It's Christmas Eve at the Knights home, it wasn't anything fancy, it was moderate, cozy and made anyone who stepped into it feel at home. 8 year old Mia sat on the living room floor playing with her doctors kit, it's always been Mia's dream to become a doctor , it's all she could ever talk about.
Her puppy Ralph ran into the room and jumped on her licking her face causing Mia to giggle uncontrollably. "Oh my God Ralph stop it !!"
Then Ralph jumped off Mia and ran upstairs, "Ralphhhhhh, where are you going come back here!!". Mia ran after Ralph down the hallway leading to her parents room. Mia stopped running when she started hearing muffled voices coming from her parents room. "Angelina I really want to change our lives for the better, I want a better life for you and Mia where we can be very happy and comfortable together, but I'm not sure this is the way to do that". Mia overheard her dad saying "My love you don't need to worry, you just have to believe that everything's going to be alright, the deal's going to go well" Mia's mom assured her dad even though the thought that something wasn't right kept nagging at her at the back of her mind. "Okay love, let's just go downstairs so I can get a taste of your world famous hot cocoa" Mia's dad joked making Mia's mom to laugh. "off course darling, let's go".
Mia immediately ran back downstairs pretending like she wasn't just ease dropping on her parents conversation. When her parents came downstairs and saw that Mia was playing with her toys, Mia's mom went into the kitchen while her dad came up to Mia from behind without Mia knowing and started tickling her causing Mia to giggle uncontrollably. "Dad, stopppppppp" she just couldn't stop laughing. "Who's daddy's little princess?" "Meeeeeee, I'm daddy's little princess" she laughed even more. "That's right and daddy's not gonna let anything happen to his princess".
"Heyyy I thought I was your princess" says Mia's mom. "Nope, you're my Queen" Mia's dad said, causing Angelina to blush, Angelina walked up to her husband Roberto, handed him his cup of hot chocolate and kissed him on the lips.
"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, I'm right here ya know" Mia exclaimed causing both her parents to laugh. "Alright alright, it's time for you to go to bed young lady" Angelina tells Mia. "But mommmm, I'm not feeling sleepy, I still have so much energy" Mia started jumping round the living room. "Seeeeeeeeeeee, so much energy " this caused her parents to just laugh at Mia's silliness. "Alright Princess pack up your toys, it's time to go to bed" Roberto tells Mia. "Fine daddyyy" Mia says pouting. After Mia had finished packing her toys, her parents tucked her in and kissed her goodnight, both whispering how much they love her. "Goodnight mom, goodnight dad" Mia says sleepily. "Goodnight my angel" says her dad. And then her parents quietly closed her door and left.
------------------ LATER AT NIGHT ------------------
Mia woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of shattering glass and
muffled voices. Confused and scared and still feeling a little sleepy Mia tip toes towards her door and opens the door a little, staring into the hallway she couldn't really see anything until a group of huge, scary looking masked men dressed in black carrying guns walked purposefully passed Mia's door with their heavy footsteps echoing around the house causing Mia to immediately hide behind her door, luckily no one noticed her.Suddenly Mia heard loud screams and then she immediately opened her room door slightly and watched in horror as her parents were being dragged forcefully by these strange men. Her father struggles and tries to fight back against the intruders but it's futile and an hopeless attempt to free himself and his wife. Feeling raw fear and helplessness Mia cries with silent tears streaming down her face as she watches helplessly as her parents are being manhandled and dragged towards the living room.She follows them silently and hides under the staircase trying to be as quiet as possible as she watches everything unfold before her.
"Roberto, Roberto, Roberto, the boss isn't happy about your betrayal." One of the scary men spoke up in a very deep voice.
"Please, please I didn't betray anyone, I didn't do anything wrong. Spare me and my family please." Mia's father pleaded
The masked man only chuckles deeply and it wasn't an amused type of chuckle, it was quite daunting and creepy. "Where's the file Roberto?" the scary man asks.
"What file?" the moment Mia's dad asked that question he was immediately hit on the head with the base of the man's gun. Mia gasped silently as she watched her father cry out in pain with blood dripping down his face.
"Don't play with me Roberto I didn't come here for games, now I'm going to ask you again just this once and I expect you to give me the answer I want, Where is the file ?"
"Please I don't have any file with me, I don't know what you're talking about. Spare my family please" immediately a gunshot was heard followed by her father's haunting scream. Mia had to bite her hand to muffle her own scream. "Tsk tsk tsk that wasn't what I asked you Roberto, now for the last time where's the file?" "I don't have it" and just like that Mia's father was shot in his other leg, all that could be heard was his cries of pain. The scary man then shot Mia's mom on both legs followed by a gunshot to her stomach, Angelina then falls to the ground with silent tears streaming down her cheeks. "Angelina!!!!!!!!, no no no no my love look at me baby I'm so so sorry, help her, please help her !!!!!!" Roberto screamed in agony and then he was shot in the head. At this point Mia was weeping, she couldn't do anything, she felt so useless that she couldn't save her parents. She looked from her father's lifeless body laying on the ground to her mother and then she locked her gaze with her mother and her mother silently pleaded with her eyes for Mia to stay hidden, Mia just kept shaking her head with tears running down her cheeks nonstop, the last thing Mia was going to remember about her mother was her mouthing the words "I love you" silently and then her eyes going blank. Mia watched the life leave her mother, her eyes staring into the haunted and lifeless one of her mother.
"Alright boys tear this place apart and get me that file" the scary man ordered and then immediately all the men started destroying Mia's home and she couldn't do anything about it but just watch silently and pray that they don't find her. After about 20 minutes of destruction all the men gathered in the living room again "Boss, we didn't find it" one of the men told the man who looks like the leader. "Fuck!!!!! where the hell did he hide it!!!" the man screamed and kicked Roberto's lifeless body like that was going to give him the answers he wanted. "Boys let's go" the big scary man ordered, Mia watched as all the men began to leave until there was no sign of an intruder anymore.
Once the intruders leave, the house becomes eerily quiet. Mia then crawls out from under the staircase trembling and crying, she stumbles into the living room and is met with her parents lifeless bodies surrounded by blood. The sight causes Mia to completely breakdown as she clings to her mother's lifeless body, begging her to wake up, but she doesn't respond. With her tiny hands completely covered in blood she tries to shake her father back to life but nothing works. Despair and confusion becomes an overwhelming emotion within Mia the moment the fact that she's all alone dawns on her. The sound of sirens in the distance causes Mia to panic and she flees into the night with nothing but her clothes on her back and the picture of her parents lifeless expressions in her mind and with their blood all over her.
All alone on the dark cold streets, Mia barefoot and shivering she hides in an alleyway, clutching her knees tightly to her chest trying to create some form of warmth, she has no idea of where to go or who to trust. The thought of being all alone in the world becomes too much for Mia to process that she begins sobbing uncontrollably. After some moments of her crying she hears the sound of police cars but she refuses to come out and remains hidden, fearing the men who murdered her parents might return to find her. Her stomach growls, Mia then realizes that she hasn't had anything to eat since dinner and with everything that's happened dinner feels like ages ago.
A mix of fear, hunger and hopelessness all creep in all Mia making her feel paralyzed, at that moment she vows to be strong and to survive, clinging to her mother's last words to her "I love you".
The sound of approaching footsteps causes Mia to freeze and then a strange voice speaks up "Well, well, well.... what do we have here?".