Chapter 1 – A New Beginning

That day changed everything.

My father had played baseball all his life. It gave us a very nice living, and we got to travel often. I loved traveling, but I would have traded everyday of traveling for that day to be erased.

My father, Kyeth Draíochta, had played ball for the Boston Red Sox until two years ago. I couldn't tell you much about life before the Red Sox, because it was not a life I knew. We had been living in Memphis, Tennessee, since he decided to step out of the Majors. He was sick of traveling and wanted to let his kids go to school in one city, he said in explanation. He coached baseball at Millington Central High School, which is also where we went to school.

That day we were celebrating. Final game of the season, and they were going to the state championships. My father was very excited. So, in celebration of the hopefully upcoming victory, he was taking us all out on the town, the baseball team included.

It was an evening meant for fun. The "Memphis in May" festival was currently in full swing, it was great food and great music, all in the streets in Down Town.

We spend most of the evening stuffing ourselves with great BBQ, something that you can always get in Memphis. The boys were pretty excited, and it was quite amusing to watch their clowning around. I was the only girl on the trip, unless you counted my mother, Shealyn Draíochta. She was the one of the Sports Medicine doctors for the Red Sox. Before they married she was Shealyn Saoirse (pronounced: Seer - sheh).

My mother walked behind the group of boys, holding my hand gently. "Lyn, what are you going to do about this boy?" she asked with a devilish smile on her face.

I looked exactly like my mother. We both had wavy brown hair with deep Irish red highlights, and big hazel eyes. My brother Ray looked just like my father, coppery brown hair and bright blue eyes. We were all pale-skinned, but not freckled like you would expect. I am not saying we didn't have freckles, just not an overpowering amount.

I tried to hide my excitement as my mother brought up this boy. I tried to play coy. "I don't know what you mean, Mom?"

She laughed, the sound of it reminded me of wind chimes blowing softy on a spring day. "Oh, Lyn, I have been watching this all night, he can't take his eyes off you!"

I couldn't stop myself from looking for him again, I scanned the crowd in front of us. Sure enough, right next to Ray was Tommy, my brother's best friend and the pitcher for the team. I met his warm chocolate eyes, feeling my face grow hot with the blush that seemed to be coming from the roots of my hair and spreading downward. He smiled at me; my heart skipped a beat.

"Go talk to him, he is very cute!" my mother whispered.

"No. He is on Dad's team, you know Dad's rules!" I set my eyes on the sidewalk in front of me, vowing to not look up again.

My mother grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward the crowd, toward Tommy. I tried to struggle against her, but it didn't help. We stepped into the street to get around the group of people that blocked our path, her dragging me.

If you didn't know better you would think she was my older sister from the way she acted, and well, the way she looked. Both of my parents were on the verge of fifty years old, but you would never guess they were out of their mid-thirties.

I dug my heels into the ground and whined, "No, please!"

She giggled and let me go, giving me a little shove in Tommy's direction. "You should talk to him."

"Oh, Kyeth!" she hollered, her eyes widening with shock as she suddenly was lifted into the air.

My father had stepped out of the crowd behind her and scooped my mother up into his arms, laughing and kissing her neck. She laughed like a teenager, kicking her legs a little in mock-protest.

"Gross." I stepped back, the display of parental amorousness freaking me out a little. But not too much. It was really sweet, too.

My father spun her in the street, and they both laughed.

The streets were blocked off because of the festival, but that didn't matter.

I was smiling and looked down the crowd; my brother and Tommy were probably half a block ahead of me. I decided to suck it up and join them. Tommy was still staring at me, after all. My prospects seemed good.

Rays face suddenly became panicked.

I checked over my shoulder to see what he was looking at.

All I saw were headlights, and they were moving too fast. Why were they on this side of the barrier?

"MOM-DAD!" we both screamed, lunging toward them.

Then there were arms around my waist, an ice-cold breeze, and pain as we landed on the sidewalk, tangled together.

Ray?

"How did you…?" I couldn't finish my sentence. How did he what? What had happened?

I heard the screams. I couldn't see, the tears burned my eyes, blinding me.

Hands were grabbing us both and pulling us away, away from what we shouldn't see. I blinked the teary blindness away furiously. I could see the blood in the street.

Ray grabbed my face and turned it away. "Don't you look!" He hissed.

****************************

I sat on the edge of the world. At least that was what it felt like.

I was waiting for my brother. This had been a long, hard week for both of us.

My parents had died.

My father was both born in Éire (Ireland); he got a scholarship to go to school in the US, to play baseball. We were born in Boston, Massachusetts originally. We had no family in the United States, and hadn't had any contact from anyone in Éire for over three years, since our last visit.

My Seanathair (old father -- grandfather) was very angry with my father for leaving the Old Country. He refused to come to the States to visit. Three years ago, when I was twelve, was the last time I had seen him, when we had been there for our visit.

He was very interested in both my brother and I; he almost studied us, actually. He really liked teaching us things about the surrounding country, which was really fascinating: there were tons of old ruins buried in the hillsides. Rayden and I spent hours tunneling through them, trying to imagine what they had looked like long ago. There were old symbols carved into the stones all over them.

That was also when we had learned what our names meant.

"An bhfuil a fhios agat an bhrí do ainm?" He asked us. (Do you know the meaning of your name?)

"No, Seanathair. No, tell us!-- Insint dúinn!" I remembered begging.

I am Raelyn Rúnda Draíochta. Raelyn means: Protector of the Waterfall or Lake - Rúnda means secret or concealed, and Draíochta (pronounced: dree – uck – ta) means magic, in Irish.

My twin brother is Rayden Léim Draíochta. Rayden means: Protector of followers. Léim means: jump or jumper, in Irish.

I laughed at my memories of my grandfather, how he refused to speak English unless he absolutely had to. So Rayden liked to get him red-faced and stomping mad by baiting him in English. My grandfather called Rayden, "Loscann Olc!" (Evil Frog…)

It was a wonderful place, way out in the Irish countryside, with the big, rolling hills and tall, green grass. If you believed in faeries that was the place to be. I almost felt the magic in my bones when I was there. It is very unlikely that we will be taking any more trips to Ireland now.

Ray stepped out onto the edge of the balcony with me.

"Hey, you're not going to jump, are you?" he asked, only half-joking.

I looked up at him as he made his way over to me. "No, not yet." I whispered.

"Oh, Lyn, we have each other, we will make it through," he reassured me, placing one hand on my shoulder and helping himself down onto the ledge.

I wasn't sure how to take his new-found optimism. Just yesterday, I'd had to talk him out of the bathroom. Yesterday had been really hard, though. We'd packed the last of our things. We were moving, to some place we had actually never been.

No one had been able to get in touch with my grandfather. So, we were left without a caretaker. My parents did a have a clear will, if something was to happen to them, we were to go to our godparents.

Renee and Phil Dwyer. I didn't really remember them very well. I knew Phil played ball in college with my dad, and played in the minors with him for a while. At that time he and his wife taught at some high school in Florida. Phil was also the baseball coach, like my father had been. They were coming to get us the next day.

We had a nice bit of money set aside for us in savings, and there was more than enough for Phil and Renee to take care of us. They had been saving and investing for a while, and it had paid off. The insurance settlement money went into a college fund and into a trust account, which we'd gain access to once we turned eighteen. We were set, at least financially. My parents had thought this through, almost as if they knew it was going to happen. I shuddered at the thought.

I grabbed Ray's hand. "Please, don't leave me." My own voice startled me with how pitiful it sounded.

He frowned. "What makes you think I will?" he asked, seeming offended.

I shrugged.

"I am sorry I didn't save them," he whispered a little while later, his eyes closed.

"What does that mean, Ray? How could you have saved them? I don't understand how you were there, to pull me out of the street!" There it was again: wondering what had happened. I felt my chest tighten and my anger growing. He keeps blaming himself, for something a drunk driver did. I was angry, yes. But not at him.

"I don't know. I saw you, I saw them. I wanted to be there to help you, and then I was there. With you. I don't know how I did it. It all happened too fast!" He sounded really frustrated.

I shook my head. It wasn't possible. "You were so far away."

He laughed, which I found odd. "It's like I just… jumped."

"Could you too come down from there?" Nina yelled from the house.

Nina was one of the teachers from school. She stayed with us after it all happened, she was basically my mom's best friend.

"Fine!" We both yelled in unison.

We climbed down and walked into our empty house. The phone rang, and Ray ran to answer it.

I continued walking toward my room. Everything was gone, except a bag of clothes and toiletries and an air mattress. Everything else was packed in boxes, headed to Florida.

I jumped into the shower and got ready for bed, my mind still spinning with all the unanswered questions. When I finally turned out the light and got into bed…well, the air mattress…I was tired physically, but my mind was wide-awake, yet my brain seemed to be packed with cotton, making my thoughts all indistinct and nebulous.

I laid there unable to just close my eyes; the red streets were burned into my mind. The new life I would be starting terrified me.

There was a soft knock at the door, and I heard the door creak open quietly.

"Ray?" I whispered into the darkness.

"Who else?" he asked, almost laughing.

I felt the air mattress rise and fall with new weight added, and I scooted over a bit to make room for him. I lifted the blanket to let him underneath, and we snuggled together for a long moment, not speaking. It was nice being together, having each other there so solidly real, when everything else around us seemed to be falling apart.

"Are you scared?" he whispered, all joking gone from his voice.

I rolled over and let my eyes adjust to the darkness, trying to focus on where his face should be. "Oh course, I am…But I'm always scared. You're the brave one."

"I don't know if I am able to be the brave one this time, Lyn, this is different."

I knew what he was referring too.

One of our summers in Ireland, we had gotten lost, in the forest. I had been terrified; I think we were maybe five or six. Rayden had just held my hand and we had tried to find our way back out him leading the way. We had followed one of the several underground tunnels we had found, and had ended up somewhere in the middle of the forest. We went exploring and it started to get dark, turning the one-inviting woods into a shadowy, scary place full of foreign sounds. I had been the one who had been scared, I remember clinging to his hand like I was drowning and he were my life-raft. He'd been so calm.

I remembered crying. Begging Ray to get us home. Frantic. I remembered he started getting so frustrated, because he couldn't figure out where to go. He led me around, looking down paths that were obviously unused. He had never once showed fear, he had never yelled out.

The darkness crept around us, the gloom deepening, a mist stealing around the twisted roots of the ancient trees, and he pulled me tightly into his arms. "Don't look, Lyn." he had whispered squeezing me.

He pulled me onto the ground under a big hollow tree. He covered my face, shielding me from the encroaching darkness. My whimpers were muffled by his chest.

Our father found us the next morning. Cold and dirty. His face was red and his eyes were glossy. It had been obvious he'd spent the night awake, crying, frantic. I don't know how he managed to find us, the more we walked, the deeper I realized we were in the forest.

My daddy.

Back in the present, Ray shook me, his voice a growl by my ear. "Don't think about that!" He knew what I was remembering. He grabbed both of my hands and held them tight, and we laid there staring at each other, not really seeing each other in the dimness. Speaking without words.

He blinked in the darkness. My eyes felt heavy, finally. Maybe I could sleep after all. With him there.

He released one of my hands momentarily, placing his on my face soothingly. "Sleep, Raelyn. I will always be here." This time his voice was smooth and reassuring. He grabbed my hand back in his, curling around me like a shield.

My brother, my protector. He always had been.

We fell asleep, our hands held tight. Keeping each other safe from the unknown future, and the horrible visions of the past. Rayden has and will always be the strong one; I just hope he doesn't overdo it, protecting me.

The night passed and the morning came.

We were awakened by a loud knock on the door.

Nina pushed it open, "Hey, you two, they're only a few minutes away, are you ready to go?"

I rolled over, stretching. "No, not really." I looked down at Ray, his coppery hair sticking out in tufts from beneath the blanket. He was hiding, apparently. I chuckled, shoving his shoulder. "Get up!" I hissed. He laughed, pushing me back. We tumbled off the air mattress onto the floor, and wrestled for a minute, until we both realized we had to get up and get ready. Get ready to face this day.

This day, a new day, a new life.