Chapter Five - Trapped

"No!"

"What is the meaning of this?!" Emiliana demanded angrily, turning to face Kat.

"He's taken the machine! He's gone back to our time! We're stuck here!"

"So he tricked us?" Emiliana looked livid.

"Yes, he did." Kat was a little apprehensive now - she had never seen Emiliana so angry before.

Emiliana took a few deep breaths.

"So what now?" Kat asked.

"What do you mean?"

"How do we get back?"

Emiliana frowned at her. "Aren't you jumping the gun a little?"

"What do you mean?"

"We came here to find your father, Katrielle. Shouldn't we at least try, while we're here?"

"I suppose..."

"Why not?"

"I just thought that, as he just abandoned us here, should we really take him for his word?"

"Katrielle. We are stuck here. Until we can find another working machine to get us back, we have to stay here. Don't tell me now that you think we got trapped here for nothing."

Kat nodded silently.

"So where do we start?"

"Well... Mr. Allen said that the machine was in his house when they ditched my dad... maybe we should start there?"

Emiliana nodded. "We should go straight there."

Kat stared after her as she marched swiftly to the front door. Guilt slowly started to fill her mind. If she really was trapped here, Emiliana would have lost everything to one of her hunches. At least if she found her father, she would still have someone to call family, someone to start a new life with, yet Emiliana was stranded three decades away from home, away from her family, away from her mother, who she clung to so dearly in the photograph Kat had seen on her desk. Kat and Emiliana were not friends, Kat knew that. Emiliana had even struggled to call Kat an acquaintance, which led Kat to wonder why on earth she had insisted on accompanying her in the first place.

"Katrielle, are you coming?!"

"The place looks derelict."

"He's been in prison for about two years now," Kat replied. Having acquired a newspaper on their way over, Kat and Emiliana had discovered that they were almost twenty-eight years in the past. Kat had already passed several people she knew already - Stachenscarfen, the man in the bunny costume, Benni, who sold popoños, although he was a boy in his mid-to-late teens at this time, a young red-headed lady carrying a mass of lace dresses down the street, who Kat recognised as a young Clover Pryce. The fact that they really were in the past really hit her when she saw Ms. Pryce hurry past them.

"So what now?" Emiliana asked. "Should we go in?"

"Definitely," Kat replied. "Mr. Allen said that Dad was unconscious when he left him. We need to check if he's there."

"Right," Emiliana said, and began to examine the door.

"Are you going to pick the lock again?"

"No need," Emiliana frowned. "It's open already."

She opened the door.

"Maybe your father already left?" she asked as they entered.

"Maybe," Kat replied. "I still want to check, though."

But a clean sweep of the entire house yielded no results.

"Okay," Emiliana said determinedly as they took a breather in Dimitri's sitting room. "He's not here. Either he never was, or he just isn't anymore."

"Your profiling skills precede you," Kat nodded.

Emiliana scowled. "We should talk to the neighbors and try to determine if he is here."

"Right," Kat said. "I have a photograph." She got up and made for the door, pulling it out of her bag. "Let's go."

"Wait, Katrielle..."

"What is it, Emiliana?" Kat asked, stopping in her tracks.

"This photograph..."

"Is it of Dad?" Kat asked.

Emiliana paused, studying the photograph. "I'm not sure, but this looks like a year photo, a university one. Mr. Allen was in the same year as my father, he's here, look..."

"Your father?" Kat approached her and peered at the picture over her shoulder. Kat suppressed a gasp as Emiliana pointed out her father.

"He's your father?"

"Yes," Emiliana said, frowning. "Why do you sound so shocked?"

"My dad knew him... Er..."

"I'm guessing they got along about as well as we do?" Emiliana asked, a slight smirk on her face.

"At least you never tried to flatten me with a Ferris wheel," Kat muttered to herself.

"What?!"

"Well, we'd better get going," Kat smiled, walking rather quickly out the door.

"Huh? Katrielle wait! What Ferris wheel?

"Excuse me, I'm looking for my dad, here's his picture, have you seen him?"

"No, sorry dear..."

"... and he wears a top hat..."

"Like Professor Hershel Layton of Gressenheller?"

"Ah... yes, like that..."

"I haven't seen anyone of that description around these parts, I'm afraid..."

As the search wore on, hours seemed to pass like days, and as night fell, their search area grew wider as their energy grew less. Eventually, Kat sighed and sat heavily onto a bench outside a local park, exhausted.

Emiliana sat beside her, wringing her hands. "I think we ought to turn in for the night, Katrielle."

"Mmm."

"We can try again in the morning," Emiliana said, starting to get up again.

"He's not here."

"How do you know?"

"Someone would have seen him," Kat said, staring into the distance.

"That means nothing," Emiliana replied, sitting down beside her again. "In this time, your father has a very high profile. He probably did his best to try and evade detection of his other younger self, as well as any family and friends he had in London at this time."

"He has a high profile," Kat agreed, "But there isn't a single street in London that isn't occupied. We must have asked hundreds of people already, yet there's still no sign of him. If he were here, someone is sure to have seen something."

Emiliana could've sworn she heard her choke up a little. "I believe he is here, Katrielle," she said. "Why else would Mr. Allen's front door have been left unlocked?"

"There could be any number of reasons why it could have been left open," Kat pointed out.

"There could be any number of reasons why none of the people we asked didn't see your father," Emiliana replied gently. "One of them being that we haven't asked the right person yet."

Kat nodded silently.

"I think we should stay at Mr. Allen's flat for now. We'll turn in for the night and try again fresh tomorrow."

Kat sighed.

"You're tired. And you're disappointed. I know you half expected to find him at Mr. Allen's. So did I, but..."

"It's never that simple," Kat finished, blinking back a tear. Nothing ever was in this particular investigation. She sighed again, blinking back another tear, then stopped. When had Emiliana started holding her hand?"

Kat looked at their hands together, then at Emiliana. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Why did you agree to help me?" Kat asked her.

"Because you asked me to," she replied.

"But..." Kat was confused.

"If I ever came to you for a favor, would you help me?"

"Of course I would."

"There you go." Emiliana squeezed her hand. "I know you're disappointed. But I also know that you will stop at nothing to find your father, because you can succeed at anything you put your mind to. Keep trying, okay?"

But Kat was still frowning.

"What is wrong, Katrielle?"

"Do you like me, Emiliana?"

Emiliana stared into space for a moment. "... Do you like me?" Emiliana asked a little apprehensively.

"Yes. Do you like me?"

"I suppose so."

"So we're friends now?"

"Er..."

"Oh, come on, Emiliana," Kat smiled, squeezing her hand. "I like you. You like me. We're friends! Done."

Emiliana smiled. "I suppose we are."

"And that's why you agreed to help me in the first place."

"Excuse me? What gave you that impression?"

"Well, helping a friend in need is a better excuse for getting yourself trapped twenty-eight years in the past than seeing the evidence you provided me with for my lead used to its fullest potential." Kat smiled as Emiliana laughed a little.

"Allora. Friends it is."

Kat smiled. "Do you think we should hug it out?"

"Don't push it."