Chapter 18

This morning, I woke up as usual, nothing strange. I opened my eyes and my gaze went straight to the ceiling of the room. Sunlight enters through window cracks and air holes. Before lifting my head and getting up, I took a deep breath of air and exhaled slowly.

I raised my head, my eyes immediately glanced at the window, where the mysterious woman appeared last night. I can't forget her strange smile, that woman was the figure I saw just before the operation. But why did she appear again now?

I rubbed my face, hoping to never see her again. I looked at the clock and it was already 9 in the morning, it's unusual for Mom not to wake me up at this time. Are you still sleeping because you were forced to wake up at 2 am?

After showering and getting ready, I went down to the first floor and I saw in the kitchen, mother was washing the dishes, while on the dining table there was a plate of pancakes with maple syrup and a cup of tea.

"Mom, why didn't you wake me up?" I asked. Mother, who had just realized my arrival, immediately turned around.

"I saw you were sleeping soundly, so I didn't have the heart to wake you up," she answered as she continued her work.

"Where's Kelly?"

"She went to the library with her friends,"

"Jenny and the children?"

"Jenny just got home,"

"Go home?"

"Yes, Steven came home at 7 in the morning and after breakfast they immediately left,"

"Why are they in such a hurry?"

"I don't know, maybe because Jenny can't wait to wear nice clothes and cute accessories for her children. She said the photos had to be sent before Tuesday and now it's Saturday. Eat your breakfast, after this, I wants to go to the supermarket." Mother said as she walked away leaving me alone in the kitchen.

After eating a plate of pancakes, I returned to the second floor and intended to contact Depney and Helga. Since the event ended, I haven't talked to them and I also want to ask, how could Alex come with them?

However, when I passed in front of Daniel's room, that uneasy feeling always appeared. I really hate that room, it feels so annoying because my room has to be next to that horrible room.

"Strange." I thought, there were no more strange whispers. It felt very quiet and serene in there. Has Daniel left?

Bad thoughts started to incite me, for some reason I wanted to go into that room. It's like something is pulling me to find out, what is Daniel really hiding? Why are there so many mysterious figures in that place?

I opened the door to the room slowly, it turned out it wasn't locked. I slowly peeked through the crack in the door, before actually deciding to go in, because there could be Daniel inside.

"Nothing, did he go out?" I muttered when I saw there was no sign of Daniel.

Finally I couldn't wait and decided to go in. Like the last time I entered this room, it was cold and damp. The temperature of the air conditioner was too high, how could he sleep in a place this cold?

However, there is one thing that is different, this room is much neater and cleaner. Even though the dozens of paintings I saw at that time are still displayed on almost every wall and of course, the paintings are very disturbing because they look so real.

Suddenly, a flash of memory that I saw last night, right when I woke up in front of Daniel's room came back to my mind. I can still remember clearly a woman with long brown hair and a red dress who was hugging Daniel, as well as several paintings of women who I suspect are paintings of the woman in the red dress. It's just that I didn't get to see the face of the woman in the painting.

My footsteps took me right next to Daniel's bed, a photo album lay on the table. I don't remember him ever having a photo album. I took the album while glancing around to make sure that Daniel really wasn't there. Once I was sure, I slowly opened the first page of the album.

On the first page there were no photos, just a blank page with a short sentence that said "2002", I didn't understand what that meant, when I opened the second page. There are two photos that seem familiar to me.

The photo of me with Daniel when I was 8 years old, it was a photo on Christmas Eve when we had just received a Christmas gift from Dad. Daniel's face looks very sweet and adorable. Maybe at that time he was only 5 years old, we seemed very close and loved each other.

In the second photo there is also a photo of me with Daniel in City Park. I don't really remember the memories in this photo, but I really like his smile. Then I opened the next page, a photo of myself, Daniel, Jenny and several friends at Daniel's 6th birthday party.

The next page also contains ordinary photos, but in every photo there is always me. Were we that close as brothers? because my mind started to take me back to several things in the past that I could still remember a little. Suddenly there was a photo that surprised me.

The photo was when Daniel and I were celebrating the festival, in the photo there were several foreigners who were photographed, because our photo was set at a festival celebration in the middle of the city. However, what I couldn't believe was that there was a man wearing a coat, hat, glasses and a mouth covering that were exactly the same as those worn by the strange man who came to my event yesterday. The strange man who gave Jenny an audition flyer.

Yes, I can still clearly remember that man. Really similar, are they the same person? and what was even more surprising, the man in the photo was also carrying an old black camera like the strange man was carrying. Who's he ? is this just a coincidence?

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