EXCERPT.

Ryu SunmI

October 12th is a date that I’ll never forget because of two reasons. 1. It’s my birthday. Who could forget their own birthday? You would be a mad man if you did. 2. ...It’s the date of my parents deaths. I could remember as if it happened yesterday. The sounds of their cries, glass shattering, and the explosion of gunshots going off under my feet was something that I don’t think I’ll ever get out of my heads.

3 Years Ago  

A smile spreaded along my face once I seen all the “Happy Birthday” posts from my friends back at school. One by one I replied to the posts with a thank you when I received another message came in. It was from my cousin Chaeeun. “What’s the agenda now that you're the big 20 now?” I read her message out loud. Besides my parents, Chaeeun was the only family I talked to . I knew had more out there somewhere out there but from strange reason they never came around. My parents must of an idea right?

I was about to reply to the facebook message when I heard a knock come from my small bedroom door. Giving the ‘come in’ my father came in with a smile plastered on his but it didn’t met his eyes at all. You could tell it was fake. It’s like he used that mask to cover what he was actually feeling.

I sat up right as he just stood in the middle of my floor, staring at me. I could feel his eyes taking in all of  my facial features. “Dad is everything alright?” it didn’t take him long to stand completely in front of me. He then kneeled infront of me and took a hold of my hands. His eyes glossed over in tears as he looked at me. “Sunmi you know your mother and I love you very much right?” He question me. I only nodded my head as I was confused. Why was he saying this all of sudden?

My father e of my palms around and placed what he brought with him. In palm laid a necklace. A necklace way to familiar. It was my mother’s favorite necklace she liked to wear. From my understanding it was a necklace given to her by her mother that was soon passed down to her. “H-Honey!” My mother yelled from downstairs in a shaky voice. My father turned his head towards my bedroom door.  “I’ll be right there!” He yelled back. He whipped his head back to me as he looked at me with panicked eyes. “Whatever you hear, do not leave this room” He spoke, trying to make his face sound stern. My father stood up and left my room in a hurry. I thought about what he said until I heard the clicking of a lock turn on my door. Quickly standing up, I rushed over to my door and tried to pry it open.

My breath started to pick up as realization hit me. By now I could hear shouting coming from downstairs and I desperately wanted to know who it came from. Bringing my hand up, I started to pound at the door, hoping to catch someone’s attention that I was locked up in here. The sound of glass breaking followed by the shouts of “Stop!” that came from my mother made me feel panicky. Something bad was going on down there, Something bad is happenin