Different Worlds

TEN - FAMILIES

Trigger warning - mention of death.

***

Sophie's POV

Sebastian tried to open the door but it was locked. He sent me to look for the back door but there was none.

"Damn it, of course it won't work," I heard him curse silently as I walked back to him.

"What didn't work?" I asked even though I didn't expect him to answer me. So I just gave him a wicked-like smile as he stood in front of the lock door. "I think I have a solution."

He looked at me with a raised brow. I started searching the ground around us, luckily quickly found just what I needed. I picked up a relatively big stone and threw it towards the window. The glass immediately shutter to pieces. Sebastian let out an amused chuckle and just watched me quietly as I put of my scarf and wrapped it around my hand so I didn't cut myself on the rest of the glass. I tried to carefully put my hand through the hole in the window and opened it from the inside.

"When did you learn that?" Sebastian finally spoke again, his voice full of admiration.

"Let the girl also have some little secrets," I winked at him and climbed to the house through the window.

The inside of the house was quite dark even though it was the middle of the day still. It was also really cold. Not only because of the temperature but the whole aura of the space felt just dark and cold. Like there was nobody actually living here. No photos, no plants, no pictures. Nothing.

There were three doors leading away from the main living area. One of them leading to the bathroom and the other to the bedroom. There was nothing special about both of the rooms. Just the same gloomy atmosphere as in the rest of the house. We looked through all the rooms thoroughly but there was nothing suspicious.  And no hint of Alex.

I entered the last room while Sebastian was finishing with the bedroom. When I opened the door I stayed shocked. The walls were painted in a soft pink colour and the floor was covered in a fluffy cream rug. There were toys everywhere and a kids bed in the corner. On the bedside table was the only photograph we could find in the whole house.

"Sebastian!" I called him as I grabbed the picture to look at it closer.

"Did you find something?" He burst into the room like an avalanche.

"The picture is moving!" I showed him the photo. He quickly took a few steps towards me and grabbed it. "How is it moving?"

"That must be Carman," he ignored my question completely. "And I guess this is his daughter," he pointed at the little girl who was sitting on his lap, she couldn't be older than seven.

I looked at the picture again, trying to ignore the fact that the people on it were actually moving. It looked like the photograph captured the whole moment it was taken. The man grabbed the little girl and sat her on his lap gently and pointed at the camera as he was saying 'smile'. But the girl didn't smile. She looked sad the whole time.

"And this is her room," I remarked. "But where is she?"

"I don't know," Sebastian put the picture back at the bedside table and looked around the room.

"Something doesn't sit right with me. Carman evidently doesn't really care how he is living but he cares deeply about his daughter. But what does Alex have to do with it?" I was thinking aloud while walking around the room. There was a little working desk at the opposite side with crayons and a few drawings. I knew it was kind of rude but I couldn't help myself but scrolled through them.

There was one depicting a little girl with a big black cloud coming from her chest, on the other there was the same girl with some woman who looked quite scary looming over her. All of them were really sad or depressing.