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“I happen to like them young.” He chuckled, dragging us both down the stairs. The sinister glint in his eyes told me he wasn’t lying, and it made a sick feeling churn in my stomach.

“Give us the SS code,” another unrecognizable voice said as we neared the foot of the stairs.

“I’ll give you anything you want,” Mother said in a frantic voice. “Please leave us alone.”

My eyes finally took in the sight in front of me.

Three other men were in the living room, wearing all black, similar to the man holding us. They were covered head to toe in the color. The only thing visible were their eyes through their ski masks. And… their hands.

They didn’t bother wearing gloves.

Meaning they weren’t worried about getting caught.

Meaning they weren’t scared.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

“Found this one trying to escape.” The man flung me toward them. Mother’s horrified eyes followed the motion.

I landed with a thud on the ground, my bones rattling at the force. Something sticky and cold started to seep into my palms. The smell was so pungent and metallic that it consumed my senses. It was one I didn’t recognize.

The entire floor was filled with it. I slowly dragged my eyes down to its source, and pain unlike anything swallowed my next breath.

Father lay frozen on the floor on his stomach, his eyes wide open, almost as if he was staring straight through my soul. Eyes that were the same color as mine. Eyes that only hours ago were staring at me with so much pride and love. Eyes that were now dead. There was a gaping hole in the center of his head, with slow streams of blood still leaking out of the wound.

I read enough books to know he was shot, execution style.

He was dead.

Father was dead. They killed him.

“Belle,” Mother cried. I felt her hand grasp my shoulder, but it lasted for only a second, and I could feel her being dragged away from me. Through my peripheral vision, I saw it was the man with a squid tattoo on his little finger.

I slowly lifted a trembling hand to close Father’s eyes.

Rest well, Father. I’m sorry.

“That’s enough.” Two rough palms curled over my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. My wobbly knees stumbled to a stand, almost face-planting on the floor when my right foot caught on a small ankle. My eyes flew to the other person lying right next to Father, with the same pool of blood growing around her small body. Auntie Cyan. She was dead too.

The man holding me cursed under his breath and it sounded funny as he pulled me away from them toward the far end of our living room. Far away from the main door.

“Let me go,” I shouted, fighting against his hold. The fist came so fast that I couldn’t even gasp another breath. It came out of nowhere, and it came with thundering power. My ears buzzed in a low ring before pain exploded in the side of my jaw. It burned, flaming through my skin and deep into my bones.

The pain consumed my senses for an entire minute, rendering me speechless and dizzy. My mother’s screams were too low for me to hear.

I blinked away the dots just as the man lifted me to my feet again, and this time, I went without complaint.

“Keep the brats under control,” boomed the fifth man who had been leaning casually by the window smoking a cigar till now. He wasn’t even wearing a mask, but not much of his face was visible as he kept his eyes trained on the faint flutter of leaves in the otherwise still forest lining our house. The silver light of the full moon, laced with the thick fog, made the trees look more eerie and ominous than usual. “Lylah, you know what’s at stake here. You better hurry,” he continued in a calm tone, but the undertones of it were deadly and nefarious.

“I told you I’ll give you anything you want. Please just don’t do anything to us,” Mother pleaded as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand and rushed to the little office behind the living room that she and Father shared.

The room remained silent as she left, coiled with tension so thick that it felt like it was tearing through my bones. My eyes drifted to Ari. She was still in the grip of the man who hauled us down. Her pale face and terrified eyes made her look frozen in time. The man who spoke funny still had a tight hand on me, but escape was the last thing on my mind. I couldn’t go anywhere without my sisters or my mother. I just couldn’t leave them alone with these men.

I needed to save my fight. We were three against five men.

Five men who knew exactly what they were doing.

The four men in the room didn’t speak a word, but they all had their eyes glued to the man by the window. It was clear he was the one who called the shots here.