The blood bath

Catherine's POV

My family was having dinner like every other day until Mia began to cough.

"What's wrong with you Mia. Are you okay?" I gave her a glass of water to help her clear her throat.

"I'm okay mummy" she smiled and continued with her food. She soon excused herself from the dining and went to the room.

Just then 8 men dressed all dressed in black, well armed and wearing masks flung my door open. I tried to run but they pointed a gun at Arthur, stopping us from making any move.

"Where is your daughter?" One of the men wrapped his hand around my neck and held me at gunpoint 

"What do you want? We will give you anything, just take anything you want and leave us alone" I pleaded with them .

"Shut up and get us your daughter. She is what we need" another one ordered and I began to shiver

I looked at Arthur and he gave me a disapproving look, I'm not sure that the men had noticed the gesture.

"I don't know where she is" I tried to sound as convincing as I could.

"Are you playing some kind of game with us?. You are trying to tell me you don't know where your five year old daughter is" He released his hand from my neck and slapped me almost immediately.

"Don't touch her" Arthur screamed in anger but he was held by 3 other men who had been quiet. They were also armed and I stopped him from talking.

"She has told you that we don't know where our daughter is so take the money and get out of my house" Arthur was being stubborn.

One of the masked men was about to hit me when the one who had held my neck earlier stopped him and said "don't worry we will get to him later for now you all have to go in there and search for that girl. I want her here dead or alive" 

It seemed like he was their boss, I just looked at Arthur as I swallowed a huge chunk of saliva.

Surprisingly they went in there and began their search, the search went on for 3 hours. They came out with many maids and guards, even the chefs and the cleaners but they couldn't find my daughter.

"Where is she?" One angrily hit Arthur on the head with a heavy object.

"I don't know" Arthur was slowly losing consciousness as he talked.

That day was even worse than a nightmare to me.

 They shot Arthur several times in different parts of his body. His skull was brutally damaged and his entire body was burnt beyond recognition.

"Stop please stop" I cried and begged but they never heard any of my pleas.

"Now you stay right where you are or you will suffer the same fate" one instructed as they chopped his body before throwing it into the huge fire they had set up outside. As if that wasn't enough, they caught any worker that was nearby and made them suffer the same fate as well. What amused me the most was when they drained the blood of one of the workers and rubbed it on their skin like some kind of cream.

"Are you ready to tell us where your daughter is or you want this to happen to you?" They began to threaten me but I really didn't have any reply for them because I indeed didn't know where Mia was hiding.

"Please just let me go. I don't know where she is and you have searched the whole house please" I begged them in tears.

I couldn't even look at my husband's lifeless body as they had thrown his ashes into our swimming pool.

Two of the men held me back, there was really no point living. They had killed my husband and my only child was missing.

"What else do you want from me? Just go please go away" I shouted at them in anger mixed with sadness then one of them forced his gun into my mouth.

"Now listen to me. You keep that pretty mouth of yours shut because it won't take us anything to kill you" he had been the one calling all the shots the other 7 had made so far and I was more than convinced he was their leader.

He sat on one of the seats by the pool and brought out his cell phone.

"Hello boss, we can't find the child and the man he is more than dead. The only person alive is the stupid lady that keeps nagging. Should I kill her as well?" He spoke to someone over the phone immediately the line went through.

The phone was on speaker and I could clearly hear what the other person was saying.

"What do you mean you can't find the child? She is five" a male voice shouted from the other end of the phone. It was clear that the voice was masked.

"I'm really sorry sir but it's almost morning and if we continue our search we will get caught by the police" the leader tried to explain and the so called boss seemed to understand.

"Okay, bring the woman to me. I want to keep her as a gift" the boss instructed and they all agreed.

"Wait, where are you taking me?. Let go of me, stop! I said let go" I kept on yelling as they dragged me from the floor to their car.

"Please leave me. I will give you money please just leave me. I have a daughter, I don't know where she is, please she will be left alone. She has no one please leave me" I cried for help but they were adamant. They even went as far as covering my mouth with a tape and tying my hands before they threw me inside the car like an item.

I was left helpless and defenseless. They blind folded me and I couldn't even see a thing but I was sure that wherever it was they were taking me was far. I could feel the car driving and driving for a long while. 

Finally I felt the car coming to a stop when we arrived at a quiet place. The whole place was so quiet you could even hear a pin drop.

Then they yanked the tape from my mouth which allowed me to breathe finally.

"Where I'm I ? Where is this place? Why can't I hear anything?" I continued questioning them but no one gave me any kind of response.

I could hear someone paying them a whopping sum of 300 million dollars. They were paid 300 million dollars to assault my family and I? I kept on asking myself that.

"But boss, the agreement was 500?" I heard the voice of their leader complaining.

"Yes 500, I know that but since you were unable to provide the child I had to remove the extra 200. Now I don't ever want to see your faces, in fact I don't want you in this country for the next five years or so I already have your flight tickets so you can go now" the boss instructed and they all agreed.

Now that the voice wasn't over the phone it sounded a bit familiar but not clearly though.

I could feel two people lifting me with one grabbing both of my legs and the other grabbing both my hands.

I didn't even try to shout or fight back because I knew that at this point I had met my end.

They threw me in some kind of enclosed place. It was cold and it echoed. They took the blindfold off and I couldn't still see, the place was dark and lonely. I just hoped my daughter was okay wherever she was.

She is all I have left and I really don't know if I'm gonna escape this. But come to think of it why would this person want me alive? What was his plan? And why would he pays so much money just to get a hold of my daughter? 300 million isn't just something you can get in a day. Whoever is doing this definitely has a bad intention and doesn't want money.

At Arthur's and Catherine's home

Mia who had managed to use a ladder to climb into the ceiling from the store room was shivering and shaking in fear. Then suddenly the whole palace had become quiet and she had some courage to jump down from the ceiling.

She started to scan the house looking for any signs of her parents but she couldn't find them. She searched her room, their room, guest room or anywhere she could think of. She soon became tired and went outside only to see the lifeless bodies of many individuals who had been working for her parents.

Her breathing increased, she went closer to the pool and found some ashes scattered on the water. The little child was frightened to death and didn't know what to do. She kept on calling to her parents

"Mummy, daddy.. please don't leave me".

A maid quickly called the police.