How Great our Joy, part one

Today, Wednesday, and Friday, I am posting three parts of a short story I wrote for Christmas. It’s a very different type of Christmas story, but I hope you enjoy it.

How Great our Joy!

Christmas. A time for family, food, and fun. But what happens when tragedy strikes?

Ginny ran as fast as her small legs could carry her. Why had she left her parents and sister to look at the silver ornaments? She scraped her hands and knees on the ground as the man chasing her landed on top of her with a thud. She tried to scream, but nothing came out.

The man slowly rose and picked her up with him. He covered her mouth with his hand and hissed in her ear. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay quiet or I’ll just kill you now.”

Ginny closed her eyes and breathed a prayer of help and forgiveness, then chomped down on the man’s finger. He instinctively let go of her mouth and dropped her. Ginny screamed and scrambled away, trying to get back to the crowded street. She got to her feet just as he grabbed for her again, but her movement kept her out of his grasp if but for a few seconds.

She almost stopped running when she heard something click, but her brain didn’t register what the click meant until the echo of a gunshot bounced off the brick buildings surrounding her. She fell to the ground again as something hard slammed into her. She felt a brief, sharp pain like fire in her back and then nothing as everything faded and blacked out around her.