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

CHAPTER 10

Lily’s POV

I took a deep breath. Why was I going to tell a stranger I had known less than a week about my problems? I pulled my legs up closer to my face. My head was pounding again but not my eyes. I looked at Silver, my eyes searching his face, but as I looked at his face I felt at ease. Ok here goes….

“I don’t know where to start…” I said, my hands twisting nervously together. Silver sat down at the side of me and placed his cool hand over mine. I looked up at him, he was looking straight into my eyes again.

“Tell me about the headaches…” He said softly. I sighed and looked again at my hands.

“I’ve had them for a few weeks now, really bad migraines that just randomly came on. The pain starts in my temple or my left eye and eventually takes over my entire head. Sometimes they aren’t bad, and I can just take paracetamol and carry on, but sometimes they’re followed by me blacking out and well…” I hesitated, biting my lip. He would definitely think I was crazy. “Well, I have strange dreams.” I heard him take in a sharp breath. Yep, he thought I was crazy.

“What are the dreams about?” He asked. Looking intently at me, but I didn’t return the look.

“They’re bizarre. Maybe I should tell you about my past first, because my psychologist thinks they’re manifestations of my past. Not that they are memories, but that they are trying to remind me of something.”

“OK, if you don’t feel comfortable talking to me, I understand,” he said matter of factly, but I could hear a bit of sadness at the thought of me not talking to him about it.

“I don’t mind, it’s part of who I am, it’s just…” Weird is what I wanted to say, but everything lately was weird. I heaved a large sigh and began. “I was found on the street when I was about 7 years old. I wasn't wearing any shoes and I was dirty. They found me wandering around in a daze, wearing a white dress, covered in flowers that don't even grow in this area. I was picked up by the police, who took me to the police station to question me. I couldn’t remember anything about who I was or where I was from… apparently, I couldn't even speak properly. The pendant I showed you was around my neck. The only letters they could make out were the L I and Y, I’ve already told you this…” I took out the pendant and looked at it. “Anyway, after everything was over and no one came to collect me, I was put in a local orphanage.” I felt Silvers hand hold my hand tighter, but I still wouldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at him for some reason, it would only make things so much worse. “I lived there until I was 18 and had received an education, then I got my job with the company and moved into my flat. Not much else to tell there, but yeah, so that explains my weird dreams because I don’t remember my past, so my psychologist thinks I have weird dreams to try and fill in the blanks…” I trailed off, I wasn’t sure I wanted to blurt out my crazy dreams about magic and elves…

"Can you tell me what the dreams are about?" Silver pressed again, this time his voice sounded desperate. I merely shook my head. I didn't want to share that part with him. It was way too intimate, and I heard him sigh deeply.

“OK, can I have a look at your pendant please?” I nodded, taking it off and giving it to him. He looks at it intently and softly smiles. He wipes it with the corner of his shirt.

“Are you sure it isn’t a T? As in Lity? There are other letters there, they’re just badly scratched. Maybe a bit of cleaner would bring up the letters?” He spoke.

“I tried that, as did the police and everyone else…” I sighed, sadly. "No cleaners would work and if anything, they actually seemed to make it worse."

“Hmmmm…” Silver said, clearly thinking hard. He stood up still holding my necklace and grabbed a leaf from the silver birch tree we were sitting under. Sitting back down, he started to clean the pendant with the leaf. “Vegetation can be extremely cleansing and not everyone thinks about using it, going to harsher chemicals… ” As he cleaned the part with the letters, more seemed to show up…

T… r… a… n… q… u… i… l… l… i… t… y… Tranquillity. I stopped breathing, a vision of something I had discussed a few days ago with David sprang into my mind.

“The name you have me for the girl you portray means Tranquillity…”

“Sere…” I whispered…

“What?!” Silver looked at me, shock registering in his eyes. He almost dropped the pendant and had stopped scrubbing with the leaf.

“Nothing… its… no its nothing.” I put my head into my hands as pain started to spread through my head again. “I need to get home; I feel another headache.” Suddenly, I felt cold pressure on my temple again as Silver put his fingers on either side of my head. The cold felt amazing, but the pain didn't go away. If anything, it felt like it wanted to burst out more. He looked into my eyes whilst still holding my head, then he dropped his hands in his lap and pulled up my necklace, putting it on.

“Maybe these headaches are trying to tell you something?” He said seriously. I just nodded, not knowing what really to say. He helped me up and we walked home in silence. I needed to speak to David as soon as possible.

UNKNOWN POV

“It’s definitely her!”

“We already knew that!”

“Yes, but today confirmed it… I need to stop the evil getting closer…”

Lily’s POV

I got home and rushed inside, saying a quick goodbye to Silver. It was starting to get dark outside, so I flicked on a light and pulled off my necklace. I looked at the side that he had cleaned. It was unreal how much it had cleared just from the juice of a leaf. It clearly said Tranquillity now and there were small pictures of cherry blossoms around it. I turned it over to where what looked like a snowflake was. Deciding I wanted to know what was on that side, I headed out to the balcony and apologised to one of my blossoms as I pulled one of the leaves off.

I knelt on the floor and began scrubbing the other side of the pendant with the leaf. Eventually, the juice of the leaf began to flow, and a faint glow emanated from the leaf. I was too excited that the picture was clear to care about the light. I had my tongue between my teeth concentrating really hard. Finally, the picture cleared, it was a snowflake and a leaf. Inside the centre of the snowflake was the moon and in the centre of the leaf was the sun. It was so beautiful, but it didn’t shed a lot of light on my past aside from the name… I sat back on the floor of the balcony, my back against the glass. I closed my eyes and tilted my head towards the sky. Could I really be the girl in my dreams? I shook my head, knowing I was being silly. Magic and Elves and fairy princess kingdoms were not real. I took out my phone and pulled David’s number up on my screen. Should I call him?

“Hello?” A voice answered once again, this time on the second ring.

“I really will start thinking you are waiting for my calls if you keep answering me this quickly.” I joked, laughing.

“Ha! Again, sweetness, don’t get a big head. I was checking my social media.” He chuckled and I couldn’t help but smile. I looked at the clock and saw it was nearly 9pm.

“It's not too late for me to call, is it?” I asked, concerned he would get annoyed by me.

“Not at all!” He spoke. “I’m always here for you Lil!”

“Thanks David!” I couldn’t help but smile, he had always been there for me anyway, so taking things to the next level didn’t really change things. I just didn’t want to ruin anything for us. “I was wondering what you had found out about stuff. I know I said I'd wait until tomorrow, but I met Silver today and…”

“You what?” He asked, shocked and a little louder than normal.

“I met Silver when I went for a walk…” I said, confused by his outburst.

“Lil, please don’t go out with a strange man on your own! You barely know the guy, and I’m still concerned about your dreams. As much as I think it's all a big hiccup in your mind, it's still pointing to some weird things.” He said, his voice concerned. I sighed, knowing he was only worried about me.

“I’m sorry David, I just bumped into him when I went for a walk.”

“No problem sweets, I was just worried about you.” I could hear him lying down on either his bed or settee. “So, what happened to make you so concerned about the dreams?”

“Well...” I bit my lip, maybe I shouldn’t tell him… “I spoke to Silver a little, nothing much, I don’t know him like you said. But he saw my pendant and offered to clean it for me. When he cleaned it, the word Tranquillity showed up. And well…”

“You remember what I said the other day?” He questioned. I could hear the frown on his face.

“Well… yeah. Wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, most definitely, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet, Lil. It might be worth us doing more research. Have you had any more dreams lately?”

I filled him in on the dream about Dae, the dark elf, and also about the ice-skating dream. He kept sighing as I filled him in.

“Everything OK David?” I asked, worriedly.

“Yeah, this dark elf worries me. You said he had silver hair?”

“Yeah, he did, and Celeb had black, but on the ice skating dream Celeb had silver hair, which is why I’m so confused.” I touched my head again, which had started hurting. Everything sounds unrealistic but maybe there was some underlying message I was missing.

“I wouldn’t worry too much right now. The only reason it worries me is you mentioned the dark elf and they’re the ones in literature who worship this festival of Tranquillity. Let me look into it further, OK?” he said. When I didn’t answer straight away, I could hear the worry in his voice, but my head was killing. “Lil? I am not saying elves are real! Stop panicking. But what I am saying is something is clearly trying to warn you subconsciously about something.”

“I’m fine, my head is just killing. I’m going to go to bed. Thanks David, you’ve put my mind at ease.” LIES! A voice in the back of my mind said. I shook my head. “I’m going to lie down. Night David.” I wasn’t sure what he said but I assumed it was goodnight and he hung up. I put my phone down and noticed a slight black fog on my phone screen. I blinked and looked again but it had cleared. I put my phone in its charger and headed to bed for a decent night's sleep before work again tomorrow.

As I lay down, I could hear someone speaking in my head. I could hear a song, someone humming it to me. It sounded amazing and I fell asleep faster than usual, smiling.