I opened my eyes to a knife in my face, accompanied by three hand guns behind it. Four men stood before me, my back against a literal wall.

"You thought you could hide yourself, eh? Being a Christian? Ha! You know that was outlawed years ago." growled the man with the knife.

My eyes squinted against the glint of the blade's edge. "What do you plan to do to me?" I asked.

He grinned. "What the law demands: brand you." Then he drew the blade up to my face as he grabbed my jaw. He pressed the blade to my cheek and began to drag the sharp piece across my skin.

In a panic, I struck him square in the mouth and kicked him in the stomach. When the other men advanced on me, I tore at them with my fists, teeth and a single pocket knife I kept on my hip. I was making it just fine until the man with the knife grabbed me by my long brunette hair and yanked me to the floor. e pinned me under him, back to him with my hands behind my back.

"Forget branding you. For fighting back, you and your family shall be executed in four days." He leaned closer and whispered. "And don't bother telling anyone. I have eyes and ears everywhere and if you breathe a word, I'll be sure to make your death even slower than already planned."

My breathing became rapid. I couldn't be hearing this! Die? I knew one day I would, but not as a martyr!

When I returned home later, my mom and dad greeted me at the door as well as my eleven year old sister. Smiles lit their faces and we laughed. But inside, I wanted to scream in terror, knowing that in only days, we were all to die. All because we believed in something that they didn't accept.

The days passed and I watched out the window. I'd been playing with my sister and talking much more with my parents, hurt that I knew their fate and could not warn them. I saw a car roll up to the house and my little sister ran to me.

"Who is that?" she asked.

I wrapped an arm around her face and tucked my head into her shoulder. "Don't look." he whispered.

The door burst open and two men secured my dad who fought back. I was not shocked when they both fell under well aimed sharp blows. But all hope died when I watched another man walk up with mustard gas and spray it in his face. Two more men grabbed my dad, another pair seized my mom after breaking her arms to keep her from fighting as well, and one more man held my sister. I only watched this whole time, tears flooding my eyes.

"So, have you begged your 'God' for salvation?" jeered the man who had brandished the knife days earlier.

I grasped the small diamond cross about my neck; I had decided to wear it on this day as I had known that it would be my last day. Tears blinded me as I felt hot adrenaline shoot through me and I tried to suppress the fear inside me. "I have. And today, you lose. Because I get to go home and be crowned a queen of Heaven!" I declared.

He only shook his head and chuckled. The man drew a pistle from his belt and aimed it at me.

I uttered a painful, choked cry as I heard the gun bang and felt the bullet tear into my body just below my ribs. My muscles tensed and I staggered, falling to the ground with a final adrenaline shake. I looked at my family who stared in horror. My sister was screaming, tears streaming down her cheeks, my mom was writhing trying to get free and my dad had jerked free and had pulled back his hand to punch the man who shot me. But before he struck, a bullet pierced his skull, dropping him limp to the floor. One of the men holding my mom thrust a dagger into her ribs and she too fell limp.

Hearing my heart beating deafeningly in my head made the world hurt. The only one left to kill was my sister. The man holding her threw her to the floor beside me and kicked her in the stomach. She wailed in pain and I tried to pull her away, but I could barely move, let alone breathe. I watched the display until my sister stopped moving, a bloody mess on the floor. My eye lids grew heavy as my killer leaned done to scorn me. I choked on my own blood and soon, the world grew dark. All was still and all was cold.

My eyes opened to a different room and I lay gasping in my bed. A majority of my body was unshelterd from the cold with my sheets laying draped off the bed. I touched my ribs, stomach and throat to be sure I had in fact only dreamed it all. When that was done, I wiped my forehead to feel cold sweet on my wrist. I crept out of my room and looked in the kitchen to see my parents and sister talking while my dad cooked eggs and bacon on the skillet. A sigh escaped me and I walked down the stairs, still feeling like I held the most devastating secret.