Different Worlds

TWELVE - OMINIS

Sopie's POV

I woke up perfectly rested, feeling now already familiar body under my head. Sebastian's breathing was calm and even. He was probably still asleep. I couldn't remember how I got here or where I was. But Sebastian was with me so I knew we were safe.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. The room we were in was full of light. It had to be already way past lunch time. I remembered we wanted to get back to the city, and ended up traveling the whole rest of the day and the whole night. Probably got here very early in the morning. That explained why we slept till afternoon.

"Good morning, squirrel," Sebastian mumbled with a hoarse voice, still half asleep.

"Good morning," I smiled, my head was still comfortably resting on his chest.

"What happened? You didn't immediately jump away this time," he chuckled and rubbed his eyes with his free hand, the other was still wrapped around my body, laying loosely on my waist.

"I still can." I started to pull away but his grip tightened.

"Too late," he chuckled again, pulling me closer.

"Shouldn't we get up anyway?" I laughed. Sleepy Sebastian was actually kind of adorable.

"Nah. I already explained everything to Ominis when we arrived. He is probably still out, trying to find out something useful. We can't do anything until he comes back."

"As much as I need a day off I don't think I would enjoy it. Not when I don't know where Alex is and if he is okay," I sighed.

"Soph, there is not much we can do right now but wait. They can be anywhere. We need another clues. Trust me. Ominis knows what he's doing." He finally let me go. We were now both sitting on the bed, looking at each other.

"Do you really believe he will help us?"

"He will. Just a few more hours of waiting. We already slept through a lot of the waiting anyways," Sebastian said with a smirk on his face.

"The bathroom is this way?" I hopped from the bed and headed towards one of the doors which were slightly opened. When I looked back at Sebastian I couldn't not notice that he looked slightly disappointed.

After I exited the bathroom I finally felt like a human again. I had a really lovely bath. Ominis guest bathroom had a nice variation of luxurious soaps and lotions of all sorts. Each bottle smelled better than the previous one and I really had to resist putting it all on me. I sat back on the bed, trying to dry my hair and let Sebastian in the bathroom. He insisted that I wait for him here and I definitely wasn't against it. I wouldn't be comfortable strolling around foreign house anyway.

"Sebastian?" I heard a timid knock on the door.

"He is in the bathroom," I answered and turned on the bed so I was facing the door now.

"Hi, I am Ominis. I know Alex from school." A tall skinny man entered the room, hiding something in his trousers pocket. His eyes were looking directly at me but it seemed more like he was looking through me. They were pale, with a strange white sheen over them. They could look intimidating if he didn't have the biggest and warmest smile on his face.

"Oh. I am so glad I can finally meet you, Ominis. I am Sophie. Alex was always talking so nicely about you. Much nicer than how he talked about Sebastian," I laughed quietly.

"I can imagine," he chuckled, moving deeper in the room. "Hurry up, Nitwit, I have some news," he shouted so Sebastian could hear him even through the closed door. "Did you sleep well?" He asked with a normal voice again. His question seemed to be genuine and not only polite.

"Yes. Thank you for having us by the way. I hope it's not much of a problem," I smiled at him.

"No problem at all. It's nice to have guests sometimes, especially if they are friends."

"Why are you all lovey-dovey with Ominis but were only snarky and nasty when we first talked?" Sebastian was looking at us from the bathroom doorway with an annoyed expression on his face but one of the corners of his mouth was twitching slightly.

"My personal guess is that I am a far more pleasant companion, Sebastian," Ominis gave him an amused smile. "Follow me to the parlour. We have a lot to discuss."

The parlour was as cosy as the rest of the house. It had a large fireplace that was already lit and casting a warm hue to the whole room. There was a big sofa with a few matching chairs next to it and a long coffee table full of food and steaming hot tea. Under it was a massive fluffy carpet. Only after I stepped on it noticed that I forgot to put on my shoes. It was extremely soft.

I sat down on the sofa and Sebastian immediately took a place next to me. Ominis sat opposite of us on one of those chairs.

"Hungry?" He waved his hand towards the coffee table and poured himself a cup of tea. Our stomachs answered instead of us, growling loudly. Sebastian instantly grabbed the plate with some sandwiches and put it closer to me. I happily took one. We didn't eat for a really long time.

"So? What did you find out?" Sebastian asked eagerly, biting into the sandwich.

"Edward Carman. He worked for the Ministry. He was suspended a week ago because of his several unexcused absences. He was married. His wife was, how to say it, from a completely different world than he was," Ominis did a short pause in his narration, looking meaningly at Sebastian. Sebastian let out a quiet knowing sound. I couldn't not notice how Ominis also used the term 'different world'. Sebastian did the same thing when we met. He told me that he and I were from different worlds. Did Ominis mean the same thing?

"His wife died due to mysterious causes in the beginning of this year. They hadn't lived together when it happened for a year. They had one daughter together. She got, ehm sick. I think that was the reason why he took her and left his wife. But it was already late."

"You mean it is incurable?" I looked at him in shock. That was horrible. That little girl had to be like seven, max eight years old. I couldn't imagine what the man felt, having a terminally ill child.

"It is," Ominis confirmed my thoughts.

"And what does Alex have to do with it?"

"He probably thinks that Alex could help her," Sebastian joined us.

"Alex? Why him? He is not a doctor. That man must be crazy."

They both just shrugged their shoulders but I could tell that they exactly knew why but refused to tell me. Fine, another secret. Or maybe still the same one. I didn't know at this point.

"Did you find out where he could take him?" I looked at Ominis hopefully.

"There are a few places actually. It will probably be the best if we split up. It would be more efficient. I took the Ministry and his old house. You two can go and look at his wife's house. As far as I know it is still uninhabited. We should be able to make it before it gets dark."

I wanted to argue that it was hardly fair that Ominis had to check two places and we only had one but Sebastian defeated me. "Sounds good," he nodded and took another sandwich.

"Okay, let's go then," I stood up quickly, deciding to ignore everything I wanted to say.

"Maybe you should put some shoes on first," Ominis chuckled.

"How did you..?" I looked at him incomprehensibly. He just tapped his ears a few times.

"Ten minutes!"