Iniquity Rises Book 1 of Iniquity Series~Now Complete~

Ch.6 First Summer Night

Tom's POV:

As Sophia, his sister Leilah, and he began to look through the vacant rooms he couldn't decide which room he wanted. He supposed one closest to Sophia's room. However, that thought halted right there and then when they reached Sophia's room. As they walked into the room they discovered someone had been in the otherwise empty home. With the possibility of still being there.

Her room was complete chaos, the bed sheets were torn off and shredded to bits, the desk and bedside tables were turned on their sides- drawers thrown across the room, all the family photo's portraits were on the floor broken. He heard as both Leilah and Sophia let out a gasp and watched as Sophia's tiny shoulders began to shake uncontrollably as she began to cry.

"Mum!" He yelled, as quickly he grabbed Sophia and pulled her into a tight embrace. 

Leilah stood next to us, scanning the room, with her dark beady eyes, searching for some sort of clue as to why someone would do such a thing.

'It's alright. It'll be alright. Just-just breath, stay calm Sophie, please. I am right here with you, nothing is going to happen to you.' He thought through their link.

'W-who could've done such a thing? How could they do this? Why would they want to?' She asked, brokenly through the link.

'Someone who knows no one would be here when they did. Someone who knew the place well. I think it was the same person who gave your parents the reason to disappear.' Leilah thought, carefully as she patted Sophia's back.

At that thought everyone stiffened in the already chaotic room. Tom felt something begin to pull at the center of his chest as he felt her begin to shake violently in his arms, letting out a small whimper, as he saw how truly broken her expression was.

They all could hear Merope's footfalls as she ran up the stairs and into the room, gasping in shock as she assessed the damage the room was now in. Tension filled the air as they all stood in the room taking in their surroundings.

"Who- what-how..?" She stuttered before she regained her composure

"Alright, this is what we'll do. I just finished putting up a few barriers around the house. For now, I want all of us to go down stairs, we'll stay in the two rooms that are down there. Alright? Tom, you can sleep in the living room if you'd like." She said, hugging Sophia as she cried silently.

"I promise we will fix this." His mom whispered, before she stood upright and grabbed both Sophia and Leilah's hands and began pulling them from the room, and down the stairs. 

He felt something pull at his heart once more as he took in the room one last before closing the door behind him.

Later that night when he was getting ready for bed, he heard a soft whimper coming from the second bedroom in the hall. Where he knew Sophia was currently in, by herself. Since his sister chose to be in the same room as their mother; he was going to sleep on the soft-looking couch in the living room. He slowly walked towards the room, hesitantly knocking on the door.

'Come in.' She thought tiredly as he stood outside the door.

He walked into the room, where she found her on the bed sitting down with her thin arms around her legs, her head resting on top of her knees.

"I-I can't sleep." She said, before he could ask.

"Why is that?" He asked, silently lighting the lamp on the bedside table.

"I keep seeing so many things, a weird man with a malicious laugh, a dark shadow who is constantly following me. My parents, I'm not sure where they are but I hope they're alright, at the very least." She explained, her voice cracking at the end.