Katrina smirked as she passed the market stall, swiping a few apples and quickening her pace to escape before the market owner noticed. She heard a short whistle and followed the instruction, heading to a nearby alley. She smiled as her friends came into view.

"Heads!" She yelled as she chucked four of her apples to each member of her little group, keeping one for herself of course.

She smiled at the happy faces she saw around her and thought to herself for what must have been the hundredth time how lucky so was to be able to call these people her family.

"Hey, Cat! Look what Emma and I got!"

Katrina felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see the face of Ella, a bubbly eleven year old, and her sister Emma proudly brandishing some loaves of bread.

"Wicked!" Cat smiled, "Good job."

The twins looked contented and passed on bit of bread to Cat, giving another two pieces to the only boys in her little family. They slid down the wall of the alley way they were currently staying in and chattered nonsense to each other.

"Hey, Alley Cat. Jasper and me are gonna go back to the market for a while ok? Can you hold down the fort?" Tom, the head of their family, asked.

"Yeah sure, just shout if you need us."

"You too." The other boy, Jasper, said, grasping Cat's hand in his own and rubbing his thumb in a soothing circle on it before giving a quick smile. Then they were gone.

"Cat, I'm booored." One of the twins whined.

"Do you want me to find the deck of cards again? You put them by the entrance, right?"

"I think so."

So Cat made her way to the entrance of their alley way and that was when her life turned upside down (quite literally actually).

"Katrina Morrison?" A voice can from further up the alley. Cat froze. "You need to come with us."

Cats eyes widened and she stepped back, hoping that the twins had noticed something was wrong and were on their guard. If she didn't have to look out for them she would have ran off straight away but she couldn't leave the twins behind, she didn't know what this strange redhead wanted yet. So she did the only thing she could...

"TOM! JASPER!"

But it all happened so quickly. Cat made to run back to the twins in an effort to protect them but suddenly another pair of hands had picked her up and put her over their shoulder, she made a small squeak of surprise (which she would deny making if anyone asks) but then she was filled with a sense of panic. If she was taken now then there would be no one to protect Ella and Emma. Cat renewed her struggles, kicking the person holding her, flailing her legs and arms but there was nothing she could do, the bastard was just too strong! She could almost cry with frustration and pure terror, where were the boys? Who were these people and what did they want? But if she couldn't make it out of here, she would make damn well sure her girls did.

"ELLA, EMMA, RUN!"

And she hoped that they did. Then she heard pounding feet and she knew the boys would be here soon, but suddenly that didn't sound like a good thing.

"Jasper, Tom! Wait, don't try to help, you'll get hurt!" She yelled her voice getting sore, but she had one last thing she needed to say.

"Look after them, Tom! Please, look after them!"

And she heard the faint sound of Jasper's voice calling her name before a rough, foul smelling material was put over her mouth, and everything went dark.

Ooh look at me, the stories are just gushing out :D I suppose that's what happens when you don't upload anything in a year. It's quite addicting actually, though I should be studying for a history test right now. Whoops!

~Issy