Daybreak had barely arrived when a commotion arose. Something was horribly wrong because every one was running around like mad. Someone told her father that, “they were coming,” and the little girl craned her neck to see what ‘they’ looked like. All she could see through the small hole in the wall was a cloud of dust off in the distance. She could hear a faint noise that she didn’t recognized but when she wanted to look further her father dragged her away from her precious hole and she began crying.

“Quiet now, Princess,” her father spoke in a worried tone.

Then every thing went crazier. Things began exploding, people were screaming dogs howling. She was dragged out of the small hut and across a yard before her father’s hand was ripped from her and she slammed into the ground. She couldn’t breathe for a while and that caused her to panic and clawed at the ground as though it would bring her breath back.

“Dada!” she yelled reaching for him but her father was tossed backwards. She rose slowly to her feet, scared half to death and in pain.

The little girl stood firmly in the spot where she was shoved hard. She had landed on her face but ignored the pain soaring through her little body to stand up and looked around her. Her dirt ridden face had two streaks of tears clearing a path down each cheek as she bit down on her nail.

“Mama!” she shrieked above the screams and the horrible noise that the attackers were making from their mouths. She wanted it to stop but it wouldn’t.

“Run!” a voice screamed but she just stood there staring at her father as he motioned for her to run. “Run, go!”

But she couldn’t move. Fear had frozen her little bare-feet in place and even though she tried to be a good girl and run like her father had said, she couldn’t do it.

Screaming louder, she covered her ears to kill the sounds that threatened to make her go deaf.

“Dada!” she cried and began moving towards her father but something caught her from behind and slammed her into the ground. Her small body curled up into a ball as two large horses began riding in circles around her. She tried finding her father but there was too much dust. Each time she opened her eyes they stung. “Dada! Help me!”

But her father couldn’t answer her and the fates weren’t on her side. When she could finally open her eyes without pain, she did.

There before her, one of the men on the horses was killing her father and there was nothing she could do.

Her mother was already dead covered in dust on the ground.

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