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

CHAPTER 8

Lily’s POV

I wandered down to where Hope said she lived and quietly knocked on the door. The morning had left me a little unsure and worried. It was so weird! Why had my bedside potted plant suddenly started growing quicker, and why was there freaking snow in summer? We don't usually get snow at all in winter, never mind in summer. I mean, I know global warming is a thing, but this? Shaking away the feeling, I decided to just try and enjoy my day without worrying. I knocked again, louder this time.

“Hello!” A deep voice answered as the door swung open. It was Silver. I couldn’t help but look at him a little closer, he seemed to be the deep, brooding and mysterious type. I couldn't quite figure him out, he had blatantly snapped at me at work, then almost offered an apology. Pus he always glared at me. He kept looking at me with that furrowed brow look, as if he was trying to work me out too, then he frowned and sighed loudly. “Are you OK?” He questioned. I had been staring for quite a while, chewing my lip. I nodded my head in yes.

“Sorry, had a strange morning!” I looked at Silver. I didn't need any of these guys knowing their boss was a crazy whack job in and out of work. I took in a deep breath before plastering a smile on my face.

“Well… come on in, everyone’s waiting for you.” He opened the door wider and signalled to everyone running around doing random things in the flat. I could see from his face that he was little taken aback by them being so busy. Hope was making flasks of tea or coffee, Alda was packing a bag full of different things that looked like blankets or jumpers. Faith was doing her hair, braiding it down her back, then into a high bun and Black was just, generally tidying. I couldn’t help but smile at them. They seemed erratic but also organised all at the same time.

It was then that it struck me how they all lived together, 5 of them in a small apartment, not much bigger than mine. The only difference is there seemed to be 3 bedrooms in this apartment.

“Lily!” Hope smiled! “You came! Were almost packed and ready!”

“Packed?” I questioned.

“Yeah, we’ve made a picnic, flasks of hot drinks, blankets and pillows for anyone who wants to rest, and we also packed the tent in the car.” I looked at her wide-eyed, we had only decided to play in the snow less than an hour ago.

"Are we going somewhere?" I questioned, choking back my nervousness as I asked.

" We're just going out of town, a little bit, to a wonderfully large, cleared area with a lake!" Alda shouted from his spot on the kitchen counter. I looked at Silver in confusion. Why? Why couldn't we just head to the sand dunes near the beach or just play in the street? With how much snow there was, I found it unlikely that most people would be out driving today unless they had to. Also, how were 6 of us supposed to fit in the car? As if knowing what I was questioning, Silver chimed in.

“I’ll be taking my bike!” He said, neither a smile or his usual grimace on his face, he just seemed so emotionless, a deadpan expression that looked unamused and not inviting. It made me wonder what had happened to him, to make him so…. cold. I nodded, understanding there would be room, not knowing how he knew what I was thinking.

Whilst everyone was sorting things out, Hope told me to take a seat. I looked around and noticed there were many different things around the house which were so beautiful. The first thing I noticed was a small bonsai tree which was clearly loved, pink blossoms growing from the branches, someone was clearly tending to it daily as it was perfectly shaped. I reached out to touch it but stopped, remembering my plant this morning. Next, there was a beautiful water feature that incredibly mimicked a waterfall in a forest. The water was running gently down some rocks that looked like it had been taken from a forest and shrunk. It sounded so peaceful and there was a misty cloud at the bottom. I also saw a collection of crystals in a homemade rock garden that looked like they were growing from the rocks, an ornament of what looked like a large tower made from glass but seemed to smoke magically, and lastly, a large fireplace that had a roaring fire in it which, despite seemed to be kicking out a lot of heat, didn’t seem to be roasting the room. I loved open fireplaces and headed towards it, wondering how they had managed to find an apartment with one in it or how they had managed to get permission for one. However, I realized i couldn't see a chimney and wondered where the smoke was going.

Shrugging, I turned to find out if I could help with anything when I saw Silver, standing with his arms crossed, back leaning against what I assumed to be a bedroom door. When he saw I was looking over at him, he turned and went into the room. I don't know why, but I felt as if he was avoiding me, if not avoiding everyone. It made me a little sad that out of the group of 5, one of the members didn’t seem to like me and I don’t know why it bothered me so much. Faith noticed that I looked a little down and came to sit next to me on the sofa.

“Everything OK?”

“Yeah, just wondering why Silver seemed so… miserable all the time, well not miserable just…” I shrugged.

“Oh!” She looked over at Hope who was busy and not listening to us. “He lost someone he cared a lot about a long time ago, and it affected him greatly!” Faith said sadly, her eyes dropping to her hands as they clutched tightly together “Well, we all did, but it affected him the worst.”

“Oh…” I replied, not wanting to ask anything else. I wondered if it was their sister, the other triplet. They must have been really close. I looked over towards Silver's door again, wishing there was something I could do to help, but if he was still grieving there wasn't much chance of me being able to do anything.

When everything was sorted out and packed into the car, I was bundled into the back between Hope and Faith, who were grinning widely. They seemed so excited that I felt a little of it rubbing off on me. Silver road behind us on his bike. I couldn’t help but look backwards at him throughout the journey. He seemed so dark but when he was riding his bike, he looked alive. His eyes shone and his hair was streaking out behind him. I kept getting flashes of an image of him riding a horse and quickly pushed it out of my mind.

We arrived at a beautiful lake. I had never visited it before but knew it was just outside the city. It was completely frozen over. My eyes widened at how beautiful the place looked, covered in glistening ice and pure white snow. No one had come out here today, so everything was untouched and shining in the sunlight.

We all unpacked the car and set up the tent with blankets and pillows. The flasks of tea and coffee were put inside with the food. I was just about to ask what the plan was when Hope pulled out ice skates, smiling her head off and making little excited noises!

“Please tell me you skate!” She laughed. I frowned. It’s not something I ever remember being interested in or having tried.

“Erm…” I replied, not knowing how to say that I really didn’t want to. I didn’t want to take the smile away, she looked so child-like and innocent with her rosy, red cheeks and nose from the cold “I’ve never tried!” I finally blurted out.

“Come on! I bet you’re a natural” Faith yelled, running past with her skates already on, heading to the lake. I grimaced, completely doubting her words. I knew how clumsy I was normally; this couldn’t remotely end well. However, I took the skates and proceeded to put them on leaning on the car for support. All three of the boys had set up chairs near the tent and were talking with cups of coffee. I noticed Silver looking at me and looked away quickly. I didn't want to think about how stupid i would look in front of everyone if I fell.

I had gotten the skates on and stood there extremely wobbly, worrying that if I took one step I would fall flat on my face into the snow. I took a deep breath and thought about walking forward, but Hope grabbed my hand and smiled, pulling me towards the ice. My head began to twinge, and a flash of light erupted before my eyes, but there was no pain and the flash was instantly gone again. I hoped I wasn’t going to have another migraine attack. I walked, well waddled, grasping Hopes' hand and following her to the ice. She pulled me on and I was surprised at how well I actually managed to stand up on the ice. Smiling, I looked at Hope for some sort of reassurance. She nodded and I actually felt OK for the first time. She taught me what to do and within 15 minutes I was gliding nicely around the ice. I didn’t dare try anything that Hope, or Faith were doing, spins and racing across the ice, but it was nice to glide. I shut my eyes, enjoying the cold wind on my face as I skated from one side of the ice to the other. I didn’t notice the boys had finally joined us on the ice.

“Hey!” Silver said as he skated past me, causing me to open my eyes quickly. I looked at him gliding past me. He looked serene and happy, like this was something he did regularly. It was also the first time I noticed how tall and fit he was. As I looked at him some more, admiring his behind, I didn’t see an uneven bit of ice and immediately tripped, landing straight on my backside. Well, that's what I get from looking at him! I scolded myself. I tried to get back up, hoping no one had noticed my fall, but the ice had cracked at the impact and started to splinter. I heard it slowly cracking in all directions away from me and began to panic. I tried to scramble to my knees, but this caused the ice to c***k more. Cringing, I stopped what I was doing and looked up helplessly.

“HELP!” I shouted as loudly as I dared. Silver was the closest to me, even though he was still pretty far away. He turned to see what was happening, his face suddenly looked panicked, and he skated over towards me at a speed that I couldn't comprehend on the ice. I shut my eyes and tried not to breathe heavily. I needed to calm my breath as the ice started to c***k more and more under my weight. I could hear Silver shouting at the rest as he got closer to me.

“Don’t move!” He shouted. I didn’t dare open my eyes. But i slowly tipped my head, making him aware I had heard him.

“Please hurry” I whispered, almost not audibly, not wanting to shout for fear of making things worse, tears had started to fall from my eyes, despite me not wanting them to. I could hear the ice cracking more and more. Suddenly, my arms grabbed me, and my head burst into pain. I shouted out and grabbed onto someone's shirt before I fainted.

“Come on Sere!” Celeb shouted, pulling me towards the small pond in front of us. This time in the dream I was again being Sere, not looking from the outside. And the little boy carrying me along was once again silver-haired, not black-haired. I was confused, but I just let him pull the dream me along. I was pouting, not entirely sure why. All I did know was I felt extremely disappointed for some reason.

“How can we skate in the middle of summer Celeb?” I asked, clearly upset with Celeb for such a stupid suggestion. Now it made sense. I was skating on ice in my waking life, so I must have been dreaming about wanting to skate.

“Just watch!” He said excitedly. “I’ve been practicing!” I watched in complete awe as he held out his hands and started to mumble some words that I could understand despite them clearly not being English. The pond started to ice over slowly at first, then got quicker and quicker until it was completely frozen over, the edges of grass and flowers being frozen solid, but further around the pond it was a normal summer day. I screamed in glee, pouncing on Celeb!

“That’s amazing, Celeb!” I planted a small kiss on his cheek! “Let’s skate!”

I couldn't hold in my excitement enough to run back home for my skates, so Celeb created ice blades on the bottom of my sandals, and I jumped onto the ice. I felt pure happiness and realized that Hope and Faith must have been feeling this when we set off for the day. We skated for a long time, sometimes together, sometimes having small races, but I decided to go off on my own and start doing a few jumps and tricks. Silver looked tired and started heading to the outside of the small pond. I saw him sitting on the grass and looking at me smiling. I thought about skating back to him but decided to try a few new tricks that one of my sisters had taught me. I didn’t realise the ice had started melting from the furthest side of the pond. I jumped into the air, spinning with my arms in the air like Estel had shown me and upon landing, very gracefully, the ice cracked, and I fell straight into the pond. It was freezing and I tried to swim up to the surface but the ice, acting as my skate blades, were holding me down. I wanted to scream but knew I shouldn’t, or my lungs would be filled with freezing water. I felt a hand grab me and was pulled out of the water by Celeb, who held me tight, he was crying.

“I’m sorry Sere. My power was starting to wane, but I didn’t want to stop you having a good time. I’m so sorry!” He said, cradling me. Vines and large leaves had started to sprout up around me, covering me, as if trying to warm me. Through chattering teeth and a shaking body, I managed to reach up to his face and stroke his cheek, telling him it was OK with a smile before passing out.

"It’s OK Celeb"

I awoke in the arms of Silver, who was crying. I was still partly in the dream and held my hand up to his face and smiled.

“It’s OK!” I said, smiling at him. He looked at me totally confused as I slipped back out of consciousness.

I woke up a little bit later, covered in blankets in the tent. I don’t know how long I had been out of it, but it couldn’t have been long, or I assume we would have headed home. Plus, everyone was still wearing their skates. They were out front of the tent discussing something in hushed voices. I pulled open the tent flap and proceeded to crawl out of the tent. I noticed that there wasn't a hole in the ice, so whoever caught me must have got to me before I fell in. I assumed it was Silver, and it caused me to blush a little, not knowing why.

“Lily!” Hope shouted, running towards me, distress very clearly etched onto her face. “Are you OK? We were so worried; we were just discussing calling an ambulance!” I was staring at Silver, who was refusing to make eye contact with me. Had I remembered him crying earlier? Or was it part of my dream? Also, why had I passed out once he grabbed me? Was it the shock from the fear or because of my head again? “Lily?”

“Erm… yeah sorry, I’m fine. What happened?” I asked, rubbing my head, which was aching but was nothing compared to my usual migraines. The pain in my eye wasn't even present this time, it was purely my head.

“You fell on the ice, and it started to c***k. Silver managed to reach you but as he grabbed you, you fainted. You’ve been out about 20 minutes…” She trailed off. “Are you ok?” she questioned, looking at my hand which was cradling my head. So it was Silver who had managed to get to me, meaning when I woke up it must have been him holding me. Surely, I imagined the large, brooding, sulking man was crying. There was no way he showed emotions. Right?

“Oh yeah, I had a migraine attack as Silver reached me, I assume from the fear. I think I need to go home and get some rest…” I trailed off, not wanting to cut the trip short but knowing I needed to lie down and fast before the headache got worse. I didn't need another fainting spell here. My new workmates had seen enough of me collapsing. Especially, Silver, who seemed to keep catching me.

“Sure…” Silver looked over at Hope and stared for a few seconds before turning his eyes to me.

“Silver said he would drive you back before you came too, so he is still willing to do that now. We need to pack etc, which could take a while and we would much rather you would get home quickly so he will come back for us.” I clearly looked startled as Hope tilted her head looking at me questioningly, even though I was still staring straight at Silver. “Is that OK?”

“Erm… yeah…” I said quietly to her, not taking my eyes from Silver. “Wait!” I shouted worriedly, finally looking back at Hope. “On his bike?!” Hope laughed! A huge laugh that had her holding her stomach and wiping her eyes.

“No! What happens if you faint again?” She laughed harder. “In the car!” I was both relieved and disappointed. But I wasn’t sure why I was the latter. Silver started towards the car, and I waved goodbye to the others before hugging Hope.

“Thank you, I had a wonderful time despite the ending.” I laughed and waved as I headed towards the car and headed home. Hope waved at me but her face was a little sad.

Silver got into the car and slammed his door as I entered the passenger side. Taking a deep breath, I shut my door and sat staring straight forward as we began to drive home.

UNKNOWN POV

“I felt that surge!” The masculine voice screamed “Tell me they aren’t here!”

“I… I… don’t know, I haven’t been able to find them at home for a while sir!” A quiet and timid voice answered, clearly scared.

“If he finds her, it is all over!” The masculine voice screamed again. Breaking objects could be heard again as they were clearly thrown against walls and doors.