CHAPTER 1
"Mama?" I step over the scraps of metal and sheets of shattered glass, "Are you there?Answer me please. I'm begging you, please..."
"She's not here." the policeman says, coming up behind me, "this place was ruined in that fire... She's gone."
"No, she's not. She can't be, I mean, I survived the fire, so she must be alive too right" I'm choking on my tears as I try to hold them back, "She has to be alive still, she can't just be..."
"Amber, your mama is dead." I don't know why this policeman is here. Is he supposed to be comforting me? Because if he is, he's not doing a great job. By this time I'm crying so hard I'm struggling for air.
"Amber, let's go." he says, all calm like this happens a lot. I doubt that. How often is it that you have to accompany a 14 year old girl to the place of her mums death, and then comfort her? I don't reply to him anyway, I want to stay here. It's all peaceful and just by being here I feel like I'm closer to mama.
"Amber," he sighs, all dramatic-like, "I know how you feel." What a lie. I thought police men were honest people?
"No you don't," I go suddenly from depressed to pissed, "You have no idea how I'm feeling or what I'm going through! You, Officer Gracin, come from a good home, am I right?" He looks at his feet, obviously not sure where I am going with this but he whispers, "Yes"
"You have never been in a situation in all you life when you lost both your parents, so no matter how hard you try you will never understand how I feel!" At this point I'm screaming at him. I don't think he likes that very much.
"Listen to me, yeah!" he is holding my wrist, currently cutting off the blood circulation to my hand, "you're going to cut the attitude, actually shut the hell up and you're going to walk with me. I'm taking you to a care home."
"Why you all up in my face?", is what I felt like saying, but instead I said,"no, no you can't take me, you won't take me"
"Oh yeah? And who's going to stop me?" now he really is all up in my face, and his breath stinks like alcohol.
"Me?" I'm unsure of myself now. I resort to kicking and struggling, but this man has a deadly grip, I think he's going to snap my arm! He started dragging me towards the police car but as I am sitting in the back seat of his vehicle all I can think about was the night I lost my mum.
