5. Emily

FIVE

EMILY

Why would anyone want to kill me? I stare into the masked man's white eyes. I always thought I'd been around darkness, but I've never been around darkness like this. The four of them have an aura around them, a fucking dark aura which screams death.

I look at the phone in his hand, then back to him. "I swear you can take it. I didn't see anything," I plead with him, then the one with the knife pushes him out of the way.

Now he scares the shit out of me, he doesn't care for anything, he wants to kill me and leave. I look back at the one with white eyes, the only one willing to hear me out.

"Now you listen to me," the one with red eyes tells me, and I turn to face him. "What is on the phone? I'm going to count to five, and if you don't talk, I promise you'll never talk again." The creepy fucked up computer voice makes my body shiver, I don't think I've seen anything this crazy even in movies, but now I'm living it.

I look at the four of them standing in front of me waiting for me to say something, yet I have no idea what to tell them. I don't know anything.

"I don't even know if I got anything, I was making a video, and I've not even looked to see if I got anything. If it was you I'm sorry and I won't say a word-"

"One," The red eyed one says, and I sit up straight. I'm scared, because I can tell this isn't their first time doing this.

My palms are sweating like crazy, and I begin panting. "I recorded you taking the girl, but I never got to see the video because you hit me and I dropped the phone. So I don't even know if there is anything on there. I don't know what you look like, I don't know the car, I know nothing. Please-"

"Shut up!" the one with red eyes shouts, and I do as I'm told.

It gives me time to get my breath back, as I said all that as fast as I could so he wouldn't kill me.

"Which girl?" The white eyes guy asks me.

I narrow my brows together, what is happening? Are they not the ones who took them?

"I was walking across the park, and these guys were taking two girls and pushing them into the car. I tried to help, but I couldn't." I stop when the four of them walk away from me, and I look around to see if there is anything to help me fight them. I mean they're four big men, I'm half the size of them, I know I can't fight them off.

They look back at me, and continue to talk to each other. Who the fuck did I record, that I'm now worth killing for. I didn't even get a good look at them, that's why I made the video hoping it would have helped me. Maybe even give me answers on my sister, but I've just made more trouble for myself instead.

The men walk back over to me, and the men with red eyes and white eyes both sit on the table, and I move as far back into the sofa as I can, knees brought into my chest tight.

"You might live another day," Red Eyes tell me, and I look over at him. "But you're not going anywhere, me and my friend will stay here with you, while the others will check what's on the phone." Before I can even look up, the other two have gone, and I just sit there while Red Eyes and White Eyes walk back over to the paperwork on the kitchen counter.

"I'm not a bad person."

"We'll be the judge of that," White Eyes look at me, but I'm not sure if he said that or whether it was Red Eyes. You can't see anything on them, they have every inch of their body covered. The only reason I know it's men is because of the way they move, and sit. I've seen enough men to know how they act.

"I'm not. I don't know why anyone would want to kill me," I whisper to myself, because they don't care about my story.

They are killers, psychopaths who enjoy giving pain. Why would they care about my story?

White Eyes walks back over to me, and sits on the table. It's true what people say, you can tell a lot about a person from their eyes, but they cover theirs with contact lenses, so no one can see them. They have made sure no one can ever ID them.

"Why do you have all these articles on missing children?" he asks, I'm surprised he cares.

"Why do you care? You're here to kill me-"

"I asked a question, now answer it," he snaps at me, and I jump a little on the sofa, which makes Red Eyes laugh.

"I'm looking for someone, I've been looking for someone for years. I look every day to see if they're ever been reported dead." My voice is quiet, because it's been four years and I still have nothing. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just want to find them." I look him dead in the eyes, so he can see I'm not who these people think I am.

"Who are you looking for?" White Eyes asks, and I swear if the computer voice wasn't on, it would have sounded like he cares.

"None of your business." I'm not telling them anything, because they could be working for the ones who took my sister, and they want to know what I know. And if he wanted to hurt me he would have done it by now, so for now I'm safe. I hope.

He looks over his shoulder when Red Eyes says something, and he just nods at him. It must be some sort of code word because I have no idea what he said. Red Eyes leaves my apartment, and I'm left with White Eyes who hasn't moved from the table.

"Are your friends coming back?" I ask.

"Yes." One word and the conversation is finished, and he walks away from me, leans on the kitchen counter, his eyes on me.

I see his chest rising and falling fast, while he stares at me, what is he thinking?

To be honest I have a million questions for him. What is your name? Are you friends or family? How many innocent people have you killed? Do you enjoy hurting women? How sick are you? My questions go on and on, but I'm too scared to ask one of them.

"You can ask, if you want to?"

"Ask what?"

He starts laughing, folding his arms over his chest. "I can almost see the questions running through your head, so I'll give you one question, and I will answer honestly. I don't lie, never have." I watch him for a moment, wondering what I should ask him. Something personal, or not.

"Can it be a two-part question?" I ask.

"Depends on what part two is, so be careful which one you ask first, because I might not answer part two." He looks at his phone when it beeps, taps away on it, then puts it back in his pocket, and looks at me.

"Are you a hitman, and do you enjoy killing people?" I lick my lips, and I see the slight movement of his eyes move to my lips, before moving them back to lock eyes with me.

"We're not hitmen, and I do enjoy killing the people I kill." He didn't even hesitate to answer me.

He enjoys killing people, how sick in the head does someone have to be to enjoy killing someone?

"How do you sleep at night?"

He starts laughing, I know I pushed it with the third question.

"Like a fucking baby." He pushes himself off the counter and walks over to the table and picks up my phone. "You might want to call in sick for work." He throws the phone my way.

"I'm off for a few days, but-"

"But nothing, we're paid to kill you, if we don't whoever paid us, will pay someone else. So no matter what you're dead." He cuts me off, and I take in a deep breath in shock because I've done nothing wrong.

Talk about wrong place, wrong fucking time.

I call work telling them I've got a sick bug, and not sure when I'll be bac., I could take a month off, they wouldn't care.

White Eyes starts tapping on his phone again, taking a few glances my way. I take a quick look at my phone, only to see the time; it's four in the morning, when the fuck do these people sleep.

"Can I get some coffee, I need to stay awake, woul-"

"You can go to sleep," he tells me, and I look over at him. Is he crazy, thinking I'd sleep with him in the apartment? "I'm here to kill you, not rape you. I've never raped a woman in my life. And I could have killed you within one minute of walking through the door. You want to sleep, go to sleep." White Eyes walks over to the kitchen again, and reads through the articles again once more.

I watch him for a moment, focused on the papers. He's right, he could have killed me the moment they walked through the door, but something didn't feel right for him. He's the one who stopped them when they weren't ready to listen to me.

"Shouldn't stare, flames can come up anytime and burn you before you even know the fire hits you." He walks away from the counter, towards the sofa and opens my laptop up. I walk off into my bedroom, which I can see is a fucking mess thanks to him.

Knowing I won't be able to get the bed back to normal, I lie on the mattress, and stare at the ceiling. Maybe sleep will hit me, but right now it isn't. I turn towards the door, and see White Eyes on my laptop.

He slowly turns his head to face me, and we just stare at each other for longer than we should be. I've not seen his face or his eyes, yet there is something about him I feel some sort of safety with him. I have no idea what is happening, but as he watches me, I feel my eyes getting heavy.

I didn't sleep much last night, thinking about what mess I've gotten myself into. Then I heard the other three come back, I'm not even sure what time it was, but it's been an hour and I'm tossing and turning on the mattress.

Hearing voices from the living room, I turn around and see the four of them sitting on the sofa. White Eyes, and Blue Eyes don't have their mask on fully, but I still can't see anything. They have their mask on from their head to the bottom of their nose, then a bandana from their bottom lip down to their black t-shirt. White Eyes bring a cigarette to his lips, and now it makes sense why they have their lips on show.

I watch his lips around the cigarette, then I watch them curl into one hell of a sexy smile.

Bringing his mask back down covering his lips, I look up into his eyes, he's been watching me.

"You plan on staying in bed all day, little tiger?" He asks, and I sit up on the mattress. What's with the little tiger comment? "Come on, we have some questions you need to answer."

I get off the mattress, and walk into the living room, and look at the four of them staring at me.

"If it's okay with you, White Eyes, I'd like a shower." I grab my towel and walk off into the bathroom, but before I can shut the door, he's behind me, grabs my arm and pulls me towards him.

"Well, if you want to live another day, get here and answer the questions. Or are you planning on dying today?" He asks, looking down at me, his body pressed against mine. Feeling his heartbeat next to mine.

This man has a heart which beats, smells of beer and weed, and the only thing I can think is, who is under the mask. I bring my hand up to his mask, and he grabs my hand to stop me.

"Don't play with fire, little tiger. Get out." He pulls me out of the bathroom, with my toothbrush in hand, then throws me towards the sofa, and I look at the four of them.

"Emily Davies, parents died in a car accident, and sister is missing. Was your sister in the car?" Black Eyes asks, but I stay quiet, then he throws some papers on the table for me. "But yet there is no record of your parents being buried or cremated, and I can't seem to find a birth certificate for you or your sister."

"What?" I lean forward to look through the papers Black Eyes has thrown on the table for me. Where has all the information gone on my family?

"So, the question is who do you work for?" Red Eyes sits on the table, and I look up at him, his face inches away from mine. "What game are you playing?"

There is nothing about my family but the car crash, then nothing. Nothing about their wedding, even my birth certificate isn't here. What the fuck is this?

"Time to tell your story little tiger. We will either kill you or protect you," White Eyes sits in front of me, and Red Eyes starts laughing.

"The only reason we protect you is because he thinks you're worth protecting. You don't talk I've told him, I'll slit your throat. You have five minutes to think about it." They both walk away, and Red Eyes says something to White Eyes, because White Eyes flips him off.

What the hell am I mean to tell them, my whole history has been wiped clean. No matter what I say to them, they won't believe me.

"Someone took my sister, four years ago my sister was taken, six months later my parents were killed in an accident. All I'm doing is looking for my baby sister. That's all I'm doing," I tell them. I have no idea if they will believe me or not, but there is no reason for me to lie.

They kill me, or the people who sent them will kill me. There is no reason for me to lie.

"The sister who has no paperwork to her name?" Black Eyes asks.

"I don't know...someone did this...I had a family, I had a baby sister, and they took her from me. I tried to fight them, I tried to...you don't have to believe me." I stop as I have no idea what to say to the., I don't know what has happened.

"She's not our problem," the one with blue eyes talks for the first time.

"I agree, this isn't our fight." Red Eyes looks over at me, then turns back around, and pats White Eyes on the back.

"We can't leave her, they will come for her," White Eyes stares at me, I look over his shoulder and Blue Eyes and Red Eyes who are shaking their head at him.

"Go have a shower," Black Eyes tells me, and I don't take a second to think about it, I get up quickly and lock the door behind me.

I need a moment to work out what's happened here. Why would anyone want to erase my family's life?

I step into the shower, and let the water wash everything off me, but I can't help the tears escaping. My family has been turned into nobodies, their whole life has been taken and thrown away. But why?

I spent longer in the shower than I needed to, but I needed the time by myself. When I open the door, the four of them stare at me.

"Do you want us to protect you from whoever paid us to kill you?" Black Eyes asks.

I have to shake my head as I walk past them to my bedroom, and grab my bag, then walk back over to them. "This is all the money I have to my name, I have a feeling I can't afford you." I throw the money at them, and Red Eyes and Blue Eyes start laughing.

"Do you want us to protect you?" Black Eyes asks again.

"Why do they want to kill me? I don't know anything?" I ask. I had to go and help the girls, and now I've put my own life in danger for it.

"We're looking into it," White Eyes tells me.

"I'll be fine, I've gone this long alone." I walk into my bedroom and shut the door behind me.

If someone wants to kill me, the four of them won't be able to protect me, I must work this out alone. Maybe the people trying to kill me are the same people who took my sister, and I could get some answers from them before they kill me.

Either way, no matter what happens, I won't go down without a fight.