here is a teaser of what is to come :

Mother had told her to come out from under the chair in the corner

Mother had called her name and beckoned to her with a gentle hand, there was no tremor to her voice and her soft brown eyes were glued to Ophelia's maroon ones.

For a moment Ophelia did not hear the shouting of men in a tongue she never learned, she did not feel the heat of the flame that threated to consume everything around her, she did not see the disarray of the normally beautifully kept house.

She only saw her mother's kind face, her curly midnight blue hair pooling over her delicate shoulders and face upturned to her own.

Her mother's face was the only thing she saw, as the end of a bullet made its way through the center of her mother's forehead.

Ophelia understood death, as well as she understood life, even at the age she was now. She knew her mother was dead upon seeing her body hit the floor lifeless and blood pool from the wound that lay in the center of her mother's forehead.

She did not know how to stop the scream that erupted from her mouth or the tears that fell from her eyes . She trembled clinging to the wall, not knowing what to do , staring at her mother's eyes which were wide open , still staring into her own. . Without realizing she was repeating the word "No".