It was a few days after the strange people in the black car had taken myself and my brothers away. The memory was still very vivid in my head. My older brother, Dylan, clinging to the side of the door, screaming in protest, kicking as the people tore his hands away, ripping him from the place we called home. I sat in the back of the vehicle, tears streaming down my face and confused about where we were going and why they weren't letting our mom see us. My youngest sibling Lilly hadn't been seen in a few days, she had been taken away before we were, to some unknown place. Next to me was my younger brother Max, he was sleeping soundly in the seat beside me, not knowing of the events conspiring.

Currently, we were in a strange large building with small houses within it. There was only one bedroom, a small area for the kitchen and the living room and dining room were connected together. Dylan, Max and I had gathered the blankets from the bedroom and grabbed the chairs from the dining table to create a castle.

There were two woman, whom of which I had never seen before this day. I approached one of the woman who was in the kitchen. Her blonde hair was draped neatly over her shoulders and she held a bulky phone in her hands.

Up on the shelf was a Fruit Roll-Up box. Intrigued, I poked at the woman's leg and she peered down at me. "Can I have one of those?" I asked, pointing towards the box.

"Of course!" She grabbed the box and took out tree of the rolls, handing them over to me, "Make sure to share with your bothers." Immediately after, she dialed a number on the phone and began to speak, her voice booming as she laughed and smiled.

I ran back to my brothers, giving them the snack I had gotten and climbed into the castle. I was Knight Max's hunting wolf kneeling before King Dylan, awaiting orders to attack the foreign hunters in the dreaded forest. We fought the hunters for hours, getting wounded and having the magical forest creatures bring us back to the castle to heal before charging back out, unafraid of the savage warriors.

It was the blonde lady who had abruptly ended our battle, calling the castle members back to have their victory French fries. I ran the fries through my ketchup, pretending it was a boat swimming through the ocean and suddenly sinking into the maw of the Dead Sea.

Afterwards, we destroyed our castle and Dylan and Max went to jump on the bed. I, on the other hand, was hoping for dessert. I approached the brown haired woman, she had darker skin and wore small glasses, and she had been sitting silently on the couch for a while now, watching us.

"Can I have a fruit Roll-Up?" I asked, hoping she'd allow one.

Her face twisted in confusion and she pointed to the blonde lady, speaking strange words I'd heard before but long forgotten what they meant.

I looked back at the blonde woman who was still speaking loudly on the phone, I didn't wish to disturb her so I turned back to the brown haired lady. "She's on the phone." My own face twisted in confusion as she stared at me in the eyes, as if everything I said to her was an alien language.

She shook her head, pointing to the blonde woman again, continuing to speak the words she said before, over and over again.

Irritated, I walked over to the blonde woman, tugging on her leg and pointing towards the snacks. She handed me the entire box without saying a word and I walked to the room to enjoy the treats while I could.

My brothers were too preoccupied with jumping on the bed. It was the biggest bed I had ever seen, big enough to fit someone like my uncle, who I hadn't seen in months after the screaming happened. They were doing flips and climbing onto the dressers jumping from object to object, trying not to touch the molten floor. They chanted "You're burning! You're burning!" Over and over as they laughed.

The blonde woman suddenly appeared in the doorway, asking if we would want to go to the park and we all immediately raced to the entrance of our small house. My brothers and I put on our shoes, all Velcro other than Dylan's, we hadn't learned how to tie laces yet. The blonde woman and brown haired woman exited into the hallway first as we followed behind them.

We followed them all the way over to the giant park. It had two massive play structures and new toys I'd never seen before. The two woman sat on the bench as my brothers and I ran to the structure and played on all the new things. I pretended to be a Alien warrior, running through my space ship, charging at the enemies in my path and sliding down the escape hatch to run to the escape pods. Dylan and Max were off on the other structure, making gun sounds with their mouths and holding sticks horizontally, they were running together and making hand signals to one another in their made up game.

Time had passed, not sure how much, but the blonde woman called us back to her and said it was time to go. We all complied, as we were hot and tired and couldn't wait to go back inside to have ice cream. We followed the woman back to the strange large building.

As we climbed the stairs up to our new home, things felt different. Like there was a presence I knew before. When we reached the top of the stairs the blonde hair woman opened the door to enter the hall and to my surprise I saw my grandmother and a woman in strange suit waiting at our door.

They turned over and my grandmother smiled when she saw me and my siblings. "Grandma!" We all cried as we ran over to hug her. After our hug she began to say how we were coming to stay with her for a while and next thing we knew we were in her car heading to her home.

A few days passed and my brothers and I were in my grandma's house. Dylan wasn't being himself, he would scream randomly and had once thrown a chair, and grandma wasn't smiling much recently either, having to deal with how Dylan was being.

Max and I stayed quiet and watched SpongeBob moving on the big screen on the kitchen counter. We both wondered when we were going to see our mom again but no one answered the question, so we stopped trying to ask.

Days kept on passing by slowly, only thing we were able to do was watch tv, watch our uncles play video games, or look at Raylu, our peach-faced love bird. We weren't allowed to run around the house or jump or play fight, grandma didn't want us to break anything. I would lay on my temporary bed, the smallest couch, as grandma hadn't gotten us a room to sleep in yet. Max slept on a small fold out bed that could turn into a chair and Dylan slept on the big couch next to me.

My Uncle Dan would sometimes take us out to the park in the back lane, there was a park there with an ugly green color and was usually covered in dead bugs. On the way to the park we passed mom's house, sometimes we could see her out on the porch, looking at us with a sad expression and would wave and say hi, but we weren't allowed to go to her. They wouldn't even let us go back into our house to sleep in our actual rooms.

I smiled and waved to my mom as we passed. I missed her more than anything. "When will we get to see mommy again?" I asked as I looked at Uncle Dan.

He peered down at me, his eyes already showing the answer before he spoke it, "I don't know."

After a week my grandma suddenly came up to me and Max, saying that we had to go see our mom today. Max and I leapt up in joy, we raced to the door waiting as my grandma put on her shoes and walked us across the street.

I silently felt bad for my older brother, he wouldn't be able to see her. Dylan wasn't at home, we hadn't seen him for a few days after he flipped over one of the couches in the basement. Grandma never said anything about it.

When we got to moms we had to go to the front of the house, instead of the back lane. There was a limo on the street, my mom was putting Quince, our orange tabby cat who had a small temper, in the back seat. She turned and smiled as she saw my brother and I. We ran to her and gave her a hug. The first thing she did was kneel down in front of us and said, "I'm going to be gone for a while guys, mommy is going to be in the united states, I don't know when I'll be back but I'm going to phone you guys and let you know I'm okay."

Confusion was the first thing to strike, "When will you come back?" I asked in disbelief, holding onto her hand as if I could keep her here forever.

Max hugged mom and sat down quietly afterwards. He just looked at her, not saying anything at all. No expression on his face.

"I have to say goodbye to Quince!" I ran over into the back of the limo and stuck my fingers into Quince's kennel, petting him for the last time, hearing his beautiful purr. My eyes began to feel sore and stung, feeling myself frown as I continued to pet him, "Goodbye Quince..." I said quietly, hugging the carrier and feeling hot tears run down my face. I didn't know this was the last time I'd ever see him alive. "I'll miss you."

I whipped away the tears and turned back to mom with a smile. "You'll come back to see us right?" Mom turned from Max and approached me. Mom was silent for a moment, although she was still smiling, she looked excited almost.

"Of course I will!" She gave me a big hug just as the chauffeur honked the horn. Mom quickly ran into the back of the limo, "Bye Max! Bye Hailey! I love you!" She said waving as the limo quickly sped away.

I sat on the ground, rubbing the grass between my fingers and staring off in the direction the Limo had gone. Tears ran down my face and at the moment something inside of me, was gone. I turned to look back at my brother. He was gasping and crying out on the footsteps our home, grandma's arms wrapped around him. Trying to cheer him up.

All I could do was stare. Unable to do anything, unable to help. I didn't feel normal anymore.

Weeks passed and I carried on with my life as I did before, knowing that I could still do what I always did during the day. Night was different through, full of sorrow and false hope. Waking up with a wet pillow, remembering the pain of the memories the night before. I could hear my brother in the next room, screaming and choking on his own tears at night.

Grandma having to rush in and comfort him, "Shhh, shhh, it's going to be okay." She would say while rubbing his back and hugging him until he fell asleep in her arms. He never really ate anymore, never spoke much either. He'd just watch television or play quietly in his room.

There was a night I laid awake, staring at the sparkling ceiling, thinking to myself that one day mom would come back. She had phoned earlier that day, she sounded happy and told us about the new house she was in. All I could do was remember our old home and the time mom told us Quince missed us. He used to sit by our doors and cry and meow until mom told him we weren't coming back.

Quince had moved on. He learned we weren't going to come back after we were taken. He was a smart cat, always was.

I always thought mom would come back. She can't leave us behind. We were her kids, she'll come to my birthdays and come to my wedding one day. Mothers are supposed to be there for their children, mom will come back.

But now, 14 years later, laying in the same bed in the same house. I know she's not coming back, she's not coming to my graduation, and she's not coming to my future wedding. But I still live my life, even knowing that. Nothing's changed.