THE KILLER'S POINT OF VIEW

One Year Before

  The night was as still as any other at the Mallory Mansion, that housed one of the richest men in the city. A light breeze was blowing after every few minutes. The trees were slightly swaying along with it. The moon was covered by dark clouds, leaving the mansion in total darkness.

  But that night was not an ordinary one.

  Four figures jumped over the front gate showing no effort in it at all. They quietly snuck to the front door and broke into the house without alerting anyone. They were covered from head to toe in black,  with a mysterious air about them. They looked around and took in the surroundings in awe. It was one of the few places having so many expensive things piled up together.

 'Hey Jackie how about we take that painting. Looks rather expensive, don't it?'whispered one.
 
'Everything is expensive in here if you haven't noticed. And that isn't the job we were assigned. Just stick to the plan Tom,'said the one called Jackie and turned to Tess,'have you found it yet?'

  "No, but it has to be somewhere in this room,"she said looking around, turning things over. There seemed to be a lot of possible hiding places.

  And then suddenly,"I think I found it !"she exclaimed and without making much noise she opened a fake book and inside was the most beautiful diamond they had ever seen. They all looked at the jewel in awe.

  "Wow! It's even more beautiful than I thought it would be. I mean just wow! " said Ethan who didn't say a word this entire time.

  "Okay then, let's move. We're done for the day." 

  They put everything back into place and removed any clues that they may have been there. They did everything with great care. The house was still quiet.

  But then suddenly the silence was broken with a loud shout.
  "Don't you thieves dare take a step forward, or I'll shoot."

  Mr. Mallory was standing at the top of the stairs with a shotgun aiming at the intruders. Everything went still again, but only for a couple of minutes.

  "I don't think you're gonna kill any of us," said Jackie with a smirk and continued,"If you just let us take what we want and never speak of it again we will leave this house and let you and your stupid rich family live." Jackie, being born in a poor family, didn't like the rich and hated being in their mere presence. His idea of a rich person wasn't very pretty.

  Mallory held the gun tighter but never took his eyes off the group who didn't look a bit frightened at the shotgun pointed at them. "I h-have the advantage here. Y-you can't talk to me l-like that in-in my house."

  "Wrong answer sucker! " shouted Tess as she somersaulted up the staircase, snatched the gun out of the old man's hand and used it to push him backwards making him fall hard on his backside. Ethan ran up the stairs in one swift motion and twisted the old man's neck and he was dead.

  Hearing all the commotion outside the room Mrs. Mallory came out of her room and the moment she noticed the scene she yelled at the top of her lungs. The sound was loud enough to wake up the entire household. Both of her sons and daughter came rushing to her side, only to find her dead beside her husband. Ethan had killed her with one strike to the stomach. In moments the rest of the family were dead.

  "It shouldn't have come to this," said Tom in a bitter voice.

  "We have to do what we have to do, you know," says Jackie, more to himself than the others around.

  "But how did he know we were here? " asked Tess, to no one in particular.

  "Hmm... Let's search the house," said Ethan. They all separated and went in different directions.

  "Hey guys! There are kids in here," shouted Tom from a bedroom on the third floor. "Four of them."

  "Bring them down here," yelled Jackie, who had just finished inspecting the ground floor.

  "Please let us go," cried one of children as Tom dragged them down the stairs. They all huddled together wailing loudly on seeing their parents dead.

  "Be quiet," shouted Tess when she entered the room.

Addressing Tom and Jackie, she said,"Ethan has found camera footage of everything we did. It seems like they have hidden cameras around the whole place that escaped our notice. We're gonna have to burn this place down and make it look like a disaster."

  "Right. Let's loot the place first, no reason to let all that money go to waste. Tom, get to work," ordered Jackie.

  "Yes sir," he said, with a little salute and went to do his job. As he left the room Ethan entered. Jackie gave him a sign pointing at the children. "No way. I'm not doing it. Not kids," he whispered to him. On hearing this the children cried even louder.

  Jackie and Ethan had an argument about killing the children and finally Ethan said quietly,"Fine, I'll kill them. But it's gonna be quick." He took Jackie's gun and shot all four square through the forehead. It was quick, just as he had said, not giving them time so much even to realise that they would be dead the next moment. He had never before even hurt a child let alone kill one. This was a memory that haunted him forever.

  Tom returned with a huge bag, slung over his shoulder, carrying all the things they had seen when they had first entered the mansion and said,"Hey guys, I'm done."

  "Okay then let's set the fire and leave,"said Jackie in a tired voice. The day's events were quite not what he had expected them to be. He was a person who preferred the easy way to do things rather then the difficult and tiring one.

  They left the burner of the gas on in the kitchen and let the fire spread, making it look like a natural fire. They left the house, as it engulfed in flames. The crackle of the fire was the only thing that could be heard on that silent night. The four criminals made their way out without a single sound, just the way they came in.

  The bodies of the residents were burnt terribly that night. It was an incident that created a lasting fear in the hearts of people who heard about it.