I heard the small wail of the kitten coming from Eloim’s room. I moved up the creaking stairs.

“What happened?” I asked. “You have to be careful with pets, they don’t like it when you play rough,” I told Eloim as I walked in.

He had a couple of small scratches on his hands, so I took him downstairs and cleaned them properly. I found it odd that he didn’t cry, at least, until I disinfected them. But he felt better after I put on a few Peppa Pig Band-Aids on.

It was happening more and more frequently. I never saw what happened, but I’d seen the cats run off from whatever room Eloim was in at that moment, screeching and wailing.

Every time, Miki would start barking and would lead me to wherever it had been happening, and every time Eloim would be silent and stoic.

Was he purposefully hurting them when I was not around? He was so caring about them that I had difficulty believing that. Plus, as a rule of thumb, animals tend to be afraid of violence and either recoil, hide, or attack from those that do it, and all three acted normally with Eloim whenever I was around. But again, I couldn’t truly rely solely on this as proof.

I wanted to talk to Xander about this, but he was on a new contract and doing crazy hours, so I decided to investigate first and only involve him when necessary, or wait for things to quiet down.

His job had a lot of ups and downs. Some weeks, he barely had to read his emails a couple of times a day and would be free the rest of the time, working with me on the house, playing with Eloim, or taking us out. We went to the zoo, something that apparently Eloim had refused to do in the past because of how many people were there, but accepted now and cooed over the animal. We did go on a week day so that there would be fewer people around, and it went pretty well.

But other weeks, Xander would pull seventy or eighty hours, sometimes getting urgent calls in the middle of the night, and he wouldn’t return to bed until the sun was way up. It’s not an easy schedule to deal with, but he really likes his job, and he’s confessed that he has taken more jobs since I’ve been around as Eloim had not responded very well to nannies in the past, which had stopped Xander for being able to do this.

I didn’t mind this too much. At least he worked mostly from home, so whenever he had a bit of time off, he could spend it with us.

Other than buying paint, or furniture, or groceries, I didn’t go out of the house much these days, and I knew that eventually I’d have to get acquainted with the neighborhood, but seeing how busy we both were, especially with the renovations, I didn’t mind so much either.

I video called my parents every week and they have begun asking me for pictures of Eloim, and even chatted with him a few times. The idea of being grandparents was growing on them.

Miranda decided to help out with the wedding as much as possible seeing how busy we were. I suspect she was afraid we would just go to court and sign a bunch of papers and be done with.

It will be nothing big, and we decided to do it at their home. They had a beautiful lawn and enough place for a small marquee so it could be outside. I told my parents I was getting married in a few months, they were not exactly surprised. They thought I was going a little fast, but they did see how I was interacting with Eloim and how I was adjusting to life here and had accepted that this was probably coming sooner or later, regardless.

It would be a small reception, and Xander and I were still looking into where we’d spend how honeymoon, but Eloim’s situation made us worry to leave for long, or far, or even at all. We both wanted to take a break from everything for a little while, but we didn’t want to do it at the detriment of Eloim’s well-being. His parent’s had offered to take him while we’d be away, but regardless, we made no decisions. Even with the wedding, we had sent no official invites and had not officialized any dates, in case things went sideways and we had to move it up.

Eloim had no problem with the wedding, or so he said. I mean, he was the one who had originally requested it. Maybe not in those words, but still.

Xander left for a job for a week, and I was left alone with Eloim for the first time for this long. Things went relatively well for a few days until I heard sobbing in his room and I heard the cat screech again and run off.

I went upstairs to check on the situation, but stopped right above the stairs, transfixed at the scene before me.

Eloim was sitting on the floor in a fetal position, his face in between his knees, his arms wrapped around himslf. Toys were littered everywhere. A couple of feet behind him, sitting on the bed, was a woman. She had shoulder length brown hair, a cardigan and denim on, and she was caressing Eloim’s back slowly. He shuddered at every touch. Her skin was odd looking, bluish on the extremities, and her face was lacerated, bloody and rotten, and she was translucid.

Miki which had been following me upstairs started barking like a madman in the bedroom’s direction, his four legs jumping off the ground with every bark and moving slowly towards the room.

My instincts kicked in. Eloim was suffering and I had to get to him and that’s all that trully registered in my mind.

The second my foot moved forwards the figure turned her head to me and the door slammed shot with a bang.

“MILA!” screamed Eloim and my insides ran cold.

I slammed into the door, but the handles didn’t work. It wasn’t ever twisting.

“MILA!” Eloim screamed again, only it was breaking into tears and something in me clicked.

I put myself on my side against the door and swung my weight as hard as I could against the door, relying mostly on my hips.

This door was solid wood and would obviously not budge, but the doorframe was something else. A lot of work had been put into restoring those antique moldings, but I didn’t even process in my brain the damage I was about to do, and all that matter was to hold him safe in my arms.

I banged as hard as I could. This was a solid wood door. I could feel my skin bruise, the burning sensation building with every impact, but I also heard wood creak and buck.

It finally gave in and the door swung open.

Miki was in a frenzy and had been barking and growling defiantly at the door while I was fighting my way through.

Miki ran to the underside of the bed right away.

I couldn’t see the woman anywhere. I threw myself on the floor and grabbed at the crying Eloim hidden below the bed.

He trashed instinctively against me in pure terror, unsure of what was going on, and I didn’t let him push me away this time. I dragged him out in one swift motion, pulled him to myself and ran down the stair and to our temporary living room.

Miki barked at the room at large a few times in warning, but followed suit behind us.

I stopped only when I was sitting safely, on the couch with the little boy that was now clinging to me as if his life depended on it.