31 Day Writing Challenge: Day 14 - 'The Law.'

Parent's wept and children disappeared the day 'The Law' was passed. No one thought it would pass, no one except the people who had the power to stop it. They didn't. 
'The Law' decreed that every first born child would be taken by The Leaders for 'the cause'. No one really knew what that meant, only what they had been told: 'It is for your own good', 'it is for the good of the cause', 'it is a necessary evil', and so on. What really mattered to the people was that their first child was taken within days of being born; ripped heartlessly from the arms of their mothers.
The only time children older than a few days were taken was the day 'The Law' came into effect, the eldest children (under the age of sixteen) of each family were appropriated. Some lucky parents who were there when it happened, were told what was happening and had the chance to say good bye. Many parents weren't so lucky, kids were taken from parks, schools, arcades, some were snatched from the streets, their parents were not alerted; their children just never came home.

Selene was taken while her parent's slept. She was two months old. Her mother was still breast-feeding. Her father never forgave himself for not protecting his daughter, her mother never forgave herself for not waking up. Neither ever forgave The Leaders for taking the only child they would ever have, their miracle. They could never work out how anyone was able to enter a home with locked doors and windows without setting off the alarm and then take Selene without waking them. They never heard her cry. Did she cry? Where was she? Does she know how loved she is?

Rafe was told the story of his appropriation: that he had a twin brother; that his father did nothing to protect him and that his mother chose her other child, that she had clung to the other twin while she watched Rafe carried out of her life. Rafe was made to believe his mother didn't want him, that she didn't love him. The story of that day is the only lie The Leaders (and their lower levels) told him that Rafe ever believed.