“Mother? Father?” Rebecca called as she walked into her house.

“Rebecca!” Her mother called. “Where on earth have you been?”

Rebecca frowned, confused. “Mother, you know I was going to the meeting.”

Her mother’s eyes looked out of the opened door, and she ran over to close it.

“Is there something wrong-“

“Rebecca!” Her mother snapped. “Those Roman guards have been out searching for Christians, and there are more and more spies roaming about!”

Rebecca thought about the strange man. “I was careful, Mother.”

Her mother sighed. “Rebecca, I’m sure you were but…”

She looked out the half opened window, and ran to close it. This was especially strange because Rebecca had always thought her parents were strong in the faith.

“…but with all this opposition we have decided that we cannot be Christians anymore.”

Rebecca’s eyes widened, but she regained her calm composure. “Yes, mother.” She said stiffly, but she would never give up her faith. None of it made sense, since they had been Christians for so long, and the persecution had almost always gone on. Rebecca looked at her mother wringing her hands and pacing back and forth, waiting for Father. She is keeping something from me.

~~~

 The next day Rebecca woke up. None of her family was up, and she decided that no matter what they did to her, she would keep on going to the meeting for Sabbath. She slipped on her clothes, and she braided hair quickly. Then she silently opened the door, and walked out. She followed her usual route, and made sure to stay hidden as much as possible. After a few turns, she was facing the same house she had last night. She ran to it and knocked slightly. She then drew the fish. The door opened, widened, and closed as Rebecca walked in the house.

“Did anyone follow you?” Olivia immediately asked.

Of course, Rebecca thought. No ‘Shabbat Shalom,’ all she cares about is the Romans.

“No, of course not.” Rebecca snapped. Olivia glared at her, but sat down.

Pastor Andrew walked over to Rebecca. “Shabbat Shalom! Where is your family?”

“Shabbat Shalom, and um…” Rebecca didn’t want to tell him that her family members were not Christians anymore. “They decided not to come… today.”

He smiled, then walked away to greet others. She sighed. It wasn’t a lie. But what should she tell them when they didn’t come the next day? How long until they finally asked her for an explanation? Rebecca bit her lip as she thought about that. She had just sat down when all the sudden a loud knock on the door startled them.

“Open up, in the name of Caesar!”

Everyone seemed to chaotically run about. Rebeca froze, but then she decided to hide somewhere. She ran out the window in the back of the house. Once she jumped down from it, she noticed she wasn’t the only one who had thought of that. There was Olivia, crouched down, looking wildly around. Rebecca motioned for Olivia to remain quiet, and then grabbed her arm and dragged her to an area where there were many jugs. Olivia nodded, it was almost as if they could read each others thoughts. They rearranged the pots and then crouched down among them.

All of the sudden a scream pierced through Rebecca’s heart. She recognized the screamer, Kaila. She jumped up, shattering some of the pots, Olivia tried to stop Rebecca, but Rebecca had already ran to the front of the house and stopped only to see what was going on. There was Kaila, fighting a Roman guard, but to no avail. Rebecca couldn’t help herself as she lunged forward and grabbed the soldier’s sword. She swung it wildly at the guard, making him dodge and let go of Kaila. Kaila ran, but another guard grabbed her before she could move more than two feet. Rebecca turned to try and fight the soldiers, but all of the sudden everything turned black.