The sky seemed to mirror what Raven thought as if the sky was trying to tell her life could be better. Just wait.  But life is never simple.  It seemed that people who are naive think life awaits you and that if you sit and wait, something will come to you. Life would be more simple if that was true. Oh God, she wished it was.  As Raven leaned her back against the tree, she was probably getting blisters. her bare back lay against this tree that had been planted by her great-grandpa own hands, as the tree grew and got older. If Rav was honest, it would probably still be here after she became simple dust in the ground. Raven's Brown hair hung over her shoulder blowing in the wind.   As she heard the faint laughter from the little girl up high above her in the unsteady branches. Only part of her brown hair that was a pale white, which Raven absolutely despised, floated in front of her mismatched eyes. Raven's own family had said that she got all the mismatched genes that caused her to look so exotic. People often stared at her mismatched blotches of skin, a pale gray to a brown color that seemed to look like burnt sugar as Raven’s oldest brother used to say. A smile came to her tan lips at the memory of him. He had gone off to fight in a green uniform as mismatched as her own skin.

Raven found it unfair that her twin had such beautiful pale skin because of something that made her paler than the usual African American.  Raven was stuck with patches of skin that she had to cover up with patches of lots of concealer, so that passersby would not stare and point. It was also to keep the family safe. Rumors caused murmurs in their small town. Here, the news seemed to flash from mouth to mouth.

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

From above, her twin seemed so low. Ren was really the taller twin by a couple of inches. Her twin though, always seemed so small even if Raven wasn't so far away from her.  There was something amiss with Raven, the brown-haired twin, and it had not always been there. But, at some point, it almost got worse. Ren put that thought asaid and her hand went up to the rough branch as Ren’s pale skin, gripped the branch. Red-brown leaves scattered and made scratches across her hand. Her breath was heavy she had not been planning to climb today but their little sister insisted on climbing their family tree. Ren’s high heel boots kept her on the unwilling branch, as the wood went in between the thick heel. Ren feared if it was not for the straps with buckles keeping the boots tight to her  snow fair skin, her foot would simply slip out of these boots. Ren gripped the branch tighter. Ren's eyes caught the shine again from across the wet grass field. As Ren's eyes caught it , the midday sun was hitting the top of their barn that her father was probably  working  in , fixing someone's useless  weapon. Ren found that the ones her father & mother sold were more interesting than the simple ones brought in to have the hilt or blade fixed. Although she found the pistols interesting , Ren’s own father never let her close to the pistols. But always would let her older brother do testing on the pistols. Ren’s brother as he says is  the unlucky middle child , which she  would disagree with. Often he got more than the girls of the house. 

As Ren's wrist twisted so she could grasp the branch above her , her black dress moved with the wind a little. She pulled herself up as she faced forward now looking at their white country modern house. Ren slipped her bleeding blistered hands into her own pockets on the side of her dress with pearley buttons down the middle. As Ren lifted her head up, the wind wrestled her pale curly punk pixie haircut. She smelled her mother's spices that she usually put in Wa Chi and the chicken that the rest of her family would eat. Ren did not eat chicken anymore since she had to be the one to fetch one of the chickens for dinner. The snap of its neck would forever be stuck in Ren's brain. The rusted small knife earring chimed as if they were a wind chime as they hit the back of earring that kept them in her ears. The leaves mixed with green fell around Ren as if they were rain falling slowly to the ground. Ren followed one of the small leaves poked with many small holes placed there in the leaf by some kind of bug. Her Magenta   eyes met the shaved but smaller curls still sat atop her brother's head. He swatted leaves out of the way, squashing them beneath his feet. Someone was in a terrible mood. 

                           ********

As he came upon them he played with the white pearly buttons on his shirt. His dark skin as black as coal was more prominent in his white button up as he fiddled with the silver ring on his hand. He  was supposed to be testing one of the guns but his father had to take over because he had one of his feelings that was settling on him and he could not get off , no matter what.  His  father had thought it was best not to be testing weapons when he had an unsettling feeling.  Quite often his unsettling feelings  are true. But he really wished it was just his nerves for going off to boarding school. He made himself stop fiddling with  his sleeves and stuffed his bullet scarred hands from the times the silver glinting small shaped weapon had grazed his hands. The weeds shifted against each other , as the cool fall wind blew the weeds  against each other. He quickly stuck his hands in his plum  dress pants before he could go back to playing with his titanium ring. The ring was bulletproof, something their dad had come up with years ago when the twins were four and he was seven.  

As his hands moved around in the pockets, his knuckles lightly went against an old and worn paper the folds had been folded more than once. After his mother had read the letter, she handed it to him to give to the twins. He was going out to the big oak tree to fetch his sisters so they could help with dinner preparations & Ren could get her chemical experiment off the table. He smiled at the thought of his younger sister chasing him around the kitchen with blue liquid that shined as it settled on her hand. Trying  to catch him, mother always got mad at Ren for her exquisite mind when it came to Ren not caring about tidiness. He knew he was coming closer to his sisters as he felt this strong feeling of love. It was not the love you would feel between lovers, more of an understanding that if he fell they would kill whatever took him down. As he stood in front of the tree looking up from his light brown church shoes to see his syblings looking at him, well the twins at least. He  could not tell about his littlest sybling   because Julilet was hidden behind Ren still in the tree. His light brown caramel eyes looked up as he gripped the paper in his finger swiftly pulling it out so it was in between  his hands clasping lightly over it. Holding it out towards them he saw their eyes light up. 

Raven was the first to move. Raven reached her hand out taking the letter and then something rang out though the field. It sounded like a faint yell, maybe, but it would have to be more for Raven siblings to have that shocked look on their face. But before they could ask , their brother spoke.“ Father is not testing any guns today on account of me. Plus  last I saw of him he was in the kitchen with mother. He had said he would not work on any guns or fix any weapons today on seeing how worried I was. Anyway is it just me or did that also sound like it came from the house”  They read of there brothes lips but then he turned and was starting to step his foot to take one step when he met the twins eye. He smiled his tan lips kindly & nervously. 

“What came from the house?” Raven turned to look at Ren as her brown hair swang around her shoulder and that was when she heard it , sending shivers up her spine.  Three gunshots rang through the fields once again. It was coming from the direction that, just a few minutes ago, the sweet and spicy scent of their mother’s cooking was wafting from the windows. What the hell was happening?

“ You two stay here with our little sister. I will go check it out but if you hear another gunshot ,no matter what, do not come for me. Do you two understand me? Stay here and protect your sibling.” He said this sternly that it made them stay in their palace where they both stood. 

“Yes, brother”, Ren said against her better judgement as if she would obey but was not happy about it.With that their brother Raced toward the white farm house. Ren and Raven stood by the tree. Letter in hand,  Raven looked up from her twin’s hands she met their little sister’s frightened  green eyes. Rav tried to keep herself together because she did not want to worry her sibling & she did that knowing their sibling  does not know how life works yet. They would go running after their brother. So all Raven could do was act as if nothing was wrong as minutes flyed by. They stood by the tree just listening to the gun shots ring out over the field , although she wanted to scream or go after her brother but know even if she did  by know he probably had been shot she didn't care she could not stand here watching and waiting for minutes to go by . Raven did not have that choice, she knew that this was harder for Ren though. Ren had always cared a lot about everyone she met, Raven could see how she was holding back the urge to cry.   

Their sibling  was hanging upside down when she saw the twins' worried expressions and dropped onto her feet. she swung her legs over and then slid down dropping in the grass then leaning back up against the tree. She had been reading their lips earlier and knew what was going down but still had a complaint. She sighed quickly to Ren & Raven. “ I am not so young you don't have to watch me so closely you could have gone with him”  Her heart was racing as she said this but thought it was best not to freak out about the gunshot that had been fired now what was maybe three or four minutes ago , as her sisters already thought she was childish. They would think she was even more childish if she started to cry. Then she heard the loud noise of a gunshot again five Raven counted. Her  brother’s words came to her head. "No matter what, don't come for me." Well that was going to not be followed. Why did he even think there would have been a possibility of him ordering her to stay like a stray dog and she would? As Raven crossed her legs, her boots crossed moving the dark grass and leaves that had fallen from their childhood oak tree. 

“Whatever you're thinking about doing, no. Simply no. You know what brother said”  Ren said as she felt tears started to build up and she moved her hands together. 

“So you would rather let him bleed on the kitchen floor slowly dying?!” Raven had always been direct, but now more than ever, she felt the need to stand her ground as she tried to avoid the feeling of her heart racing form how frightened she really was. 

“ Rav we have to keep Juliet safe , you know this ” Ren was trying to keep calm but the tears on the brink of her eyes and the way her breath caught as she spoke might have given her away. What she really wanted to say was No Rav but we both know whatever is shooting our family down , our blood lines being snuffed out. They will not hesitate to  kill  the last of our family. But from what Ren had heard around town  she  know that there   little sister was not their sister at all seeing that she is not part of our line of the family tree.,but simply passing as. She is part of the next brench below us we where her anuts. Also if Ren honestly wanted to go after her brother even if he had told them not to leave the oak tree. “ then well just have to take her with us!” Raven started to turn and take off towards the house. 

Ren started after her twin and she heard the faint steps of her little sybling behind her. Just then, another gunshot hit the air six Raven counted .It sent goose bumps up her spine and a chill settled on her skin. Her heart race was back up but they were so far from there house. How could they get there before her family had bleed out. Why was someone doing this to them? She looked over to Ren her twin trying to say , why? With her eyes. Ren seemed to say back I don't know but Raven I am freaking out how do I keep my composure when I am so worryed.   uliet was humming to herself. Their siblings immediately came to halt and dropped into a crouch. As they tried to disappear into the field right next to the house. They waited quietly, questioning what could be happening.

Raven sat next to Juliet , her breath catching as Raven closed her eyes. Words flashed in her head , all they say alert alert alert danger. Ren wrapped her arms around  Juliet pulling them in and for those few minutes they stayed like that. Tears making both there shoulders and arms wet .Just then the three kids released they  had not heard another gunshot in ten minutes and best case scenario he left but  even that could be good or bad. The good is that it might mean that whoever it was with the weapon  could have left, but the bad thing is how many shots that ran through the air, which could mean that they had got her family, the people she protected with her own life. As Raven pushed herself out of the tall weeds along with her siblings &  moved forward her heart started to rush.  Her boots slipped against each other as if she was about to trip as she crept slowly towards the house. Her arms wrapped around her body. There was an eerie feeling about her. The feeling wrapped around her as if it was a death's cold skeletal hand. 

Julilet  thought she could help so she followed there older siblings  For all they knew their own brother could be simply on the floor waiting for his last breath.  Julilet sprinted toward the house, leaving the twins behind her. As they saw a group of people rush in and out of the house.  “Jules!” Ren screamed as Julilet ran past her. She raced after them but her pace but was not fast enough to catch up to Jules as they disappeared through their back door. Raven was minutes behind Jules when they went through the door Jules had gone through minutes before.  Raven reached out her hand to push open the door, trying not to be too loud just in case the person was still in there. Her other hand was on the small pocket knife in her back pocket of her pants. As her heart seemed to be on an off heartbeat. As she opened the door the smell of chemicals flowed into her face. Ren stood next to her as they slowly stepped into the room. There were men and women in blue and black outfits rushing around , blood all over the walls and floor.  Raven eyes went to a pale sheet over a tall slender body on the floor next to a slim but adult sized body with a dark hand wrapped around anoter tan hand.  Raven’s breath caught and she could not move. She just stood there no tears trickled down her cheeks , just shivers all around her body, as the shock sinks into her skin.