Chapter 1 Stolen

Silvery hues glittered across my princess Diana bedspread, giving her green dress an otherworldly colour. Her crown shined in much the same way. Tomorrow was the start of my dream job.

I might simply be a lowly intern at St Patrick's art gallery, but working in an art gallery has been my dream since I was a child. I may not be the next Picasso but I felt at peace only when I was lost in the world of my next creation.

In the last year, getting a job-any job- has been my sole purpose in life. Because that job was my ticket out of this hell hole I was trapped in. Case in point, the aggrieved yelling that just disturbed the quiet of the night. With a heavy sigh, I approached my window and closed the heavy curtains before getting back in bed. Someday soon, I was going to leave this house. I just had to hold on to my sanity before that day came.

The sound of glass smashing was hard to sleep through, especially when it was accompanied by lots of screaming and more items being destroyed. I groaned and debated ignoring them, but that wasn't an option. My first day on the job was tomorrow and I needed to get some decent shut eye if I was to be at my best tomorrow and knowing my parents, this could go on for hours.

Shoving off the duvet irritably, I stomped out of the door and down the short hallway to the living room before making a right that would give me a front view of the kitchen.

Angry words slithered over my body as I stared at the two people who had just been smiling for the camera a few short hours ago. They were still wearing their tux and evening gown, but they were anything but civil and loving towards one another now that the paparazzi was gone.

"You're the biggest mistake of my life." Mrs Braille snarled from her position on the floor. I was unable to see mum except for the tips of her disheveled hair but I could hear the anger and tears in her voice.

My dad replied in a voice damaged by years of smoking almost immediately "Ditto. Why do you think I drink so much eh?" He was a large man, but he didn't come by his girth naturally, the years of drinking and partying having added a lot of flap to his medium weight.

Now he used all that formidable size as a weapon as he towered over his wife. "You drink your life away because you ain't got no brains...."

Whatever my mother wanted to say was lost beneath her loud wails.

They came from nowhere. One second I was deciding how best to interrupt my parents' fight and in the next second, the front door was busted down and six men clad head to toe in black stormed into our house.

As stoic as I was, at that moment, I was betrayed into giving a shout of alarm.

They wasted no time in converging on the three of us and before I could say jack Robinson, both my parents and I had been detained by the men in black.

Two others went deeper into the house and soon a female voice could be heard screaming before the sound was muffled. Anna!

What were they doing to her? There were sounds of scuffling before my younger sister was dragged into the living room and pushed to the floor.

I struggled in the arms of the man holding me captive but he only clamped down harder on my shoulders. I yelped in pain.

"Who are you?!" I yelled frantically, my words tinged with anger and a hint of fear.

Why were these dangerous looking men barging into our house in the middle of the night? Not that it would have made a difference if it was during the day, but this night time attack gave it a more malevolent air.

None of the men in black deigned to answer me. It was as if they never even heard me speak, but the man holding me clasped his gloves hand over my mouth as they concentrated their full attention on one person in the house, my father.

"Vladimir wants you." A thick heavily accented voice rumbled.

While I had never heard the name before and only felt confusion at the man's rasped words, mother went sheet white as dad trembled on the spot.

Really, he was just shaking as a leaf as he stared at the man in black with a face devoid of colour.

"N..no..no. I will pay him. I promise I will. I just need a little more time." Arthur Braille babbled even before any questions or accusations were made. No longer was he the powerful CEO of Braille enterprises, now he was just a scared man about to wet his pants.

"Oh really?" The huge man drawled sardonically. "Why you not tell him?"

"I'll tell him that, as soon as I can. I promise..."

"I do you one better." The man announced omniously, cutting Arthur's words short. "I take you to him. Now." He declared roughly before knocking dad square on his jaw.

Dad crumpled on the floor without so much as a whimper.

Anna and mum screamed their distress at the top of their lungs while my own screams were muffled beneath the steel cage that was paraded as my captor's hand.

Try as I might, I couldn't pry his hands off and he didn't let up even as his hands constricted my airways, making it hard for me to breathe. Soon enough, my vision began to spot because of the lack of oxygen.

Just when I was about to collapse, I saw the men carting father away. I bit down savagely on his hand just as the world turned dark.