The roar of Fenrir intensified until the engine finally fell silent in front of his garage.
Lief jumped off, feeling the accumulated fatigue of the long journey beginning to dissolve at the simple expectation of being back, but as he took off his sunglasses and shook his hair, Airam's enigmatic phrase still spun in his head.
He whistled his way to the front door and opened it with his key, announcing his arrival with a shout:
"I'm back!"
"..."
However, what greeted him was not the expected enthusiastic hug from his mother, nor his father's head peeking over the newspaper, nor the sound of Lillith running to greet him.
The house was steeped in absolute silence. An abnormal silence that instantly made his smile fade.
The air in the living room felt... stagnant.
"Dad? Mom?" he called again, his voice sounding inevitably more cautious.
"Oh! Son, you're back."
His mother's voice finally came from the second floor.
A second later, she and her husband appeared at the top of the stairs. Their smiles were evident, but they didn't reach their eyes; they exchanged a quick, awkward glance that didn't go unnoticed by Lief.
"What's wrong?" he asked, immediately noticing the tension. "Do we have company?"
"Uh... something like that..." John murmured, adjusting his glasses with a clearly evasive gesture. "Honey, why don't you explain it to him?"
With a sigh, Sarah walked down the stairs, wrapped Lief in a quick but tense hug, and then took his hand.
Her expression turned serious, tinged with deep compassion.
"... do you remember the case I've been handling lately?"
Lief nodded.
Of course, he remembered it: a complicated case related to missing minors and serious family conflicts. He had never asked for the details.
"Well," Sarah continued, lowering her voice, "The girl in the case, Esther... her situation is very delicate. She doesn't have a suitable guardian right now, and I just couldn't leave her at the center, so... I brought her home for a few days to look after her."
As she spoke, Sarah looked toward the top of the stairs, raising her voice just a little. "Esther, darling, come down. This is my son, Lief, the one I told you about."
At her call, a girl in a vintage-style dress and two perfectly symmetrical braids slowly emerged from the shadows of the upper hallway.
She looked about nine years old, with skin pale as snow and eyes that possessed a calm and maturity totally incompatible with her age.
She approached until she was next to Sarah, stopped, and made a slight, formal curtsy toward Lief.
"Hello, brother Lief."
"..."
The instant he saw that face and heard that voice, Lief felt an electric shock.
His mind suddenly unearthed the image of a scene from a psychological horror movie he thought he had forgotten years ago.
A psychopath who doesn't grow up?
But before he could even process the shock of having "Esther" in his house, his father cleared his throat, diverting his attention with an awkward gesture toward the other end of the living room sofa.
"And also... she's Emma. We were driving back from the outskirts the day before yesterday and, well, we ran into a car accident. This girl is the only survivor. Her aunt... well, the police haven't finished all the paperwork yet, so we brought her with us for now."
Lief's gaze, already rigid from the first revelation, mechanically shifted to where his father was pointing.
There, sitting impeccably, was a black-haired, blue-eyed girl, dressed in a princess dress that made her look like a doll. She was tightly clutching a teddy bear and observing him with eyes that spilled pure innocence.
"Hello." Emma's voice was clear and sweet as a bell.
Lief felt a violent twitch in his eyelid.
The Bad Seed?
His temples began to throb with a dull pressure.
He had only been away from home for a short time, had starred in what seemed like two horror movies in a row, and upon returning, he discovered that his home had literally become a refuge for child horror movie actresses.
He couldn't hold back anymore.
"... Where did you... steal these girls from?" The words burst out, in a tone that was less a question than a torn lament, on the verge of collapse.
"Lief, what are you saying!" Sarah looked at him with genuine reproach, completely oblivious to the irony of the situation.
"These two girls have terribly tragic stories. Esther has been through so much, and poor Emma witnessed the death of her family members with her own eyes. What they need most now is affection and warmth."
Hearing that, Lief had to take a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the cascade of comments threatening to come out.
He looked again at those two "poor little things" he now had in his living room: one, who was actually twenty-eight, was an expert in manipulation, pyromania, and seducing adoptive parents; the other, barely eight, possessed a textbook antisocial personality, a cold-blooded killer capable of getting rid of a classmate just for a medal.
Warmth? Affection? What these two needed was an individual cell in a maximum-security prison.
Managing to maintain his composure by a thread, he asked about the only thing missing: "So... where is Lillith?"
"Oh, she's in her room," his father replied, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "It seems like... she doesn't like her new little sisters very much. She's been locked up all day."
'Obviously!' Lief roared internally. 'That's not "not liking"; it's professional repulsion between creatures of the same type!'
Now, finally, he understood what the damn "surprise" Airam had talked about was.
He felt like his house was no longer his house, but the literal set of a reality show titled "Problem Child Custody Center."
Just at that moment, the door to Lillith's room opened with an audible sound.
Lillith, wearing her pink pajamas, peeked her head out from behind the door. She completely ignored the two newcomers and fixed her gaze directly on Lief, her eyes full of evident grievance and a trace of caution.
"Brother..." she called softly. A second later, she ran toward him, hugged his leg tightly, and buried her face deeply in the fabric, as if seeking desperate refuge.
His parents smiled with genuine relief upon seeing the scene.
"See? Lillith is still the most attached to you," Sarah said tenderly, oblivious to the tension. "As the big brother, you now have to take good care of your three little sisters."
Lief looked down at his "little sister" clinging to his leg, noticing how she trembled slightly, and then looked up at the two "new little sisters" watching him.
One smiling with rehearsed shyness, the other with porcelain innocence. The gazes of the three girls clashed in the air, and although the room was calm, only Lief could feel how the atmosphere instantly froze.
He instantly understood the scene.
Lillith was using her action to proclaim her territory to her "owner," a warning that there were intruders.
Meanwhile, Esther and Emma, hidden behind their best masks, were coldly evaluating the newly arrived "brother," trying to gauge the one who, apparently, held the most authority in the house.
Lief felt that, more than a brother, they had turned him into a prison warden.
He extended his hand and stroked Lillith's head in a reassuring gesture. However, what he said next, with a serene smile directed at the new residents, made the bodies of the three "girls" tense up.
"Don't worry. Big brother is going to 'take very good care' of you."
A quick flash of surprise and doubt shone in Esther's eyes. Even Emma's pure and innocent expression seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.
Both had grasped the indescribable pressure hidden in his tone.
Only Lillith, the demon who knew Lief's truly terrifying side best, reacted by hiding her head even further into his leg, almost as if she felt sorry for them.
"Alright, alright, it's late." Sarah clapped her hands, abruptly cutting off the strange atmosphere that had settled in. "Lief, you just got back and must be exhausted. Go take a shower, dinner is almost ready." Then she turned to the new guests: "Esther, Emma, you two go wash your hands as well. John, honey, come help me."
The parents turned and walked together toward the kitchen, leaving the living room in the hands of Lief and his three "dear little sisters."
As soon as they disappeared, Lief gently detached Lillith from his leg. He walked unhurriedly to the sofa, not so much sitting down as dropping into it, sprawling with absolute confidence.
From that relaxed position, his gaze, now charged with interest, scanned Esther and Emma up and down, savoring the moment.
He said nothing, but that look, which seemed capable of seeing through everything, made both girls feel as if they were naked, as if every trick and every psychological mask they had perfected were ridiculously transparent and useless in front of him.
"You two," Lief finally said, breaking the silence. "You'd better behave."
He paused, allowing the words to sink in, and then the corner of his lips curled into a smile that promised nothing good.
"Because if you don't," he continued, "I'm personally going to teach you what a real horror movie is."
Having said that, and without waiting for a reaction, he completely ignored the way both girls' faces had subtly changed. He stood up with a jump, stretched his arms, and turned to Lillith, who had reattached herself to his leg like a barnacle.
"Come on," he said, completely changing his tone to a playful one. "Show me what you broke today."
Lillith immediately lifted her head, her previous anguish instantly replaced by a sweet smile.
"Nothing! I was very good today!"
The two went up the stairs one after the other, engrossed in their own dynamic, leaving Esther and Emma planted in the middle of the room.
Their expressions, for the first time since they had arrived, had lost all control, becoming somber and charged with a bewilderment they failed to hide.
________
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