I run out the door, seeing my sixteen-year-old sister about to head out the gate.
"Anna! Please, don't go!"
She spins around and watches as I run to her, stopping about a metre away from her.
"Belle, if I stay I'll only hurt you."
"Then take me with you!"
"I can't do that. You need to stay here. You'll be safe here."
"Anna, what am I supposed to do without you here?"
"Belle, you need to promise me that you won't do anything stupid."
"Am I ever going to see you again?"
"God, I hope so."
She carefully hugs me, making sure she doesn't touch my skin, and then she leaves. I collapse in the dust, falling to my knees and sobbing, knowing I'll probably never see my sister again. Twelve years old and my sister has already left me. I pick myself up and wipe the tears from my face, heading back inside to face my parents.
"Why didn't you stop her?" Dad demands.
"She was too quick, I couldn't catch her," I lie.
"Isabella D'Ancanto, you tell me the truth this instant," Mum yells, taking a step towards me. "You're lying and I know it, so tell me the truth."
I sigh, knowing that I'm definitely grounded after this. "I let her go."
"You what?" she whispers. "You let her leave?"
"I had to, Mum," I try to explain. "I tried to stop, honestly, I did, but she wouldn't listen."
Mum sighs. "If you ever try anything like that, then you'll be in deep, deep trouble young lady."
"Yes Mum," I say, heading up to my room. As I go up the stairs, I hear Mum and Dad having a rushed conversation, and I listen from the stairs where they can't see me.
"She'll have to come back sometime," Dad says. "She can't just go off on her own."
"You know full well that once she's made her mind up she doesn't change it. Face it, our daughter's gone."
I've heard all I need to hear, so I go to my room and flop down on my bed. I look over at my walls, all four of them covered in photos of my friends, me, and my sister. In amongst the pictures are words, poetry and lyrics from my favourite songs. Our favourite songs. We did everything together, went to the same school, liked the same music and movies, went to the same martial arts classes, and went running together; we were hardly separable. But then something changed. She locked herself in her room for hours at a time, she hardly ate, she rarely spoke, and she wouldn't touch anybody. Not even me. She swore she'd protect me, but now she's gone. She told me to stay, and I guess I'm just going to have to trust her. I'm very distant from my parents, but extremely close to Anna. She didn't tell me what happened to her until a couple of months afterwards, though. She told me that she was a mutant, and that weird stuff happened when she touched people, and that one day she was going to go somewhere they could help her. I just didn't think it would be today. She's very strong, and I should have known that she'd leave as soon as she could. I thought she'd at least wait until she was a legal adult, just another two years, then maybe she could take me with her. But as a teenage runaway I'd just put her in even more danger. I'll stick it out for a few more years and then I'll go and find her.
Two years after my sister left, I see it on TV. A mutant strapped to the Statue of Liberty, another two mutants watching with glee as she screams. No matter how much I don't want to believe it, I have to face the truth. The tortured soul on the tower is Anna-Marie D'Ancanto: my sister Anna. Now it's settled. I have to go after her. I have to rebuild my fractured life. After she left, something started happening to me, and it's not good. I've been doing some research recently, and I found some information about the mutant X gene. It's carried by the male, but there has never been a case of two siblings to both have a mutation, unless they're twins. Whenever somebody touches my skin, they get a small electric shock, but it's been getting stronger lately. So I've left the house and locked myself in the treehouse that Anna and I spent so much time in together as little girls. We were so innocent when we were up here when we were younger, but we still used it until she left. We'd sit up here and just talk about things. This is where she told me she was a mutant. This is where I've found out that I'm a mutant. We still had the plastic furniture up here from when we were little, but I moved it out and brought up a mattress, pillow and blankets so I can sleep up here. It's not too big, but bigger than most. It's about two metres by three, with a lockable door and windows, and just big enough for me to live in. I come down when my parents go to work, to get some more clothes and food, and to have a shower and use the bathroom.
Two days after I saw her on TV, they come for me. I'm inside, watching cartoons, when I hear a loud knock on the door. I open it, feeling the sweltering heat rush into the room. I nearly faint when I see a woman with blue skin, red hair and yellow eyes standing on the doormat with a gun trained on me. Behind her is an older man with grey starting to creep through his hair and a strange looking helmet adorning his head. They look incredibly strange, yet I recognise them immediately. They're the two mutants that put Anna on that tower and tortured her. I looked into it and found out that their names are Magneto and Mystique. They're very powerful mutants, they tortured my beloved sister, and now they're standing on my doorstep. I take a tentative step backwards and slowly raise my fists, trying not to let my fear show.
"What do you want with me?" I ask in a shaky voice.
"You're coming with us," Magneto says firmly.
"What if I don't want to?" I say rather stupidly, considering they have a gun pointed at my heart.
"Then my finger might just slip," Mystique says, taking a confident step towards me.
"I don't care. I'm not going anywhere."
I gasp as the gun fires and a bullet enters my chest. I look down and see a little bit of blood and the end of the bullet still poking out through my skin.
"Oh, it's just a tranquiliser dart, dear," Magneto says in a falsely sweet voice. "You'll wake up in a few hours."
My vision goes blurry and I feel myself slowly becoming paralysed, but I remain conscious long enough to watch as Mystique roughly slings me over her shoulder and carries me to a black armoured van and tosses me in the back. A few seconds later, the engine roars to a start and we drive off.
Then it all goes black.