Blood and Snow

Chapter One

It was a cold night, and the air was bitter.

Why she hadn't brought something- like a flashlight- was unknown to her. Belle was a lawyer who was assigned to a very difficult case; the main reason for it being difficult, besides the fact that the man has done so many things illegal (murder, more than others), is that the police have yet to catch him. They don't even know what he looks like.

They don't even know his name.

But they have an idea of where to find him, so she's been told; the S.W.A.T. are planning on infiltrating the place in a week's time. The reason why the S.W.A.T. are involved is because this man is dangerous, and the police have their suspicions that this man leads a group of criminals.

The media calls him the Puppet Master.

'All the more difficult', the Belle thought to herself, 'Not only do I have to defend this man in a court of law, despite all that he's done, but if he really does run a group of criminals like the law suspects, we can't even be sure which crimes were really his! What if he's just the face and the group has been orchestrating everything?'

She sighed deeply, too buried in her thoughts to notice the two figures watching her from only a few meters away. "That be her?" the taller of the two asked, a redhead with one eye wearing a fox mask. The smaller one, with a sky-blue rabbit mask on, looked at the small file in his hands. "Yep," he stated quietly, "That's her."

The tallest snorted, "Too easy."

"I'll say." His companion responded.

As she was walking, Belle was still deep in thought. 'And what if he gets away again? He's done so before, it's happened numerous times!', she pondered, stopping in her tracks. 'Then all of this trouble will be for nothing...' She huffed, seeing her breath in the cold air. 'I should go back to Lillian's office and grab the file, the temperature feels like it's dropping fast-', she turned around just in time to see a baseball bat being swung at her head.

She couldn't register the pain at first, but as she fell to the ground, her head began to ache. She saw two figures with masks on reach down for her as her vision went blurry. The world started spinning, then everything went black.

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[Day One]

Belle could hear before she could see. Her eyes felt heavy, so she left them closed. 'Why does everything hurt?' She asked herself. Then she heard voices.

"Anything?" Asked a deep, grumbling voice.

"Not yet." Answered another, he sounded younger than the first voice. "I think that Flynn hit her too hard with the bat... Maybe she's in a coma?"

"Ye' be a blasted idiot, matey. She be one o' them law-scoundrels, they all have thick skulls. She'll survive."

'Okay', she thought groggily, 'I'm not home, I'm surrounded by at least three unfamiliar people, I'm apparently injured, and these folks don't sound friendly... greeeeeeeeeat.'

"If we shoot her in the foot, she'll wake up." Commented a new voice, he sounded even younger than the second voice (and maybe a bit too cheerful about shooting her foot).

'Make that four voices... God, I feel lightheaded...'

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea Bradley, shoot the hostage before the boss gets anything out of her. Absolutely genius right there, big brain move." Said a female voice, a teenager by the sound of it. 'Five voices?' "For the love of all that is sane, leave BB alone Sierra, it was just a comment!" 'Six?!' "I was just kidding!"