The discovery
Most children grow up in cities. They go to schools and make friends and get qualifications, degrees, they go on and by QuickRef" class="otejztjsp" href="#53247630"> by QuickRef" class="qchclepqd" href="#56634298"> work
... Believe it or not, I long for that. I've never been to school, not that I am uneducated. I was taught everything I needed by my mum and dad. Everything, except, why we need to move home every few months. Not that we even live in houses. We've been in everything from tents, to caravans, to boats. Right now, we are living in a fairly large cabin, literally in the middle of a large forest. So, apart from my twin sister, I have never even talked to somebody my own age and I rarely get to interact with my own twin. My parents keep us separated. "She is dangerous, Hazel. We don't want to you get hurt, Hazel."That is all I ever hear when it comes to my sister. Our sixteenth birthday just passed and that was one of the rare times we did get to be together and I long for more of them. Serena, my sister, spent most of her time in her room, so I wandered the corridors, looking at myself in the mirror. I noted my light blonde hair, down to my shoulders and my bright blue eyes, the exact same as Serena had and I wondered why she was supposedly dangerous and I was not. Sighing deeply at both boredom and longing, I wandered outside into the forest, listening to the sounds of the wildlife. Out of nowhere, a sharp frightened scream cut through the chirping of birds and before I could even think, I had began running towards it.
I froze in my tracks, seeing three large men with their ams around Serena, pulling her. She was screaming and she threw out one her arms, smacking the man in the jaw but it barely seemed to faze him. Three seconds later, though, the man burst into flame. My scream echoed Serena and she looked at me with wide eyes, seeing me for the first time. She was scared out of her wits and I couldn't make sense of what was happening. Serena ducked when the other two men let go of her, but they made a rough circle around her, though they were unable to touch her because the forest surrounding Serena burned, separating her from the men. I longed to run towards her, in fact my mind was screaming at me to help her but my legs had a mind of their own and I could not move.
"Serena!" I heard dad yell just before he ran past me and I caught the emotion on her face.He didn't look worried or scared. He looked angry.
"Dad, no!" Serena yelled when he got too close and she covered her head with her arms but dad didn't listen and he reached down to grab her. It was then that the fire went out of control, spreading much faster than a fire should and engulfing everything. I felt myself getting pulled back and panicked, but unlike Serena, I didn't strike out, I froze.
"Hazel, run!" Mum snapped, her arms around me and I finally got my legs under me and started running, alongside her. We got far away from the fire and waited until we could see in the distance that it had gone out. Mum told me to wait while she went to find dad and Serena, but I didn't listen and took off into the forest. I kept running and soon arrived in a clearing full of ash and dead trees. Serena stood in the midde of it all, her head buried in her hands as she sobbed.
"Serena." I said and she jumped, looking over her shoulder at me but she relaxed and said my name in response. I walked forward but stopped when I stepped on something that cracked under my shoe. I looked down to see a charred arm. I covered my mouth with my hands and Serena looked away.
"Serena! What have you done?!" Mum called and Serena drew back, taking mum's frightened words as disgust. She turned and ran off and without thinking, I ran after her.
"Hazel, no! Come back!" Mum called and for the second time that day, I ignored her, since I knew that if I let Serena go, she'd never come back. I kept running, barely able to keep my twin in sight, when a large black van skidded to a stop beside me, out of nowhere, and I stopped in shock. A dozen men came from the van and grabbed me, shoving me towards the back where two more had opened the doors. I screamed, shoving at them but it made no difference.
"We have her now, boys." One of the men said joyfully as they shoved me into the van. I caught a glimpse outside, before they shut the doors, to see Serena vanishing beyond the trees. After that, I felt a sharp prick on the side of my neck and everything went dark.
