Chapter 1

~~~ SOPHIA WATCHED IN sheer horror as the nineteen-year-old familiar-looking stranger plunged the knife out of her mum's abdomen while she just stood at the bottom of the stairs watching everything. To say she was scared was an understatement. They were just done having dinner-their small family; Her dad, mum, and herself she'd just gone upstairs to her room to get a broken doll that she could show her dad when she heard the sound of glass breaking. Clutching her broken doll, she rushed downstairs only to see her mum being stabbed by an unknown stranger and lying dead on the floor. Her eyes searched for her dad but he was nowhere to be found. Had he been killed too? "You rascal!", Sophia heard her dad's voice before he finally came into view. He gripped the stranger's collar and glared at him. “What did you do to my security team? What did you do to my wife?" "I did what should have been done a long time ago", The killer replied without any hint of remorse in his voice. “And I'm ending this whole bullshit here", The killer took Sophia's father by surprise and stabbed him in the chest and a small gasp left her lips. She watched as her dad's eyes filled with horror and his lips parted when the killer pulled out the knife forcefully and stabbed him again, making him cough blood until he fell with a loud thud on the floor, with life slowly slipping from his eyes. From what Sophia's eight-year-old instincts told her, her dad sounded as if he knew the young man who had just killed him before that day. Sophia's sobs from where she stood caught the attention of the killer and he glared at her with his dark and piercing eyes which were devoid of any emotions. He looked oddly familiar but she couldn't place out where she had ever seen him. Not when the whole light in the house was dimmed. The stranger didn't look away from her and it sent cold shivers down her spine. Was he going to kill her too? "Soph-", She heard his voice as he calmly walked towards her. She was shaking and her lips were quivering. She knew her end had arrived as well but something told her to run. When the murderer extended his gloved arms towards her, she ran back upstairs to her room, unsure if it was even safe for her. She hid in a corner and curled herself in a ball as the image of her mum's dead body on the floor and her dad's horror-stricken eyes flooded through her mind while unstoppable tears streamed down her face. Her parents were gone, and she was still so young, what was she going to do, who was going to take care of her? Sofia hid in the corner between the closet and the wall, unable to stop trembling, her eyes closed tightly, feeling the darkness around her. Her parents collapsed on the floor, the lifeless look, blood all over the floor, the scene brought a huge weight to her young mind, she was so scared. What terrified her even more, however, was that the murderer hadn't left yet. The sound of footsteps coming from the stairs, each step striking fear into Sofia’s young heart. The dark figure of the man—the murderer—loomed closer, his presence growing more menacing with every approaching footfall. He was coming for her! Sophia wanted to get out of her hiding place and lock the door to her room, but she was too scared to move her feet. Tears kept leaving her eyes and wetting her new dress. The footsteps were getting closer and Sophia closed her eyes, feeling like she was going to pass out at any moment. "Snap." The door lock opened. Sophia stared wide-eyed at the man in the doorway, he looked too young for someone who could do such a brutal thing, his icy eyes showed no emotion as he looked coldly at her hiding in the corner. “Please, don’t hurt me. Please,” she pleaded, her voice barely more than a choked whisper. But the man remained silent, his gaze unyielding as he took slow, deliberate steps toward her. In his hand, he still gripped the same weapon that had ended her parents’ lives. "Maybe it’s time for you to wake up from your stupid dreams, Gattina." {"Kitten"} ~~~ "No please-mama-papa-don't go", Sophia whimpered as she clutched onto the sheets with her fists. Her eyes were clenched shut and tighter than they should've been for someone sleeping while beads of sweat trickled down her face. “Please-", "Wake up, Soph", Someone shook her shoulders softly and her eyes flew open immediately. She sat up on her bed and began to search her whole room with fear evident in her eyes as she thought her parent's killer was there in the room with her. She hugged her knees as tears streamed down her face. She was a crying mess and her hair was probably sticking out all over her face. “It’s okay, my dear. It's just a nightmare", Her grandma pulled her into her arms as she rocked her back and forth. "Nana-", She cried and looked up at her grandma with her big doe eyes. “He-he-he isn't coming, right? He won't come near us, right? He won't-he won't kill us the way he he-killed Mama and Papa, right?", "No, my dear", The woman patted her eighteen-year-old granddaughter's back softly. “He won't find us", Sophia clutched onto her grandma tightly as the images flooded her memory. For the past ten years, she spent every single night of her life having nightmares about her parents' mysterious killer and she kept on wondering who he was. The tone in his voice while he spoke to her dad that night made her feel like her parents knew their murderer and maybe he had an unsettled score with them. "Here, have milk", Her grandma brought a glass of warm milk to her lips. Whenever she woke up every night after the nightmares, she always drank warm milk to soothe herself and help her calm down. "Thanks, Nana", Sophia said too. "Would you like to go back to bed?", Her grandma asked. "I'll try today", Sophia whispered as she laid down on her bed and nuzzled herself in her blanket. She knew sleep had eluded her but she couldn't stress her grandma by telling her. "Should I stay in here with you?", Her grandma asked. "Yes, please", she croaked out. With a small smile, Sophia's grandma slid into bed next to her and pulled her in her arms. “Goodnight, dear", the older woman whispered as she stroked Sophia's hair. Sophia closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep but instead, all she saw was the dark and piercing emotionless eyes of that killer staring at her and she hated it. Over the years, Sophia had engraved every single feature of his eyes in her memory because he was someone she wasn't sure she could ever forget. She seemed to remember him more as each day of her life passed by. Who would ever forget the face of the person who made them an orphan? Growing up after experiencing such trauma was hard for Sophia but with her Nana, she was able to scale through some parts, except the nightmares. Her grandma made sure she went to school and at the age of eighteen, she was already a college student so she had to work out her ass by working in a small coffee shop to assist her grandma with a few expenses. She had to sleep; tomorrow being Sunday, she had a full day shift at the coffee shop, she needed rest. She couldn't afford to lose this job. As Sophia planned out the tasks for the next day in her mind, she felt her eyelids grow heavier. And eventually, the young girl drifted off to sleep, blissfully unaware of how profoundly her life would change the following day.