The streets in Switzerland were already dark, and the last people had gotten away from the streets. Almost everyone was sleeping or sitting in front of the TV. So was Sophia. She didn’t know what to watch. All the cartoons were over and the adult programs were too boring for a six-year-old girl. She also wondered where her mother was (her parents divorced, and she hadn’t seen her dad for a long time now). Of course, her mother sometimes forgot that Sophia was still not sleeping. But her mother usually remembered about Sophia again only after she heard the TV playing. This whole situation was weird, especially for someone like Sophia’s mother. «Maybe she is drinking the juice again?», Sophia thought. Of course, she knew that the «juice» her mother was drinking was alcohol, but she kept saying ”juice” to make her mother feel better. But mom usually didn’t get drunk more than once a week, so this was unusual.»Mom?, «Sophia asked, but nobody answered. After half an hour, she finally found her mom. She was in the basement cleaning something up, but the moment she saw Sophia, she kicked her out of the basement, saying:»Little kids like you should be in bed». Sophia was weirded out, because her mother was unusually caring, but she was also rude and always tired. In a situation like this, she would say something like:» I have already told you to go to sleep, SO DO IT!» The only problem´was that now she didn’t tell Sophia to go to sleep. Instead, she was doing something secret in the basement. Secret….. Sophia was a secret trader, the other kids would give her money (which she spent not on sweets, but on new good clothing, not the one that Sophia’s mother bought) and she would tell them a secret. And Sophia was a very smart six-year-old, so she had no problems in getting those secrets out of people. And her business was doing great until the teachers found out and forbade it. But even after the closure of her business, she hasn’t lost her talents. And now she would use it to find out her mother’s big secret!
As Sophia walked to her room, she could feel her brain getting crazy from excitement. She finally had something to use against her mother, maybe even get her to buy Sophia candy (she never bought candy or anything delicious, so Sophia didn’t even know what their taste was). How would she find the answer to this secret? Easy, the answer was in the basement and the moment Sophia’s mother would be distracted, Sophia could just run into the basement and that would be the end of it. And just to show herself (and all her friends) that she was smarter and better than her mother, she created a point system: Every time her mother stops her from getting into the basement, she gets a point. And now that this was settled, the «game» could start. Even though Sophie was smarter, cuter, and much more tactical than her mother, she still didn’t manage to get into the basement, and at the end of the week, the score was in her mother’s favor. Any time Sophia even came near the basement, her mom would come out of the most stupid places like the closets and from under the tables. And Sophia’s mother was never THAT determined to stop Sophie from anything. And how could Sophia even lose so much against her mother? Sophia was so much smarter than anyone else, how could someone so perfect as her lose like that? But one night, after Sophia was sure that her mother was asleep, she got a new plan going. Her «house» (it was much smaller than the usual houses) had a small bathroom,a kitchen, a bedroom,, and a basement (the basement was outside the house). She could just go outside through the front door and get into the basement, and she didn’t even need the key (her mother never looked in the basement). This plan wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t too hard. As Sophia opened the front door, she looked around for any witnesses. But there was no one there, or at least that’s how it looked. But Sophia was much smarter than that, so she got the barely working flashlight out of her pocket. At first, she couldn’t notice anything( probably because of her flashlight, that couldn’t even shine properly) but then she saw a person or at least that’s what it looked like. It was standing on the other side of the fence looking at the basement. It was weird itself, but as she continued looking at the person, she couldn’t help but feel weird about this situation
Not only because there was someone near her house, it was also something weird but she didn’t know what it was. Sophia decided to ask this person what they were doing. so she called out:»Hello?». But the Person didn’t answer, so Sophia decided to come nearer. But then she noticed something strange. The thing was that her house was at the end of a Cliff and the fence was there to stop Sophia from accidentally falling down (which would never happen, because Sophia is smarter than that). And this strange guest was behind the fence. But how? That was a great question, but, of course, no one answered. She decided to come nearer, but suddenly someone jumped out of the bushes. And this someone was no other than Sophia’s mother. Sophia was horrified. She was sure that her mother was deep asleep and even if she had woken up, she definitely wouldn’t be in the bushes.
That’s just something Sophia’s mother wouldn’t do, or would she? Sophia thought that she knew her mother well, but if her mother does things like this, then maybe that’s not the case. After looking at Sophia for ten seconds, she said:»Little kids like you should be in bed». What? She said the same thing, that was said to Sophia the first time she tried to get into the basement. As Sophia walked to her room, she was not angry, she felt a little scared. Her mother never cared about anything. She didn’t care when she married a person just for financial stability. She didn’t care when she and the person she married had to live in the house of Sophia’s grandmother. She didn’t care when she had to get a child, just that she and her husband, who is also Sophia’s father (surprise, surprise) wouldn’t get kicked out. And, of course, she didn’t care when Sophia was the one who inherited the house after Sophia’s grandmother’s death (she would get it when she turned eighteen). She didn’t care at first, but then Sophia’s father tried to get a divorce and get Sophia to live with him, because that would mean that he could live in the house. But the cards did not play in his favor, and the court decided that Sophia would stay with her mother for now. But if they had evidence that Sophia’s mom was abusing Sophia in any way, then Sophia’s dad would get everything. But the thing was, that there was nothing. Stil,, Sophia’s dad never gave up. He always tried to find even a sip of any abuse in Sophia’s mom’s actions. But one time he actually found a thing that he can call abuse. The situation at that time wasn’t really good. Sophia’s mom has spent most of the money she had on a lawyer. And even though they didn’t have to worry about sleeping on the streets, they still had to buy food. The thing was Sophia’s mother had just lost her job and her new job as a waitress didn’t pay much. So money was tough. Most of the time they had to eat the leftovers from the diner. And of course, their fridge had nothing, but some weird disgusting milk and cheap cereal that was definitely a ripoff of something better. And one time Sophia was home alone because her mom was at work (she worked 14 hours a day), and Sophia was sitting reading a book. Suddenly, someone rang the door. It was Sophia’s father. Sophia was (and always will be) a very smart kid, so she understood that her dad only came here to find more evidence» and she didn’t open the door. «Open the door, my dear, I have some toys for you», Sophia’s father said through the door. Sophia was hungry at that time, and she didn’t really care what would be the consequences of her actions, so she said:» I don’t need your toys, I am hungry». He probably thought that that was enough, because he ran off laughing. When Sophia’s mother came home, she was looking sad. After many questions from Sophia’s side, Sophia’s mother finally answered: “U’ve got to find a new job…, because…..». At that moment, Sophia’s mom finally showed care for Sophia and this is the reason Sophia still holding on to her life with her mom and not just going to her father. Because Sophia’s mother broke into tears and screamed:» WHY DID I EVEN TELL YOU THAT, CHILDREN LIKE YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT, THEY SHOULD GO OUTSIDE AND EAT ICE CREAM AND NOT BE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ARGUMENT OF TWO ADULTS WHO HAVE ACHIEVED NOTHING IN THEIR LIFE».
After that, Sophia’s father called Sophia’s mother and told her something. Just like that, Sophia’s mother was out of the house, leaving Sophia alone. But after that nothing happened, there was no lawsuit and Sophia still lived with her mother. And some things got better. Now they ate more than just leftovers, it was almost always something out of meat. It was nothing good (the meat was so disgusting that any time Sophia ate it, she wanted to vomit) but it was better than nothing. Sophia’s mother didn’t seem to care and life moved on. It was until the incident with the basement.
This was when Sophia noticed that her mother wasn’t following her. That would mean that maybe Sophia could still get Into the basement and maybe even find out who the figure was. As she was walking back outside, she suddenly realized that the front door was locked. Sophia’s mother was smart, but Sophia was unstoppable. She knew that the only window that was open enough for Sophia to get through was in her mother’s room. So Sophia could get into the yard through it. It was still dark but she finally found the room. Even though there was no light (except for the flashlight), she could see some things like: a picture with a lot of people Sophia didn’t know, a book called “The magic of strange food” (that sounded weird). She decided to read it a little. It said that if you eat food correctly, then you might get powers. Like if you eat vegetables in the correct way you have power over plants, if you eat human meat then you can create an obedient (but a bit flawed) dopplegänger and so on. It was a little weird but nothing important. Another thing that Sophia found was a weird black cape. But the creepiest thing was that she saw two more figures out of the window. She wanted to use her flashlight on them but of course it had no battery. Sophia understood that she couldn’t turn on the lights, because it would be noticeable, and she wanted to be quiet and quick with her mission of getting into the basement yet again. And as she walked through the big room, trying her best not to make any loud sounds, she could hear voices and whispers outside. What was going on? She didn’t know. But there was no time for thinking if she really wanted to get to the basement. As she got out of the window, she could smell something rotting, but she didn’t care, she needed to get to the basement. The basement door was open (at least something wasn’t different). This was it. As she put her hand on the door handle, she could feel shivers running through her body. She understood that something was behind the door, but what was it? It could be something good or something bad. It could be a dead body, a birthday surprise, or anything else. She could feel a lot of people behind her, she didn’t know who they were, but there were three things she did know. She knew that these people were the same silhouettes she saw by the basement and out of the window but there were probably more than two of them behind her). She also knew that one of those people was her mother. And that all of them have wanted for something. They wanted the basement door open. But none of them tried to open it or even say a word. They all just waited till Sophia did the job. It became so quiet, that Sophia could hear their breaths on her spine. If it were any other day she would just open the basement but not this time. This time she would give anything not to be here. After some time that felt like forever while Sophia wasn’t opening the door, the people started to whisper: «Open the door…”. Sophia couldn’t hold it anymore, she just closed her eyes and opened. At the same moment, she could hear a bunch of footsteps running into the basement, and the smell coming from it was disgusting. She slowly opened her eyes and wished she didn’t. The whole basement was full of rotting dead bodies. Most of them seemed months old. But the newest-looking one was no other than her own dad. And even though maggots were already building their families, that didn’t stop all the people who were in the basement from consuming the corpses. She could hear them eating and biting. She looked horrified at her mother, who was already done with her father’s arms.» Why do you look so worried?», Sophia’s mother asked while having her face covered in blood,»You have consumed it the whole time». Sophia was about to have a panic attack. Not only were there a lot of people, eating other… people. No, that was not the worst part. The worst part was the fact that while looking at this image she felt hungry. And as she fought her hunger, she could hear her mom (wait, what?) scream from Sophia’s room: «Sophia, please go to sleep!».