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

CHAPTER 2

Lily's POV

The day went by pretty quickly. I had managed to negotiate the deal David had such high hopes for. It was a huge computer networking deal with a few companies throughout the world and we would handle all of their paperwork and calls. There was one I was particularly interested in, a photography company.

It was 2pm and I was already exhausted. I had already drunk around 6 cups of coffee (despite knowing I shouldn't because of my headache) but I knew I had 4 new recruits to talk to about this work before I left for the day.

As I was about to get up from my desk and get yet another coffee before heading out to the training room, I heard a faint knock on my door.

“Hello?” I shouted, wondering who it could be at this time. I knew most of my staff were hard at work and some were at lunch. I also knew David had lots of paperwork to do for the upcoming work deal and he would call me into his office, not visit me in mine.

An incredibly beautiful woman entered my office with a small smile. She was a little taller than me, long beautiful blonde hair, stunning blue eyes and freckles all over her, not just on her face, but everywhere.

“My apologies for interrupting you, Ma’am”, She stuttered shyly.

“That’s OK, Can I help?” I asked curiously.

“I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself before our training session began…” Realisation then dawned on me. I didn’t recognise her as she was one of the new recruits David had hired. She didn’t look old enough to be working here but her resume said she was the same age as me. The same birthday as well, which made me chuckle.

“Oh hello, you’re Hope, right?” I smiled and offered her my hand. She hesitated, which struck me as odd. She shyly offered her hand. OK, so she was shy. That needed to change before she was handling phone calls for our clients.

“Yeah… Hope, that’s right. I believe you’re Miss Lily?” She said quietly, shaking my hand. My head began to twinge again, but not as badly as before. Was my medication wearing off? She looked at me thoughtfully though with a sadness in her eyes.

“Erm… yeah, just Lily though, no formalities here.” I smiled, then frowning at my headache. I reached into my drawer for some painkillers.

“Are you OK Miss?” Hope asked, concern etched on her face. This struck me as odd. She didn't know me and surely wasn't worried about her new boss just yet.

“Just a headache!” I answered, knocking back the two pills with water. Her eyes grew wide, and her pupils dilated almost cat-like. I blinked, sure our eyes weren't capable of that, but they were normal when I looked again.

“You shouldn’t take those, they’re not good for you!” She scoffed loudly. This startled me as she had spoken in nothing more than a whisper since entering. Her hands flew to her mouth as she feared she had misspoken. “Erm… I’m… sorry! I didn’t mean to disrespect you Ma’am!” She apologised. “I will see you in training!” and she flew out of the office before I could say anything. I held my head as the headache got worse. My vision began to blur, and I knew what was going to happen next. Standing to reach the door, my vision got worse.

“Ah!” I cried before slumping to the ground. All I could remember was a pleasant feeling of coolness as I saw black.

-----

I was sitting in front of a large mirror, someone behind me brushing my hair. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling.

“I wish I had your hair Sere!” A small voice said behind me. I opened my eyes, and part of me wanted to try and get a look at the person, but she was hidden behind my mass of long black hair. I giggled.

“No, you don’t, Estel! Your hair is beautiful, just like the cornfields in Autumn!” I gushed. “Mine looks like darkness.” I shuddered.

“But beautiful none the less!” The voice of Estel said, suddenly braiding my hair. "And you know who seems to like it." She giggled. I rolled my eyes and ignored her last comment.

“As is yours! We may all have different coloured hair, but we are all the same and unique all at once! I love you sis!” I gushed.

“I love you too Sere!” She smiled and hugged me from behind.

-----

I awoke to find myself on someone’s sofa, not the one in my office. I shot up.

“Ah!” I cried as my head started hurting again, always above my left eye. I had it checked out in the past and was advised it was nothing to do with my eyesight or any sort of danger to my brain. The doctor just suggested pain killers and thought it could be down to stress. My psychologist, on the other hand, thought it could be my brain trying to remember past memories. I didn’t agree with this though, as my dreams were like a fairy tale, there was no way i was manifesting memories.

“Oh, you’re awake!” David cried as he came into his office carrying two cups of coffee. “Got you a coffee just how you like it. Your new employee, Silver, found you collapsed on your office floor when you didn’t turn up for training.”

“What…. Silver?” I moved to get up, clutching my head. The training! “I’m so sorry!” I stood to head out as David caught my arm, worry etched into his remarkably handsome face.

“Don’t be sorry! Is it the headaches again?” He asked, concern in his eyes despite the solemn smile on his face.

“Yeah! They’re getting progressively worse, but the doctors say there’s nothing wrong with me!” I sat back down, leaning back on the comfortable sofa cushions and grabbed the coffee he was offering me. “Thanks!” I took a sip and sighed. “I just don’t want it affecting my work! I’m so sorry David!” I cried out in desperation.

“Its fine, honestly! I know what’s happening and I sent the newbies home with their learning packs to read through. We can try again tomorrow, and it's not like the contract starts tomorrow. We've got a few weeks anyway. Its fine!” He said whilst stroking my arm. I smiled gratefully at David. He was so caring and thoughtful.

I was always worried he was showing me favouritism by promoting me at such a young age, but he was amazing with all his employees. He rewarded the hard workers and said goodbye to the slackers. He promoted many people to other branches of the company.

To be honest, I was a little star struck once I found out he was 19 when he founded the company. It started out as just a small business that delivered leaflets for local businesses and dealt with calls from potential customers for those leaflets, but as people realised David’s talent, they offered him more work and the company grew to four or five large companies throughout the city.

Like me, David grew up in an orphanage, a different one though. His parents died when he was very young and his aunt and uncle had taken him in, but due to them already having three children, they struggled, so David ended up in the orphanage, partly through choice, but partly not. He didn’t blame them, but he said it hurt as well. He was determined to never rely on anyone again, hence the business and security it gave.

“Earth to Lily?” He snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.

“Oh sorry! Zoned out there! My head really is on one today!” I attempted to smile when I realised he was kneeling in front of me on the sofa, pretty close. I blushed, nervous at his close contact. My heart was beating fast, he confused my feelings. “I should probably go clean-up for the day and head home!” I said, my blushing becoming more pronounced as I saw he was staring into my eyes.

“Are you OK Lily?” He asked, more concern rising in his voice, but it was soft and thoughtful.

“Yes! I promise I will be fine; I just need to sleep!” I smiled reassuringly. He sighed deeply, as if not believing me but accepting what I was saying.

“As long as, you’re sure!” he got up and headed to his desk, resting his palms on it facing away from me. I was confused. He looked so worried but now he looked mad.

“David, are… are you OK?” I asked, standing up again and heading towards him.

“I’m just worried about you Lily; we’ve known each other for….” He stopped and licked his lips. “Well...5 years! You kind of grow attached, you know!” He laughed, turning around with a goofy grin on his face.

“Oh!” I was caught off guard by that. I had grown attached to this man too, but I was never sure if I had grown to idolize him or like him in a different way.

He came towards me and quickly grabbed me into a hug. He squeezed with strength but not enough to hurt me. Almost a desperate type of hug. I smiled into his chest; this man always made me feel so safe. I really liked him. As I raised my arms to return the hug, I felt my head and left eye pound with pain again. I reached up to suppress the pain. David pulled away and looked at me hard, then he smiled, a rather big smile for someone who two seconds before had seemed upset and angry. He clearly didn't notice my pain or was pretending not to.

“Go home Lily, get some rest and I'll see you in the morning!”

I headed home, taking a slow walk through the neighbourhood, not really paying attention. Once home, I threw my belongings onto my sofa before throwing open my double doors to the balcony. I just needed to sit peacefully in the evening air and hopefully the headache would dissolve away. I grabbed my watering can, filling it up in the kitchen, before I started watering all of my plants. I had all sorts of different ones, but my favourites were the red lilies that were growing on the left side of the balcony, around my bench. The balcony wasn’t large but big enough for a bench, a small table and about 20 large stone plant pots. It was like sitting in my own unique forest. Plants grew around the metal bars that stopped me from falling off. A few creeping vines were growing on the walls and around the glass doors.

I grabbed a book I had started reading from the local library and sat down to read. After about 20 minutes of complete silence, I heard a loud tweet. I looked up and noticed a swallow had landed on my railing. Strange! I thought, I have not seen a bird around here for a long time! I put my book in my lap, fascinated with it. Its gorgeous blue and cream feathers glistening in the evening sun. I hadn’t noticed the sun was starting to go down and I took a deep breath and saw the colours over the tops of houses. It was beautiful, purples, yellows and blues all mixed together. The swallow continued to watch me; his head c****d to the side as if he was curious.

“Hello little fellow!” I smiled. “I’m just taking in the beautiful night air, you’re more than welcome to keep me company!” I went back to reading my book. The swallow was looking at me quizzically again, as if it understood me. The bird looked at my book cover. Then it tweeted happily before flying off in a grand display. Its tiny wings opened as wide as they could, and it flew down. I giggled to myself. It had almost seemed like he read what I was reading. It was a book about the Tylwyth Teg, mythical creatures that lived in England many years ago. If you believed in that, of course.

I decided to call it quits as the evening got darker. I said goodnight to my plants. Yes, I am aware of how strange that is. But they seemed to like it… and I had read somewhere before that talking to your plants helped them grow stronger and healthier.

I headed to the bathroom to rinse my face. My headache seems to have gone again thanks to relaxing, but I knew I would probably have another dream tonight. Sighing, I looked into the mirror and my reflection stared back at me. Its usual pale skin, green eyes, freckles and shoulder-length black hair looked back. I smiled when suddenly the reflection changed, the eyes became almost a block of green instead of the usual white, green and black. The reflection smiled as a silver tiara appeared on its head. The reflection then became darker, the right eye of the reflection went black whilst the other was still green and black smoke started to pour out of the eye. The reflection sneered in disgust. The black smoke began to pour from the mirror into my bathroom. I panicked and ran to the bathroom door. But it wouldn’t open. I pulled and pulled, the smoke steadily getting thicker and thicker, too late. I collapsed onto the bathroom floor and darkness took over yet again. This time the only feeling I had was dread, knowing I was alone this time.