I didn’t mean to do it. He told me so.

The blinking lights of police cars where everywhere. Cops questioning people—suspects. A little girl was sitting in an ambulance, a cop was talking to her parents. That girl was staring down at the ground. The cop finished talking to the parents came over to the girl. The mother hugged her while the father stood there, hand on the girl’s shoulder.

The mother started to sob softly. The father sat down next to the girl. The father hugged what was left of his family. From behind the girls back, the two parents gazed met each other. Both couldn’t believe what happened, but it did. The mother pulled away, wiping her tears away, trying to look strong in front of her only living child.

It was time to go, is what she told them. The father took the silent girl’s hand, nodding off to one of the police officers, before they headed to the car. The little girl stopped at the front of the car. She turned to her father, for her mother was already crying quietly in the car.

The child’s eyes were cold. She tightened her grip on the fathers hand. The father looked at her, bending down to her level. He questioned what was wrong. Tears started to drip down the girl’s face. She stared into her father’s eyes. Her gaze serious.

“I didn’t mean to do it. He told me to. I had to’” whispered the girl quietly.

The father sat there quietly, not knowing how to react. But the little girl knew. The shadow was there. Watching. Waiting. For the next time to play.