Chapter 1 How it all began

I was five years old when my mom died; I was the youngest one out of three kids. Losing her was tough and all though I was young I understood what had happened and it affected me just as bad as it affected my brothers. My two older siblings Eddie and Eric always watched over me when dad was busy with work. Life was very good for us; however, all the problems began when I was sixteen, Eric was nineteen and Eddie was eighteen.
It happened on a Thursday afternoon, I was in my reading, in my room surrounded by warm blankets and depressing white dead walls, when I heard Eric called my name from the kitchen, what do you want?" I yelled as I walked out of my room a bit frustrated that I had been pulled out of my book and into reality. I walked into the kitchen, only to find that both were crying. "What's wrong?" I asked. Eric turned and looked at my. His dirty blonde hair combed back like if he was an old school gangster. His clothes always saggy and his eyes so green they looked like emeralds. He took a deep breath and tried to stop the tears from running down his cheek.
He started. "Dad was walking to his car from work today and two guys..." but he broke off into tears before he could finish.
"What happened to dad?" I demanded.
Eric hesitated but continued. "He's dead."
"He's what!?" No he had to be lying. That was something I was not going to accept.
Eddie walked over to the wall leaning and burying his face as if looking for comfort in the empty wall. His light brown hair was tied back, and his muscular arm punched the wall over and over again.
"Please tell me you’re lying!" I yelled at them in panic
Eric spoke again "Esmeralda, an officer was getting out of his car when I was arriving. He stopped me and told me what had happened. They want us to go pick up his stuff later on today."
I processed this for a few minutes and finally asked, "How did he die?"
Eddie and Eric looked at each other and then back at me; then after long seconds of silence Eric answered my question. "The police said he received two shots in the head and three in the chest."
I stood next to the counter in shock not sure of what I was supposed to be feeling. What was I supposed to say? Was I expected to cry? Was I supposed to cry? Or was I supposed to be strong for the guys? "What's going to happen to us?" I finally asked.
Eddie raised his voice in anger "Esme who cares what's going to happen to us! Dad's gone, and all you can say is 'what's gonna happen to us?' How can you be so heartless and stand there like nothing has happened! For Gods sakes you're not even crying. What the hell is wrong with you?" His face was red with pain and anger.
I flinched at his words, what was wrong with me? I felt like I had fallen into one of my books and was lost, with out an author to tell me what to do next. I was sad, I wanted to cry, but the tears just wouldn't come out. I slowly took three steps back and turned around; I started walking faster and faster until I reached the front door and I started to run. Eric started chasing after me and yelling out my name, but he stopped when he realized I was not going to stop. I ran to no where, I ran and ran, until I tired out. When I stopped running I realized I must have been running for about an hour because I was in front of the County library, crying. The library was my run away place; though, normally, I would drive there, I know it sounds kind of weird but this is the place where I would come to when I wanted to run away from everything. I never thought about running there at the time but I guess it was an instinct. I walked into the library. The lady who was always at the reception smiled at me as she said hello, she then noticed the tears and asked if I was ok. Of course I wasn't ok I was crying, my father had just died. What a stupid question to ask! If I was crying I was obviously not ok; but this wasn't any of her business so I ignored her question and kept walking.
Unconsciously I walked over to the section where the fiction books were stacked, I wanted to lose myself in fantasy, so I grabbed a book; In the front cover was a little wooden doll, wearing a very beautiful green dress, she had intense blue eyes, and blonde hair, which was held with a red ribbon. there were strings attached to her, strings which lead to two beautiful and flawless hands, those hands came out behind a sort of wall, and just above that wall were two lovely brown eyes looking down at the doll, and in the center of the book it read “The Puppeteers Apprentice by D. Anne Love" I wanted to distract my self from the pain, and reading was the best way to do that. I found an empty table, pulled the light brown wooden chair, and sat down. I set the book on the table and started at it for a few minutes. Then I took the book and I scanned the contents. I flipped the page and I started to lose my self in the world of this little girl named Mouse.