Dismantling The Box of Grief and Venge

Chapter 9: Mr. & Mrs. Huda were Gone

When they arrived at home, Soni was not coming home yet, but Mr. Huda's car was already there, meaning he and his wife were already home. However, once they entered the house, no one was around. A couple plates of food were cold and the spoon was put randomly on the table. They must have left in the midst of their dinner. She messaged Soni, but he didn't reply, neither did he pick up her call, and so did Finn & Triana. None of them responded to her. She sensed something amiss.

Suddenly, anxiety attacked on her, making it hard to focus. Where are they? None of them left a message for her. Did something happen to them? "Mother? Father? Soni?" She ran from room to room.

"I'll check on the hall," Ezra left her in the house and hurriedly checked the training hall. Moments later, he returned with nothing. "Nobody's here," he said. Suddenly, a car stopped in front of the house.

"Soni!" She rushed towards him, looking like holding up a tear.

"Hei, hei, what's wrong?" His looks fixated on Ezra, demanding an explanation as he thought Ezra had caused her to cry, but Ezra's response next surprised him.

"The car is here, but your parent's gone," he said.

"What??" Soni was shocked. No wonder Ahmya suddenly went hysterical. She had a hard time dealing with separation. He held her tight to calm her down. "Calm down. Maybe they just went out walking," he said.

"The dining room. They left mid-dinner," she said. He held her hand and walked in the house hurriedly. He observed the room and there was indeed something amiss. "Mom didn't cook. This is not even our plate," he checked on the plate feature which was different to theirs, because the gold edge line was slightly thicker than those they had in the house.

Ezra quickly took a sample of their food and carefully smelled it. To his suspicion, the food was indeed poisoned. "This food is poisoned. They mixed it neatly. I barely notice it, because it almost smells like seasoning. Someone must've sent this for them," Ezra said. Ahmya was overwhelmed with the situation. She wasn't ready for the worst to happen. No, please, not again...

"Wash your hand, be careful," Soni reminded Ezra, who had just touched the poisoned food and so he immediately washed it. Soni then walked straight to Ahmya, gently held her down to sit on a chair and he lowered his head on her level. "Amy, calm down. Take a deep breath. We haven't confirmed anything, okay?" she struggled even just to slowly breathe. Ezra rubbed her back to help her with whatever she was struggling with. "We will find them, okay?" Soni strengthened his grip and hugged her to comfort her.

Ahmya nodded slightly. "I'm scared," her voice shivered.

"It's not a deadly poison. I know it. They might have just fainted and were taken somewhere. We just need to know who did this," Ezra explained. He had been dealing with drugs a lot since he was a chemist and sometimes dealt with poisons, so he knew if a poison was dangerous or not.

"Something clicks in my head, but I'm not sure," Soni paused for a while before he made his decision. "Close every door and window," he said and they did as he told them.

"What is it?" Ahmya walked up to him after she finished.

"Follow me," Soni led them to their parent's room. He looked for his mother's cosmetics and pulled out a lipstick . "When I was a kid, my father took away my toy car because I was misbehaving. I later told him that I was going to play outside, but in fact I hid and sneaked into this room only to look for my toy car. As it happened, my parents stormed into the room and I hid under the bed, then mom took this lipstick and," Soni uncovered the bottom lid, revealing a key inside it. He went to one of the corner wall carvings and inserted the key to one of the gaps. He twisted the key, then suddenly, the wardrobe moved aside, revealing a hidden stair under it.