CHAPTER ONE

It had been a hectic day for Swan. That day had been the busiest day of work since she started last early summer. However, she still smiled through and managed through it's hecticness due to two reasons: her brother had always told her to always keep her smile as it would make customers tip and today was her brother's birthday.

Once the sun sets and Swan is set to conclude her shift for the day, she beamed happily. As she threw her things into her black tote bag, Mrs Brown, her boss and the owner of the bakery, stepped into view. 

Mrs Brown was short, about 5'3", her stature petite and thick and her face peppered with wrinkles. 

"You are leaving so soon?"

Mrs Brown asked, smiling at Swan as she gathered her things into her bag in a hurry.

Swan giggles and nods.

"You are not even going to stay behind a little longer?" Mrs Brown teased.

"My brother is waiting." Swan said, throwing the last item into her bag and jerking onto her feet. She hovers above Mrs Brown by a little fit.

"Take this." Mrs Brown provides a small white box, extending it to Swan.

Swan accepts the box and proceeds to open it. When she saw its content, her lips flew apart.

"You don't have to do this, Mrs Brown!" She protested, trying to shove the box that contained a fruit cake back into Mrs Brown's grip. 

"I own a bakery, Swan. It'd be ridiculous if my own employee cannot afford to get a cake for the birthday of her sibling and I don't do anything. Just take it."

"Thank you, Mrs Brown." Swan places the box gently on the bench and reached out to hug Mrs Brown. 

"Come on. You should leave. Don't keep your brother waiting."

Swan nodded in agreement, withdraw from Mrs Brown's hug and grabbed the box of cake to dash outside.

The last thing she heard before stepping into the chilly night was Mrs Brown's "Stay safe out there, sweetie!"

~

Her neighbourhood still glittered with it street lights. It had always been scanty but, it was extra scanty that night. Swan wondered if she had been too late. After all, her taxi had arrived a little over an hour late. What if her brother had gone to sleep and she misses the chance to wish him? Swan hastened her steps towards her apartment complex building.

She released a relieved sigh once she realizes no one was home. She quickly dumped her tote bag on the four-seater couch and prepared the center table with her brother's cake.

As she was lighting the last candle, she heard someone scrambling to open the door, the keys jiggling in their hand. The key fell from the person's manhandling and the person rushed to pick it up.

None of this didn't seem abnormal to Swan as she stood by the door, the cake in her hand, awaiting the person, who she is assured is her brother, to step in.

The door burst open and her brother flew in, banging the door a little too harshly behind him.

He collapsed onto their couch, breathing heavily. Even with this, Swan didn't notice anything strange and carried on with singing for him.

However, as she sank on the couch beside him and put the candles on the cake to his lips for a blow, she noticed beads of sweats rushing down his features and immediately frowned.

"Why are you sweating? Were you running?"

He nodded as he finally steadied his breathing. 

"Why? Was anyone pursuing you?"

"Prescot and I were playing hide and seek."

Her brother provided in a breath and stupidly, Swan nodded, immediately falling for his dumb lie.

"That's cool. Call me when you want to play next time. I miss playing it. So, where is he?"

"He is still searching for me." 

"What! You left him in the cold and came home?" Swan shrieked.

"No, no. I'm sure he'd find his way home once he doesn't find me."

 Swan bites down on her lips. 

"You thought me how to be nice to people," she starts, "you should practice what you preach."

"Okay." Her brother says, smiling at how adorable she was. 

Just as he blows a breeze to kill the candles and Swan reach out for her first gift to unbox, there is a violent bang on the door.

They both stayed put and looked over at the door as it came the second time, more violently.

"W-who is that?" Swan whispered to her brother.

"It must be Prescot. Maybe he figured out where I went to hide."

"But, he—"

Another bang came but, this time, it was a bat that was banged on the door. The metal of the door would definitely get dented by the impact.

"Landon, I know you are in there. You don't open this shit up in the next ten seconds, I bring it down and put a bullet through that thick skull of yours the minute I walk in."

Someone with a gruff tone barked the threat from the other side.

Landon gets onto his feet, trembling and peeped through the window to get a glimpse of the door entrance. His eyes widened when he saw about seven of them hovering over the entrance. And, his breathing hitched when he saw him taking a peaceful smoke in a corner, resting calmly behind the railings.

Landon returns to where Swan is seated frozen and takes her hand into his palm.

"Listen to me, the hide and seek with Prescot has gotten a little intense. You go and hide and I would let him find me. But, no matter what he does to me, do not come out. Don't you dare step out. If you do, he might kill me."

Swan gasped, water gathering in her eyes.

"You understand me?"

Swan nods. Landon leads Swan into their bedroom and shoves her underneath the bed. He crouched low to examine her position and confirm that she would never be found even if the men stepped into the bedroom.

"Swan, promise me you won't step out no matter what happens?"

Water now spilled uncontrollable down Swan's face as if she sensed the impending danger.

"I promise." Her voice cracked. "Please, don't die." Swan quickly lets out, fear coating her tone.

"I will try and return in one piece. Pray Prescot doesn't get too pissed I left him out in the cold."

"Landon, I'm breaking down this door at the count of five!" 

Another threat hollered through the apartment. 

Landon gets onto his feet and stepped into the living room. However, he didn't lock the bedroom's door.

Swan couldn't see anything. She closed her eyes, praying a silent prayer as she heard Landon unlock the door and the sound of flesh pounding on flesh.

She knew her brother was a little skilled in martial arts but, something in her just tells her her brother was the one being dealt with.

She heard a body crashing into the glass center table and breaking it in the process. Her eyes flew open and that was when she saw him pressed into the wall before her.

Her brother had his features covered in blood and his front teeth was already off.

How could they beat up someone so brutally?

A figure crouched before him and grabbed his neck, squeezing hard until she saw her brother's vein in his forehead popping as she struggled for breath.

Another tear slid down Swan's face.

"I told you if I come down here by myself, it'd be bloody."

The man that strangled Swan's brother, spoke in a gruff, intimidating tone, his back to Swan's view. His suit, a navy blue color, flashed in her view. And, though, she didn't know much about fashion, she knew it looked so expensive.

Who were these men and why are they bothering her brother?

The man finally released his grip around Landon's neck, watching him desperately catch his breath. 

"Now, each time I demand for my money and my demand is met with silence or a worthless response, you'd be losing a bone."

The man said and grabbed Landon's wrist.

"Where did you hide my 100 million dollars?"

100 million dollars? Swan's eyes widened. Landon stole a hundred million dollars.

When Landon says nothing in response, the man takes his pinky finger and bends it until his bone cracked. Landon let out a loud shriek, watching his now-crooked pinky finger with a terrified gaze.

"Are you working for the Russian Mafia?" The man asked again and Swan prays Landon has a response this time so she doesn't have to hear his terrified shriek again. But, she forgot Landon is just as stubborn as her elder sister, Melody.

The man takes his middle finger and bends it till his bone broke. Landon lets out another shriek. 

"Did Fisher send you?" The man asked and as expected, he is met with another silence. He broke another finger. And, it went on until he broke all fingers on his right arm. And with every scream her brother had let out, Swan clutched her fist tightly, hoping she could drown out the noise with something else.

The man finally scoots up, hovering over a messy Landon. 

Swan was relieved thinking he was already leaving so she could take her brother to the hospital. But, the man shrugs off his suit and grabs her brother by his hair, hurling him to his feet.

Then, he dragged him along with him and out of her sight. 

She couldn't see what the man was doing to him but once she heard something banging hard onto the glass of the center table, she could pick it up.

The sound of her brother's head banging onto the glass table several times had her trembling and she releases a tiny shriek when she saw blood spill onto the floor.

Sweats coats her features, her hands trembling and her lips quivering.

The man doesn't stop. He kept banging her brother's head against the ceramic repeatedly, spilling blood all over their floor and wall. 

He suddenly stopped and flung Landon's body by the bedroom entrance before her.

Breath knocked out of Swan when she realizes her brother had lost consciousness. His face was covered with blood that she could hardly notice his eyes and his nose. The crooked fingers of his right arm spread around him.

Swan lets tears roll down her face as she watched her brother unconscious body.

"Come on, Alessandro. We have to leave for the meeting."

A voice said.

Alessandro? The man that had beaten her brother to stupor?

There is dead silence for a moment and Swan had almost assumed they had all left. However, Swan sees a leg stopping before the entrance of the bedroom, right beside Landon. She swallowed, praying it was his body they wanted to grab. 

When the leg climbed over Landon's body and made it into the room, Swan held her breath.

The leg wore an expensive boot and Swan could tell it was the man that had beaten her brother. Alessandro, they say?

The leg stopped right before the bed and suddenly began scooting down until Swan could see his back in clear HD to her.

Then, he slowly turned around and held her gaze under the bed.

A Horrific Birthday Night