CH1
The thin girl of 17 tried to wedge herself deeper into the small dark closet she hid in. She held her breath, closed her eyes and willed her three pursuers outside to leave her alone. Then she pushed harder towards the back wall of the closet.
"go away." She whispered again and again.
"Young master?" A familiar voice called.
Mary opened her eyes in surprise. She had forgotten that her guardian, Gabrielle was coming to drive Mary and her husband to the airport to go their honeymoon.
"Joseph…" Mary whimpered as she put her hands to her mouth smearing blood on her face.
Mary burst out of the closet to try and warn Gabrielle before the men would kill her too.
She saw Gabrielle standing at the end of the hallway.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle!" May shouted as she ran towards her guardian.
Gabrielle dashed down the hall with amazing speed and embraced Mary.
"Young master? What's going on?" Gabrielle asked as she looked at her young charge.
"Joseph is dead" Mary wailed.
All of a sudden, Mary spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. She yelped as Gabrielle tossed her to the side and turned to face the attacker.
Effortlessly, Gabrielle dodged the man's knife, kneed him in the gut and flipped him to the ground.
"Who might you be?" Gabrielle casually asked as she stepped on the man's wrist, easily taking the knife out of his hand.
The man answered in a angry raspy language that Gabrielle didn't recognize, but she understood it's meaning well enough. She stomped on the man's arm again and silenced his scream with a kick to the face.
Gabrielle turned as she heard Mary squeal. Another of the attackers had grabbed Mary from behind.
The man rapidly barked some more of the same foreign language, pointing his knife at Gabrielle then back at Mary's throat.
Gabrielle saw the fear in Mary's eyes fade into something else.
"Mary, don't move, just don't do anything." Gabrielle slowly told her.
"No wait…" Gabrielle didn't finish saying before Mary acted.
A quick back fist into the man's groin freed Mary from the man's grasp.
Mary ran towards her guardian but suddenly she fell and her back felt like it was on fire as the man slashed his knife down.
The man raised his knife again, his head exploded as Gabrielle fired her "Morning Son", a 500 Smith and Wesson Magnum, twice.
"Young Master, are you alright?" Gabrielle asked as she holstered Morning Son.
Mary grimaced but nodded as Gabrielle quickly treated the wound.
"That was very rash of you. The cut isn't too deep but it will scar." Gabrielle admonished her and put her leather jacket around the young girl's shoulders.
"Wait. Wait, there were three." Mary said and suddenly they heard glass breaking in a far room.
"Can you walk?" Gabrielle asked and Mary nodded again, no way she was getting left back.
"Stay behind me." Gabrielle warned although Mary was already clinging to the back of Gabrielle's shirt.
They slowly walked to the room where they heard the noise.
The window was broken and the man escaped.
"He's gone. Let's report this to your parents. They'll know how to handle this." Gabrielle assured Mary.
Unexpectedly, the man who was disarmed previously ran into the room with another knife.
Mary yelped and threw Gabrielle's jacket at him. It draped over his face and he ran blindly as Gabrielle spun around him, stopping with Morning Son raised. Three deafening shots sent the man out the broken window.
Nine months later, Mary gave birth to her first child, Jesus, in a family safe house in Bethlehem.