– 🤎 ⌗ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿.

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ "I THINK WE SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STORES DOWN HERE." steven says, holding his disposable camera up.

"i didnt even know there were any stores, looked pretty empty to me." atticus says, looking out the window

"thought we could check out what's down here. you know, get some souvenirs."

"maybe atti and i could to and see the children's home?" ania pipes up.

"c'mon guys, your mom would have a heart attack-"

"what if we got someone to take us?"

-

steven somehow got two teenagers that were hanging around outside the bar to take ania and atticus to the children's home. (not without offering them a £10 note first.)

they were around 14 to 16, and one of them walked weirdly close to ania.

"it's not too far from 'ere, yeah." the older one says as the group of 4 walk on a hill, closer to a patch of land and a river leading to a forest.

the whole of cairnholm island was foggy and just overall miserable. it reminded ania of twilight, like a werewolf was gonna jump out at her at any given moment.

"are you sure this is the right way?" atticus asks skeptically, and rightfully so. it looked very dodgy.

"yeah, 'course. just right through the trees there."

"this is the shortcut, 'ere." one of them points. "you'll get there faster that way."

atticus begins to step down from the hill, and onto the land before the river, while his sister stays put for a minute.

once he seems fine, ania steps down too.

she's careful where she steps, making sure not to accidentally fall into a puddle.

not even a second later, her brother's foot falls into a deep puddle of mud. the welsh boys that guided them to this place cackling.

they eventually leave once atticus gets his leg out of the mud, his shoe now missing.

atticus stops, about to dip his hand in the mud to find his lost shoe.

"come on," ania-grace grabs her brother's hand. "we don't have time."

they make their way through the trees, atticus now being careful of his steps.

within a few more steps, they reach the house.

it was most definitely not a pretty sight.

"it's gone." ania-grace gasps. "it's all gone."

the house was demolished. the roof was gone, so were all the windows, and the whole building was still collapsing. why did no one just take it down?

-

the door of the pub opened, the siblings walking in defeatedly.

atticus still hadn't found his shoe.

"no point crying over a lost shoe, boy." bobby, the old man from before, tells the sulking boy.

"what happened to the children's home? it's all destroyed?" atticus asks, rather impatiently.

"german air raid, bomb fell right from the roof." bobby sips his beer. "september the third, 1940."

"what happened to them? the headmistress and the children?"

"not one survived, poor buggers. lovely people, they were." bobby sighs.

atticus then gets up, presumably going back to the room.

"you knew them?" ania stays put, now asking her own questions.

the old man nods. "the older ones used to come to the pub quite often, always causing a havoc."

"could you tell me about them?"

-

"i just don't understand why he didn't tell us that they died?" atticus questions glumly.

"going to war and then 3 months later your family is killed? not even grandpa could turn that into a bedroom story." steven replies, not looking away from his laptop.

-

the three family members sat eating their breakfast.

ania was playing with her toast, not really interested in eating as she was still quite devastated about the children's home.

"dad," atticus starts, making his sister and father look up from their meals. "do you think ania and i could hang out with the other children today? they asked."

ania-grace raises an eyebrow. they most definitely did not ask.

"thats great, yeah." their father seemed happy about that, as the two didn't really have many friends.

ania looks at her brother strangely. what was he planning?

words: 0.67K
proof read?: 😁😁 no

sorry for a very short chapter, i am in so much pain right now idek what's going onn. i did post an announcement on the news page about it but i dont know if anyone saw 😭

but if im a bit better i might post again, but it's not very likely as these take so long to write (i do love writing them thooo)

ill also be making another af soon, so let me know if anyone wants to be tagged <3

please remember to comment and vote :)