God Our Protector

This is the very first short story of mine ever to be published when it appeared in the hard copy of The Tarepian Rock two years ago.  Stalin’s purges have always been an object of great fascination to me, especially as one of the lesser-discussed genocides in our world’s history, and even though I was fifteen when I wrote this, all of the issues presented in this fictional story continue to exist (in varying forms) in the world today.

The thunderous pounding on the front door split through the still atmosphere of our apartment as my family sat, huddled and shaking, willing ourselves to disappear.