“Are you sure?” Uncle asks. The car bumps softly out of the drive, and I watch the gates close behind us.
“She said you had to tiptoe to see out of the window. I didn't have to do that, but a child would.” Mireille squeezes my hand.
“But then how did she survive? Empie said they all died.” Uncle rubs his chin. “Children don’t handle themselves well in a fire.”
A fleeting image flashes before my eyes. Dark, heavy, and…. safe.
“The robes.” I whisper. “The robes saved me.”
“Robes? You mean someone wearing a robe?” Mireille leans back and then sighs. “That could be anyone in such a place, Kirika.”
“I’m afraid she’s right. Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?” Uncle asks me. I can tell from his motion that he’s still rubbing his sore leg.
“No.” I shake my head, closing my eyes to try and remember.
“It’s not that we don’t want to believe you.” Uncle’s voice is gentle. “We just need to conduct further investigation about what happened to those children.”
I know it’s true. It feels real, it has to be real.
“But you believe me, don’t you Mireille?” I open my eyes and whisper to her.
“Of course I do.” She strokes my hair, but something tells me she’s still not sure.
“Perhaps Frere Mueller will have more answers for us. We’re stopping at the hospital next to ask him a few questions.” Uncle takes his notepad out of his pocket and flips it to a clean sheet, then stuffs it back into place.
“Maybe it was him. Maybe he was the one that saved me.” The thought of visiting Frere Mueller gives me a sudden surge of hope.
Uncle sighs and turns back to me. He looks uneasy, and I feel my hopes fade.
“Kirika. Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you weren’t saved? What if instead of being saved, you were taken?”
I stare at him, unable to speak.
“Somehow you wound up at the mansion and became Noir. Someone out there did this, and handed you over to Altena. There have been two deadly fires now at the abbey, and I suspect both of them are connected to Noir.”
“That’s a horrible thought.” Mireille says quietly. “I hope it’s not true.”
“No more horrible than what happened to you.” Uncle says gently, and Mireille looks at him for a moment, then turns away, staring out of the window.
“I don’t need your sympathy.” she hisses angrily under her breath. I close my eyes and lean back. The car becomes silent, each of us tense in thought.
A dark robe….
For some reason I remember my visit with Droger, and his long dark robe.
Droger knows about me, about the nightmare room. How?
A sudden thought occurs to me, and I try to shake it off, but find it impossible.
Was Droger the robe that took me from the Abbey?

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