• They sat side by side on the front step of their house. Tears streaked both their faces, as police moved through and around their house.
    “Rowan Jones?” A lady said coming up to the girls. She wore a brown skirt, white blouse, and a brown blazer on top of it. “Mila Jones?”
    The oldest, Rowan, looked up at the lady. A few scratches and medical tape covered her forehead. Her blue shirt had a few blotches of blood, she could feel her lip pounding and her heart aching as she studied the lady. She had no idea what they were feeling, and Mila wouldn’t even speak. She just cried and buried her face deeper into Ro’s shoulder. Ro wondered how Mila could even process something like this, she was only six.
    “What do you want?” Ro said trying to act more mature and scanned the lady over. Prim, manicured nails, waxed legs, most likely wore a push up bra underneath that blouse, and in desperate need of attention from some authority figure in her life who she kept trying to impress.
    “My name is Hannah Parker, I’m going to take you guys to a foster home for tonight.” Ms. Parker said quickly and knelt down looking at Mila. Ro watched as Mila peaked her an eye out to look at Ms. Parker and buried herself deeper into Ro.
    “What if we don’t want to? What if we want to stay here?” Ro snapped and stood up hugging her sister tightly picking her up. “I’m sixteen I can take care of Mila for tonight here.”
    “Rowan I understand you want to stay here, but I have to take you from here.” Ms. Parker said quickly.
    “Then stay here with us!” Ro snapped again and set down Mila and looked at Mila and sighed. “Mila go to your room, I’ll meet you up there.” Ro said softly biting back her tears, she wasn’t going to cry.
    “Rowan…” Ms. Parker started.
    “Don’t, just stop and listen.” Ro growled and glared at the social worker. “Please, just for tonight. It would mean the world to Mila and me if you let us spend the night here once more. Just once more, then you can call my aunt in America and work out something to get us there.”
    “Rowan, I…” Ms. Parker stopped, Ro followed her gaze up to the window where Mila stood watching them from her room at them. “I’ll see what I can do.” Ms. Parker said with a heavy sigh and pulled out her phone walking away. Ro saw something, she was hiding something from her. Ro turned and walked up the stairs of their home, her footsteps echoed as she past the pictures of her family, her parents.
    Mila stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at Ro with tears beginning to well in her eyes. She held a picture against her chest and Ro figured she knew which one she held. Ro grabbed Mila and pulled her close, fighting her tears again. Ro promised she wouldn’t cry for Mila’s sake, she wouldn’t let a tear hit the ground. They slowly walked back to their parents room and climbed on the bed staying close together. Ro looked down at the picture Mila cradled, it was the one of her parents and them all together. Her dad had been goofing off trying to tickle her, while her mom was hugging Mila. Her aunt had taken the picture when she came to visit from America while on tour in London.
    “I miss them to Mila.” Ro said hoarsely. “But that lady outside is going to let us stay another night here, then she’ll call Aunt Mika and she’ll come up here or we’ll go to America and visit her like we did for Christmas last year.” Ro said trying to make everything sound better. “Does that sound good?”
    Mila just shook her head and buried herself into Ro’s chest crying again. Ro missed the sound of her parents voice, and she just missed hearing Mila talk. Mila always spoke she was never quite like this.
    Ro couldn’t believe this was happening, they were just taking them to school, they had just passed by Big Ben and they were laughing having a good time when the car came out of nowhere and T-boned them, the car had hit Ro’s side and the driver side, they hit so hard the car started rolling and the front of the car above of her parents was smashed down. Ro woke up in a hospital the next day, her sister was next to her in the other bed looking at Ro.
    “You’re awake.” The doctor said coming in quickly.
    “W-what happened?” Ro said sitting up and wincing, falling back into the bed.
    “Easy Rowan.” The doctor said coming over and helping her sit up. “Mila, do you want to sit with your sister now?”
    Mila climbed out of her bed quickly and curled up next to Ro and hugging her tightly. Ro flinched, but smiled when Mila looked up at her.
    “You guys were in a car accident, and a pretty bad one. You both are very lucky, Mila got out with a few scratches on her arms. You had a few on your head and a large piece of glass in your side. We removed it and stitched it up. We used twenty stitches. You are very lucky Rowan.” The doctor explained.
    “Where are my parents.” Ro asked sharply looking around. The doctor grew silent and a Ro watched a grave look fall onto his face. She spotted two officers outside her door. “No, no no no no.” Ro started to say over and over again shaking her head.
    “I’m sorry Rowan, your parents died on the way to the hospital , we tried to revive them, but they were dead upon arrival. Ro felt Mila shaking and crying hard and Ro kept shaking her head and help Mila close, tears welled up but didn’t fall as Ro bit back the tears and they stung her eyes.
    “They can’t be dead!” Ro screamed looking at the doctor. The doctor sighed and shook his head. Ro watched as pain and sadness filled his face, he was sincere but it wasn’t good enough.
    “Ro… where’s mommy and papa?” Mila cried looking up at Ro. Ro looked down at her sister, and fought even harder to keep the tears back, her little sister bright green eyes were swollen from crying.
    “They’re in a better place, Mila.” Ro said hugging her sister tightly as she sniffled herself and felt her little sister’s tears through the hospital gown. Ro’s side burned, whether it was from the pressure Mila was putting on it, or because Ro was hurting so much. Just in an instant, a normal day that happened five days in a row, her whole life was gone.
    “Where are they?” Ro asked weakly.
    “In the morgue, they’ll be sent to the funeral home and to be embalmed and so funeral arrangements can be made by your next of kin.” The doctor explained.
    “My next of kin is in America, she lives in Montana.” Ro explained.
    “Well, the social worker that will meet you both at your house tomorrow will contact your guardian.” The doctor continued, “Please get some rest Rowan, the nurse will be in shortly with some food for you both.
    “I’m not hungry.” Ro said, she wasn’t hungry and she felt sick to her stomach. Ro looked down at Mila, she wasn’t moving anymore and Ro figured she cried herself to sleep or just decided her dreams were a better place. They were, in her dreams their parents would be alive and they’d all be happy. The doctor didn’t say a word, he just left with a movement of the white coat and he was replaced by two officers. They wanted the story of what happened for their report, neither of them showed emotion on their faces, while one tried Ro just looked at them with disgust as they continued to throw one question at her after the next.
    “Enough! Don’t either of you two have any dignity! Our parents just died and all you two can do is ask questions that make it hurt even more!” Ro screamed. The nurse came in at that point and escorted the officers out. Ro’s side burned in agony and she let out a small cry of pain. The nurse came over quickly and looked at her stitches, Ro had managed to in her rage tear three of the stitches open. The doctor was notified and she was on her other side as they put three new ones back in.
    “Please, be careful Rowan.” The doctor sighed and left again. All Ro wanted to do was sleep, and wake up from the nightmare that she had been plunged into.
    Ro sighed and hugged her sister tightly, this was all a bad dream and she wanted to wake up. A soft knock on her parents door brought Ro back to reality, she looked up to see Ms. Parker standing there.
    “I spoke to my higher ups, they said as long as I’m here and along with an officer you guys can stay here for the night.” Ms. Parker explained slowly. Ro nodded her head and gulped down her emotions glancing at the lady again.
    “Thank you,” Ro said forcing a weak smile. “Did you get a hold of my aunt?”
    “Um, not yet but we’re trying to.” Ms. Parker said softly. Ro spotted it again, she was lying.
    “Can I order some pizza?” Ro asked quickly, it gave her an excuse to talk to Ms. Parker alone again. “Do you want pizza Mila?” Mila looked at Ro and nodded her head before going back to hugging the picture and burring herself into her parents bed. Ro sighed and got up and slowly walked out of the room. Her side was achy, and she needed her pain pills, Ro watched Ms. Parker watch her and shook her head before going down the stair slowly. Once at the bottom and with Ms. Parker behind her she turned around sharply and glared at her.
    “Why are you lying to me?” Ro snapped.
    “I’m not lying to you Rowan.” Ms. Parker said slowly and Ro watched her hands twitch.
    “Stop lying!” Ro hissed and glared sharply at her. “What’s going on? Why can’t you tell me about my aunt?”
    “Rowan…” Ms. Parker began. “I’ve called over there, we can’t find your aunt or any record of her.”
    Ro’s eyes widened and she fell to the ground, for her it all seemed slow motion. What did she mean they couldn’t find her aunt? Where could her aunt be otherwise. Why wasn’t there a record of her aunt?
    “She travels a lot, she could be on tour.” Ro stuttered.
    “Rowan, your aunt doesn’t seem to exist. There is no record of your mom or dad having a brother or sister, and no one comes up in our data bases by the name of Mika Jones, or a women living in Montana by the name of Mika.” Ms. Parker explained.
    “That’s impossible!” Ro shook her head violently, she got up sharply and handed Ms. Parker a family picture. “Here, this is my aunt Mika!” Ro shoved the picture into Ms. Parker's hands and pointed at the picture of a women hugging her mom.
    “Alright, we’ll send a picture of this women to our people and they’ll try to locate her okay?” Ms. Parker said with a tone that put Ro on edge.
    “Whatever, I’m going to order a pizza.” Ro snapped and went into the kitchen. Her pills were on the counter and she quickly took her meds and sighed leaning over the sink and grabbed the telephone nearby.

    ~~~
    “Come along Mila, Rowan.” Ms. Parker said quickly and hurried the girls into the car. Ro watched as they pulled away from the only place she had ever called home, the one place she felt safe, and the one place where she truly felt she belonged. There was a new face in the car with them, an man possibly a little older than Ms. Parker but not someone she usually was with.
    “Who’s he?” Ro asked quickly, she didn’t like the fact that there was two of these people now.
    “I am Agent Mitchell.” He said sharply glaring at Ro through the rearview mirror. Ro rolled her eyes and wrapped arm around protectively around Mila.
    “Whatever…” Ro growled, she glanced down at Mila and watched her blank stare out the window. “Are you okay?” Ro whispered down to her. Mila didn’t say a word just gave her a small stare that Ro took to being she was okay.
    “So we’re going to the foster home for girls today.” Ms. Parker said quickly trying to break the uneasy silence Ro had worked to create. “Doesn’t that sound like fun Mila?”
    Mila turned and buried herself into Ro’s body, she began shaking and hugged Ro tightly.
    “No, she doesn’t like that idea.” Ro said sharply hugging Mila back and kissed her head.
    “Oh well, too bad, deal with it.” Agent Mitchell scolded glaring into the back. Ro kicked the back of his seat, pretending to stretch out. “Knock it off you little -”
    “Agent Mitchell!” Ms. Parker shouted and gently hit him on the arm with a folder.
    “How about you lose your parents, your one person in your life you that could save you disappear , and then an annoying Social Worker, and a mysterious “agent” put you in a car see how you feel!” Ro snapped and kicked the bottom of the seat again.
    “Were here!” Ms. Parker tried to say cheerfully and quickly left the vehicle. Agent Mitchell exited the vehicle and they each opened a door, letting Ro and Mila out of the car. Ro went around the side of the car and quickly wrapped an arm around Mila. An older lady quickly came out, slightly plump woman who wore clothes a little too small for her and a little too pink.
    “Welcome to Miss Lawdy’s House for Orphaned girls! I’m Miss Lawdy.” She said with a smile on her face.
    “Good for you, and were not were not Orphans.” Ro said sharply.
    “Young lady, that is not how you speak!” Miss Lawdy said sharply. “How about I show you around.”
    “What’s the point…” Ro growled and began looking around at all the kids and noticed none of them were even close to her age. Ro went on edge, something didn’t sit well at this point as Miss Lawdy began to ramble on and on about the orphanage. At the end of their tour, Miss Lawdy lead them back out front.
    “Well what did you think of everything?” Miss Lawdy asked looking down at Mila.
    “Thanks, but no thanks we’ll go stay with our aunt now.” Ro said quickly and looked around.
    “Well, until your aunt comes or makes arrangements for you to go there you’ll be staying here.” Agent Mitchell said sharply.
    “Thanks for that captain obvious!” Ms. Parker said glaring at Agent Mitchell. Ro smirked, she did like the fact Ms. Parker was on her side when it came to harping on Agent Mitchell.
    “Where are the girls my age? If I may ask?” Ro asked looking around wrapping an arm around. Ro tensed up as a odd look came from Miss Lawdy’s face and felt Agent Mitchell closer to her.
    “Oh silly! This is an orphanage for girls 2-12!” Miss Lawdy said overly happy. Ro’s eyes widened and everything went in slow motion for her.
    “You can’t separate us!” Ro screamed and reached for Mila. Mila ran into Ro’s arms. “Ms. Parker! Please!” Ro begged, she watched Miss Lawdy’s pudgy fingers wrap around Mila’s shoulder. Ro’s instincts took over and she quickly turned Mila away and checked Miss Lawdy away. “Stay away from her!”
    “Mitchell.” Ms. Parker said quickly, they both lunged for Ro and Miss Lawdy lunged for Mila.
    “NO!” Ro kicked and screamed as Ms. Parker and Miss Lawdy dragged Mila away and Agent Mitchell held her back. “MILA!”
    “RO!” Mila screamed. It was the first thing Mila had said since her parents died.
    “Let me go! She needs me!” Ro screamed, Agent Mitchell held tightly.
    “Stop struggling Rowan.” Agent Mitchell said sharply.
    “No! You can’t do this!” Ro screamed and threw her head back clipping Agent Mitchells chin. Mitchell released Ro and she ran towards Mila shoving Miss Lawdy and Ms. Parker away from Mila. “You aren’t going to separate us!” Ro screamed from the top of her lungs.