Prologue - The Beginning

   People’s lives are constantly changing. Sometimes, it’s just something small, such as moving a few doors down into a bigger house. Other times, something big happens that changes your life completely. But, whether you want it to, or not, life changes.
   The thing that changed my life the most happened when I was ten. My twin brother, Tyler was at a friend’s birthday party. It was the middle of winter in Northern Ontario, so the weather was horrible.
   Miles’ parents wanted us to pick Tyler up at around eight, but with the weather being so bad, and seemingly only getting worse, they decided to pick him up early.
   They didn’t want to take me, in case they were in an accident, but after calling around, they soon realized that no one would come over in this weather to watch me. They didn’t quite trust me enough to leave me home alone, yet, so they decided it was better to take me with them.
   We were about halfway there when I saw the truck. I didn’t say anything about in because I figured my dad would have seen it. I guess he didn’t see it because of the snow, or maybe he did see it, but it was too late. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter now.
   The next thing I knew, the truck was right in front of us. I don’t exactly know what happened next. There was a lot of screaming, and I remember seeing blood. After that, I must have blacked out. Then, suddenly, I was lying in a pile of fresh now, at the bottom of a hill.
   Disorientated, I slowly sat up. I looked around, and saw the crushed van. I quickly got up, and ran toward it, worried about my parents. I managed to pull them out of the van, and I sat beside them trying to wake them up. I sat like that for a few hours before cops, and ambulances showed up. I figured that Miles’ parents must have gotten worried when we hadn’t shown up, and they couldn’t get an answer on the phone.
   The cops pried me off my parents, and brought me to the police station, until they could figure out what to do with me. I sat playing cards with an officer, Officer Cortez, if I remember correctly. After about half an hour, he was called to the phone. He spoke on the phone for a few minutes, hung up, and gravely, looked back at me. He slowly walked back, and kneeled down in front of me.
   “I don’t know how to tell you this…,” He started before I cut him off.
   “They’re dead, aren’t they?” I asked.
   He looked at me surprised. He put hand on my knee. “Yes, they are.” He replied slowly, watching me.
   I just stood there, staring at him for a few moments, before I started crying. I hugged him, hard. He hugged me back, rubbing my back, and telling me it would be okay. We stayed like that for a while. After I had calmed down enough to speak, he asked me if I had any relatives in the area.
   “I’ve never met any relatives,” I replied. “So even if I did, I wouldn’t know it.”
   “It’s okay. What’s your name?”
   “Anna Bennington.”
   “That’s a nice name, Anna. We’ll figure this out.”
   “What about Tyler?”
   He looked shocked, “What? Who’s Tyler?”
   “My brother. He was at a friend’s house. We were on our way to pick him up when…” I stopped, tears coming to my eyes, again.
   He patted my shoulder, and stood up, “It’s okay, Anna. I know it’s hard. Do you know the number to his friend’s house?”
   I sat down, and thought about it, before slowly shaking my head, “No. Sorry.”
   He stroked a hand through his shaggy brown hair, before looking at me, “It’s okay. Can you tell me his name?” He asked, while slowly walking over to grab a phonebook.
   I waited for him to get back before saying, “Miles. Miles Jefferson, I think.”
   He flipped through the phonebook. “There’s three Jefferson’s, here. I’ll read the first names out to you, and you tell me anything sounds familiar. Okay?”
   I looked up at him and nodded, “Yeah. Sounds good.”
   He looked from me to the phonebook and back again. “Kyle. Sam. Mark.” He paused, and then repeated the names. “Anything sound familiar?”
   I thought for a moment, “Sam sounds familiar. Yeah, that should be the right one.”
   “Ok. I’ll call there first. Wait here for me,” He said, before walking back to the phone.
   I got up, and started picking up the cards, and putting them away. By the time, I had finished, he returned.
   “It was the right place,” He told me, “I told them what happened. Tyler’s going to spend the night there. You’re welcome to join them if you wish. I was given directions to get you there.”
   “Well, I’d like to go, but Tyler and Miles always push me away when I’m there.”
   He ruffled my shoulder-length black hair. “That’s normal for siblings. Though, that would happen this time.”
   I looked up at him, tears almost flowing from my ice blue eyes, again. “How can you be so sure?”
   He knelt beside me, “You just lost your parents. You’re the only family he has left. He knows you were in the car with your parents. He won’t believe us that you’re okay, until he sees you.”
   The tears started flowing now. “Okay… Let’s go.”
   I stood up, and started walking to the exit. It was now ten, so there weren’t very many here anymore. As I pass the last couple of stragglers, they look at me, curiously. I pay no attention to them.
   When I reached the exit, I turned around and realized Officer Cortez hadn’t followed me. With so few people around, I could still see where I’d been sitting, but he wasn’t there, anymore. I walked back, and looked around. When I didn’t see him, I contemplated just wondering around.
   “He went to the back to get his keys. If you go down that hall, you’ll find him,” The secretary called out, startling me.
   It didn’t take long to find him. Even without the secretary’s direction’s I could have done it. I lived in a small town, so the building wasn’t very big. The hallway the secretary indicated was the only other hallway. On our way back to the front, the secretary called after Officer Cortez. He told me to wait there, while he handled whatever was going on.
   When he got back, he told me my aunt had called, and that she, and my uncle would probably get custody of me, and Tyler, since they were our only living relatives. It being where my parents were born, and where our relatives were buried, our parents would probably be buried there, too. We would still be spending the night at Miles’ house, but that would probably be the last time we would see him. In the morning, Officer Cortez would come pick us up, and drive us from the small town we lived in then, to the even smaller town of Espius.
   Espius was eleven hours away from where we lived now, so we would probably never see any of our old friends again. I didn’t want to leave but I had to. Officer Cortez tried to assure me I would make new friends.
   When we got to Miles’ house, and Tyler found out, things just got worse. He tried to refuse to leave; threatened to run away. After being told that running away wouldn’t help, and that we still wouldn’t be able to see our friends, the both of us agreed to go.
   In the morning, Officer Cortez came and got us. He brought us to our house first, so we could grab some clothes, and anything else we might need. While we got our stuff, he grabbed stuff we’d want but wouldn’t think of at the moment, such as pictures of our parents.
   Once we were all packed, we left. Officer Cortez stopped to get us something to eat a few times. In total, the trip to Espius took approximately fourteen hours. We arrived at our aunt’s house, at about midnight. Officer Cortez ended up staying the night, but in the morning, I awoke to him already gone.
   With that, the last person from my old life, walked away forever. After that, nothing was ever the same again. My life was no longer the same. But like I said, life changes.