And so, off went Karl to Jetroina.
Back on this end, Sebastian continued to wait on news of Sasha while he tended to the children and watched over Sabrina who was receiving treatment.
Sabrina was playing with the kids and was somewhat less reactive after her latest round of treatment.
“Shall we play hide-and-seek, Aunt Sabrina?”
“Yay, I love hide-and-seek,” a delighted Sabrina laughed and started to clap happily like a child.
The three munchkins immediately broke away to hide, and out of consideration for their aunt who was unwell, they chose spots that were easier to spot, like behind the planter box or under the table.
All except for the adorkable Vivian, who got a little more invested and decided to head upstairs.
She was spotted by Sabrina who proceeded to chase her and those stumpy legs of hers down.
Sabrina ended up inside Vivian’s room and uncovered the little girl’s hiding spot behind the curtains, upon which Vivian responded by purposefully wrapping her shower towel around her own head to throw her aunt off.
“Ah!”
The previously upright Sabrina, shrieked as she shrunk into a ball by the door.
Snapping out of a discussion with her doctor regarding her prognosis, Sebastian reacted quickly to the noise he heard coming from upstairs. “What? What happened?”
The aggrieved-looking Vivian then poked her head out from the second-floor corridor.
“Vivi was just playing hide-and-seek with Aunt Sabrina, Daddy. And when Aunt Sabrina saw me hiding behind the curtain, she said that I was a ghost…”
The flabbergasted Sebastian’s head throbbed but could do precious else apart from moving quickly to comfort this pair of big and little women.
“Come here, Vivi. Let Aunt Sabrina have a good look at you.” Sebastian could only call his own daughter over to the shivering mess by the bedroom door that was his older sister, and Vivian duly complied.
“Look, Aunt Sabrina. It’s me, Vivi.”
Cautiously peeking out, Sabrina slowly lifted her head away from the bend of her elbow and breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized the dainty little girl.
But as soon as she saw Sebastian, she evoked another traumatized look on her face. “There’s a ghost. I’m telling you. There’s really a ghost.”
“What are you going on about? What ghost?”
Sebastian was fast losing patience and already thinking about helping this still unsound woman downstairs when she grasped his arm abruptly.
“It’s real. Inside the memorial hall. It has extremely long hair and even chewed at my toes. Ah!”
It was not certain what frightful thing came to mind that caused her to clamber onto her feet and break into a sprint after a round of screeching.
The hapless Sebastian wondered if he should take her to have some tests done to see if she was actually the one with the genetic anomalies but quickly forgot about the whole incident.
Roxanne came by two days later with a full set of extremely advanced equipment to run some tests on Sabrina in order to see if it might be of help.
“I know that you don’t wish to see me, Sebastian, but Sabrina is my family too. After having so little success with all the doctors you’ve had attend to her, won’t you let me give it a try?”
She did not strut in directly, but humbly implored Sebastian outside the door.
Sebastian was positive that he did not want to entertain her, but those kids who were playing with their aunt in the yard curiously ran over to him.
“I think Ms. Rocke’s right, Daddy. Aunt Sabrina hasn’t gotten any better, and now she isn’t willing to stay inside the yard anymore. What are we to do if Ms. Dolivo and the three of us were unable to handle her when you’re not around?” Matteo said.
Sebastian looked at him with some surprise and also found his older boy, Ian, who usually had no fondness for this woman, nodding along in agreement.
“It’s worth a shot, as she’s quite skilled at what she does.”
After a moment of quiet deliberation and a glance over at his wild-haired sister who was running amok in the yard, Sebastian reluctantly consented.
