Swept Away

Rising Flood

Taking in a deep breath to steady herself Natalie looked up and said with a weary look on her face 'Shall I begin from the start?'. A nod was all the answer she got.

'Me and my brother are originally from Italy, Venice to be correct, where our father ran a small jewellery shop that specialised in necklaces and medallions and our mother, who wasn't from the area though she never said was a part-time seamstress who washed and ironed clothes for people in our city. We all lived happy lives not wanting much but then one day... it happened'.

Ruth could see that the girl was getting visually upset the further she went into the tale so she gave her a tissue saying in a soothing voice 'there-there you don't have to tell us if it makes you upset'. 'No it's fine I'll go on' she straightened herself composing her features back into neutral territory.

'It started a year ago I was 12 and my brother was 9 my father's business was doing really well but then notes appeared on our door warning us about dabbling in things we do not understand.. it was signed Il guidce Corvo "The Raven judge". My father became very nervous and jumpy and told me that there had been isolated murders in the area all in open spaces, places where there were lots of people, the only thing uniting these cases was that a Raven's feathers had been found littering the area around the bodies as if one had been killed but my father told me that this was the killers calling card'.

"Wait" sister Ruth thought her brother is in the orphanages park which doubles as a public park since there are none around "anyone can get access to that and if her family had gotten threats..." her train of thought trailed of "no nothing will happen everything's fine" but deep down in her stomach she got a sinking feeling.

'we began to get others all signed by The Raven judge' Natalie went on jerking Ruth out of her imagination. 'My parents made us stay at home even pulled us out of school. It was having the biggest effect on my mother then 3 nights after the first letter she broke down in front of me crying speaking through her tears and from what I could understand my father had made a deal with a mystery man who gave him the money to start up his shop since he was in massive debt but the for the mans price he said he would collect it when the time came so 2 years later my father had forgotten all about the deal and I was born and the man showed up again.' 'My mother revealed that I was the price and he wanted my father to hand me over right then and there my father refused but the man threatened to take us all one by one for the slight that my father gave by not honouring the deal.'

Natalie was now visibly upset but either the Mother didn't care or notice when she said 'what happened to your parents then?'.

'Well...' She was interrupted by screams outside getting up and running to the source Ruth realised with fear that the sound was coming from the park...