Chapter 2

Lara quickly opened the door, but she did not find anyone. She went quietly to her brother's room, cursing in her secret. When she got close, she saw a fifteen-year-old boy holding a knife and raising it to hit her sleeping brother. She screamed calling her father, but the boy disappeared and the lights turned on. She tried to explain what happened.

"My love, your brother is sleeping, and there is no one else in the room. I searched in it. Come on, it must have been just a nightmare. That's why I told you so much not to listen to music before bed."

"I wasn't dreaming it's the truth Dad, when we came here I saw a girl and a man standing behind her in the attic, but I said it could be travel fatigue and now there was a kid holding a knife who wanted to kill my brother"

Victor turned around and turned off the lights, then looked at the bed the boy was sleeping on. The shadow of the tree appeared on the wall next to the bed in the form of a small curved branch. He smiled and then said:

"Look, it's just the shade of the trees"

The girl stroked her head, then said

"Well, Dad, you're right, maybe I imagined her as a boy"

The girl usually went to her room and slept while holding her father's hand. After a short while, the father moved lightly and kissed her head smiling, then returned to his room after taking the mother from Ridge's room. She had come to reassure her, so he whispered to her.

"Didn't I tell you to wait for us?"

"How can I wait after I heard my daughter's scream, but I saw you talking to her, so I didn't show her"

Victor kissed her and they entered their room together, then he closed the door. In Lara’s room, she opened her eyes as soon as she felt the father’s exit, then the voice returned again, but he was closer to her as he whispered.

"You are mine Alice, I will not let you go"

Lara put the pillow on her face and closed her eyes and started singing loudly until the sound disappeared and she fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Lara woke up to the sound of Ridge calling her

"Come on, Alice, this is our first day of school"

"Study Ridge, we just moved in, and also today is Sunday. It's a day off anywhere"

"We've been here for a month, and no, not in this village. Their day off is Saturday. Today we have a study. I'll beat you down."

Lara got up sighing, rubbing her eyes and whispering to herself, "Surely I'm dreaming. We've only been here since yesterday." Then she went to the bathroom on the same floor. After completing her morning routine, she went to the ground floor, but she didn't find anyone, so she started calling.

"Mom, Dad, Ridge, where are you all?"

Victor quickly descended the stairs thinking that his wife was following him, only to find the door closed with chains from the inside, so Sidra points to him to the kitchen door that overlooks the back garden, so he goes quickly, but everyone disappears and a screaming sound rises from the second floor and the sound of a body dragging down the stairs, so Victor disappears behind the contour (A long table of marble in the kitchen used for cutting and preparing food) and he finds Sidra sitting scared, so he puts Lara on her lap, whispering

"Don't get up no matter what you hear"

"Why don't the boys wake up from this sound, Victor? I'm scared. Don't leave me"

"I will not leave you, I will try to open the door to escape from here"

He got up and grabbed a knife, then headed to the door to try to open the door, but he stopped suddenly, and signs of shock appeared on his face, and he saw in front of him a person who had the same features as if he was looking in the mirror for himself, with the difference that in front of him his face was bleeding profusely, and another knife was slashed in his chest, then He fell under his feet, and Lara appeared behind him, holding another knife, and it was clear that she had stabbed him from behind. Richard, the person who was in the attic, was embracing her, holding her hand holding the knife, then he approached Victor, whose knife fell from his hand, and Victor shouted

"Who are you? This is not possible. My daughter, Lara, is behind me in her mother's lap"

But he doesn't notice him in front of him, only Richard speaks in the girl's ear

"Yes, right, you are my girl, you are mine alone, I will not allow you to leave with them"

Alice with a complete breakdown, crying between her tears

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop my hand, it's controlling me"

Victor closes his eyes in pain and does not know what to believe yet, for a few moments the sound disappears, then he opens his eyes with force and finds no one in front of him, then the daylight appears striking his eyes passing through the window, and he feels his body lying on the bed, then he looks around to find Sidra sleeping next to him, so he screams at her

"Sidra, Sidra, where are the kids and how did we get back here"

Sidra opens her eyes quietly, smiling at him and saying

"Good morning to you too. What do you mean by asking, Where are the children? And why are we here? Did you have a nightmare, too?"

Victor gets up quickly without answering her, he goes to his son's room and finds him sleeping in the bed, so he goes to the girl's room and finds her laying a pillow on her face to remove the pillow and sees her sleeping with traces of tears on her face, he sat on the ground feeling short of breath as if he was running from a distance, Sidra stood next to him looking on His astonishment then she said

"Calm down Victor, it's just a nightmare. Come on, I'll make breakfast, and you help the boys up. It's our first day here, and we want to explore the house."

Victor moves his head left and right, trying to shake off what he saw, and convinces his mind that everything that passed was really a dream, nothing more, but he couldn't, so he screamed.

"No, no, not a dream, come on, look"

Then he extends his hand under the bed and takes out a chain of keys other than the one he had with him, and points to the Sidra

"If it was a dream as you say, where did this with Lara come from?"

Sidra looks at the keys and then sighed and said

"Whoever said they are hers, it is possible to leave her, who used to live here before"

"Didn't the chief of the village say that he sent someone to clean the place, how could they not find him?"

"I don't know, I'll go down to get breakfast and you try the keys and try to open the locks to the room upstairs and also the door to the laundry room downstairs."

She left him and went down to the first floor, he tried to get up, but his place stiffened when his daughter got out of bed as if she did not see him, then she stood in front of the mirror combing her hair, so he called her

"Lara, isn't there a good morning, dad?"

She did not answer him, so he got up from the ground clinging to his daughter’s bed, and as soon as he raised his body, he hit the back against the wall from the horror of surprise, as Lara was still sleeping. He turned his head towards the mirrors and found a reflection of his daughter’s image while she was combing her hair and smiling. He approached her with a ban, and said

"I know you hear me, who are you? and what do you want?"

The answer of the reflected image after it extended its hand forward

"I'm Alice Papa, please help me, I can't get out of here"

Behind her, Richard's reflection also appears, smiling, then he approaches her ear and whispers, but with an audible voice

"You are mine and I will not let you go, I know we are from two different worlds but love is not my choice but your fault"

Victor shouted angrily

"Leave my daughter, don't hurt her"

Lara called out from behind him

"Dad, dad, who are you talking to?"

Victor turns to his daughter, who was sitting on the bed, smiling at him and continuing her speech

"I'm hungry, please call Ridge to get ready and I'll go to the bathroom too."