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Chapter Fourteen

MADISON

I get bankrupt. I look at Alison with my mouth practically open. She won. It's the very first time that someone beats me in this game and surprisingly it was a six-year-old. How? I don't have any idea.

"You don't have anything left," she says and I nod.

"You won," I say leaving out a laugh and a big smile appears on her face.

"Now can I buy chocolate?" she asks innocently.

"It's the first time someone beats me. You beat me even though it was your first time playing," I say, "and the only thing you think of is on buying chocolate..."

I put everything back in the box and stand up while she just waits for my answer. "Maybe later," I lie placing the box back in the closet.

The sky outside is painted in beautiful and brilliant orange and pink tones. "Have you look at the sky?" I say opening the door to the small balcony and in less than five seconds she's out with me.

"What's sky?" she asks standing next to me and looking through the bars of the railing.

"That thing above everything," I say pointing with my finger. "The colorful one."

"It's pretty," she says and I nod.

"What color do you like the most?" I ask and she stares at it.

"Purple."

A moment later, I get back into the apartment and go to get a bath ready for her. I make sure the water is in perfect temperature and I put some bubbles on turning the water into white foam. When I get back for her, outside is already dark. Some stars have begun to shine making her stare at them.

"Come with me," I tell her. When we are about to enter the bathroom, her whole body paralyzes and I literally need to drag her to get her to enter. "You are just going to take a bath," I say bending down to help her get her clothes off. Then, I take her in my arms and walk to the bathtub making her hold me stronger from my neck. I look at her and find her eyes fully crystalized.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Water," she replies and then shakes her head. ¿No? Not water. She's afraid. I bite my lip looking at the foam and bend to take a bit of it in my hand. I put it on her leg soaking it. She starts crying, trying her best to move her leg away from my reach.

"Don't cry, it's okay," I tell her trying to take her arms off my neck to put her in the bathtub. She holds me stronger. I give some steps back and put her on the floor. She runs out of the room, crying. I sigh and get out to get her back, but apparently, she's nowhere to be found. "Alison?" I search in the kitchen and nothing, behind the couches and in the balcony. No succes. I hear a sob coming from the closet and when I open the door, I find her on the floor, crying with her legs against her body. She looks at me with fear. I sigh and sit down inside the small closet, right in front of her. I force a smile.

"I was good," she cries with a shivering voice.

"I know," I say touching her foot to make contact. She pulls it closer to her. What I am supposed to say? "It's just a bath to clean you up, it's going to make you smell so good."

She just stares at me, without saying of doing anything, but making sure she stays as far away as she can from me. "Does it scares you?"

"It hurts," she says cleaning the big tears that run out of her eyes.

"It won't hurt you," I tell her. "I am going to be with you the whole time."

"I want daddy," she cries again and I sigh with a lump in my throat.