Chapter 10.

A disgusting stench.

During the following days the girl kept practically doing nothing, looking out of a large window that surrounded her, although she had to admit that the stench that surrounded the property was totally nauseating and several times she had to stick her head out of the window to vomit, because the smell of burning bodies was so unpleasant that it was simply too much for her, she even asked herself silently, ¿How are my mom and dad?, ¿Are they okay?, ¿Will Brittany miss me?...Because this place feels so unpleasant, it's like she was really living in the pig pen; and although there were comforts and luxuries, it was she who had not been able to adapt to her new changes.

Bastian on the other hand, had been prowling around Mr. Leon's house looking for Cassie, but he had only managed to scare the little girl who lived there with his horrible appearance, so much was the fright of that girl, that she had fainted from panic when she saw him enter through the window of the room, while the old man who lived there was completely devastated by having buried his wife in the back of the property: her body was in such bad condition, that one could practically feel the pain she had suffered when she was abused, each of the cuts on her body were terrible and inhuman... Muriel had no right to decide on someone's life in that way, but he was old, he was in debt and he had no way of paying for it, if it hadn't been for the fact that Brittany needed him, the man would have hanged himself that same afternoon that they gave him his wife's corpse, and the melancholy that the old man felt in his heart was so great, that even Brittany, barely 8 years old, could feel it, even though she didn't know exactly how to live…why her mother had not returned; why her sister had left her and the reason for this deep sadness that her father was enduring. Brittany had not seen her mother's corpse when Muriel handed it over, because Mr. Leon had been careful and did not want his youngest daughter to suffer a trauma that would impact her in a bad way for the rest of her life, he had simply told her that mom would one day return to cook the fruit bread that she liked so much and that Cassie had fallen in love with a man who would take care of her; and that although she would not return for now, she would probably do so as mom in the future and one day they would all sit at the same table again while laughing... the girl believed that fantasy because it was convincing, but there was something in her father's gaze that felt doubtful, almost as if he were lying to her face, but Brittany understood that dad would never lie to her in that way, he would not deceive her and play with her emotions at that point...