Chapter 17

Hong Kong – Leon
Canada – Matthew
USA – Alfred
Seychelles – Shelly
Australia – Kyle
England – Arthur /Artie
France – Fran / Francis
Denmark –Mathias Norman
Norway – Lukas Norman
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

"Kyle's sleep wandering again," informs Lukas the others and they all hurry out of the room and jog as silently as possible down the hallway to the stairs which Kyle is slowly climbing up. Arthur passes Lukas on their way and just wants to reach out to his son as Lukas stops him.
"No. Let him. We need the pictures."
Arthur looks confused and lets the boy continue on the stairs.
"But it's only Kyle?"
Mathias stands on the same step as Lukas does and shakes his head.
"He's not the one to trigger the cameras. Or we would have too where we stand now."
Lukas adds:
"Someone's with him." He still watches how Kyle reaches the top of the stairs and slowly continues down the hallway.
Arthur turns his head quickly back to Kyle but he can't spot what Lukas and Mathias are talking about.
"Kyle!" He tries in vain, and the boy proceeds back into his room. Arthur, Mathias, Lukas, Francis, Berwald and Tino watch from down the stairs how Kyle slowly disappears into his room. As soon as he is out of sight, the door creaks and slams shut with a loud bang.

Arthur sprints upstairs shouting for his son and bangs against the door. He reaches for the door handle but the door won't budge. Mathis follows suit and hits with his shoulder against the door to force it open but it only produces a banging sound and nothing more. From the small gap between door and floor flashes twice a bright light and in between shouts they can hear the cameras going off inside the room.

Berwald has turned heels as soon as he heard the door and is now at the radio devices and quickly takes on the big headphones and switching on the transmission. He turns the audio louder and listens concentrated and doesn't have to wait long to hear a whispering voice.
"There's someone with him!" He shouts, his deep voice carrying through the house and the two men upstairs try even harder to get inside. Seeing that not more than two men can try to force open the door, Lukas hurries back down to Berwald instead and puts the other pair of headphones on.
"Hearing another voice. List'n"
Lukas nods and concentrates on the sounds coming through the headphones while Berwald turns the audio on the second pair louder.

"Follow me. This way," a ghostly yet childish voice urges.
Lukas heart skips a beat hearing the childish yet urging voice which definitely does not belong to Kyle.
"Follow me. This is where I hide."
Lukas' eyes widen and he turns towards he came from.

Finally, the door magically opens with a swing and hits the wall with a loud bang. The two men stumble into the room. Their breaths form clouds in the cold air and both look around in the dark room for the boy.
"Kyle?" calls Arthur for seemingly the thousandths time but no little boy is to be seen or answers.
Tino stands at the door and turn the light switch on. Arthur gets down on his knees and looks under the bed. Mathias checks the windows if they were opened.
"Where could he have gone?" asks Arthur, looking desperately at Mathias, voice full of worry.
Mathias shakes his head and crosses the room with three large steps.
"Windows are locked."
Arthur steps towards the big old closet and opens it. The clothes, neatly hanged up inside sway softly and he can't find anything else than wood and fabric. He turns around again and shouts now in frustration:
"Mathias, where did he go?!"
Mathias runs down all possibilities in his head, his eyes focusing on nothing and he shakes his head ever so slightly as if to dismiss every impossibility.
He raises his hand slowly and points at Tino, demanding almost absently.
"Get the UV-light."
Tino, who was standing at the door, controlling that nothing could escape this room, nods, turns around and runs down the stairs and then runs to Berwald and Lukas.
Both Lukas and Berwald look up expectantly. They stopped following the audio in the room as the voice disappeared.
"I need a UV Light," explains Tino in a hurried yet focused tone. A voice that makes every man under his command follow his orders immediately at the police station.
Berwald gets quickly up and reaches into a big cardboard box. Without even looking in it he finds the long and slender device and hands it to him. Tino takes it and holds it to himself as he runs upstairs, taking three steps at a time again. He runs the few steps from the stairs into the room and hands Mathias the light who takes it and turns it on in a second. Tino steps back to give Mathias space, calms down his heavy breathing and watches him attentively.
"Turn off the light," demands Mathias and Tino quickly switches it off. The small clouds still form from his mouth in the cold air.

Mathias stands at the door and leans down with the blue light and flashes the ground. Light blue, almost glowing footprints are to be seen, leading from the door across the room. Mathias stays bent down and makes one step after another, closely following the path the small footprints create. It takes only a few steps and seconds before the destination is clear: The old wardrobe.

Mathias slowly straightens again and illuminates with the device the old wood of the closet. At the height of his navel he sees clearly handprints on it. He opens quickly the door and the white clothes in it glow ghostly blue in the light. He pushes them aside. Minding them not much attention as he frantically looks for other handprints. After pushing some of the clothes aside he finds the left corner full of them, forming almost a decorative pattern from bottom to the top end. He presses his flat hand against the wood where the smaller handprints are but nothing moves. He pats on it but everything seems normal beside the ghostly white blue handprints glowing on the dark wood.

Mathias switches the UV-light off and sets it down on the floor.
"The lights," he commands again as he steps completely into the wardrobe and starts to look for any mechanism to open the backside. Tino, who turned on the lights, steps closer to the tense Arthur, both trying to warm their cold hands with their breath.

Mathias digs his nails into the tiny gap in the corner between the two wooden planks. He pulls on it until the backside moves to the side and reveals a grey wall and a hole in it. Mathias quickly gets down on his knees and peeks carefully inside. What he sees is a very narrow room in between two walls, separating the neighbouring rooms. He turns his head to the other side and his heart skips a beat when he sees a small figure leaning against the wooden wall. It's the body of a small boy with hazelnut hair and pajamas with kangaroos printed on them.

Mathias sits up and turns towards Arthur. "Found him!"
Those two words are enough to get Arthur out of his congealment of worry and cold. His anxious expression turns to worry as he steps to Mathias. Together they manage to pull the boy safely out of the small room without even waking the boy up. Tino organized quickly a blanket which they pull around the cold body and Arthur carries him carefully out of the room. In the meantime, all his siblings and his other father gathered at the door, woken up by all the ruckus. As soon as Francis sees that his little boy is safe in the arms of his father, he shoos the other kids back into their rooms.

Only Shelly remains at the door, clutching the small circus tent shaped music box. Lukas steps to her and looks at her softly. She has her eyes focused on the wardrobe first but as she feels the big man standing beside her she looks up at him and into his dark blue eyes.
"That's where Lily hides when she's afraid."