Lucy sighed and started tapping on it while walking through the large door into the living room then suddenly paused and gasped while staring wide-eyed at the photo displayed on her phone's screen.
Stopping in her footsteps as she was about to climb the stairs, she rubbed her eyes as they widened by each second with excitement.
It was the photo of her Big brother with sister-in-law in it and he was kissing her cheek. 'Awwwn Big bro is so romantic'. She squealed happily and started running up the stairs but suddenly paused with a gasp.
"Have you delivered the clothes to the maids?" Vivian asked nonchalantly while observing her fingernails.
Lucy quickly nodded while saying, "Yes... they asked me to th..thank you." Then she quickly hid the phone behind her.
Vivian frowned slightly while staring down at the girl's guilty expression and wondered what she was hiding. "Little Sis?... lemme see your hands," she muttered with a sweet smile and slowly walked down the stairs toward the frightened girl.
"N..No Sis Viv... It's nothing. I... I." Lucy gasped for words as she walked back while shaking her head frantically. She was not going to allow her to see this. Who knew what she was going to do? She sighed in relief as she spotted her mother walking down the stairs.
"Lucy, haven't you reach your Big brother? Is his phone still switched off," The woman asked worriedly while rushing toward her daughter.
Vivian sighed inside as her expression turned sullen. Also wondering why he had not returned. She remembered her father's words and slowly turned back then started sauntering back to her room.
The woman watched the girl's back with a sigh then turned to her daughter again. "Lucy, why don't you try Zach's number? He'll probably know something about how your Big brother is doing," she said softly and Lucy shook her head.
"Big Sis said that he had gone to the basement," she replied softly and her mother sighed again.
"Alright__" the woman was about to walk back when her sight suddenly caught the phone she was hiding.
"Mummy," Lucy whined as the phone was suddenly snatched from her hands.
"What!?" The woman looked between her daughter and the picture that was displayed on the phone with widened eyes. "This... Is this the girl," she stammered while pointing to the screen with trembling fingers.
Lucy nodded with a frown while wondering why her mother was acting shocked.
"This... no... no.. It isn't__." The woman stammered in a daze as she stared at the two people in the picture while her gaze was fixed on the girl's side profile.
"Mummy!!!?" Lucy's eyes widened as she watched her mother fell on the floor.
"What is wrong? What happened to Auntie." Vivian ran down the stairs after hearing the girl's scream and her eyes also widened.
"Lucy! What did you show her!!!?" She glanced at the shattered phone on the floor after kneeling beside the unconscious woman.
Lucy broke out of her shock then quickly knelt beside her mother and started sobbing.
"Quick, quick. Go and call Uncle," Vivian said anxiously as she shook the woman and the girl nodded then quickly stood up and rushed upstairs.
Vivian's eyes darted to the phone again with knitted brows. What did she see in there? Too bad the phone is now damaged beyond repair.
********
__ In another City far from City M __
Her cries intensified as he hurried in quivering steps and he would glance back now and then with fright. The men were closing in on them.
Even though he couldn't see the faces behind the masks, his thoughts shouted danger while his heart thumped rapidly.
His grip tightened on the baby whose wail was now the only thing that kept him from cowering in fear. He had to get them out of here, he had to take her away from them.
Just a little bit more, and he could reach out to the crowd.
He desperately wanted to call out for help but knew that amidst the bustling activities and loud music, his shouts would be futile.
As his heartbeats increased, and so does his steps. Glancing back again at the two masked men, his eyes instantly widened. They are very near. He just needs to run a little more, out of this unexpectedly dark vast backyard.
After some time, a glint of hope flashed through his eyes as the lights were slowly coming into view. Yes, he's almost there.
Panting heavily, his hands grasped on tightly to the baby. However, in the next second, that man had appeared in front of him again and he felt his whole being stilled then everything slowly sank into darkness.
Carl's breathing was ragged as he tried to grasp on to anything he could get a hold of. The dream which had been hunting him for the past two weeks but he knew better those were not dreams, but memories, the memories he was trying so hard to remember.
The excruciating ache was increasing in his head with every moment and he felt it could burst at any moment. and the streams of sweat, he could feel trickling down his tightly shut eyelids.
The darkness is overwhelming but he didn't want to succumb to it, he had to know what happened to her. Who killed her. He had to see that man's face.
Slipping into the darkness again, just like the other several times. He's now standing again in his room while watching the baby cry hysterically... He had picked her up with the same anxious look and a few minutes later, he's facing the masked men again in the backyard.
Just some minutes more and he'll come across the mysterious man. He needed to see his face. He had to. And just as he expected, he's now standing before the man, with the baby clasped tightly in his arms.
He doesn't want to slip into the darkness again. Even the irresistible pain which kept intensifying in his head does not make him want to give up.