ALLEN, Texas — In an Allen, Texas living room, Vyom, 10, and Aarna, 7, are in a tense game of Bananagrams.
But these kids are dealing with something much heavier than the game in front of them.
"Like… what’s gonna happen next?" Aarna asked. "I hope no other shooting is gonna happen next."
Vyom and Aarna live down the street from the Allen Premium Outlets.
Where less than two weeks ago eight people, including three children, were shot to death shopping.
"I had a dream about it the other day," Vyom told WFAA. "In my dream I got shot too and I was really scared about it."
"A gun is very very scary and people can die a lot," Aarna added.
These innocent kids are only two examples of the effect this mass shooting has had on children in North Texas.
Aarna said she just can’t understand why someone would kill anyone.
"It’s like if it’s an ant you don’t squish it, you have to save it. But some people do it," she said.
Both kids are now in counseling, afraid to ride their bikes outside their home and pass the mall on their way to school.
Vyom’s bus drives by it every morning, and when it does, he said he now “strategizes.”
"Like what would I do? If it happened? I was kind of really scared cuz I was like what will I do? Will I hide, will I run, will I take action? And all my friends were talking about it," the 10-year-old said.
Vyom’s counselor suggested he write letters to our legislators.
Aarna’s searched for comfort at the memorial in front of the mall.
"And we put toys for the little kids, because a bunch of kids died at the mall which is very sad and adults too," Aarna said.
"I kind of feel helpless," their mother, Namrata Sharma, told WFAA.
She said it's breaking her heart to watch another mass shooting scare so many kids.
"I'm like, I cannot deny it happened, and I have to talk to them about it but at the same time I wish they didn’t experience it so early in their lives," Sharma said.
"When will our lawmakers start listening to us?" she asked. "This is the reality. By not doing anything we are subjecting our kids to these kinds of emotional issues… and I can say for every parent I know we don’t want to subject our kids to this."