ONE YEAR LATER

"Leeeiigh!" a high voice wakes me from my sleep.

"Shut that kid up!" I hear my Uncle yell from his bedroom. I stand up from the floor of the little room that served as mine and the twins room.

"Shh...Liam! You'll wake up the giant," I whisper and lift him out of the crib that he and Lane share, "What's wrong, baby brother?"

"Bawd dreawm," Liam whimpered. I cradle Liam in my arms and he cuddles against my chest.

"Its okay, it was only a dream," I whisper softly.

"I wanna song, Leigh," Liam says groggily. I think for awhile and finally come up with a song from my favorite movie.

"Some where over the rainbow, way up high. There's a place I heard of once in a lullaby," I sing softly and soon Liam was asleep. I stood back up and lay him beside Lane.

Mrs. Carlson had taken us in until a suitable home was found for us. Well, the first one we went to found out that taking care of three kids, especially two newborns wasn't a barrels of laughs. We were then transferred from one foster home to the next until someone found our long lost uncle, twice removed or something like that on my mother's side. We were then immediately shipped off to South Dakota to live with Uncle Jacob and Aunt Jane. At first it was nice and I actually thought that we had finally found somewhere we belonged, but then Jacob and Jane came home drunk. The twins were 11 months then and had learned to talk, and they talked all the time. Lane was tottering through the small house, singing at the top of his voice. Jacob had gotten very annoyed and threw his empty beer bottle at him.

The next thing I knew was Lane screaming my name with blood running profusely from his forehead. Liam was in the room with me and also started crying, it took a lot of singing to get them both clamed down. Once the cut stopped bleeding I could see that it was pretty deep. I then told the boys to stay in the room while I went and talked to Jacob.

"What happened?" I asked, picking up the glass bottle that hit Lane in the head.

"Didn't that little brat tell you?" Jane snapped.

"'Little brat'? He didn't do anything wrong!" I objected. Jacob stood up and walked unsteadily towards me.

"Listen, stupid, it doesn't matter, he deserved what he got," he boomed wiggling a fat finger in my face.

"He could of died!" and then I felt an immense pain on the side of my head, he had hit me. My eyes watered as a lifted a hand to my right side.

"Don't ever talk back to me!" Jacob yelled. I gave him a dirty looked and stomped back to my brothers.

I sat against the paneled wall and sighed, that was the last time he ever hurt one of my brothers. I always stepped in right before Jacob or Jane lost complete control and took the beating. I ran a finger down a long scar along the back of my hand where Jane sliced me with a butcher knife. I had already tried to runaway but my 'brilliant' planned failed, the police found it a little suspicious that a 10-year-old girl was walking in the streets with two babies after midnight. Jacob wasn't happy when he was woken up at 1:00 in the morning. I jerked out of out the horrible memory, a little bit of light had started to spread across the floor, morning was here.

The day went by just fine, I did my regular chores of cleaning and cooking. Jacob was at work and Jane was busy in her room, working on the computer. Lane and Liam were playing in the family room with their only toy, a fire truck. I was in the kitchen fixing some Mac and cheese when Jacob burst in, three hours earlier than usual, drunker than a leprechaun on St. Patti's day.

"What you doin', gurl?" he slurred.

"I'm just fixing some dinner," I said shakily.

"How many times do I have to tell ya'? Jane don't like cheese!" he struck at my head, but I ducked just in time so he hit the cabinet door instead, "Damnit, gurl!" he lunged towards me but lost balanced and hit the floor, I ran out of the kitchen and into the bedroom that my siblings and I share.

"No more of this," I said determinedly to myself. I threw some clothes in a suitcase and pulled on my sneakers. I threw open the closet door and pulled out a stroller. No, I thought, that would be to apparent. I ran back into the room and threw a few more shirts and socks on the bottom of the suitcase.

"Lane! Liam!" I whispered urgently, putting my finger to my lips.

Pretty soon I was out on the streets, Lane and Liam were sleeping peacefully in the suitcase. I felt so guilty putting them in there, but I knew I would feel even worse if they were harmed by my uncle. Night was falling rapidly, it felt so long ago that I was singing Liam to sleep. I could see a bus heading my way so I stood awkwardly at the bus sign. Suddenly there was a loud bang, I turned and saw a young man standing unsteadily on his feet, he turned towards me and I gasped. His handsome face was covered in blood, he seemed to be wearing a black bathrobe. The man stumbled towards me and fell, he didn't move afterwards.

"Sir! Are you alright?" I walked quickly to him, trying not to disturb the twins too much. I kneeled beside the man and touched his hand, it was as cold as ice, his bright eyes seemed faded. I saw a round medallion around his neck, I lifted it to get a better look but I was whirled in the air. I opened my eyes and saw landscape swirling around me it made me dizzy so I closed my eyes and screamed, holding on desperately to the suitcase. The spinning stopped and I cracked an eye open, I wasn't in South Dakota at the bus stop anymore. The air was clean and fresh, I felt grass beneath my hands, not concrete. I looked up and saw a wall of men around me all pointing crooked sticks at me.

"What do you want!" I said nervously eyeing the men, they're faces were hard and serious. I guessed the sticks actually did something because I don't think they would be threatening me with them.

"What's in the suitcase?" One of the men said, he had thick, black glasses and messy black hair.

"None of your business!" I said defensively. As if on cue, the twins started to cry.

"Leeeeeeiiiigh! I want owt!" Liam yelled. A looked of surprise spread across the men's faces.

"Accio bag!" the man with the black hair said, pointing the stick at the twins. The suitcase was pulled out of my hands even though I tried to hang onto it.

"NOO!" I yelled and then lunged towards the man and tried to punch or scratch every inch of him, although careful not to hurt the twins.

"Stop!" another man with shaggy hair yelled and the last thing I saw was a flash of red light.

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