Reflections of Light

Stranger

" ... Billy, there's no one in here."

"There was!" Billy insisted, looking up at the two adults with tears pricking in his eyes. "I see-d dem!"

"Well, do you remember what they looked like? Were they someone you recognised?" Dec said, crouching down to Billy's level, and taking the small child's hands in his.

"Uh... I don't wemeber."

"You don't remember. Right." Dec said, sighing quietly as he mentally ran through the situation.

"But they woz there!" Billy squealed, pitch raising higher and higher as he jabbed his finger towards the corner of the room, stomping his feet and reaching for his mother in a panic.

Luci pulled him close, the young child wrapping his arms around her waist and hiding his face in her side. "Shh, Shh, it's okay." She soothed, softly stroking his hair. "You're safe. We've got you."

"Mummy, mummy, what if they're hiding 'n waiting?" Billy said, suddenly alarmed at the idea.

"Well... There's not a lot of places to hide here." Luci said, looking around the simple hotel room.
It was true, the room wasn't particularly large and contained very little furniture; just the freshly made bed, the elegant wooden bedside table and the tall wardrobe at the end of the room, besides which was a small table and stool set- which could be used as a dressing table, as suggested by the mirror hanging on the wall above.

There was a small bathroom attached to the room, the door of which was shut; and granted, it was completely plausible that if someone was in the room they could be hiding there. Another door across from it connected to Luci's room, which was currently hanging partly-open, having already been scoped out by Luci upon coming in.

Seeing where Luci's gaze had landed on the closed door, Declan crossed the room, reaching for the handle to push open the door and warily peer inside. "It's empty."

"What about... Da wardrobe?" Billy said quietly, peeping out from his mother's side as he pitifully clung to her clothes.

"Alright, I'm checking for the monsters in the closet." Dec said, his tone trying to insert some cheer into the situation as if this were a fun game. Walking over to the wardrobe, he pulled open the doors. "Oh, look, Narnia!"

A bundle of Billy's clothes, screwed up in the bottom of the wardrobe, landed with a plop at his feet. Dec looked at Billy, eyebrow raised questioningly, a humorous smile twitching at his lips from the comic timing of the situation. "So... We still haven't grasped the function of coat hangers, it seems."

Billy didn't look amused; pouting at Declan's distraction from the topic.

Resisting the urge to chuckle at Billy's put out expression, he kicked the bundle of clothes out of the way with the edge of his foot; walking forward to practically stand in the wardrobe, hammering his knuckles on the wooden back. Then, he turned around, and cheerily dropped to sit on the bottom of the wardrobe, long legs sticking out on the carpet, and put a hand behind his head, pretending to relax. "Seems all normal to me."

Tentatively, Billy walked forwards, coming up besides Dec to climb into the wardrobe, tapping the back with his hands too. Then, he turned around, looking around the box he was in, and sat down next to Declan, copying him. "This is a cool hideout."

"You know, you're supposed to hang your clothes up in it."

"Too small, can't reach!" Billy said with a cheeky expression on his face.

"Then how do you get your clothes down to get dressed?" Dec said cannily. "And the hangers you like to play with, for that matter."

"I pull 'em." Billy said, making a pulling-down motion with his hands in front of him. "An' then da cloves come off, an' sometimes da hanga's fall."