The pair of woman and cat stared at the searching little girl and onto the screen. The screen showed a small, round heat signature moving inside the house. Nothing else came out. The little girl kept calling out, still no one answered.
They saw her tiny silhouette sit on a high chair and she appeared to be doing something on the table. After awhile, she walked out carrying a small chair with her. Her oily cheeks indicated she just finished eating. The little girl set the chair by the door and sat on it. She looked towards the gate, as if expecting that something will show up from it. It looks like she's planning to camp on the door. The pair continued watching until the little girl was unable to fight her sleepiness and nodded off to sleep.
Lisa is patient. She waited more but got nothing. The house is still silent and there were no traces of the older residents of the house anywhere. When she saw the little black cat fighting to stay awake, she patted its head and said.
"Take a rest and sleep now. I'll wake you up if we needed to move. For now, we have to wait. Her family should be coming back for her anytime soon so we have to be ready. Get some sleep and when you've rested, you can switch with me if they still haven't arrived by then."
Luca gave her an apologetic look and closed its eyes, trying to go to sleep as soon as possible so it can swap with her and let her rest as well. When she saw the little black cat's eagerness, Lisa smiled. Luca is, after all, still a child. She can't put it through so much suffering.
When Luca woke up, it saw Lisa nodding off to sleep as well but she fought it off with empty cups of coffee on the floor. Luca felt hurt when it saw this so it gave Lisa a gentle tugged.
"I'll take over now. You should sleep." It said.
Lisa did not argue and just laid down where she sat. When her head hit the soft covers, she immediately fell asleep. Luca helped straighten her body to let her sleep comfortably. Once it felt satisfied, it went back to watching the little girl's heat signature on the screen who now seemed to finish eating again and is lying down for a nap. What a carefree life!
Luca kept watch until darkness came and still, nothing happened. The screen scanning the house still shows a single heat signature, it belonged to the little girl. She lay comfortably on something and her steady breathing shows she's fast asleep.
When Luca saw the moon going up high in the sky, it frowned. It's almost midnight now. Did they really leave this kid behind?
'Plonk!'
Luca heard a dropping sound coming from behind the house and before it could check out what happened, it saw Lisa jolt awake. The soundly asleep silhouette of the little girl also stirred from the sound and she immediately jumped out and called out.
'Nana, did something break? Where have you been? Why did you leave me outside? I got mosquito bites in my body now.'
The little girl's complaints were heard but there was no response. Lisa checked their screen and nothing else stirred. Did the gateway close? Why are they not here to bring this child back yet?
"Stay here, I'll check it out." She softly said to the anxious looking Luca.
"No! You said to wait!" It protested but she remained stubborn.
"Trust me. I'll be back." Lisa assured the little back cat again and she stood up.
After checking that the child ran towards their backyard, Lisa brought her portable screen and carefully walked towards the house. She saw the little girl stare upwards. Following her gaze, Lisa found nothing. The little girl went back inside the house, still calling out, and she grabbed this opportunity to see what the child had been looking at.
What see saw next made her heart fell. The exact point where she calculated the gateway should have been now has a mound of dirt, broken potteries and wood on them. She stretched her hand to check for a possible hidden room but her hand freely went through.
She steadied her breathing to calm herself down. The gateway has closed. That explains why there was no response when the little girl called. Her family has probably been locked out from coming back to pick her up. And them? They lost the one time opportunity to go back to Toradashi. Who knows when they would stumble upon this kind of scenario again. Luca must not know.
'Waaaah'
Lisa heard a loud wail from inside the house and knew then that the child realized she's been left behind. She sneaked a look at the little girl and smiled scornfully to herself. Five years. The once cuddly baby has now grown into a little girl.
'Maybe, this is fate.' Lisa shrugged her shoulders in acceptance and walked towards the house to comfort the little girl.
However, when she took the first step, Lisa felt the ground shake and saw before her eyes the concrete floor crack open as the space around the little girl became torn. The floor opened wide enough to engulf the little girl whole and she ran just in time to push the grab the child away and fling her to a safer place.
"Careful!" She heard herself say and winced as she felt pain in one of her arms. Somehow, she grazed upon an open fissure in space while reaching her hands to grab the child and it ended up getting her injured. She held her arm and took a look. A large, purplish bruise covered almost her entire arm and a streamlet of blood ran from her shoulders down to her fingertips.
Lisa heard the little girl yell but, unable to focus due to her injury, she can't make out any of the words she said. She kept herself hidden as she watched the panicking child. She bit her lips and blood oozed from it as she endured the pain.
Unable to get any answer, she saw the little girl focus on one of the fissures and watched in horror as she extended her tiny hands inside. What happened next put her in shock. When the little girl extended her hand towards one of the tipples, she saw her caress one of the trees inside. How did she?
'Toradashi? We can pass through that?' Her mind started working however she felt the ground move again and the space ripple. The little girl winced in pain and before any injury can happen, Luca ran just in time to pick her up and throw her to safety in its panther form.
"Stupid brat!"