[Otto's POV]
Otto woke to the sound of a little girl's screaming in the middle of the night. She quickly lit the candle on her nightstand (which had been a hassle the first time she'd needed to go to the toilet in the middle of the night) and followed the sound.
She found Annabelle standing by little Eva's room, the door opened a slit.
"What's going on?" Otto whisper-asked Annabelle once she was close enough. Annabelle looked very troubled.
"She's reliving her trauma again," Annabelle said with a heavy sigh. "It's something all of us go through here, but I think this one is preventing her from moving on."
"Oh, why do you think so?" Otto asked, worry evident in her voice.
"Because when I first came here," Annabelle said. "Eva had been a few years younger than Sofie. She hasn't changed in all those years."
Otto swallowed and looked at the door. "Do you mind if I go in?"
"No, I don't. I've tried to sooth her myself, but nothing I say seems to make a difference," she said as she set a step aside so Otto could enter.
What Otto saw once she was inside, broke her heart straight in two. Eva wasn't lying in her bed, like she was supposed to be. She was sitting huddled in the corner of the room and was shivering from head to toe.
The sound of her weeping was so sad, so pitiful, that Otto felt like crying herself. And once the little girl spotted the light of Otto's candle, she freaked even more. She held her little hands protectively above her head and started crying: "No daddy, please don't hit me! I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"
It looked like she was caught in a nightmare with her eyes open.
"Hey, it's ok. I know you didn't do anything wrong," Otto said as she quickly set her candle on the nightstand and gathered little Eva in her arms. "It's ok sweetheart. Daddy won't be angry, I promise! My goodness, you feel ice cold! Come on let's wrap ourselves in some blankets."
Otto walked to the bed pulled some of the covers free, pulled little Eva in bed with her and wrapped the blankets around the both of them tightly.
For the longest moment, nothing happened. They sat there in silence, little Eva's shivering form tightly hugged against her.
"Otto? What are you doing?" Eva asked once she stopped shivering. It took Otto by surprise. She'd expected the child to cry until she fell asleep, but it looked like she was wrong.
"I'm sorry," she started awkwardly. "You were having a nightmare and I wasn't sure if it was ok to wake you, so I just tried to act along. Is it uncomfortable? Should I go?"
Eva shook her head after considering for a while.
"No, you're warm and soft. Just like everything a mommy should be," she said and shifted into a more comfortable position in Otto's arms.
"Well, what was your mommy like then?" Otto asked.
"Hmm," Eva thought about it for a long while. "My mommy was cold. She was always standing behind daddy. She never stopped him when he hit me. I think she knew she'd be hit herself if she did."
"Hmm, it sounds to me like your daddy was rather unreasonable," Otto said as she frowned. It felt really strange to hear a six year old speak like an adult. She kept forgetting that everything progressed in reverse here. So maybe it was strange that the child was still speaking like an adult. "Was he angry a lot?"
"Yes. He didn't need much to be angry, really," Eva said as she yawned. "Simpel things like, when he'd find my dolls in the living room when he'd come home from work, or if he'd stumbled over air and fall as he was drunk."
"He'd hit you for that?!" Otto asked incredulously. "Oh! What a despicable man! I'd like to get my hands on him to give him a peace of my mind!"
Eva chuckled. It surprised Otto once more.
"No need, the man is long since gone. Dead in a drunken ditch. Mother had been quite distraught," Eva said as a shadow passed over her face, then she quickly shook her head and said: "But I'm here now! Everything is warm and beautiful here. I'd like to stay here forever."
"Hmm, that's a feeling I understand," Otto said, deciding that it was better to ignore the things she wasn't ready to talk about.
"You do?!" Eva asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I do," Otto chuckled.
"You'd be the first," she grumbled. "Annabelle always says that it is best to move on. That all of us will and that I'll be left behind if I don't."
"You'll move on when you're ready," Otto concluded. Eva frowned to her words, but didn't comment.
"You know?" Otto continued carefully. "Not all men are evil. Not all men hit there children. Just like not all mommies are cold."
Again, Eva considered her words.
"I know," she said. "I used to be married."
"You were?!" Otto asked surprised. "Did you have children?"
"Yes, tree of them," Eva giggled to Otto's surprise. "Two boys and one girl. How I mis them."
"Did your husband hit your children? Were you a cold mommy?"
"Of course not! My children were happy!"
"Then what's the problem? You should already know that not all families are like your own parents," Otto said in a scolding way.
"It's not that," Eva said as she looked down at her toes. "I'm just scared to be born in an abusive family again. Some things never change you know?"
As she said it, tears started flowing.
"Oh, you poor thing," Otto said as she hugged Eva a little more tightly. "I'm sorry, but I don't think there is anything you can do about that. I think you'll just have to pray that you do end up in a warm family."
"I wish I could be your baby," Eva snivelled. "I know you'd protect me."
Otto had to think about that for an instant. Did she want a baby like little Eva? She was really cute, with slightly curly blond hair, sparkling blue eyes, her nose and cheeks dusted with freckles and her short attention span.
"You know what," she said after a while. "I think I would like that too. You'd have to sleep a little longer in the morning, though. I'm not a morning person."
Eva's head quirked up and she strained to look Otto in the eyes.
"You mean it?!" she asked in a way too excited tone of voice. "You're not just saying that to sooth me?"
"I'm not," Otto giggled.
"You'll promise me then?" Eva asked excitedly.
"That's not something I can promise, Eva," Otto said, a little sorry she had to dampen the little girl's spirit, but she didn't want to lie to her either.
"But if you could, would you promise?"
"Yeah, sure," Otto laughed. "Let's pinky promise!"
"What's that?" Eva asked confused.
"It's the most sacred of promises," Otto said, trying to sound serious, but couldn't hide the smile from her face. "In fact, if you break a pinky promise, the wronged party may cut of the other person's pinky."
"Eeew!" Eva complained. "That's gross! Who makes a promise like that?!"
"Well, someone who's planning on following through with their promise, of course," Otto said. "Look, I still have both my pinkies! So that means I've never broken a promise before."
Otto showed Eva both her hands and wriggled her fingers as proof. Eva looked at her skeptically.
"You're joking, right?" she asked after a long think.
"Do you want me to promise or not?"
"I do," she said with an expression so serious, Otto had to bight her lip from laughing.
"Well then give me your pinky. Like so," Otto said as she hooked her pinky-finger with Eva's. "Eva, I promise you officially that you can be my baby. But, I have one condition! You'll have to sleep longer in the morning!"
"I promise! I promise!" Eva yelled with the biggest smile Otto had ever seen on the girl.
"Ok, then it's done," Otto said as she started to get up again. "But now it is time to sleep."
"Aw, but I wanted to snuggle a little while longer?" Eva complained as Otto tucked her in.
"There will be plenty of time for that tomorrow," Otto said sternly. "The night is for sleeping and nothing else."
"Ok, mommy," Eva said, turned to her side and actually fell asleep.
Otto stood there for an instant, uncertain of how she felt. She felt so happy she could cry and yet, she felt like a liar because there was no way she could promise anything like that. She sure hoped everything would work out alright.
And the next morning, Eva had slept the longest she ever had.