The Lost Girl... (Faith, Hope and Tranquillity #1)

CHAPTER 12

Lily’s POV

My eyes widened in shock; how did he know the song from my dreams?

“D…D…David?” I questioned in shock.

“Oh, Morning Lily!” He stepped over to my table. He must not have realised I was there as he bent down and pecked me on the cheek. When he straightened, he must have seen the shock and horror on my face. My brain was working overtime. The tune, I’d never heard him hum it before. In fact, I had never heard it before last night. David looked at me shocked. “Lil? Are you OK?”

“Huh?” I wasn’t listening, I was thinking about the tune. It meant something to me, deep down. It brought out feelings of love and belonging, but something didn’t feel right.

THAT’S BECAUSE IT ISNT RIGHT. The voice I had heard yesterday was back in my mind again. I knew it wasn’t, but how wasn’t it right? David knew the song. There was something he wasn’t telling me.

“You’re crying!” He said, worriedly, reaching to wipe away a tear with his thumb. He left his hand on my cheek. I reached up and felt the tears. Why was I crying? Confusion must have set on my face as David looked at me with an eyebrow raised. He grabbed his coffee cup that Mrs Sanderson had rinsed and given him, shouting over to me that my coffee would be in a few minutes.

I grabbed a tissue from my bag and wiped away the tears. My heart felt like it was going to burst, despite forcing myself to stop crying, I felt like I needed to burst into tears, and I didn’t know why. Did I?

YOU KNOW WHY… The voice from before said again in the back of my mind. I shook my head and stared at David. I wasn’t sure why. Was it because he might have some information to my childhood that he hadn’t shared before? Could he know something or was this all a massive coincidence?

“David, were you singing a song here earlier?” He drew in a sharp breath and looked at me with furrowed brows.

“I was…why?” He asked, looking almost worried. He went to stroke my face again, but something seemed to stop him.

“I know that song…” I stammered. He drew in breath again. “David?” I questioned, looking at him with sharp eyes. “How do you know that song?”

“Lil, I think we need to talk, but not here…” He sighed. He massaged his temples and looked at me with a great deal of sadness in his eyes. He did know something…

“There you go Lily! Coffee just how you like it.” I waved a thank you and she went back into the back of the store.

“I don’t want you to find out here. Let’s grab your coffee and talk back at the office, OK?” David said, standing up and offering me his hand. He was smiling, but it was a sad smile.

DON’T DO IT… The voice again. I had heard that voice before! Where? I recognised it, but I couldn’t put my finger on where it was from. I looked into David’s eyes, I’d known him 5 years and I trusted him. I nodded my head and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up and we grabbed my coffee before walking back to the office.

UNKNOWN POV

When I saw her holding some other man’s hand, my heart and head couldn’t take it. The pain shot through my entire body, rippling like a crash of thunder after a bolt of lightning had struck. I held onto my arms at the sight.

“No, Celeb, control it, we don’t need another snowstorm!” a woman’s voice said from just behind me.

“I’m trying Voronwe…” I said angrily through gritted teeth. But then I saw her drop it and my body started calming down. Maybe I could still get through to her. Maybe she would listen?

Lily’s POV

We walked into work and smiled at Alda; he didn’t smile back but nodded his head in acknowledgement. He was so friendly at the weekend. I wondered what was wrong. Did he feel like he needed to be more professional in front of David? I looked back towards him, and his face was serious as he watched us. I wandered towards David’s office, but he pulled me back.

“Can we talk in yours?” He asked, which made me look at him in surprise, but I nodded my head none the less. We had to walk through the large office space where all our staff were. I dropped his hand; I didn’t need everyone at work knowing we had a thing going on right now. I smiled and waved to everyone, including Hope and Faith, who smiled back. I couldn’t see Silver, but Black was glaring at me. OK… I thought to myself as I reached to open my office door. What’s his problem? Why were all the guys acting weird? Had Silver told them about what we talked about? Why would that make them glare at me? I let David in first and closed the door behind me. It was dark so I turned to start opening the blinds, but David stopped me, pressing me against the door, his arms on either side of my head.

“David?” I asked, a little scared.

“Lil, I… I don’t want you to worry about what I’m going to tell you.” He reached down and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. Warmth spread through my entire body. I knew I shouldn’t be kissing him at work, but I reached my arms up around his neck and kissed him back. He seemed surprised but wrapped his arms around my waist. Once we had finished an intense kiss and were getting our breath back, he pulled me into his chest. I was enjoying the pressure of the hug when, all of a sudden, my head once again hurt with pain, my left eye closed from the pressure and pain it felt coursing through it. This time it was even more intense than usual. David, sensing my head was hurting me, led me to my chair and pushed me into it.

“Lil… I can’t tell you everything just yet because I’m unsure of the details, but I can tell you what I’ve read so far. My problem is, it’s all fairy tales…” My eyebrows scrunched together. What was he talking about? I only wanted to know about the song…?

“So, after our conversation on Saturday night, I’ve been doing a lot of reading. Now everything I’m going to tell you needs to be taken with a pinch of salt…” He stopped looking me dead in the eyes. I nodded my head. He was really starting to worry me now. “OK, so first of all I mentioned the festival of Tranquillity, didn’t I? Well, apparently, it’s a festival worshiped by dark elves who look for a light elvish princess to marry to the dark prince. The princess would usually be born named Tranquillity, hence the title. Once the elf has married her, she is stripped of her power…” I gasped.

“That’s awful, but what has that got to do with the song?” I asked, a little annoyed. Why did it seem to me like he was trying to change the subject?

BECAUSE……IS… The voice again, but this time it caused my head to explode in pain and I couldn’t hear the full message.

“I’m getting there Lil! It’s a lot…” He pushed a book towards me, a fairy-tale book. I looked at him dubiously.

“Are you serious? You know I love myths and legends and fairies, is this your way of tormenting me about it?” I questioned.

“What?! No!” He said, shocked. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I felt angry but I didn’t know why. The anger was bubbling to the surface, and it was all directed at David. Why?

“I’m sorry, I’ve had a tough weekend.” I said, putting my hands to my temples. David wasn’t the enemy; he was my friend of over 5 years. Maybe the song was a common one and I had heard it before and tied it into my dreams. Was I overreacting?

“Look, just read this book, start at Chapter 6. It's weird, but I feel like it ties into all of your memories. Once you’ve read it, you’ll have questions. I’ll be able to answer them more then…” He looked down sadly.

“Why can’t you answer them now?” I asked.

“Because you wouldn’t believe me…” He looked up, making eye contact with me, tears sparkling in his eyes. “But what I will say is, your headaches, they only got worse the last few weeks, right? Think about whether you met anyone new around that time. And don’t go out alone, ring me if you want to go for a walk.”

I looked at him dubiously. What the heck was he on about? My head vibrated with pain again. New people I have met over the last few weeks? Did he mean the new recruits? But I had only known them for a few days. My headaches started a fortnight or more ago.

DON’T… TRYING… EVERYTHING…

“Argh!” The pain was way too intense this time. I doubled over in pain, tears once again flooding from my eyes. David ran towards me speaking words I didn’t understand. I looked at him, squinting to see if I could read the words he was saying on his lips.

SERE!...

The voice! Every time the voice spoke in my head, it caused pain to explode, worse each time. What on earth was happening? Dizziness started to take over as the room began to spin. I closed my eyes, wishing the pain and uneasiness to disappear. Closing them tighter, I could hear the whooshing of wind and the sound of rocks grinding. I saw a bright flash despite my eyes being closed, then everything went silent…

I didn’t want to open my eyes, but the pain had started to subside. I opened my eyes slightly to see the silhouettes of four people. My head flashed with a slight tinge, but not pain this time. The four silhouettes I saw were all young and short, two females and two males. I blinked my eyes wider to see that David was frozen in place in front of me, but he didn’t look like David, he looked younger, his face contorted in… pain but not from a wound, from emotional pain. I stood up and noticed the same man from my dream stood behind the four youngsters.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you, trying to make contact through a mental block can hurt.” I looked at him as if he was crazy, but I knew I was the crazy one, this wasn’t happening.

“A mental block?”

“Yes…some… someone is trying to block me from helping you remember everything.” He said sadly.

“The voice, it’s you?” I knew I recognised it, but I hadn’t connected the dots.

“Yes, I want to protect you Sere!”

“WHAT IS HAPPENING!” I screamed, finally starting to break down. “Why can’t someone just tell me something! This is crazy! Everyone’s crazy!” I shook my head, starting to cry again, but this time I knew why I was crying. I sat back down, closed my eyes and cried harder and louder into my hands. Suddenly, someone's hands clutched my shoulders.

“LIL?! PLEASE! Talk to me!” David’s desperate voice got through to me. I could hear voices coming from the back of the room.

“Is everything OK?” I heard Hopes' voice. I quickly opened my eyes, tears still streaming down them. I launched myself into David’s arms and noticed behind him stood Hope, Faith, Black, Alda and right at the back was Silver. He looked sad and turned around and left the room. Suddenly, as if something clicked, I knew I needed to speak to Silver.

“David, I need to go. Can I take a day of leave? I’m not needed for a few days, right? Let me read the book, sort my head out and we can talk about this soon?” He looked very taken aback but I didn’t wait for an answer. I pushed past Hope and everyone, not caring how rude I seemed. I chased after Silver and out of the front door, but he had already got onto his bike and drove off.