No. No. No. This cannot be happening. This is a dream. A nightmare. I'm pinching myself, and pinching hard. I will wake up and laugh at how absurd this all is.

That didn't happen. Then a thought hit me. Dara and I live in the same neighborhood. That means that those men are in my neighborhood... Are they coming to my house? Probably.

I run into the living room and say,"Let's have a tornado drill. Everyone in the basement! Go go go!" I yell. Mom and my sister get up reluctantly and head downstairs to the tornado shelter.

After about 20 seconds of sitting in the room, my sister asks: "How long do we have to stay down here?"
"Until I say we can come out," I reply.
"I'm out," my sister says, getting up.
"No, you have to stay! We'll leave in a few minutes," I tell her.
"Fine."

As my sister becomes more restless, the doorbell rings.
"No one get that! There is a tornado going on!" I say.
"Honey, I'll go get the door," my mom says.
"If she gets to go, so do I," my sister says.
"No!" I say.

My mom and sister disappear up the stairs. Now I have to fight back. I run into the downstairs bathroom and grab the toilet tank lid.

A scream from my sister. Then silence. The anticipation was too much. It seemed to take years for the men to come to the basement.

The door creaks open... There they are. They point their gun at me. I use the lid to block my neck. They shoot, and it breaks my only tool of self defense. The men prepare to re-shoot.
I somersault, narrowly missing the bullet. I smash my foot into one of the men's, and he drops the gun and holds his foot.

I turn to shoot the other man, but before I had the chance to fire, a bullet was in my neck.