"Hey Phil"

"What Evan?"

"We've been roaming around for quite a while and still haven't got any luck finding dad".

"Well, he must be somewhere in a tavern bragging with some strangers, don't you think?"

"Yeah, that might be it. Should we look into that tavern over there?"

"What for? You know, I was kidding Phil".

"You don't lose anything for trying".

"Ahh, for Hera's sake, I don't think..."

"Phil?"

"Evan, I think I saw two cockroaches".

"What? What are you talking..."

I took his chin violently, I didn't mean to harm him, but in the end, it was for that idiot to look for danger. He spotted the two men as soon as I told him to look.

"Phil, we need to get out of here".

"But... dad".

"Dad will eventually find us, if we get home now, then we'll miss them. Perhaps they haven't seen us".

He was right. We had to get home and tell mother and father what had happened. We were not going to be able to do anything. But... if they spotted father along the way. I knew it was going to get ugly. And I feared it could get worse.

"You're... You're right, but I just can't go, and leave father alone!"

"Who says we're leaving him? We-we're just... -sigh- I know Phil, this is terrible".

"Then, then let's go, what are you waiting for?!"

"PHIL WAIT!"

As I left Evan standing in front of the crowd, I began running in the opposite direction. I think I got too fast because I already had gotten lost. I turned around. I couldn't see Evan anymore, and as my walk got slower, people started to bump into me.

My stupid anxiety was leading me to an unknown alley, but I kept yeling for dad, I screamed his name: "KALONIMUS!" over, and over again.

"DAD! KALONIMUS! DAAAAD! ...Evan..."

People were only hearing childish cryings of a kid who had gotten lost. However, they were not a bit affected by it. I was just one more missing child. Hoping for Hera to pray to find my father, and for Evan to find me.

"Please Hera, please... huh?"

I stopped moving my feet for a moment. I thought I saw my father getting into a strange looking house that said: "lost and found", so I... I just followed the man.

"What is this...", I thought. But I couldn't help myself into thinking that it was getting darker and I had abandonned Evan, I thought that he was probably pannicking alone, and I felt bad after remembering his hysterical face.

I entered the place.

My first impression was that of a simple "lost and found" store where you can get what you have lost in exchange for some cash. Well, it wasn't anything like that.

"What the..."

Everywhere I looked I found myself wanting to puke. Fairies, spirits, humanoid bodies and whatsoever... all of them petrified in the most horrible way, with dying expressions and the putrefacted essence of death. Inside the house. NO. Inside the colorful butchery, there they were, surrounded by this strange blue, green or purple liquid boxed in a flask.

I didn't believe my father was in a place like this. Maybe it wasn't him after all.

It wasn't him, no way.

"I have to go", but...

"HEY! YOU KID! HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"

"Ugh!"