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M
y room was quite spacious. It consisted of a queen-sized bed with a fresh quilt spread on it, armchairs by the fireplace, a dressing table, and a walk-in window that led to the small balcony connected to my room. The first thing I did after coming to my room was text Nathan, "Hi Nathan. I am going to be staying here tonight and getting back to the city tomorrow after breakfast. I did not find any solid clues, but the visit did confirm some of my suspicions. I will explain in detail once I am back." After tossing my phone onto the bed, I immediately hopped into the shower.
The warm water soothed all of my sore muscles. It had been a hectic couple of days, so it felt good to relax by taking a warm shower. I got out of the shower to see freshly ironed pajamas placed neatly on the bedspread. Anne's an extremely considerate person. If my life and circumstances allowed, I would like to be friends with her. But would she welcome me if she knew I was a homicide suspect?
Would she let someone like me get close to her family, her kids? The thought instantly made my good and relaxed mood evaporate. I changed into the pajamas and lay down on the bed. The environment was so cozy. The wood in the fire cackled occasionally, and the fire itself burned with a low hum. The quilt molded around my entire body. I fell asleep instantly. I had not had such a great night of sleep since forever. That night, there were no dreams.
I woke up before the twilight of dawn. The entire house was dead silent. After numerous attempts to go back to sleep, I gave up and sat on the bed. I felt relaxed and fresh. I wondered what my life might have been like if it was normal. This house would have been mine. This is where I would have grown up, with a loving father and a protective mother.
I would not have had to go through all of this and lie to perfect strangers if it was not for my father's past. I have never hated him more than I did right at this moment. What exactly was my fault? Why was I being punished for everything? He is already in his grave; why do I have to atone for his sins? I was furious. I was furious at my luck, I was furious at a deity I did not believe in, and I was furious at everyone who snatched this life away from me. I no longer wanted to run. I only wanted to reclaim my life.
I exited the house through my room's balcony. Even though the room was on the second floor, it was not that high up to make it difficult or dangerous to jump. I had thought about going through the front door, but I realized it would wake someone up. I did not want that. As nice as Frank and Anne were, I wanted to explore the shed alone.
I remembered Frank's words, "That structure in the back? We have not done anything with it in all these years. Back when we renovated the house, we had thought of converting it into a guest house, but since we were tight on budget, we did not go through with it. After the renovation was complete, just the thought of more construction work made us both cringe, so we left it as it is." The shed was the only thing in the house that connected my father to Hannah. I quietly tiptoed and made my way to the backyard. The entire neighborhood was dead silent. Even a dog or a cat could not be heard anywhere. At first, I tried to open the shed door, but it was locked.
Considering the door was quite old, I could have knocked it down, but it would make too much noise and may arouse the suspicion of the Geller family. I walked around the shed to look for any windows. There were three windows; one opened into what looked to be a hallway, one opened into a bathroom, and the last one seemed to open into a room. I tried to open the window, but it seemed jammed. There were no locks on the inside of the window. I pushed my hardest and heard it open with a creak.
The creak resonated throughout the neighborhood, and I immediately hid in case someone came to check. After 30 seconds, when no light came on inside the house and no movement was heard, I stood up again and entered the room through the window. My foot slipped, and I fell right onto the hard marble floor. “Ow.” After rubbing my back for a while, I began to observe my surroundings by turning on the flashlight on my phone. The room had a thick layer of dust gathered on every surface. There were cribs faced adjacent to the wall, with one of the walls painted with Disney characters. Something peculiar caught my eye.
On one of the cribs, a portion had caught much less dirt than the entire crib. The portion in itself looked like an adult-sized hand. Did someone come here before me? Whoever it was probably coming here weeks before, judging from the gathered dust. I began looking through the drawers. All of the drawers had signs of abandonment and life in them. Some still had toys, while others contained essentials such as Pampers and baby wipes. Hannah really did leave in a hurry. I found envelopes stored in the drawer at the very bottom. I picked them up to see if they were letters.
They had all been addressed to Hannah by my father. I heard the clanking of pans and looked out the window to see the sun was already up and some of the lights in the house were turned on. I quickly stashed all of the letters under my shirt and began exploring the rest of the space. These letters were the bridge between Hannah, my father, and Sophia's disappearance.
I did not want to read them in a rush in order to not miss anything. The hallway was already decaying, with termites having infested most of the woodwork. The hallways also led to a small kitchen. It had a sink and a stove with two cabinets and a small shelf. I opened the cabinet to see rows of expired baby milk powder, formula, and some fruit snacks.
The other cabinet consisted of ladles and pans. Everything was exactly as they had left it. I walked back into the room to see almost all the lights in the house had been turned on. Careful not to be discovered, I jumped out the window. I climbed my way back through the balcony just in time to hear Anne knocking at my door, saying the breakfast would be ready in 15 minutes.
