Prologue
Five years ago.
It was raining. My mom picked me up from practice. She was going on about something my dad said. It was my birthday that day and seemed like the only person that cared was my twin brother, Marcus. He was my bestfriend and the only one I needed. We were thirteen today. My mom went silent mid sentence. I looked up at her and took the earbud I'd been listening to my music through out. She looked frightened. I looked out the windshield and not even ten seconds later the car spun out and the the entire time I was praying to God to save us. We spun over twice and hit a tree. I know my mom was dead. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and her neck snapped. I didn't want to leave her but I had to get out. I couldn't open the door so I climbed through the window cause the door was jammed. I looked at my mom one last time and walked a few feet towards the road and fell. The last thought I had before I blacked out was what my dad was gonna do to me when he found out if I were unlucky enough to survive that long. I didn't remember being found or in an ambulance. All I remember was waking up on the hospital in the early morning hours. I opened my eyes very slowly and was confused at my surroundings till I remember that I was in a wreck and my mom was gone. I painfully looked to the side to see Marcus snoring quietly. He had a death grip on my hand. My dad wasn't even there. He was probably waiting for me to get released so that he could hurt me all over again. I lightly squeezed his hand and he woke up with a start. He looked at me tears in his eyes. I understood. He stood up and loosely hugged me careful not to hit any tender spots. I croaked out and he quickly grabbed a white paper cup off the night stand. After I took a couple of careful sips of water I cleared my throat and tried again.
"Marcus, dad?" He knew exactly what I was asking. He gave me a careful look.
"Gone. The wrong person saw him hit me. He was angry like usual and punched me square across the jaw. DHR was called and here we are."
A couple a of weeks went by after that. Lots of questions from a lot of different people. By the end my mom's sister and husband took us in. They were great people but as time went by weeks turned into months and it was like Marcus just lost his voice. My dad was in the wind. No one could find him and it felt like everything was gonna be okay but I couldn't help to worry about Marcus. I missed my mom a lot and the nightmare were bad but Marcus it was like he just shut down. Something inside of him was blocking him from being okay.
