We Were Forgotten {ON HOLD}

Twins

~Matilda~

I held my twin close to me as we wailed into the empty air. My throat, and my whole face was sore from crying so much, but I couldn’t stop. It was awful. So awful.

“Ladies please stop…” I heard the old man behind us say. I think he was Palestinian or Pakistani, but I couldn’t tell the difference. He was fat, with a potbelly bigger than a beach ball, and arm hair thicker than sasquatch’s. He owned the gas station my sister and I passed by when we walked the outskirts of the city, and that’s where we were when the attacks started.

We ran in, and locked the door behind us without a second thought. We stared out of the door as one of those light things whipped by. A sigh of relief left us as the owner cursed us out.

“Please sir,” Reese begged. “Please let us stay. We can’t go back out there, not after…not after.” She dropped to her knees as tears poured out of her eyes. I got down with her and consoled her, rubbing her back in small circles as tears well in my eyes too.

“Please. My sister, you see, she’s very scared right now. Her boyfriend was taken from her just a few minutes ago and…” I wiped a single tear from my face. “And…look we just can’t go back out there right now. I’ll do whatever you want. Whatever. Just let us stay.”

“Matilda don’t m-make that offer. Pl-please. You-you’ve gone through t-t-too much-”

“If it’s to keep you safe, I’ll do whatever.”

And that’s where we were now. Crying behind the counter as the man tried to make us feel better. He said I didn’t to do whatever “whatever” would be, but if we just kept quiet while he got his things together he’d be fine.

I was getting tired and leaned my crying eyes on my sister. Which was a rare occurrence for me, because she always fell asleep before I did. I new it was the smell of knock of brand on Pine-Sol on the floors, or the Clorox used to clean the dirty bathrooms that were making me feel this way, but I didn’t care. This was beginning to take too long.

The man had walked off and was looking out of the window when I pinched my sister. “What?” she hissed.

“Hurry up you ass. Pull out your phone.” My sister and I go by many names. The Terrible Twins, Redheaded Robbers, Twin Thieves, but I’d like it if people called us The Con Twins. It explains what we do a lot better than any of those stupid names, but I have to admit it wasn’t as catchy.

My sister started screaming into the phone a random name. “Markus? Markus! Oh my God! Are you okay?”

“Is that really him?” I asked, looking up at her. She glanced up to see if that man is there. She stuck her tongue out at me and I smiled.

“Wh-what?” she sniffled. “We can get there?”

“What’s happening,” asked the man. “Is something wrong?”

I churned my face into a painful wail and turned around. “O-our older brother. He’s in Arizona for college. What’s he saying?”

“He said there’s a plane leaving for Arizona-”

“Really?” I nearly squealed.

She nodded and wiped her face. “He says that spots are filling up quick and….We don’t have that type of money. B-bu-but.”

I grabbed the phone and pressed it to my ear. Nobody was on, and the phone was dead. I sniffed and spoke into the cold glass. “Markus h-how much is it?” I waited for as long as it would take for a regular person to say “250 per person” before talking. “That’s five hundred dollars for the both of us! We…” I willed another wave of tears to my face and cried. “Markus we can’t see you!” I looked at the phone and splashed a horrified look. “The damn thing’s almost dea-“ I paused and stiffened my body. “Markus?” I whispered. “Markus are you there?”