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

CHAPTER 3

Lily's POV

I opened my eyes to find myself laid on a large 4 poster bed. Long see-through red curtains hung from the poles at the top. The bed was dark wood and had intricate flower patters carved down each of the corner poles. I blinked a few times trying to remember where I was. Then I remembered I was at home…

I heard breathing coming from the side of me and turned to see a boy no older than 9 or 10 with shoulder-length dark hair sleeping peacefully at the side of me. I smiled and reached out, sweeping his long black fringe back from his face. I leant over and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. This caused him to smile and open his eyes. I was met with completely black eyes staring back at me.

“Hey Sere, you’re awake!” The boy said, still smiling.

“Good morning, Celeb!” I smiled back. As soon as I said the words there was a pulling sensation as black smoke circled the boy and girl. My consciousness seemed to separate from the young girl I so often took the role of, and I found myself, my real-life self, standing to the side of the bed. I knew this was a dream and the conscious part of me started to panic whilst the dream girl, Sere, continued to talk to the boy named Celeb, on the bed, uninterrupted by what was happening. The smoke seemed to circle around the boy but didn't seem to do anything to him.

“Let’s go and find your sisters, then we can eat breakfast!” Celeb shouted and grabbed Sere’s hand, dragging her out into the bedroom. I followed the boy and girl, feeling like I had to. This had never happened before, and I was a little panicked. Would I be able to wake up? Was this supposed to happen? Was the black smoke the same stuff I had seen in my bathroom that had found its way into my dream?

As we, the boy, girl and my normal self, were heading to Sere’s sister's rooms, a much older man walked towards us and held out his hand to me. But the young boy and young girl ran straight through him. I stopped, equally confused, and intrigued. I looked at the new figure, wondering if he was a part of the dream too or if I had conjured him up in my panic.

He had silver hair and full silver eyes, no pupil at all, which seemed to be a common thing in my dreams, and I wondered why. I know they say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but what do empty eyes mean? The silver hair was held back by a silver tiara, and he wore a long tunic-style shirt and leggings in a light blue/ grey colour. By his side was a sword that seemed to be made completely out of ice, but I knew that couldn't be right with the sun blaring into the halls.

“You need to remember the truth Sere! This isn’t the truth!” The figure spoke directly to me, which confused me even more.

“I… I’m… My name is Lily!” I answered, stuttering. "That’s Sere!" I said, pointing down the hall to the small girl.

“No! You ARE Sere but ALSO not. Remember the truth!” He said angrily, before muttering some words in a language I didn’t understand.

“Who are you?!” I asked before I felt a force pulling me away from him. I tried to reach out to him to stop myself, but he pulled away from me.

“You know who I am!” was his answer before everything faded to black yet again. Just before I faded away, I could see the hurt in his eyes at me, not remembering who he was. I groaned angrily as the darkness completely overtook me...again.

I awoke on my bathroom floor. My side hurting from where I must have landed.

“I am so getting so sick of this!” I grumbled, getting up, and checking my side for bruises. Suddenly, I panicked and looked around. There was no black smoke, no strange visions in the mirror or anything unusual. Sighing, I stood up and tried the door, which opened straight away. Grumbling again, I headed into the living area and it was then that I realised I didn’t have a headache for the first time, after having one of those dreams. I nearly cried out for joy. But then I needed answers why. Could it have been because I wasn’t actually part of the girl this time? I was myself? Or was it something to do with the silver-haired man? Or even the black smoke? I shook my head and headed to the sofa to grab my phone. It was 2am! I had been blacked out for over 5 hours. I angrily growled this time whilst checking my phone and realised I had a few messages. The first one was from David. I smiled as I opened it.

Just checking on my favourite employee! If you still aren’t feeling better tomorrow, don’t come in and I'll cover you! Sleep well! D x

I thought about it and decided he was right. I would take the day off and get some rest. Replying to him, I said just that, I would take the day and clear my head and might even book another appointment with the doctors, if not my therapist, as I was clearly going a little bit insane with these dreams. He replied very quickly, saying it was fine and he would check in on me tomorrow. The second text I checked was from an unknown number. Frowning, I opened it.

Please remember Sere, I miss you! Celeb

I dropped the phone as if it had burned me. There was no way that was real. I shakily bent down to check the phone again. The message was definitely still there. It was real. My entire body began to tremble as I shook my head from side to side.

“This isn’t real, this isn’t real!” I started freaking out a little before throwing my phone back onto the bed. I needed to calm down. There was some reasonable explanation for this. So, I decided I would finally take some sleeping pills I had been avoiding, in the hope I wouldn’t have any more dreams tonight. I was completely unhinged by the day's actions and needed a good night's sleep, or I might just start believing my dreams were true and get locked away by my therapist. I swallowed the pills and went to bed. Sleep came pretty quickly.

UNKNOWN POV

“What are you doing?!” A quiet, female voice hissed.

“I need her to know!” A masculine voice answered back snappily.

“NO!” The female shouted, trying to snatch the phone from his hand.

“Too late, Voronwe!” A different male voice laughed. As the first unknown male's voice and the female voice presumed to be Voronwe began arguing, a shy female voice talked up.

“You’re definitely going to make things worse!” She hissed, even more quietly than Voronwe had.

“I know Estel! But… but…” the first male voice answered. The group of people were sitting near the beach on a rocky outcrop surrounded by small trees. The bickering couple stopped as they heard a loud c***k happening near them.

“What the…?” The first male voice asked, getting up, as a tree started cracking and split in half, another tree began growing from the centre of it. It was a silver birch that sprung from one of the smaller trees.

“That’s... That's my tree!” He said in awe. “How?!” The group of 5 stood staring at the tree as it grew taller and taller. None of them said a word, but surprise and awe were clearly written all over their faces.

Lily's POV

The next day, I decided I needed some down time. The stress of the last two weeks was clearly getting to me. The not sleeping, the strange dreams and now my waking mind, which was making things seem too realistic. I checked my phone, hoping the text would be gone, but it was still there. I pinched my nose in annoyance.

That was it! I would take a picnic and book and head to my favourite spot near the beach, somewhere no one could disturb me, somewhere no one knew about except me and somewhere where nothing could go wrong.

The area I loved so much was a large outcrop of rocks below a cliff that could shelter you from the rain. It had numerous large stones that could be used as seats because the water had weathered them down to be smooth, over the years. There were different flowers growing all around the cave and it was peaceful and serene. Not a lot of people knew it was there and if they did, they probably wouldn’t risk going there, as if you didn’t know the tides, you risked the chance of getting stuck in there when the tide was in.

I, on the other hand, knew the tides very well. Ever since I was old enough to come here on my own, I have. I studied the sea and knew roughly what times the tide began to come in and out, and now with modern-day technology you can check the tides as well, but nothing beats knowing them as well as I did.

The area was only a short walk from my house, around 25 to 30 minutes, and I packed everything I would need to be comfortable for the hours I would be there. Once I was finished, I headed out of my apartment and walked towards the beach. I noticed a few birds in the sky and realized that more and more wildlife seemed to be appearing in the city. It made me smile, people don't appreciate nature when they should. I noticed that more flowers seemed to be present in sidewalk cracks and trees seemed to have bigger and brighter leaves. It made me smile as I carried on walking.

Once I arrived and climbed down the cliffs' steep pathway to the cave I loved, I pulled out a blanket I had packed and a small pillow and set them up on a large rock. I could curl up with my book for hours here and no one would disturb me. I switched my phone to silent, just in case. I also had a thermos of coffee and a few sandwiches for later. It was around 10am when I sat back and read the morning away.

I yawned and sat up after a few hours of reading. I had stumbled upon a familiar word in my folklore book, and it had intrigued me enough to stop. The word Sere had been mentioned. It meant tranquillity in elvish. It was mentioned in a festival celebrated by the dark elves called the Maur-o Sere or the Vision of Tranquillity, as it translated. So Sere meant Tranquillity. I was about to get out my phone to see if I could find any more information when my head suddenly began to explode in pain again! My left eye began twitching furiously and dropped my phone onto the floor, grasping my eye and head in pain.

“NO!” I shouted. I knew there were only a few hours until the tide came in. I knew I needed to get out and for that I needed to see straight. I also knew what usually followed the headaches. A dream. There was no way I could afford to fall asleep here. I would surely drown. I attempted to leave the shallow cave, my fuzzy head thinking that walking might be better than trying to call someone. Dropping everything that belonged to me, I stumbled as fast as I could out of the cave, but I didn't make it far and collapsed onto the beach. Yet again, the cooling sensation came over me as I felt the grainy sand across my cheek and my vision turned to darkness.