In that moment, the tears threaten to come back. They sting my eyes, forcing me to blink quickly to make them go away. I’ll have time to cry later, when Sophie has fallen asleep and I’m all alone in my room, but right now I need to hold it in.

We stop when we get to our building. I don’t reach for my keys, and neither does she. We turn to face each other and just stand there for a minute, breathing quietly through our mouths.

“Sophie, I—”

“Did they come back?” she interrupts me, her voice barely there. “Those men who wanted to take Pa away?”

Slowly, I nod, and I can no longer hold back my tears. They just spill from my eyes, falling everywhere—on my chest, on my bare arms, on the sidewalk. And through the blurriness, I watch as my sister’s heart breaks. I watch as her world crumbles and her eyes fill with tears, and there’s nothing I can do except stand here in front of her. I want to say something to comfort her, but I can’t find my voice. I want to wrap her in my arms, but I can’t even move my legs enough to close the distance between us.

“And…” I manage to say eventually, even though my chest is heaving so badly I can barely even breathe. “And they came for Ma, too.”

Sophie bends over, and I worry that she’s going to throw up right there on the street. I instinctively reach for her, putting an arm over her shoulder. The tears stop falling from my eyes, and all I can think about is that I need to get her into the apartment. I need to get her somewhere safe.

“Let’s go inside,” I say. “Come on.”

She nods, retching a little as she follows me up the front steps of the building. I have to half carry her all the way to the third floor, and when we walk into the apartment, we don’t even stop to think about the eerie emptiness that surrounds us. We go straight for the living room and collapse side by side on the couch.

For what feels like a really long time, we don’t say anything. I listen to Sophie’s quiet sobbing, but then, all of a sudden, she turns to look at me.

“What’s going to happen now?” she asks.

I have no idea, I think. What are we supposed to do? I don’t even know where our parents are right now. Where have they been taken? We have no way to contact them, to ask them for advice.

“We’re gonna have to stick together,” I say. That’s the only thing I’m certain of. “And we’re gonna have to be patient until we find a way to talk to Ma and Pa. They’ll know what to do.”