A WAR IS COMING.

"Tomas!" Miss Gloire's frightened and shocked voice screams, vibrating through the entire house. " He's going to die! Please, let's take him to the hospital! Oh no!" She wails, " Haven't you done enough already Aleksandr, what more do you want me to lose?" She continues to wail.

My heart race picks up, thundering in my chest like I just run a marathon. I turn around and spot Amy, shaking with her nerves all over the place. I embrace her into my arms and whisper, "shh, it's fine, nothing will happen to us," She nods and hugs me back. I should've let her go while I stayed here and eavesdropped. How many death scenes will she have to witness today? Concurrently, Alexsandr shouts, " Shut up and don't you dare move Gloire!" There is a long pause, and the gut-wrenching, drawn-out moans Tomas makes as he dies echoes in the room, before the cold command comes in, " Strip." Silence follows the command, but soon after, it seems everything is shoved off the table to the floor, crashing all the glass objects in a resounding clatter. The sound reverberates through the room, building an atmosphere of chaos, " Fucking Strip!" 

The screeching noise of the chair against the floor shows she's up on her feet, doing his biding.  He's asking her to strip in front of him and his visitors. The man is cruel and an animal. 

"Please, Alexsandr," Miss Gloire begs,

"Who staged the attack?" He asks, calmly. But I can't help but feel there's a storm building behind that calmly facade. 

"No one did brother, you're so blinded by your rage you think I did that to you, you have so many enemies Aleksandr, calm down and think." His Brother's nasal voice comes in.

He ignores him and continues, " Strip."

There's a sound of clothes shuffling. She's doing it. Why will she allow these men treat her this way? It seems they all have something over her head and are using it to black mail her to do this and things they want. For a second, I begin to feel a tinge of sadness for her. I begin to feel she doesn't deserve this. Amy locks eyes with me, with the shocking expression on her face, she's silently asking me if she's really going to do it. I nod and tears roll down her cheeks. I shake my head. She dares not. We won't be blowing our cover here.

"Mr. Frost, I'll like to walk out of this, it's too much for me to handle! This is against my work ethics. " Mr. Roberts says, displeasure evident in his voice but I can still hear the residue of fear after it. 

Alexsandr cackles, "Go ahead, Mr. Roberts, but before you do, who will you like me to deliver your corps to?"

Amy squeaks and I cover her mouth abruptly. oh god! My heart sinks into my stomach and it's as if time has frozen. We've been caught, ugh shit. She and I hold our breaths like we won't need it anymore. There's a deafening silence as we wait for him to appear at the corner, but he doesn't, he continues his torture on Miss Gloire, " Such a beautiful woman..." He trails off, but his voice comes in again, " What will I do to you, to get you talking Gloire?" He asks, but almost like to himself, " hm, Mr. Robert, please do me the honors of standing by Gloire here for me, will you?"

There are movements and then a pause, " The knife there, use it on her nipple. " 

"No! Aleksandr!" 

"Yes, Gloire... Roberts, a repeat on what you should do will equal a bullet anywhere." 

"I can't do this Mr. Frost, I -can't." 

" Enough of this Aleks!" Zack interrupts seeming like he's had enough of the whole thing. " If you lay a finger on Gloire about something she knows nothing about, I'll get what's yours, right in this house!" 

Amy and I stiffen. He has something that's his in this house? Yes, the whole house is his, but that's not what he means, what does he have here that he cherishes so much. And for minutes he doesn't speak confirming the shocking revelation, meaning he's thinking it through and if he is, this means he actually has something he cherishes in this house so much. 

" You dare not brother, else, I'll put a bullet in Gloire's head, and I know what it'll do to you." He also fires. 

This is fucked up. He's interested in Gloire? Heavens. There're so many secrets in this house, the closer I think I am to uncovering them or having an understanding of what's going on, something else comes up. Amy shudders violently in arms, I've kept my friend here and just traumatized her.  Maybe it's time for us to leave, "Let's go." I whisper and we move silently away. When we get to the kitchen, she hurries to the sink and throws up. I rub her pack and pack her hair, "What's wrong Amy?" 

"I wanna leave Sash, I'm scared we won't be able to survive this place, if we stayed any longer." She burst into tears. I do the usual and comfort her. Amy's not being tough, and it annoys me. I know I should be the one she runs to when she's overwhelmed or needs a shoulder to cry on, but it's a little too much. I move her shoulder and push her till she's staring at me in the eye, " We need to be tough for each other Amy, I'm not saying it's wrong for you to cry, I'm saying, crying only makes you weak and doesn't provide any solutions, so toughen up, you're like my big sis. " I say the last with a teasing tone. 

She gives me a wry smile and nods, " You're right, I'll stop the tears, I'll try, but I'm only 26, don't make me feel too old." She says, sounding almost nasal because she just cried. 

***

The day went by quietly and the dining room was cleared before it was time for lunch at one pm. The whole place, squeaky clean like nothing happened. The guards did that. I take the stairs up to Miss Gloires, room because she called in for some water and orange juice. She didn't come down for dinner, neither did the master, so more food for the staff. I reach her door and knock but I don't hear a response to come in.  I knock again and decide to walk in. I do and immediately feel a cold metal pointed to my head. A gun.  Then a click, she's pulled the trigger.

I try to turn around, but she stops me, " Do not."

Stay calm Sasha, don't move, she is manic and could do anything stupid, relax.

  I try my best to keep a cool and an unfazed demeanor, "What's the meaning of this Miss Gloire?"

She chuckles, "You remind me of my best friend, Lucia, all smart and witty, but she died, because she didn't tell the truth," She says, as if I should take a cue from that.

I still continue, nonchalantly, " What would you want me to do with that piece of personal information Miss Gloire?"

She chuckles again, " Where are the documents, Sasha?"

A wave of heat courses through my body making me want to visit the washroom suddenly. Simultaneously, my heart beats spike up dangerously, I could easily get a cardiac arrest from this. How did she know this? I made sure she was inside her room before I made a move. There's no CCTV camera around the second floor, I checked. Or have I been tricked or overconfident? She's tricking me. " I don't know what you're talking about Miss Gloire."

She stays quiet for a while and then says, tone playful like she's lost her mind, " We'll go through this the hard way, won't we? Fine." 

She picks out her phone and dials a number the person answers on the second ring,

" Search her room, move everything, everything." She speaks. 

Oh, this is not good, and I don't even feel otherwise.