Claimed By Mr King

Silvery hues glittered across my princess Diana bedspread, giving her green dress an otherworldly colour. Her crown shined in much the same way. Tomorrow was the start of my dream job.

I might simply be a lowly intern at  St Patrick's art gallery, but working in an art gallery has been my dream since I was a child. I may not be the next Picasso but I felt at peace only when I was lost in the world of my next creation.

In the last year, getting a job-any job- has been my sole purpose in life. Because that job was my ticket out of this hell hole I was trapped in. Case in point, the aggrieved yelling that just disturbed the quiet of the night. With a heavy sigh, I approached my window and closed the heavy curtains before getting back in bed. Someday soon, I was going to leave this house. I just had to hold on to my sanity before that day came.

The sound of glass smashing was hard to sleep through, especially when it was accompanied by lots of screaming and more items being destroyed. I groaned and debated ignoring them, but that wasn't an option. My first day on the job was tomorrow and I needed to get some decent shut eye if I was to be at my best tomorrow and knowing my parents, this could go on for hours.

Shoving off the duvet irritably, I stomped out of the door and down the short hallway to the living room before making a right that would give me a front view of the kitchen.

Angry words slithered over my body as I stared at the two people who had just been smiling for the camera a few short hours ago. They were still wearing their tux and evening gown, but they were anything but civil and loving towards one another now that the paparazzi was gone.

"You're the biggest mistake of my life." Mrs Braille snarled from her position on the floor. I was unable to see mum except for the tips of her disheveled hair but I could hear the anger and tears in her voice.

My dad replied in a voice damaged by years of smoking almost immediately "Ditto. Why do you think I drink so much eh?" He was a large man, but he didn't come by his girth naturally, the years of drinking and partying having added a lot of flap to his medium weight.

Now he used all that formidable size as a weapon as he towered over his wife. "You drink your life away because you ain't got no brains...."

Whatever my mother wanted to say was lost beneath her loud wails.

They came from nowhere. One second I was deciding how best to interrupt my parents' fight and in the next second, the front door was busted down and six men clad head to toe in black stormed into our house.

As stoic as I was, at that moment, I was betrayed into giving a shout of alarm.

They wasted no time in converging on the three of us and before I could say jack Robinson, both my parents and I had been detained by the men in black.

Two others went deeper into the house and soon a female voice could be heard screaming before the sound was muffled. Anna!

What were they doing to her? There were sounds of scuffling before my younger sister was dragged into the living room and pushed to the floor.