alright, that they'd get through it together.

He waited, but she never came.

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A big thank you to PaintedSky for helping me with a character that will be introduced later on in the story :)