Excerpt: True Blue

"What do you want?" Abigail managed to find her voice, as she took a step back.

The strange little man did not answer her question. He instead seemed to look beyond Abigail toward the cellar. "How many of your people are hiding back there?"

Abigail didn't answer. She merely swallowed hard and held Martin closer to her side. She could feel him trembling.

"Let me repeat myself." The man kept his distance, but circled around the two orphans. "How many of your people are hiding back there?"

"Why does it matter?" Abigail asked. Something about this man screamed hostile.

"I have been nothing but kind toward you." He said, his voice still held that high and cold edge to it. He smirked and Abigail could barely make out a sharp tooth out of the corner of his mouth. "You invited me in. I am your guest, and as your guest I humbly request that you tell me who is in that cellar!"

Abigail felt a little cry at her side, and looked down to Martin. His face was streaked with tears. "Don't hurt my friends! My friends are down there!" He cried.

The man made a move toward the cellar, and Abigail reached out. "Don't! They are only children!"

In one swift movement, the man pulled a large gun off his back and aimed it for the cellar. "Then they are useless to us." He then pulled back the trigger, and fired.

The next few moments happened in a flash. Abigail screamed and tried to make a run for the small man. Martin crumbled to the ground in shock. And in the next flash of an instant, a pair of arms scooped up both the girl and the boy and everything went black.