the day faith saved them

                             The day faith saved them April 8, 2014
                   "Yes, I remember those days. The days when we would run around all day and play carefree in the yard making sand castles and dirt pies, stated Zariah. "Yeah I remember." She was telling the children who sat attentively in Indian style on the floor as if they were waiting for a surprise or a magic show.
Zariah was a thick brown skinned twenty -five yr. old with green eyes and short brown hair. She volunteered at a youth center for abused and lonely kids. She had been there four years, even through her fianc murder and her run in with the local street gang whom had savagely beat her up pretty badly because she encouraged kids to leave gangs. It was five o'clock now at the center and she had to go meet her younger sister for the wedding rehearsal. Her sister was marrying a local wealthy military boy named dashton from Louisiana. The rehearsal was in the basement of the town's oldest church. When she arrived she could see her aunts inside, a few uncles, and her foster parents. She sat for a minute thinking how her parents would be so happy if they were alive to see this. She remembered the last look on her mother's face as she told them everything was going to be okay and that god loved them and she did too. She remembered the gasp of air as she watched her mother struggle to breath from the bullet that had pierced through her stomach and she remembered the look her father had as he was being beaten to death by those awful men. A tear streamed down Zariah face. She wiped her cheeks off and went inside.
"Hey, sis. I been waiting on you; so glad your here, stated Lailah." Lailah was the bride to be. She was a twenty-three yr. old short brown skinned, light brown eyed girl with a smile that made you forget all your worries. "Come, come, your late, she stated." Zariah came in quickly put her stuff down on a near pew and got in line to walk down to the front where she was positioned to stand. Everything was going as it was supposed to. The bridesmaids were standing to the left behind the bride and the groomsmen were standing to the right behind the groom. The family was seated in viewable positions and the wedding planner was standing in front of the bride and groom explaining to them how it will go.
Something was off in the church that night. Zariah couldn't focus. She kept thinking of her fianc and her own wedding in which she had prepared a beautiful song to sing. And oh, how the appetizers were so beautifully laid out on silver trays decorated with blue and yellow. Blue for him and yellow for her. She kept thinking about their excitement and plans to have four maybe five children. She imagined the life they would have had, the love they would have made, and the journey they would have lived. Zariah could feel the tears in her eyes about to run down her cheek. As she started to focus again she saw some men standing behind the door that lead to the robe room.
It was about six o'clock and everybody was consumed in where what goes and who should stand where that they didn't even notice the men had come in carrying ammo and guns. It wasn't until Zariah's uncle jay, her father's brother, who was very quiet looked up from his lap and screamed, "Get down, they have weapons". The entire room got quiet. Lailah who was standing in front of Zariah grabbed her fianc dashtons hand as if to plead with him to stay quiet. Dashton was a tall brown skin guy with hazel eyes and spoke his mind freely. Zariah knew something bad was going to come out of this.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT, THIS IS A PRIVATE GATHERING, AND YOU NEED TO LEAVE, NOW! REPLIED DASHTON."
There was a loud sound, then a gasp like the one Zariah's and Lailah mother made right before she bleed to death. Dashton stumbled back holding his chest. Another loud sound and he hit the floor, and he lay there staring into the ceiling like he could see through it. Lailah was screaming and holding onto dashton. Uncle Jay went up to her to calm her down and he too hit the ground, two gunshot wounds one to the arm and another to the leg. He was moaning in pain, begging them to please don't kill him. One by one the family was falling. From aunts to uncles, to cousins. And then right as the girls thought it was over their foster mother screamed and fell to the floor, and they could hear their foster father calling his wife's name and then a loud sound went off and he lay still beside her. The girls were crunched down in the front row between the first pew and pulpit. They were holding on to each other with their eyes closed and heads down. They could feel the gunmen approaching them, breathing heavy and walking fast. They could see their parents dead on the floor still as statues and hear their last breathe, last word. The tears were running down Lailah face as she softly whispered to her sister," I love you zari; you're the best sister ever." Those same words she whispered those dark nights' years ago. "I love you to lai, and I can't be my best without you, replied Zariah." The room grew silent, and the girls thought the terror was over and that maybe the gunmen had left. Lailah opened her eyes first and then Zariah. Still crunched down they saw everybody they loved once again dead on the floor of what has always been a safe place. They couldn't believe this terror had happened again, they couldn't bel... they paused. For standing in the middle of the floor stood five men with guns and knives staring back at them. Their eyes cold as a winter night, their clothes covered in dirt and blood. They were the type of men who stopped children from sleeping, the type of men who made grown adults cry and pled for their life. They were killers with no conscience, no morals, no ideas of the pain and fear they caused. They were there in the holiest of places to finish what someone started years ago.
Lailah was shaking and breathing heavy, but, Zariah who had seen more pain then ever imagined, was just staring the devils in the face. "I am not afraid of you; I have spent my life running from creatures like you, and I am not afraid anymore; you can't hurt me, she screamed." The gunmen who hadn't said a word during the whole slaughtering, the leader of the group with a curious eye smiled and said," WHY, WHAT MAKES YOU SO BRAVE?" Lailah pulling at her sisters shirt and softly telling her please leave them alone, but, Zariah had already stood up and before Lailah could stop her she firmly stated," because god told me he would always be with me in my darkest times, with him at my side I shall not fear any evil." The gunmen laughed, and started walking towards the girls, they knew that they would kill them any minute so they did the only thing they knew to do. They begin reciting the Lord's Prayer
"Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come...
they could hear the gunmen only inches away from them...
" give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors...
"Stop talking, just stop, shouted a gun men" Lailah and Zariah kept going saying it over and over again. Suddenly Lailah got quiet and Zariah could hear her hit the floor. Her eyes stayed closed and she kept saying the Lord's Prayer until a quick jab from something hard knocked her unconscious on the floor.
It was December, exactly six months later when the girls awoke from there comas. They had been founded by the sheriff and a few volunteers the following morning after the slaughter. About thirty miles from the church the bodies of five men had been found dead in what looked like a bad lightning and thunder storm. Each man was found with their hands crossed on their chest and the words "forgive me father for I have sinned" carved beside them in the hard earth. Zariah and Lailah were asked to identify the gunmen from pictures and they were asked if they knew why the gunmen killed there family. The girls couldn't remember much of that day, but they could remember hearing a voice softly say, "I am here my child." The girls were released and giving the keys to their foster parent's home, who in their will left the girls everything.
Days and weeks went by and before the girls knew it; it was June again. A whole year since there terror, five years since Zariah fianc died and fourteen since their parents went away. Zariah was back at the youth center volunteering in the evenings and teaching in the mornings. Lailah was running the corner book store on weekends and the coffee shop on weekdays. They don't remember much of their past, but little pieces come back every now and then when they get sad and don't know why. Those days they feel alone and sit on their porch singing or reading a scripture. Those are the days they're reminded of the day faith saved them.