Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 3

After dinner that night, everyone had said their goodbyes. Silas decided to spend the night, so he and Soren went to the bedroom. As he walked through the hallway of the second floor, he thought about how much time and effort had gone into building this house from the ground up. On the first night here, Ash had gone into great detail about how he, Lucky, Dai, Olivia, their mother, and eventually Alex had spent saving and building this house, going as far as to plan it all on The Sims 4.

They had bought a plot of land and left enough space for expansion. They had expanded significantly, and according to Thea, they always needed more bedrooms, living space, and everything else. The latest expansion was two years ago when the third floor was added.

Soren’s bedroom was on the second floor, at the end of the hallway. He and Silas were in his room, and it quickly became his pride and joy, the one room in the entire house that was solely his. When he was brought home four years ago, he had been given the room at the end of the hallway and been told to decorate it however he pleased.

Of course, Soren had been brought home before, but he was always returned, and so he hadn’t expected to get his hopes up. He hadn’t unpacked his little suitcase for the first month, and when Ash had come in to see how it had been coming along, he had been surprised to see the room still empty besides the bed and built-in closet where he had kept some of his clothes. Soren thought they would have been mad, and this might have been the final straw, but Sebastian and Ashton did something completely unexpected.

The next day, both men took a day off work and took him and Thea to Ikea. They had made a day trip out of it and had coaxed him into buying anything he wanted for his room. After that, they took him to a computer store, where he was again persuaded to buy whatever he wanted. The next day, he spent the entire day building all the furniture, and Ash helped him set up the computer he had gotten just because he’d never owned one. They had spent time with him, allowing him to organise his room. They realised they hadn’t painted the walls, but Soren didn’t mind the white walls.

And now, four years later, knowing he wouldn’t be abandoned again, his room held everything near and dear to him; it was quickly his favourite room in the house. The desk area was pushed up against a wall, with wall shelves hanging above; below them were pictures of things he found pretty. Besides, there was a small cube shelf where he had photos of everyone. His bed was located on the other side, and a small seating area was nearby, where he often watched movies on the TV.

He had done everything in his power to make it as comfortable and cosy as possible, as well as leaving enough space for everyone to gather around, because often, people would just gather in one bedroom, and on more than one occasion, it had been his.

After brushing their teeth, both men got into bed, and it didn’t take long for Soren to fall asleep. But what he hadn’t expected was for the same dream, or perhaps it was a nightmare, to plague his sleep. He was transported back into the past, when he lived in the orphanage, the very first one he had ever been to. The one where he and Silas had first met before he had been taken from him.

However, the boy in front of him wasn’t Silas; he was too tall and too scrawny to be Silas, his skin was considerably darker, too, and although he couldn’t make out his features clearly, he knew it was not Silas standing before him. He couldn’t make out his face; it was all scrambled, almost pixelated. He was standing before him. No, now they were hiding. The walls had caved in, and there were screams. Mother Valeria, who had just been standing there, was now buried under the rubble; all that was left was her hand, clutching her rosemary beads.

Soren was screaming, grabbing onto the boy in front of him, as some men tried to pull them apart. “Please!” he begged. “Please, don’t leave. You said you wouldn’t leave me.”

The boy was squirming in the masked man’s arms, kicking and screaming, but he was dragged away.

Soren shot up in bed, sweat beading down his skin, and Silas was awake in seconds, staring at him with panic. “Soren?” he asked. “Soren, are you okay?”

Soren was, in fact, not okay. But after a few moments, he nodded slowly. “Yes, I’m okay. Sorry, I’m sorry, it was a nightmare. I don’t remember,” he lied. “I’m fine, let’s go back to sleep.”

Silas stared at him, but as Soren lay back down, with his back to the man, he stared at his chair. No matter how hard he tried, Soren couldn’t fall back asleep. This was the fourth time he had dreamt about someone from the orphanage, and he knew Silas. Therefore, he knew it wasn’t Silas, and whatever it was, it was slowly starting to drive him insane. He didn’t know anyone else from the orphanage besides Silas, so who was the child plaguing his nightmares? And what connection did they have?

~*~