“Daddy, I'm sick of doing this over and over!” The girl protested. The pristine, silkish white dress she donned was exquisitely decorated with gemstones of athemysts and garnets, coupled with a glittery necklace that ended in a diamond almost the size of a dollar coin. However, her sulking face utterly contrasted the grandiose aura her clothing emanated.

“Now, now, my princess, don't be upset. Today is such a glorious occasion!” The man gently clasped April's shoulder and cooed. Lawrence Maysen was the head of the Maysen Law Firm and one of the most powerful and prominent figures in the entire industry in the United States with almost two thousand of the country's best lawyers under his belt and a company revenue of a billion dollars. However, today was a day for him to put off his work to celebrate his daugther's ascension as a lawyer. “I'm so proud of you! Imagine completing law school at fourteen! I'm more than happy to train you to take over the company once I retire!”

Of course, though, her actual graduation ceremony would have to wait until her hair was done first, which she had quickly grew impatient of after the hairdresser had changed her hairstyle several times only for her father to be dissatisfied.

“Daddy, how about Gwen? Is she also getting dressed for this occasion in her room?”

“Ah, uh, we couldn't really find her anywhere around the house...well just focus on yourself first!” Her father replied half-heartedly.

“I can't believe it! You've left her out again!” April was shocked. Immediately, she struggled and pushed the hairdresser aside, then barged past her father out of the room into the hallways.

“I suppose I can't blame her for feeling this way.” Her father sighed. “Victor! April has run off again!”

April kicked her high heeled shoes off and ran across the designer carpet lining the hallway, down the gold plated stairs and through the lobby out of the house. She nimbly made a left cut into the garden, where the rose cavern awaited her. It was simply a variation of plant sculture which had been cut to resemble a cave, but had been coined that by the Maysen sisters because they loved to play there so much when they where younger.

“Gwen, I can't believe it! Don't tell me you're missing out on my graduation ceremony!” April screamed as she approached a lone girl inside, hunched against the bushy walls of the cavern.

“April, Dad didn't want me to be there.” Gwen replied curtly. Although April and Gwen were twins, they had grown up in extremely different ways. Gwen had a more unruly nature and failed to learn the elegant ways of the family while April had picked it up perfectly. Soon enough, her outright refusal to behave cordially had earned her title of the black sheep in the family and the Maysens rarely brought her to social gatherings of any sort out of embarrassment.

“It's not about Daddy, Gwen. It's about me! And come on, I'll talk to Daddy for you. I'm sure he'll understand. Just this once, please?” April said as she clasped her sister's hands. Despite Gwen's notoriety, it did not change the fact that the Maysen sisters had been extremely close and fond of each other since birth. While April's parents had been caught up in their busy schedules and Victor Portez, their butler, was tending to other matters, Gwen was always the only companion she had.

“...Alright. Just this once...” Gwen muttered back.

April was just about to break into a cheer, when a loud, booming sound suddenly came from the direction of the house. Gwen narrowed her eyes, then immediately got to her feet and dashed towards the house without a word, dragging April along by the hand.

“Wh-what was that sound?” April cried in alarm.

“I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this.” Gwen replied ominously.

As they neared the entrance of the house, Gwen unexpectedly halted and April crashed into her from behind, but she easily withstood the impact. Gwen covered Aprils' mouth with her hand to silence the inevitable complaint that would come from her and nodded in the direction of the entrace. Through the doors, April could spot approximately ten men in the lobby. Almost at once, her face turned ghastily pale. The deathly black of the objects they held in their hands was unmistakable. Guns. One of them had raised his in the air, presumably having had fired it.

“Oh Mr Lawrence, why can't you just pretend nothing happened! Yes, it's a such shame you discovered how corrupted your company really was, but that doesn't mean you can't close an eye or two! In fact, we're one of your biggest sponsors! You continute to get the big bucks, we get the services. How more complicated do we have to make this?” One of them demanded as he let out a laugh.

“I don't care how much money my company makes! If it can't mete justice to miscreants like the mafia, then it doesn't even mean a thing at all!” Her father spat back fiercely. “Fuck you all, damnations from hell!”

“Well, my deepest apologies then. This leaves us no choice!” All of the men raised their guns.

“Victor! Take care of April for-” The voice was at once drowned out by the loud sounds of rapid gunfire. Then, there was another female voice. It was shouting her father's name. The first shout was of worriment. The second shout shock. The third shout was completely muffled by tears. Mom! April thought. I have to warn her! Halfway into the fourth shout, however, the sounds of rapid gunfire filled the air and drowned out the voice once again. After that, all was quiet.

There was a bit of laughter- cold hearted laughter. Then, a voice commanded, “Now that we're done with these two, our next target is April Maysen. She's going to cause problems in our hold over the law firm if we don't take her down now. Everyone search the house and shoot on sight!”

“April, we've got to go now or you're going to die!” Gwen immediately tugged at her sister while fighting back her tears. However, April did not move. Instead, she simply collasped and knelt on the ground. Not even a single tear drop was released from her eyes. Her eyes were simply widened and focusless. Her mind was completely blank.

“April!” Gwen shrieked again and tugged even harder, forcing April to get up and follow her. Even as she ran, her legs were completely numb, as though she wasn't there. This...this can't be reality.....No way.....This must be a dream...

Gwen dragged her through the garden to the rose cavern. There was a secret segment in the cavern that nobody knew about except the both of them, and was where they went to whenever they wanted to hide from their parents. Not even the security guards in the house could find them there. Also, for some reason, the mafia managed to get past the them.

“Dammit, we can't find the girl!”

“Ah, you two, go the areas around the house!”

As they scrambled into the rose cavern, Gwen deftly swept away the dead leves at the bottom of the bush walls to reveal a tiny opening which she proceeded to squeeze into. The opening led them to another originally unintended hollow chamber where they were concealed by a thick lining of bushes from all sides. Once both of them were inside, Gwen frantically covered the entrace of the hole with the dead leaves she had swept aside. Outside, the twins could hear the thuds of running footsteps.

Gwen was nearly about to cover the opening when the sounds of footsteps grew louder. From instead the hole, April could see a pair of legs approaching the hole. The hole isn't concealed enough...we'll be discovered...I hope I wake up before from this nightmare before then...I have too.

The pair of legs moved closer and closer to the opening, as Gwen broke into a prayer, willing it to move away. Once just in front of the opening, however, it simply stopped.

“Master April! Master Gwen!” The voice called out and at once, both girls heaved a sigh of relief. Both of them scrambled of out the opening and into the arms of Victor in a brief embrace. “Thank goodness you're safe!”

“I know this is hard for you all,” the butler tried to instruct as warmly as possible, seeing their terrified expressions, “but you two need to escape from here, because the mafia are going to burn the entire place down. There are people guarding the gates right now to ensure we don't escape, so I'm going to create a diversion. Once I get their attention, you two make a run for it.”

April nodded her head, but already knew she did not and could not absorb anything. Accepting the plan would mean she had to, somehow, consider that the situation she was in could actually be reality, and all of her intuition told her it was not.

Solemnly and stealthily, Victor led both girls through the garden towards the gate, where true enough, five more men were having a chat with their backs to the house. Of course, all of them were still clearly armed.

“Just remember,” Victor crouched down once more to embrace them. “Master April, Master Gwen, I love the both of you so much, and you guys have really made my life here worthwhile. I can't say enough how proud I am I serve the Maysens. Master April, I can't begin to describe how talented and beautiful you are, and I do hope you regain your status one day as the princess you should be. Master Gwen, please don't take it hard on the family. Your parents loved you all the same, and they have been extremely remorseful for prizing their reputation over you, just that they never really knew how to express it because you hated them so much. Both of you, know that even after this I'll watch over you until the end! ...April, Gwen, I love you both!”

Chapter 3 up! This chapter concludes the debate. If you liked it please post a review! You can do so anonymously =D