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

CHAPTER 5

Lily's POV

I arrived at work around 8.30 am and noticed the new receptionist, Alda, talking to the girl I had met two days prior, Hope. They both turned around and smiled, ridiculously broad smiles for this early in a morning.

“Good morning, Miss!” Alda greeted her.

"Good morning, Ma’am” Hope said at the same time.

“Good morning you two!” despite their giant smiles, I did genuinely smile back at them. They seemed to have that effect. “Do you two know each other?!” I questioned nosily.

“Oh, yeah!” Hope smiled. “See you later Alda.” She winked. I waved at Alda and walked alongside Hope, who proceeded to enter the main workspace with me. “You could say we know each other a little too well!” She giggled.

“Ooooh…” realisation dawned on me, they were together, partners. “You do know..." And I dropped my voice. "That’s against company policy, right?” Hope pouted playfully before giggling and waving her hand at me, unconcerned.

“It’s written in our contract that you can't date anyone from work BUT we were dating before we got the job and we made Mr David aware of this so …” She drifted off, smiling. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Good loophole finding!” I smiled. “Sorry I missed our training session and work yesterday! Excited to get to know the ropes today?” I asked, the seriousness returning to my voice.

“Yep” she said, popping her P like a school child. She did seem very childlike for someone my age, or maybe I was just more mature due to what I had been through. I shook my head.

“Brilliant, I'll see you and the other new recruits at 10am in the meeting room!” I smiled and waved her off, heading to David’s office. Hope started to skip towards the employee lounge, towards a few other people I didn't recognize but couldn't really see properly.

David didn’t seem to have arrived yet, so I set up my paperwork at his desk and sat in the visitor’s seat across from his large leather chair. I’d been reading through the training notes for about 10 minutes before he entered, looking extremely tired. His fingers rubbing his temples, dark circles clearly visible under his eyes.

“DAVID!” I exclaimed, worried at the sight of him, making him jump. “Are you OK?”

“Geez Louise!” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose once he realized it was me. “I’m fine Lily, I just couldn’t sleep last night.”

“I’m so sorry!” I said, bowing my head. I felt two fingers under my chin making me look up into his stunning eyes.

“Why?” He asked. “It wasn’t your fault; I was the one who made a fool of himself!” He said, smirking playfully. I went bright red thinking about what had happened last night. “I’m kidding, I was up thinking about what you said and did a bit of research and then I just couldn’t switch off.” He said, grabbing the back of his chair and walking it around the desk to sit at the side of me.

“Oh…” I answered. I must admit I was a bit sad he wasn’t really thinking about the attempted kiss, but it made me happy he had worried about me enough to do some research. I shrugged, guessing that either way, he was still thinking about me when he didn't have to be.

“Did you find anything interesting?” I said, looking back up at him. He was staring at me intently. His head leant into one of his hands which was perched on the desk. “David?” I questioned.

“Hmmmm?” He said, sleepily.

“Maybe you should have the day off today?” I joked, laughing.

“No, I… I… I… am fine!” He said through his yawns. “It’s my own fault!”

“As long as you’re OK!” I said, anxiously. David slumped back in his chair with his hands held in his lap. He sighed heavily, making eye contact with me.

“I found out a few things. Firstly, the names you mentioned all seem to be elvish in nature. The person you see yourself with the most is Celeb, right? Well, that translates to silver.” He said with his eyes closed. How did he remember all this? “The others mean Hope, Faith and Black.” I wondered if I should make notes. “The name you gave me for the girl you portrayed, Sere, right?" I nodded again. "Well, that means Tranquillity…” he turned to gaze at me as if looking for a reaction.

“OK, so… they’re elves?” When he saw no reaction, he leant back in his chair and closed his eyes again.

“Maybe, but obviously elves aren’t real. What’s weird is the guys I hired are called those names. Could it be that you saw their names and started involving them in your dreams?” He asked, eyes still closed. I was sceptical, especially as Celeb was in my dreams over two weeks ago. His appearance changed every so often, but he was the same boy. Maybe they were manifestations of my mind going crazy, trying to remember my childhood. “I wouldn’t worry about the dreams, it’s the headaches that worry me. Do they seem to have a pattern?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. They’re happening more frequently recently, but nothing seems to set them off” I chewed my lip, thinking, looking into space. I felt a softness on my lip.

“Don’t bite your lip sweet!” David said, pulling my bottom lip from under my teeth. “It will ruin your beautiful lips.” I blushed again. What was with this man recently? Sure, we had always flirted a little, but this was getting more forward. I hoped deep down he had realised he liked me. I held my breath as he drew in closer, hoping that maybe this time we could share a kiss. “We had better get to work”, he whispered seductively into my ear. I shivered. My head hurt again but I barely noticed, David was so close.

The day went by pretty uneventful. I had my teaching class with the new recruits all day. All 4 of them listened to me describing the contract and what they would be required to do without any interruptions or problems. In fact, they stared intently as if I was the most interesting thing in the room. I wasn't sure they were taking it in, so I kept randomly quizzing them, but they all answered correctly. I must admit it was starting to freak me out a little/

As David said, there were two boys called Silver and Black and two girls called Hope and Faith. Obviously, I had met Hope a few times before now. Seeing Faith shocked me, she was stunning! She was the tallest girl at about 5’8 and had long flowing chestnut brown hair. Her eyes were equally as brown with flecks of gold in them. She had tattoos all down her arms which were of beautiful flowers and vines as well as water and bubbles with sea creatures and butterflies. There was also a hint of a castle on her back that I had noticed, and I knew she had them down her legs as well as some lines that seemed to peek through her black tights.

Black, one of the guys, was true to his name. Black eyes that pierced through you but his hair was a fiery red with black roots (clearly dyed). He was lean but tall, well over 6ft. However, it was Silver who was the strangest yet, and who drew my gaze the most. Again, true to his name, he had silver eyes as well as long silver hair. His skin was incredibly pale white and seemed to glisten like ice in the sun. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me once, which unsettled me, but I felt as if I had seen him before! Which was silly just because he had a name like the person in my dreams… His gaze at me was very thoughtful, his brows furrowed as if he was trying to figure me out. I tried not to keep staring back and continued with the training.

I delivered a few more presentations on data protection and how to talk to customers and clients politely before we finally broke for a lunch break, then the guys would go on to do some training on how to use the computer programmes and phones. I would still be present but that was Jason’s department for training. As we decided to go for break, Hope ran over to me and introduced Faith on a more personal level. I saw Black leave the training room and presumed Silver would follow.

“This is my sister, Faith!” Hope laughed excitedly.

“S... sister?!” I questioned, surprised. They couldn’t look any different if they tried. “You look nothing alike! I wouldn’t have been able to tell…” I trailed off.

“Well... we are actually triplets.” Faith spoke, her voice was calming, like raindrops hitting the ground. “Our other sister has different coloured hair too…” She looked down, sadly, as Hope looped her arm around Faith's shoulders.

“Oh?” I didn’t want to pry, the other triplet clearly caused painful memories for the girls. Hope saw my nervousness and smiled a sad but loving smile.

“She disappeared a long time ago, we think she was kidn*pped, but we were never able to find her, but we have Hope and Faith that she will be found, and we can live in Tranquillity again.” Her words caused a pain, but this time in my heart, not my head. I must have tripped a little as Hope grabbed my arm, a worried look on her face. As she did, the pain shot through to my head again, causing me to grasp it. “Are you OK?” She asked, her voice full of love and compassion.

“I’ll be fine, I suffer from migraine attacks, that’s all.” I reached into my drawer and took out my tablets. The girls looked worried and said they would leave me to rest. They said goodbye and exited the room. I was about to sit in my chair to have a quick rest when I noticed that Silver was still sitting in his chair. His hands were clasped together, and he was mumbling words. I walked over to him.

“Erm… Silver?” I touched his arm and was surprised at how cold he was. “Are you OK?” He jumped, snapping out of his murmurings, and looked directly into my eyes. There was a hint of hostility there but also a great deal of sadness.

“I’m fine” he snapped, shortly. “I didn’t realise everyone had ditched me. I'll head out!” He picked up his bag and I noticed he had a flute case. I didn’t say anything, just as he was about to get up, he put his hand on my head, a flash of light flew across my eyes. “If your headaches keep bothering you, I might be able to help!” He got up and left the room. The spot he had touched was cold, but it felt amazing, the ache was still there but not as bad. Maybe all I needed was an ice pack? Why hadn’t I thought of that before? I smelt something funny but didn't notice anything unusual as I looked around me.

I cleared up my things and headed to David’s office to give a report on the new recruits. The girls seemed lovely, but Silver and Black hadn’t really said anything concrete that I could use to gauge their personalities, yet.

“Hey!” David greeted me happily, kicking the chair in front of his desk out for me so I could sit down. “Come take a look at this for me? I’d like your opinion.” I grabbed the chair and rolled it around to his side of the desk and sat down. Leaning over David, I looked at his computer screen to see a poster advertising one of the new contracts we had scored. It was dealing with advertising and customer calls for a large company called CAM who were photographers that had become extremely popular over the last few months. They offered a number of packages, but their most popular was the fairy-tale experience where they would dress people up as fairies or wolves and take photos in nature. Naturally, David had gone with that theme in the new advertisements so there were pictures of fairies and trees and flowers all over the information. I smiled happily at the poster.

“It’s wonderful, albeit a bit OTT David!” I laughed. He smiled; a huge laugh came out of his lips. It stopped me in my tracks, he was so cute when he laughed. I blushed.

“Thanks Sweets! I kind of like it though. I thought it would especially draw in kids as well as kids at heart. I’m thinking of doing a few more serious ones for the papers etc. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I like it!” I smiled. “Right, I'd better go over to see the phone training for the newbies, probably be about an hour. I'll be off after that if that's OK? My headaches are much better today, but I think I'd like to get off early if that’s OK?”

“Oh…” David looked shocked at that. “Erm… yeah no problem.” He seemed dejected.

“Is there something you’d like me to do, I can hang back if you want?” I said, hoping it wasn’t something too much, I really wanted a nap and to get some ice on my head.

“It’s nothing, I just…” He stopped and looked into my eyes. I could never get over how dark his eyes were, really dark brown, almost black, they captivated me. He seemed to stutter something out, but I wasn’t paying attention.

“Huh?” I questioned.

“WOULDYOULIKETOGOFORADRINKWITHME?!” He shouted without breath.

“Still not getting it David” I said, shaking my head and laughing. He gritted his teeth, steadily getting more and more red.

“Would you go for a drink with me?” I was shocked to silence. I adored this man, he was handsome, treated me amazingly, but I was so out of his league and probably going a little crazy, he didn’t need that…

“I… I’d…” Before I had a chance to answer, he stood up.

“I knew it, I blew it last night! I’m sorry Lil! I’ve liked you for ages but never known what to do about it. I’m an i***t, pretend this convo never happened!” He said without pause. I was trying to answer him, but he kept rambling. I stood up and grabbed his shoulders.

“I'd love to David!” I said smiling. “Meet you here after I’m done?!” I couldn’t stop smiling as I headed to finish the day with my newbies.