Stephanie Johnson:

"I'm home~" I sang out as I stepped into the stale apartment. Carefully, I locked the variety of locks on the door. Technically it's not really my home but whatever. Silence greeted me. Darcy must be taking a nap, there's no reason to worry. The woman was often tired and Luke was probably out doing Luke stuff. It had been a month since I moved in with the siblings and the boy had just started letting me help out with his "job". Let's just say it wasn't exactly legal.

"Come on Steph." Luke grabbed my arm and pulled me through the halls of a giant mansion. "Luke, I'm not so sure about this." My eyes darted around. "Getting arrested for burglary was not something on my to-do list".

"Relax," Luke said with a laugh. "The family is at their summer house and by the time they get back, it'll be too late." We stopped at the master bedroom, pausing as he looked under the bed.

"It is always under the bed," Luke said with a smile, pulling out a safe. He quickly took some tools out of his backpack.

"But-"

"Think of it this way," he turned the dial on the safe, "I am Robin Hood and you're Maid Marian. We steal from the rich and give to the poor, which in this case, would be us." As if on cue, the safe swung open. "And that, ladies and gentlemen is how you open a safe!" His smile was infectious as I felt the corners of my mouth lifting. Luke looked so pleased with himself. Whether it was because he got me to smile or because he opened the safe, I wasn't sure.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a loud knock on the door. I frowned, no one ever visited the apartment. Perhaps it's a salesman? Darcy said they stopped by on occasion, but they usually left after no one responded to their yelling. However, the knocking persisted yet no one called out. Curious, I walked over to the door, not overly concerned. After all, the siblings have stayed hidden this long, why would that suddenly change? Maybe Luke just lost his keys?

The door itself didn't have a peephole, something I complained about often.

"Why bother? No one important knows this place besides the three of us and the landlady."

Opening the door as the security chain allowed, I peeked outside. Expecting to find a smiling Luke, I let my guard slip. Instead, I'm greeted by a strange man in a very familiar uniform.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuckkkkkk. I slam the door in his face and try to relock it, my hands shaking. How did they find us? I darted across the kitchen towards the knife block while the guards attempted to break down the door.

CRACK.

I crouched behind the counter, glancing at the door. Or rather, where the door used to be. A swarm of guards shoved their way into the apartment, weapons ready. In and out, in and out. My heart was pounding in my ears as the footsteps grew closer. Now! Vaulting over the counter I embedded the knife in the nearest guard's neck. A gurgling sound left his throat as he fell to the floor with a thud. I spun around, grabbing the back of the next guard's head, and smashing her head into the counter. Why are there so many of them?

"Steph? What's going on?" Darcy's voice came from her room. Shit.

"Nothing!"

Apparently this small distraction was all that the guards needed as the next thing I knew, my back was on the floor. Panic ran through my veins as I started cursing and screaming, despite knowing that the apartment was largely abandoned aside from the woman who could barely move. I can't go back! I can't go back there.

"Steph?" Darcy's voice was slightly strained.

"Check the other room." A guard gestured to the figure behind him. No!

"No!" A voice echoed my thoughts. It can't be.

"Luke?" The boy came into view, eyes wide.

"I'm so sorry Stephanie, they were going to kill Darcy if I didn't." Sure enough, Luke stood before me, hands shoved into his pockets. The skin around his eye had already begun to swell, and a thin red line dripped down his arm. So that's what happened. He turned back towards the guards, "You promised you would leave us alone!"

"And so we will." Without warning, the guard shot the distraught boy in the leg. He fell, crying in pain.

"LUKE? STEPHANIE?" Darcy's voice cried out in alarm. The woman had entered the room with frightened eyes. "No-"

"Why hello there Ms. Kennedy. It's nice to see you again, Miranda misses you terribly." Funny, I never asked for their last name. Wait, Miranda? Miranda King?

"L-leave us alone!" The woman had grabbed my discarded knife off the floor frantically.

"Aw, that's no fun! Here's a little something to remember us by." The guard gestured to Luke on the floor, unconscious. The rise and fall of his chest indicated that the boy was still alive, though the blood on the floor said not for long. Upon seeing her brother, Darcy sunk to the floor, braids falling into the puddle of blood. With a grin, the guard raised his arm. In his hand was a gun, the one that had just shot Luke.

"NO!" Two other guards latched onto my arms, dragging me away from the scene. Hearing my protest, the woman looked up, right into the barrel of the gun.

BANG!

       BANG!

              BANG!