The Lives We Lived Before

Chapter One

It's dark and images keep flashing in my head

Her smile

Her laugh

The nights she used to tell us bedtime stories

She was the glue that always held the three of us together, and now that she's gone I have no idea what we're going to do

I'm sitting in the back of our old pick up and I have no idea what happens next for us, my brother father and I, but I do know it involves us changing our names

That's all they would tell me

She used to tell me everything

The good. The bad. And the even worse

We're not criminals, not by my definition anyways and while yes we are on the run, it's because we've had to do some things none of us are proud of and now we're wanted 'criminals'

The night we lost her was the moment the three of us snapped

We couldn't eat. We couldn't sleep. We couldn't even bring ourselves to look at one another for fear that we'd see a piece of her inside of each of us

The night she died she made my father promise to always look after us, my brother and I

So that's exactly what we're doing now

I can hear the pouring rain from the inside of the truck

My eyes are closed and I'm holding an envelope from my mom in my hands, but I haven't opened it yet, I don't even think I want to because if I did it would mean accepting the fact that she was gone and she was never coming back

I don't think I'm ready to face that yet

We've been driving for 2 days, non stop and we haven't said a word to each other since the night we lost her

It's been hard on us

She always knew how to break the tension between us, if she were here now she would tell us to perk up because life wasn't over, life went on and would keep on going with or without her

She was always optimistic that way

I drift off to sleep into the 3rd day of driving

It's dark when we finally arrive to our destination and I feel someone shaking my leg

"Sis...Sis...Wake up, we're here" says the voice of my older brother

I slowly wake up to see droplets of rain and the truck is parked in front of a house nothing like the place we used to live in

"Come on they're waiting for us" he says to me

My brother still can't look at me

My dad and brother say I look like my mother the most and I used to take that as a compliment, but it's hard to take it as a compliment when it avoids my brother from even looking at me

I get off the car wordlessly and we walk up the stairs of the house

It was big, and really nice looking

A place kids dream of living in

We enter the house and I'm greeted with the face of my father, a man my father's age, and a guy who looked about my brother's and my age

The man who I only know as my father's best friend gives me and my brother a smile

"It's okay kids, you're safe here"

With those words I knew our lives would never be the same again and that's what scares me the most