Chapter 1: The debt.

"Mom what's going on?" Iris rubbed her sleepy eyes with the back of her hand. This was three in the morning and her mom had just woken her up with so much haste.

"No time for questions." Her mother looked at her with a sad but alert look. She pointed at the corner, "I've already packed your bags and your sister's. Let's go. " She rushed to the bed opposite Iris. Her two year old was fast asleep.

She picked her up and placed her carefully on her shoulder.

"Mom... Is everything ok?" Iris asked she had worn her leather boots and had a black furry sweater on. Her face was etched with worry. Every ounce of sleep gone.

"Let's go, honey. I'll explain once we leave here." Her mother replied, her voice calm but her eyes stayed alert.

Iris nodded her head once and followed her mom who had already rushed out of the room.

Her heart racing in her chest.

She couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was going to happen.

The cold early morning air bit against her skin.

Her dad just drove their truck out of the warehouse. He honked twice at them and her mom sprinted immediately to where it stood.

Iris followed, her legs feeling numb all of a sudden. Her heart kept racing wildly in her chest. What exactly were her parents running from?

It couldn't be a wild wind or any natural disaster. She followed the weather forecast updates closely. It wasn't that. So what?

"Madame Maurice?" A blonde deaf girl called out, stepping out from the pig's sty.

Iris watched both her parents eyes go wide in panic. She had never seen her father look that way in her life.

The deaf girl was Edyn, one of their helps on the farm.

She was 20 the same age as Iris but was an orphan. Who work full time on their farm.

" I thought you dismissed everyone from work." Iris's father said, his eyes kept darting at the gate and the girl who, kept staring at them in confusion.

"I did." Her mother replied calmly. "Iris, bring her in." She held her sleeping two year old closer to her. "Hurry." She whisper shouted when Iris fumbled with the doors handle. She stepped out finally and grabbed the confused Edyn.

As soon as the door slammed shut, her father started the truck and headed for the already opened gates on full speed.

Her father's phone on the dashboard lit up and began to vibrate.

"Don't pick it." Her mother wanrned him.

When the call went off, he grabbed the phone and pressed the power button at the same time anther call came in and he mistakenly answered.

"Ahhh. Mr Dawson... you're running. How disappointing." The voice came through. Low and slow almost like a purr. "We had a deal." The line went dead.

Iris's blood turned cold. Realization dawned on her. Her parents were involved with gangsters. They were after their life now.

She noticed her father's shoulders tense. His hands on the steering wheel had tightened and the the truck was moving faster now.

They had just reached the road that had boarders where they could cross over to the next country. USA. Texas.

Headlights flashed behind them. Three SUV's where hot on their tail.

Their speed was too much for a such a narrow road.

"Donatelli." Her father gruffed out the name and stepped on the gas.

Iris's breath caught.

She had heard of them. The great philanthropist of their time. They owned hospital's, orphanages funded the little communities and farms.

They had the biggest pediatric surgeon hospital in the whole continent.

What exactly was happening?

She began to gulp down her saliva. Her eyes looking back at the vehicles closing up on them.

"Mommy..."

"Shhh..." Her mom pulled the blanket over her little sister's eyes. "Everything's fine sweetheart. Don't look up okay?" The little girl nodded them closed her eyes.

Edyn who had been quiet the whole time, began panicking when she read the name Donatelli from her bosses mouth.

"I want to go back ." She began shaking her head frantically, her eyes wide and teary. Her voice was hoarse and croaking.

Iris looked between her parents in panick they both didn't look at deaf the girl who was seated at the back.

A bullet cracked the night open.

The back tire exploded. The truck swerved to the right. Iris's head slammed against the glass with a bang.

Her vision blurred. Her ears kept ringing. Everything went underwater and slow.

Someone was shouting.

Her little sister was screaming and crying. Her mother's mouth moved, but Iris couldn't hear her words, just a high-pitched whine in her head.

She blinked hard, trying to focus. Smoke.Fire. Hands shoving her baby sister into her arms. "Run!"

She kicked the door open on instinct. Cold air and the heat from the fire on her skin. She stumbled out, coughing frantically, her little sister screaming in her chest.

Behind her, Edyn was still strapped in. Still shaking her head Tears flowed down her cheeks. "I want to go back. I had no idea..."

The blast from the truck threw Iris backward into the dirt. She coughed and wheezed in pain. She tried to move but her head spun. A shrill whining echoing in her ears. Warm blood trickled from her ears and nose warm on her neck.

Her baby sister was limp and silent now. Her eyes closed but the side of her face gahsed so badly Iris could see her bones.

Iris turned with shaking hands her eyes were now watery. She reached for her. The blanket was still on her but it was now soaked with blood. Smoke in her has settled over her lashes.

"Mommy?" Iris whispered. No answer came.

Slowly dark spots began to cover her vision. Her head began to feel too heavy for her body.

Footsteps crunched on glass behind her. Slow and unhurried.

She didn't look up, she couldn't. The world was coming in and out of her vision.

A tall dark shadow fell over her.

"Don ," one of the men with guns said.

The man crouched in front of her. Snake tattoo at his throat. Eyes like ice seeing right through her. He looked at the baby in her arms. Then at Iris's face, smeared with blood and ashes.

For one second his jaw tightened.Then it was gone.

"Witnesses don't walk away, wounded lamb," he said his voice low and void of emotion. He was stating facts.

"You're coming with me."

Iris tried to fight. Tried to scream. But her body wouldn't move. Her head and Eyes got too heavy each second.

The last thing she felt was his arms under her back. Lifting her like she weighed nothing.

The last thing she heard was him murmuring to his men: "Clean this up. No one finds her."

Then she was swallowed by darkness.