• The small body lay on the floor in front of me, her hair tied back in a simple pony tail. My eyes burned from the constant flow of tears that fell from them. My hair ruffled and frayed at the tips. My hands slipped over my mouth, teeth prying into the skin to prevent cries to escape. The medics worked on the small body, her features calm, calmer than the living could be. She did not move as the giant hands pressed the air out of her lungs, the bag over her mouth was squeezed to force it back in. The heart, such a strong muscle, now forced to push blood through the body by the man.

    "Come on Amy!", I heard my husband call next to me. I turned my eyes towards the heavens, as if expecting some kinda miracle. His hands wrap around m waist. He has been such a comfort in this ordeal. Three and a half hours ago, it was just a normal day, we were taking our daughter to the mall to meet up with his brother and his family. We were going to try and find her a new bike. Something so that, when she was ready, she could ride it without the training wheels and be a 'big girl'. We had found the right one, when we heard Sarah, her aunt, come crying into the store to inform us Amy, who had been with her 15 year old cousin Chris, went missing.

    Now everything has turned upside down, Charlie, my husband Brian's brother, has been 'hurting her, his wife was the one who took her, and her cousin was now an orphan. My daughter, my beautiful baby girl, laying before me, dead and trying to be brought back to life. The monitor beeped, stating the obvious that she was gone.

    "Amy!" my voice screamed, echoing through the mall's lower storage deck. The boxes scattered the room. The contents of the locker she was in scattered around her small 7 year old body. The machine still determining her fate. Death. It seemed to only say one thing. Then, as if god had answered my prayers, my husbands and anyone else who had wanted her daughter to live, she shivered. The small body glimmered in the light as the machine started to have rhythm of a heartbeat. The constant line bouncing now.

    As if for the first time ever, I breathed, as she coughed, it was as if part of myself had come back to life. The thought of loosing her was so terrifying, so horrible I had died when I saw her small body, dead for only moments that felt like eternity. There she was though, breathing. coughing, alive and healthy. What ever emotional damage she had been caused we would help her through it. Turning I cried in my husbands sleeve. He held me. Close. Whispering sweet promises and joy filled my heart