Lost and Found (A Novel) (17 page)

Her voice had came out in barely a whisper and Elise would have missed it had she not been straining her ears. Elise was curious to find out what exactly had Caelie gone through but the mere fact that she chose to say it so softly told Elise that the statement was not really meant for her ears.

“What do you normally do in your free time, Caelie? For example on a Friday night, like tonight?”

That question had thrown Caelie off-guard. “Huh? Oh, nothing much really.”

Elise nodded her head, smiling broadly. There was a slight glint in her eyes. “That’s good because I have a favor to ask of you. There is this function that I have to attend tonight and I need someone to keep an eye on my two boys. Would you mind helping me out?”

“I...don’t know, Ms. Kerbs. I’m not really good with kids.”

“They won’t be too much trouble, I can assure you. You don’t have to play with them or anything. Just ensure that they don’t get into any trouble and go to bed on time. You are free to do your own things just as long as you keep watch over them.”

“Uh...okay then, I guess.”

Elise nodded her head again, satisfied with Caelie’s answer. Caelie was not forthcoming with talking about her feelings so Elise was hoping that the distraction from her otherwise mundane life would somehow ease her depressive state, if not fully then at least a little.

The living room was silent, except for the soft voices from the plasma television set that was mounted on the wall, opposite from the sofa on which sat Caelie with a book in her hand. Jared and Joaquin, Elise’s six and four years old sons were tucked safely off to dreamland in the comfort of their bedroom on the second floor of Elise’s huge house, which to Caelie, seemed more like a mansion. When Caelie had first set foot in the house, her jaw had dropped just at the sheer size and beauty of the interior. She had never had the opportunity to come by this part of the city that made up the residence of high profile people, much less stepped into one such house. So it was indeed a rare treat for Caelie to have been given this opportunity since she knew that there may never be a chance again.

True to Elise’s words, her two sons were easy to get along with. They were very well-behaved and friendly, embracing Caelie with such warmth that it immediately put her initial apprehensions at ease. After dinner, she had spent some time watching them play with their toys and chatting with them. From there, she found out that they had lost their father when Joaquin was just two years old. It was a thought-provoking moment for Caelie, seeing how Elise had been strong enough to pull herself together, considering that she had two young boys to look after all by herself.

After putting the boys to bed, Caelie made herself comfortable in the living room, waiting for Elise to return home. She had switched on the television to a random channel just to fill the room with some sounds. Caelie was not used to such a big house and the echoing silence unsettled her a little. Being used to living in frugality, only the soft yellow light from the standing lamp bathed the room as she sat reading the book that she had brought along.

Just as she was getting engrossed in the book, the light and television suddenly went off, leaving her in total darkness. Startled, she dropped her book, the sound echoing eerily across the room that was now dead silent. Caelie’s heart began to race as all kind of scenarios ran through her mind. Her ragged breath was the only thing she could hear as she tried to get her eyes accustomed to the dark. She kept telling herself that it was only a power trip and nothing else to soothe her frayed nerves. Thankfully the boys were already asleep which saved her from having to calm them down too. No sooner had that thought came to mind, she heard a scream from the boys’ room.

With her heat pounding in her chest, Caelie raced towards the staircase, stumbling slightly over unseen furniture. Her feet padded softly on the carpeted stairs as she took two steps at a time. Just as she reached the top, she suddenly crouched down and hid behind the wall when she saw a shadow in the hallway. Sneaking a glance over the side of the wall, Caelie’s hand shot to her mouth to stifle a gasp as she made out a silhouette of a man pacing across the hallway. She could feel a knot tightening in her stomach and her breath started to hitch.

There was an intruder in the house and every sense in her body was screaming at her to run out of the house and get help from Elise’s neighbor but she could not leave the two boys alone. There was no telling what the man was capable of during the time that she needed to run over to the next house. They were her responsibility and she needed to get to them fast. As she sat there, Caelie tried to think of the best way to get help. She could call for the police but her handphone was in her bag that she had left in the guest room. That room was nearer to the staircase but she would still need to walk across the hallway and that meant alerting the man to her presence.

Taking her chances, Caelie slowly turned in a crawling position, hoping that it would be too dark for the man to notice her. Suddenly, she felt an arm going around her waist while another hand covered her mouth. Caelie started to scream but her voice was muffled by the hand and she struggled against the man. She was panicking now and the situation was getting too much for her to handle as she noticed the all too familiar signs of her going into a shock state. As she hyperventilated, all she could think about was that she had failed to keep the boys safe. The man released her then and she fell down on the floor gasping for air, her hand clutching tight to her constricted chest. She heard the man’s voice saying something but the pounding in her ears was too loud that she could not make sense of what he was saying. Looking up, she saw the man sitting against the wall across from where she was, his face aghast. Her eyelids were getting heavier and just as they dropped closed, she thought that the man looked vaguely familiar.

Wynne had returned home earlier than he had intended and as usual, he went up to his room by the makeshift ladder that he had kept against his balcony. It was faster for him this way rather than through the front door and during times when he wanted to avoid everyone else in the house, this mode of entering came very much handy to him. Just as he reached the ledge, he heard a faint scream in the house, causing him to hoist himself over quickly and rushed out of his bedroom to the hallway. The house was in total darkness, making his suspicions grew. His brain was telling him that something was not right. His first thought then was to check on the boys. Walking cautiously across the hallway, his senses were alerted to the sound of someone breathing heavily behind the wall that led to the staircase.

Planning to catch the person by surprise, he grabbed the person as the person turned around the wall. He was shocked to find that the person was in fact a petite girl, which caused him to drop his hands and backed away quickly. She seemed to be having difficulty breathing as she crouched there on the floor. Wynne called out to her but she did not seem to be responding to him. As he was about to reach out his hands to help her, she tilted her head up which caused him to sprawl backwards against the wall.

Wynne could barely make out her face but her eyes were a whole different matter. Her crystal eyes shone at him through the darkness as tears streamed down from them. Again he found himself lost in the depth of her eyes. His senses were jolted awake when her eyes slowly started to close and her body dropped to the floor. Wynne sat still where he was, his mouth hanging wide open as he looked on in horror at the girl that lay before him. Those eyes! He hadn’t seen anyone with such eyes since eleven years ago. It had to be her. He knew with a passion in his heart that it had to be Hayley Price.

CHAPTER 13: PRESENT YEAR

“I told you it was unintentional!” Wynne fumed, pacing the length of the kitchen with one hand on his waist underneath his untucked shirt and the other running through his messy hair. He had a more pressing matter in his mind than to convince Elise that he was not at fault.

Elise eyed Wynne from underneath her lashes as she sipped on her mug of coffee. It had certainly been a long night and she was exhausted but there was no way she was going to bed without dragging out the whole story from Wynne. She knew that there was something else which Wynne was not telling her. Putting the mug slowly on the table, Elise licked her lips, her eyes trained sharply on Wynne.

Wynne could sense Elise’s burning gaze on him. It irritated him while at the same time unnerved him even more. He stopped pacing directly in front of Elise, returning her stare with a glare of his own. “What?” He demanded with his arms akimbo.

“Since we have established that you did not intentionally hurt Caelie, then why are you still so flustered?” Elise asked in an even voice, her face a picture of calm.

Wynne averted his eyes, unable to form a coherent answer for Elise. His head was still muddled over the earlier incident. He had been so sure then, as he sat in the dark staring at the limp girl before him, not daring to move an inch for fear of finding out that it was all just an illusion. And that was precisely what had happened the moment Elise came back, fussing over Caelie and snapping at him demanding to know what had happened. Just like that, the sense of epiphany that he had was gone. What happened next was a blur memory. Somehow, they had managed to carry Caelie from the hallway into the guest bedroom, the cause of the power trip rectified and a doctor had came to check on Caelie. She was fine obviously, having fainted only due to shock, which Wynne knew jolly well was attributed to him. But that was not the reason for his flustered state. He was frustrated because after all was said and done, he wasn’t so sure anymore that it was Hayley. He began to doubt himself, perhaps it was just the dark playing tricks on his eyes. The only way to verify his hunch was to look at Caelie in the eye again, which would have to wait until the next morning.

“I’m...just tired.” Wynne dropped his arm by his side and dragged his feet out of the kitchen, leaving Elise to watch his retreating back with a baffled look on her face.

Caelie rolled over on her side, relishing in the softness of the plush mattress underneath her body. Her bed in her rental apartment had never been this comfortable. Her eyes shot opened then and she sat up with a start. Her head throbbing slightly from the sudden movement causing her to wince. It took her a moment to get her bearings straight and relived what happened the night before, or at least whatever she could remember of it. Although her fear had been real then, when she thought about it that morning, it all seemed rather silly of her to faint of shock. A warm feeling began creeping up her neck to her face and Caelie wished that she could hide in this room forever. Groaning, she pushed the comforter off her lap and stood up.

Staying overnight had never been a part of the agenda so Caelie had not packed any extra clothes with her. Thankfully Elise had lent her a pair of pajamas to sleep in. After freshening up in the en suite bathroom, Caelie changed back into her clothes and fussed slightly in front of the mirror. She looked fairly presentable, the only problem was her eyes. She had removed her contact lenses to give her eyes a breather after a long day and just like clothes, she hadn’t thought to bring the saline solution for them since she was only heading home straight once Elise returned. Now she had to put them on but she didn’t want to risk an infection by not rinsing them first. She grabbed her bag and anxiously rummaged through it, practically spilling contents on the bathroom counter as she looked for any signs of a travel pack that she sometimes carried with her when she used to commute frequently to the countryside.

Caelie’s hands moved faster with her growing agitation as she dug deeper into her bag which was growing emptier by the second as more items littered the counter. Realizing that she was not going to find any travel pack, she threw her bag down beside the mess of things and frowned at her reflection. Not that Caelie needed the contact lenses to sharpen her eyesight. She was just not comfortable with showing people her crystal eyes. She hated them and preferred the hazel eyes that people knew her with. At least then, she could blend in. The sound of something hitting the tiled floor tore Caelie’s eyes away from her reflection. One of the things that she had dumped on the counter had probably rolled off it. Bending down to retrieve it, Caelie’s eyes widened with joy when she realized that it was indeed the very thing that she had been looking for. How she had missed it earlier, she had no idea. Grabbing the small saline tube, Caelie quickly put on her contact lenses and packed her things before walking out of the room with her bag swinging in her hand.

With the sunlight streaming through the wall-length glass windows, Elise’s house looked even more impressive than the night before. The light reflecting off the chandelier bathed the living room in shimmering brightness. Caelie could not helped but gawked at the beauty of it. As she neared the kitchen, her nose twitched slightly at the smell that wafted out. She stopped at the kitchen entrance, surprised to see Elise preparing breakfast all by herself. Caelie had thought that Elise would surely have helpers doing the cooking and cleaning for her like any typical rich people. Yet, she had not seen any signs of helpers at all. Elise truly was different in every aspects.