Anara cowered in the hollow space between the floorboards as she watched the men invade her house. She heard her parents scream a ways away from her field of vision before she turned her head to look down. She heard her mother crying, her father breathing heavily, no doubt throwing punches. Tears ran down Anara’s sunburned cheeks.

All because of me, she thought. I really do deserve to die. They had come for her, for this child that deserved to die because she was different. Her parents were different as well, but they could hide it. They didn’t have hair as blue as the ocean, or eyes as grey as the clouds. They seemed normal humans, without a child, without a care. But tonight was different. They seemed afraid, but who wouldn’t be afraid after a group of soldiers invaded their home? This didn’t matter. What mattered was if they survived or not.

As she zoned back in, she heard her mother say, now calmer, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, nobody’s here but Micheal and me.”