I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I walked along the sandy street in my small home town in Bahrain. Everything felt right. I had just finished my last year twelve exam and had gotten early entry into Bahrain's top University.
My family and I had only been living here for a year and a half, but it was the longest time we'd ever spent in one place, my parents being missionaries and all that. My sister, Kara, had just graduated from the same University with a degree in criminology and I couldn't wait to follow in her footsteps. We were going to have a celebration tonight.
"For our second daughter on finishing her school education and with flying colours." My mum had said, pulling out a bottle of champagne.
"And for not having to pay any more school fees." My dad had added, with a mischievous grin, looking up from his paper, which had received a hit on the back of the head from my mum and a laugh from Kara and I.
I grinned at the children playing in the street and they waved at me as I passed them and walked through the gate of our house. It was made out of strong, dark, brick and had a long verandah, which wrapped around the perimeter of the house. I bounded up the steps and reached for the door handle, but frowned when I saw the door was slightly ajar.
I pushed it open and it creaked as the dark hallway came into view. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I stepped inside and squinted at the floor ahead of me, where something large lay crumpled on the runner. I hurried forward and then collapsed onto the ground beside my sister, lying dead, with a clean bullet hole right between her eyes.
"Kara. Kara!" I gasped frantically but her body remained still, her eyes wide and starring. I was about to yell out for my mum and dad when I heard shouting from the lounge room. So I reluctantly left my sister and ran down the hallway to the lounge room door. I froze in the doorway as my eyes fell on my parents, crawling away from a couple in dark suits, with guns pointed at them. The couple had a type of eagle logo on the shoulders of their suits and some kind of communications device, attached to their ears. The woman had long dark hair and the man's was short and a mousey brown, but both looked equally threatening with their backs to me.
It was then that I realised, that they weren't alone in the room. There were about twenty, or so men and women, in matching suits, all slumped in one corner. I looked closely at them. They weren't dead, but they didn't look in the greatest shape either. Some had gunshot wounds in their legs and arms, and others looked like they'd gone one-on-one with a monster truck. My attention was quickly turned back to my parents as I saw the woman from the couple put her hand up to her earpiece as if listening to someone on the other end. She then nodded at the man and they aimed their guns, more confidently at me parents. I took a step into the room and my parent's eyes locked onto mine. They looked like they were about to say something when the couple opened fire.
"No!" I screamed and the couple spun around to look at me, with a mixture of surprise and alarm written on their faces. The woman had dark brown eyes, a strong jawline and an impressive physique. The man had kind, but hard, blue eyes and a steely expression.
"What have you done!?" I yelled and pushed past them, dropping down beside my parents' sprawled bodies.
"Mummy? Daddy?" I sobbed and reached out to them, as there was a loud rumbling sound and dust started to fall from the ceiling. I looked up and saw an orange laser cutting a perfect circle in the roof. The chunk of ceiling fell to the floor, crushing the sofa and two armchairs as it went.
I watched as twenty more, men and women, in matching suits came sliding down ropes, that were dropped down into the hole. None of them batted an eyelid at me as they ran over to the pile of, what must had been their comrades, lying in the corner. They helped them to the ropes and where pulled up and out of the room.
" Time to go, Coulson." I heard the woman with dark hair say and the couple stared at me as they were lifted out of the room as well. I crawled over to the hole and my hair blew as I squinted up and saw a large helicopter hovering over the house, with the same eagle symbol painted on the bottom that was printed on the couple's suits. Around the edge of the symbol, were written the words 'Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division'.
And then, the helicopter flew off and soon the only sound was the settling dust and my sobs as I crawled back over to my parents and held them in my arms. After a few minutes a stood up and went back to the hallway, and dragged my sisters body over to where my parents lay. I wrapped my arms around them all at once and sobbed as hundreds of questions flew through my mind. 'Why? Why had my family been killed? What for?', 'Who was that couple?', 'What organisation did they work for?' and 'Why had my family – my honest, kind, missionary family been murdered?'. I held them until it became dark outside and I started to shiver – both from the cold and from the shock. My despair turned into anger and I promised myself that I would find the people who had done this and I vowed to my family that I wouldn't rest until I had avenged them.