The Stolen Children (book#1)

Kylie

Kylie POV

I don't remember much from when I was tiny, I've spent too many years with the horrible people that used us as slaves.

Even when we were just 2 tiny little girls we were afraid of them and tried to stay away from them because we came to realise that everytime we got too close there wasn't a shred of love coming our way but a backhander was. It hurt, and we soon learned.

We never really understood why we were hurt, but we grew up thinking it was normal to get slapped for making too much noise, for making a mess or just being in arms length to them. When Poppy and Liam arrived they looked so small so we tried to get them things best we could but being so young ourselves we didn't understand how to take care of them but we tried our best and even though it wasn't great we seemed to have got something right because the pair of them are awesome.

It wasn't until we were around 7-8 years old that we realised it wasn't normal to be hit and shouted at all the time, when Sid and Sally was running low on the cash they got for us they had a great idea to start fostering for the money, that's when we realised it wasn't the norm as the kids that came and went were never shouted at or hit, they saw us being treated that way sometimes but they were safe. I'm happy they weren't treated like us because it was horrible. The older I got, I was even more relieved that they weren't because most of the kids looked sad without adding to that sadness.

I hated it there, and when Alora came to our place in the basement, so upset that she cried all night, I knew we had to leave.

It wasn't until the next morning when she explained what had happened and how scared she was, I knew his behaviour against Alora or any of us girls would escalate just like our beatings over the years and there was no way we were staying for that, no-one knew we were there as far as I know and so that meant when his behaviour did escalate we would be stuck to live with it just as we had the starvation and beatings and I would never allow it.

We were so frail then that we had no energy or strength, so I knew he would use it to his advantage. Alora managed to get away because he was drunk, but that might not be the case next time.

I knew we were meant for bigger things, we were 14 years old but I knew if he took what he wanted from us we would be broken and we wouldn't be on the path we needed to be facing. Sounds weird, but I knew we were meant to stay together. All 4 of us we were connected somehow. We needed to survive now for when we got older, we definitely have big destinies, and we can only do it as a group, as a family.

I was and still am so mad at Sid and Sally for that, I prayed every night since leaving that the letter we had sent helped to shut them down. They deserve worse punishment for what they had done to us, but we knew this to them would be the worst thing to happen. They would not get anymore money and wouldn't have the life of luxury they had become accustomed to.

I've always had a sisterly bond with Alora I knew we were destined to be best friends always because we had an unbreakable bond and then when Poppy and Liam came, we faced everything together but as a whole we are family and helped each other, we wasn't sure if they were definitely siblings but watching them grow they look so alike, I would be amazed if they weren't or if not siblings they had to be related.

As a group, we ran, and it was the best decision we ever made.

Our life since then has been a happy one.

Even though our life, family, and home are unconventional, we wouldn't have it any other way. We were free and surrounded ourselves with love and happiness, something all 4 of us had craved.

We have spent the morning celebrating Alora's birthday. I was relieved that she loved her necklace. We had saved for a while for that as she always carried her favourite photo of us with her, but now it was in her locket, each section had 1 of our faces on it.

We had decided to plan a 2 weeks holiday hike into the forest, I love nature. We all do.

Recently I've felt a pull to the forest, like that's where I'm supposed to be, where I belong and talking to the others about it they also feel the same, it feels like now is the time to go, there's a force within me begging me to go home, strange I know but I feel like this is the path we need to take and now.

Maybe it's all in my head but since we left the shitty place we grew up we came here not realising we were actually coming here, our feet taking us on their own accord and as soon as we could see the massive forest we knew this was our home, that this is where we needed to stop. Since being here, we have made a life and a few friends, but now we are all strong and healthy enough we knew we had to go.

Being woke up by Alora tickling us, making us laugh a lot before running from the room so we couldn't tickle her back, making us laugh more. After we stopped laughing and calmed down, we started to get dressed, but before we could leave the room, Poppy sat down on the bed, fiddling with her fingers looking worried.

"We will stay together won't we" Poppy asks quietly looking worried, which was strange as we fell to sleep last night excited "of course we will be together my sweet girl" I say wrapping my arms around her shoulders giving her a reassuring hug "are you ok" I ask as I moved back to look at her beautiful face I can still see worry in her big blue eyes "I had a dream last night, we went into the forest and found our family but we left, I saw you and Alora leaving us, walking away" now I understand "we will always be together even if we ever find our families we would never leave you ok" I say smiling at our sweet girl, it's a very slim chance we would ever find our families as we don't even have surnames, we only have names because it was on each envelope that contained the cash that was left with us.

"What happened in your dream?" I was curious because she had had a few dreams of the same people calling out to her and Liam. "They are beautiful, I think they are our parents, it's the same people as my other dreams but this time they were shouting for us, looking for us just like my other dreams but it's strange because this time they found us and we were wrapped in their arms" she now had a few tears leaving her face "wow that sounds amazing" I say smiling widely at her "it felt amazing like I could feel her hug, she has long blonde hair down to her waist and it was flowing behind her as she ran to us, she was wearing a beautiful blue summer dress that was also blowing in the wind" she explained more.

Over the years she has seen these people in her dreams, shouting and looking for her and Liam but at first they were just blurry images and as we have been here they have become a little clearer, sounds like this dream was with full details and I couldn't be happier for her. They both deserve parents who would love them, and I hope one day we can help them find them.

Giving her another squeeze, we stood ready to leave.

We just had to brush our teeth that we had to do outside as there was no running water or a sink.

Once we were all ready, we took off for our adventure.