Protected

One

Bella

It's been fifteen years since I've crossed the ocean. Fifteen years since I've been home. I was just eight years old when they told us we had to leave the country, and that was after a year of being on the run.

I tug at my seat belt in frustration, asking for it to be loosened in which I only receive a cold look and a firm "no" from G and an annoyed glare from Landon. I find myself gripping the metal arms of the seat next as the plane begins it's decent. Landon looks at me and smirks lightly as if I'll return it.  As if it will reassure me that this is the best thing for us.

I thought this would be okay, but everything inside is telling me that we need to go back to Europe as soon as possible.

Landon said it was time. He was tired and needed a change. He said it had been too many years that we'd spent in the UK. I suggested moving to Germany, Australia...China. I would have moved anywhere else too, even if it meant Landon got to pick again. I would have done it for the sake of my sanity.

"Do you really want to avoid home for the rest of your life Bella?" He asked me, my hands grasped in his as he looked desperately into my eyes. "Jax said this might be our only chance to make a move like this. I think we should take it, start fresh. Maybe we can start to meet people and live regular lives. Don't you want a family? Children? Time isn't slowing down, and I think we deserve a shot at this."

Regular lives. I tried not to laugh at him. No matter how hard they try to make us think our lives can be normal, the truth is...they never will be. When the people you love are taken away from you.  When your identity is stolen from you.  When you are forced to answer to a name and talk about a history that was never your own, how can life be normal?

Fifteen years later, it's the first thing I think about each morning when I wake up, and each night before I fall asleep.

I guess the biggest reason I decided to play along, is because Landon is older, and I know how badly he wants to have a family and forget about the past. It would kill me to see him die without getting the chance to fall in love. Me? I have no interest. I keep to myself, don't talk to people or strange men who casually glance my way when I walk down the street. While Landon made it a point to have at least two or three friends, and the casual girlfriend, I was fine on my own. It's not the best way to live. Not the way our parents would have ever intended my life to be.

It's safer not to have any ties in case Jax comes and makes us pack up and move to another city, country, or continent in a single evening. Right now he's assured us we're safe. We haven't been trailed in years, he says. I don't trust it, but I couldn't persuade Landon otherwise. Jax is like family, and whatever he says, Landon believes. After all, for a long time, he was the only person in the world we could trust. He kept us safe, Jesus, alive. He looked after us and made sure the remainder of our childhood was as pleasant as possible.

I shouldn't be so paranoid. I should just trust him, be happy that we can finally go home, and start fresh in a place where nobody knows us, where nobody will find out who we are.

The plane finally touches down, and it's only then that my brother speaks to me again.

"Jax seemed excited about this new place," Landon speaks up softly. "He says we're going to like this one. He wouldn't give me details, but he said there's going to be a lot more room for us now. He also said it's very quiet and sleepy, nobody is going to get to us. We'll just blend in."

In the first two years, the hardest years, we moved from place to place weekly, sometimes city to city, sometimes country to country, and even continent to continent. We were living out of two-bedroom apartments and condos, while Jax and random agents posed as our parents. We finally settled in Berlin for three years, being looked after by a set of agents, one male and one female, who would change every three to four months.