One Wrong Move

They look afraid of their father, even their hands are trembling.

Her stepmother only took a couple of bites and puts her fork down.

"Mother," Eunica called but all she got was a forced smile from her stepmother.

She's never quiet with Eunica, seeing her makes her mouth ran about whatever happened when she's away, but now, she's keeping her mouth shut.

"Denver," Eunica called her younger brother but he didn't even look at her.

And finally, her baby sister, the sweetest of all, but all she did was continue eating.

They are all acting weird. These three won't shut up when she's with them.

After finishing breakfast, Eunica decided to speak.

"Father, I want to know what is happ---"

"Welcome back, Eunica Angel," her father greeted, but his voice doesn't sound so welcoming. It was flat and cold.

"I want to know what is happening here, Father," she repeated.

"What? Is something wrong?" her father asks as he rests her chin on his hand while staring at Eunica.

She glares at him, "A mansion? In the metropolis? And why do mother and my sibling act this way? What did you do to them?"

Her father smirks, his face looks like he just killed his enemy.

This is not how he looked like the last time Eunica saw him.

He was loving, warm, happy and kind.

Not someone like he's the king of the monsters. He's looking like Luinn.

"My love, is something wrong with you and the children?" Raye asks while looking at his wife and children.

"Nothing's wrong, Eunica. You must've been overwhelmed, we're not acting weird at all, right, Lily and Denver?" she smiled.

Denver nodded, but not Lily, she just kept her head down.

Just like the youngest maid, kids can't lie. They won't answer when they're afraid.

"Alright, then. Can I talk to you, father? Personally?"

Her father looks at her, "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. I'm busy. I have to work. We'll talk once I get home tonight," he said and stands up, but before he can leave the hall, he turns to Eunica, "Don't make troubles," he said.

And the moment the doors closed behind him, Lily ran towards Eunica but the maids stopped her.

Her mother was about to say something but the butler held her hand to assist her on leaving.

Denver didn't even bat his eyelashes and just follows his maids.

"Lily!" Eunica called as she was about to walk towards her baby sister, Maid Marga held her arms and pulls her, "Let me go!" she screamed.

"Sis! Help us! I'm afraid of Papa!" Lily cried but the maids covered her mouth and carried her away.

Eunica tries to pull her arm away but Maid Marga's too strong, her grip even feels like it's about to rip her arm away.

"Lily!" Eunica cried, "Don't worry! I'll figure this out!"

"No, you won't," Maid Marga pushes Eunica to her room, "You can't go out. Guards will be staying by your door, one wrong move and the Master will know," she said before shutting the door in front of Eunica's face.

She regains her balance and bangs the door, "Open this up!" she screamed.

"We cannot, Miss. Please stay quiet," the guards replied.

"I can help you be free!" Eunica said, hoping that they'll bite this, "You can go back to your tribes and family," she said but the guards kept quiet.

"Alright..." she sighs, "So... things are weird here. Everyone and everything's weird. Lily will tell me but how can I get to her?"

Eunica walks back and forth in her room, she saw her mother's dress and changed back into it while wearing a thin cardigan she saw in her closet over it.

"Alright, think," she whispers.

The closet was near the windows and since it's wide, it's near the door, there's a vase on a table and the locked windows are glass.

'Okay, it's now or never,' she thought as she opened the closet's door near the window and went to carry the vase and threw it on the window as hard as she can and the moment it broke, she ran towards the closet.

"Miss, is everything all right?" a guard asks.

Eunica carefully moves to the other side of the closet near the door as the guards enter.

"Search the room," the first guard said until he saw the broken glass window, "She got out!" he exclaimed and all the guards rushed outside.

She opened the closet and checked if someone's outside, 'Coast is clear,' she thought and ran.

'Alright, hybrid magic, please help me find Lily, where is she?' she thought while she sniffs the air.

She knows she can do this, she can smell the lightest scent, she just needs to focus.

"It's a vase! She's still here!" Eunica heard a guard said and immediately, she entered the first room she saw.

"Sis?" It's Lily's voice!

Eunica turned around and ran to Lily who's clutching a teddy bear.

"I missed you so much, Li," Eunica whispers.

"I need your help, sis," Lily whispers back and pulled Eunica to her bed and crawls under it, "Come here!"

Eunica laughs, 'She's still playful as ever' she thought and followed her sister under the bed and made sure her feet are hidden.

She saw tons of papers and crayons under, "This is a mess, Li. You need to clean it," Eunica chuckles.

"Shh, listen, sis," Lily took a piece of paper with a drawing of two guys, one with a halo and the other with a devil's horn.

"What is this?"

"It's Papa," Lily answered, "One day he came back different. He was ugly and dirty and he had a lot of red water on his face."

Eunica's eyes went wide, "Red water?"

Lily nodded, "So one day, he was like this," Lily pointed at the guy with a halo, indicating an angel, "Then when he came home like an ugly man, he turned into this," she then pointed to the drawing of a devil.

"What do you mean?" Eunica took the paper and stares at it.

"Shh," Lily took the paper and gave a new drawing, the same devil guy with a rectangle where a girl was drawn inside.

"What's this?" Eunica asks.

"One day, I saw Papa talking to a girl in a rectangle box in the basement while I was playing hide and seek with Denver."

"Basement? Here?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, we just got here last week and I thought it's a pretty house but it isn't it's scary."

Somehow, the drawing looks familiar, Eunica stares at it and asks, "Who's the girl inside the box?"

Lily pokes her crayon on her cheeks and thinks, "Hmmmm..." she closed her eyes to remember her face or name but she opened her eyes and points at Eunica.

"It was you! I saw you! You're the girl in the box!" Lily smiled and draw a girl in a rectangular box and writes Eunica's name on it.

Eunica watches Lily draw, "It was not me, Lily. I was not here."

"Yes, you were. It was you. You look like her so it's you," Lily replied.

"I look like her?" Eunica asks.

"Uh-huh, and look," Lily draw another man beside the girl in a box, "This guy brought you here!"

"Who's this?"

"Luinn!"

Eunica froze, what was Luinn doing here with a girl in a box?

"And when the girl in a box came here, Mommy always cry," Lily's voice saddens, and draws a girl's face that is crying.

"Why is Mommy crying?"

"Because Papa loves you more than her!"

"Me?"

"Yeah, when you're in the box!"

Eunica shakes her head, what does this mean? She can't understand anything. Lily's just a kid and she'll obviously not give specifics. Maybe she's even imagining things.

"Hey, Lily," Denver's voice called out, Eunica can see his shoes under the bed, "Are you under the bed again?"

He crouches and peeks under the bed, his eyes grew when he saw Eunica, "Maids--!!"

"Shut it, Den!" Eunica covered his mouth and pulls him under the bed too, "What the hell? You're selling your sister?"

Lily chuckles, "He will! He said he will protect us from you because you made Papa crazy and Mommy cry!"

"What? No! Denver, that was not me! I will never live in a box, you crazy kid! Do you really think I can live there? It was not me!" Eunica whispers angrily at his younger brother.

Denver wrinkled his brows and pulls Eunica's hand away from his mouth, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, did you see the girl's face too?"

Denver nodded, "Yes, it was you."

"No!" Eunica sighs, "I just got here and I don't know what's happening here Den."

"Papa changed because of you---uh," he stops with Eunica's glares, "because of the girl in the box. He said he will bring her back. Mommy cried because of her too, she said, Papa loves her more than Mommy."

'Bring her back? Loves her more than Mother? It can't be. It's not MY mother, right? She's dead... in a rectangular box... a casket!' Eunica finally connected the dots.

"Alright, you two, are you okay? Is anyone hurting you?" She checks Denver's face and Lily.

"No, everyone's nice. Except when Papa's here, they all change. We're all afraid of him."

"And you should be too, Miss Eunica," Maid Marga said before pulling Eunica's feet and drags her out of the bed.

Lily and Denver crawl out, "Don't hurt her, Marga. She's our sister!" Denver said and pulls Marga's hand away from Eunica's feet.

"Alright, young master. But she has to learn some lessons," Marga's voice was different when she's talking to Eunica, it's soft and warm when it comes to the kids.

Eunica stands up and brushed her clothes, "Alright, Marga, I have to know what is happening here. My father's just a human, he can't hear us."

Denver shakes his head, Lily laughs while pointing at her throat.

Eunica looks at them confused, but what even made her lost was when Marga shakes her head and points at her throat as well.

She took the crayons from Lily's hands and writes on a paper, "He can with the chips he put in our neck. One wrong move and our heads are blown off."