My Mother's Room

EXCERPT:

"Why do you think your name is Hope?" She turns to look me in the eye, "Because you are hope."

"I'm not hope," I say. I look into my reflection. I look frazzled, scared, and weak. I barely look like a human. Let alone a queen;

or hope.

I try hard not to make eye contact with Shana. I know if I do I'll see the admiration in her eyes. The same adoration in my dream- when people looked at my mother.

Although I try so hard to avoid the contact, as Shana locks her eyes to mine and states the bitter truth, the weight on my shoulders multiplies and grows.

"Your hope to everyone who needs it," she says, and somehow I can believe every word.

******

Hopes whole life changes when she hears the sound of a gunshot going off in the room below hers- her mother's room.

Left with only a mysterious wooden chest, her mother's will, a strange black device, and the urge to find out what happened to her mother, Hope learns her mother is the queen of a kingdom far in the future, and Hope is the heir to the throne.

Thrusted into this new world, Hope is expected to save her people from a time of war. She is now the fulfiller of a prophecy and the only one who can defeat this evil trying to overtake her kingdom.

Aside from all that, Hope learns that not only does she have the weight of the future on her shoulders, but there is much more meaning behind her name than she thought. Hope is the living, breathing symbol of her namesake and there's not much she can do about it.

Though it seems nothing is working out for her, Hope finds herself slowly gaining the confidence she needs to save her kingdom, even if she must go through a lot to finally get there.