Forever lost

9

December 23th

A small ray of sunlight seeps through the curtains, pointing directly at Lilly's eyes, causing the young girl to shift in her sheets, pulling her out of the land of dreams.

The first thing Lilly notices is the plush mattress sinking beneath her, accompanied by the softest sheets ever created; the bed feels like a cloud, a gentle but heavy duvet covers her, she had never experienced anything like it before. At the orphanage, they only had old blankets, some even with holes.

Slowly, Lilly lifts her gaze from her sheets and finds wonder. The room seems dreamlike, the walls painted in a white hue and the doors made of sturdy wood. Lilly can count a total of three; why would there be three doors in a room? Two of them are in front of her bed, and the remaining one is on the left side of it. To her right, a large window captures the attention of the young princess, who wastes no time in getting out of bed to look through it.

The views are marvelous, a huge garden stretches along meters and meters, and when it ends, a large forest appears, all covered by a thin layer of snow, white snow, not gray snow like in New York.

"Enjoying the views?" a voice suddenly appears.

Lilly can't suppress a scream and quickly turns around, only to find herself face to face with her brother Apollo, who grimaces, clearly provoked by his little sister's squeal.

"You scared me," she says upon seeing her brother's expression, afraid he might get angry.

"Well, I'm sorry, you stepped on my hand when you got up and woke me up," he replies, lifting his hand dramatically.

It's then that Lilly notices the sleeping bag and the set of blankets resting on the floor beside her bed.

"It's your first day at home, and when we arrived, you were completely asleep. I didn't want you to wake up alone, so I came here to sleep," he explains as he lies on his sister's bed.

Lilly doesn't know what to say, so she chooses to remain silent and look out the window again. A strange feeling overwhelms her; it's strange, but she feels loved. Apollo seems to care about her, nobody has ever cared about her before, it's nice.

The whole family is.

"By the way, you know you snore," her brother comments from the bed.

"No, that's not true," Lilly responds suddenly to her brother's attack. In a way, it felt natural.

"I have a video, remind me later to show you. Do you want to go have breakfast? I'm hungry," her brother asks as he gets up from the bed.

Lilly shrugs, truth be told she's a bit hungry.

"Then let's go," says Apollo as he gets up and starts walking towards the door. Lilly runs for a few seconds to catch up with him, not wanting to lose him.

Apollo exits through the door, and Lilly finds herself in a hallway that seems endless, with countless doors on either side.

"So, this one in front is Ethan's room, next to it is mine, and next to yours is Alex's room. At the end of the hallway is Mom and Dad's room, and here is the living room," Apollo gestures as he speaks, opening the last mentioned door, and Lilly, curious, peeks inside to see what her brother means. The room is a familiar space with several L-shaped sofas and comfortable armchairs, as well as a pool table and a large plasma TV.

"We usually come here to hang out as a family. It's more private," he explains.

At the end of the hallway are stairs, and in front of them another hallway just like the previous one.