In a far away country, a thick woman with dishevelled hair had just finished making breakfast, she placed two sandwiches aside and chopped up a piece of meat until it was minced. Then she placed the minced meat in a bowl that had the name 'Remi' written on it. After ringing the bell beside the bowl, a pure black cat ran across the small living room before arriving at the cramped kitchen. Around the cat's neck was a name tag written 'Remi' as well. The cat sniffed the food and immediately lost interest, it looked up at the woman and started meowing non stop.
The woman squatted down and reprimanded the cat angrily "I know you don't like it but you have to eat so you don't die!"
But the cat didn't understand and cluelessly continued to meow, making a deep scowl appear on the woman's beautiful face.
Knowing that it was probably still hungry, she placed the bowl of minced meat In front of it but the cat didn't even spare the food a glance.
Upon closer inspection, one could see the rotting signs on the chopped meat and a foul smell emanating from it, it was no wonder the cat didn't dare eat it.
"If you won't eat it, then I'll forcefully feed you!" She said angrily, took the bowl of food and held the cat closely before forcefully shoving the food in its mouth.
The cat struggled fiercely but the woman only became more forceful, the cat struggled some more before managing to free itself after a while.
The woman's arms had deep scratches all over making her bleed but she acted like she couldn't feel the pain.
Looking at the cat spitting out the raw rotten meat with some blood oozing from its mouth, the woman's eyes suddenly became teary, her whole demeanour shifting greatly.
Her tears slid down her cheeks uncontrollably and she patted its head apologetically before hugging it tightly, making the poor cat terrified thinking that the vile woman was going to shove some more bad food down its throat.
"Am sorry Remi...mother is so sorry, this is all we have, we can't risk going outside with them still following us" she said softly as she cried.
The cat struggled out of the bear hug and ran away to hide in terror.
She felt remorseful but she really had no choice, over the past year, she had felt that someone had been following her. She had been cautious at first but since he never did anything for months she let him be, thinking that it might be just a random stalker she could easily deal with. But recently she felt that the number of people following her had increased, making her vigilant. She had to take a lot of twists and turns before she could return to her house without them tailing her, she could handle a few ordinary men but she felt that these people following her were far from ordinary, they actually made her feel threatened which was rare.
When the power in her house suddenly went out 3 days ago, she knew that they had decided to act, she feared going outside would only spell trouble. She couldn't even sleep properly, for the sake of her cat's safety and her own, she stayed inside and survived on the bit of food she had left but with the refrigerator not running most of the food including the meat was starting to go bad.
Suddenly a bang was heard on her door, her demeanour changed again, immediately becoming alert and she unhesitatingly wielded a kitchen knife in each hand as though everything was within her expectations.
The next bang broke the door off its hinges making it fly till it crashed onto the wall right ahead, four stealthily dressed men calmly walked in. Looking at the vigilant woman who was staring at them menacingly, a tall and slender man who looked like the leader of the group looked at her in disdain.
"Astrid, we finally meet in the flesh. Am the cousin you never knew about, but l certainly know every little thing about you" he said with a smirk.
Hearing this, Astrid didn't even show a change in expression, she kept observing them, if they so much as moved a muscle she would slice their throats open without hesitation.
"You don't look like anything special, with the way father talks about you, one would think that you have several heads but you clearly only have one, how peculiar" he said in a relaxed manner and even found a chair to sit on, showing Astrid that he didn't see her as a threat.
"Whatever it is that you want, you should know that l won't go down without a fight!" She said fiercely as she held her two knives even tighter.
"I'm not here to fight, but if you attack I'll naturally retaliate and teach you proper manners like family should" he said coldly.
"Rest assured, am not from that organisation, there's a different one that rivals the one you are from, that's where I come from. Your father probably never told you since he never considered you his daughter in the first place, you are just a high quality guinea pig to him after all" He said mockingly.
Seeing that Astrid's expression turned stiff and her killing intent surged, the slender man felt happy.
"Uncle clearly doesn't care about you, why not come join us? I even killed that man uncle sent to keep tabs on you, aren't l just so kind to you cousin?" He looked at Astrid expectantly as though waiting to be praised.
"How did you find me?" She asked coldly, ignoring everything else he had said.
"Easy, uncle placed a chip in your body when you were just a baby it's natural you don't know about it, all we had to do was follow that man uncle sent after you" he said with a laid back expression.
"Where is it?" She asked with no surprise on her face, she had thought of that possibility but never knew where to look.
"Come back with me and I'll tell you" he said as he stood up, as though confident she wouldn't refuse.
Upon hearing this, Astrid knew the implication of his words was 'if you don't come with us, we will never tell you'.
"An enemy you know is better than the one you don't!" She said as she leapt at him, lunging one knife at his neck and the other aimed at his heart.
The slender man shook his head like a parent disappointed at a child's behaviour, he didn't take out his weapons and just stood there waiting until she was a moment away from fatally injuring him.
"Cousin you misunderstood, I wasn't asking so there was never a choice for you, l just didn't want to resort to violence" he said.
Before the blades could pierce him, he shifted slightly to the side and forcefully knocked the knife from one of her hands before kicking her in the knee making her lose balance and kneel over.
"There's no need to kneel for me, we are family after all" he said playfully while gesturing at the three men to restrain her.
Being defeated in two moves, she realised that she could not fight them nor escape, her demeanour shifted slightly again and she suddenly started laughing crazily, with her messy hair and tear streaks from all the crying previously, she looked like a beautiful mad woman.
"Did she finally snap?" He asked as he looked at her curiously.
"Doesn't matter, my mission wasn't to keep her sanity intact anyway. Mission complete, let's go boys" he said as he walked past her.
Seizing the opportunity, Astrid lunged herself at him and fiercely bit down on his calf making him scream like a little girl.
"AAAAGH!! You bi**h! I'll kill you" He screamed as he kicked her in anger without holding back, making the two people restraining her temporarily release her.
She vomited a mouthful of blood but wasn't bothered as she kept on laughing with blood smeared all over her mouth, it was unknown if the blood was hers or the man she had bitten.
"It doesn't matter if i'm dead, I've already had enough of staying alive, if you grant me the gift of death I'll have to thank you later when we meet in the afterlife" she said with a creepy smile on her bloody lips making her look eerie.
Looking at her unwavering eyes, the slender man knew that she wasn't kidding, she really wasn't scared of death!
With his keen eyes he saw something move at the corner of his eyes, he glanced at the kitchen and noticed a cat coming out of a broken chair.
"Oh, what do we have here?" He said in slight surprise.
Astrid's pupils dilated as she screamed on top of her lungs "NO! RUN REMI RUN!!"
But the cat didn't move, only warily staring at the slender man. Without sparing it a glance, he took out a dagger and threw it across the room, reaching its target perfectly.
"A swift painless death, who in this world is as kind as me?" he said as he felt quite pleased with himself.
Astrid's emotions mixed chaotically, she laughed and cried at the same time making her look both pitiful and crazed.
The slender man walked to the dead cat and pulled off its collar and threw it at Astrid's feet.
"Look at how brainless you are! Everywhere you go, you leave clues behind. Are you trying to announce to the whole world that you have a special connection to someone named Remi?" He reprimanded her, looking very serious for the first time since he arrived.
What he said caught Astrid's attention, she froze before a murderous intent arose from her, making the temperature in the room go down by a few degrees.
"Oh relax, will you. It's your fault we know about her in the first place and if we know about her, there's no doubt Uncle knows about her too. You should've kept your emotions in check if you had planned on keeping her a secret" he said, his tone sounding very annoyed.
Astrid was shocked to the core, her heart suddenly became so unbearably painful that she had to stab her leg to focus on that pain instead. But that wound felt non-existent to her, she could only feel her aching heart, tears flowed down her cheeks uncontrollably in heavy torrents.
'Even when l tried so hard to protect you, in the end l still dragged you into this. I am so...so sorry that you have such a messed up useless mother like me, I've only bought danger into your life. I hope you can forgive me, everything l did was to keep you away from me, so l can protect you. But in the end, I've only endangered you my daughter...Remi.'
She cried bitterly, her spirit shattered and she no longer resisted as she got dragged away, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.