Amelia Shepherd OneShots

Used to be young

DENIAL & ANGER

It's a Saturday.

She's five years old and nearly always smiling.

She's sitting in the back of her father's convenience store with her older brother Derek. Two pennies from her father, resting in the palm of her right hand.

Amelia usually hid them in the big crack in the floorboards but right now she's holding onto them, her imagination running wild as she imagines the town that she tells everyone she's saving up for, which she would own one day. She wants something she could be proud of, something that would be hers, something that wasn't shared with her older sisters. Her daddy always tells her that one day it will happen and Amelia believes him because she has no reason not to, he gave her two pennies every Saturday without fail, sometimes even giving her more on his good days.

She looks forward to the future that seems so bright at five years old, something about it being a mystery is so exciting to her brain. The pennies were hers, the town would be hers and it was an oddly comforting feeling, nothing like the many hand me downs from Nancy, Lizzie and Kathleen, like the toys or the itchy sweaters.

No one could prepare a five year old or even her twelve year old brother for what they were about to witness. It seemed like a normal day, a normal Saturday but it was way more than that...

The bell on the door goes but neither child looks up because it's usual to them. Usually, the bell goes, a customer walks in, they buy something and they leave.

Except this time that didn't happen.

Two men walk in and walk around the store for several minutes, before approaching Christopher shepherd and silently demanding money.

"give us the money and no one gets hurt." they spoke the nine words with so much ease that the man in front of them almost takes it as some sick joke. However, despite his pride he gives them the money and expects them to leave.

But they didn't move.

With the first gunshot in the air, the two pennies slip from her hand and before she can catch what is hers, they fall to the ground one by one. She just watches as they hit the tiled floor with the quietest of clangs that you wouldn't even notice.

It all happens so slow yet so fast.

Amelia and Derek hear their father's voice, sounding almost like he was pleading with someone. Amelia hears how scared her father suddenly sounds, a similar tone to when her and her siblings almost put themselves in some form of danger that he protects them from.

Christopher Shepherd stands with his hands in the air surrendering to the guys with the gun. He was never a man who begged, he was in fact admittedly known to be proud, to be stubborn and someone who wouldn't be pushed over easily. However, he was also an easygoing guy that no one would be able to find a problem with, he was known throughout the town by quite a few people, so the shepherds definitely had a reputation.

But he was definitely pleading now.

The deep angry voices of the two monsters who would forever haunt Amelia's nightmares, demand things from her protector. This tone unfamiliar to her, as it was never used in the Shepherd household, they were a happy family and always had been - at least until this moment in time.

She wants to help him. She was after all his "mini helper" or at least that's what he called her. She would usually help with putting things back on shelves or sorting out the different pennies into their slots in the cash register. She was a smart five year old and could tell the difference in value of money and the difference between the pennies, nickels, quarters and dimes. She could help him with those things, so why couldn't she help him now?