Heated Hearts

Lost Spirits Shall Return!,

|| Aster's POV ||

I was sitting in front of a man who seemed to be in his early forties;dressed in a neat ironed white shirt, he had fairly combed hair, fair skin and not a single crease in his outfit. He was talking on the telephone, I tried my best to not eavesdrop his conversation as I sat there, eying the well-arranged office room.

The name-plate at the desk in front of me read, Edward Wilson.

I've seen him quite a few times here and there, since he was elected as the Mayor of our county last year. There's something about him, I don't know if it's the overly sanitized and organized appearance or the way he directly makes eye-contact while talking, that makes people nervous.

Even sitting here, while I tried my best to avoid his gaze, accidentally I ended up gazing at his direction a few times and every time he caught my eyes, looked directly into them, and it felt like he wasn’t just looking, he was peeking inside my soul.

Few minutes passed by, I sat there motionlessly, for some reason praying desperately inside to get out of that room as if it was suffocating me...

“Aster, isn't it?”

I looked up at the mention of the name, only to meet his soul ripping gaze. Subconsciously my fingers gripped the hem of my dress, as I tried to swallow down the nervousness I was feeling.

“Tha-That's me.” I gave him a tight-lipped smile and put my hand up for a handshake, trying my best to not shake while I did it.

Edward looked at me for a split second and smiled as he took my hand for a handshake and said,” You have your mother's eyes.”

“You knew her? I didn’t know you were acquainted with them!” I blurted out, and regretted instantly as I realized it was an unrelated topic and the Mayor's PA warned me quite a few times to not waste too much of his precious time.

Edward chuckled at my question as if I had cracked a joke and sipped from his glass, what I think was water.

“Of course, I did. We met last year when they came to leave a will. It took quite a few visits to get it all in place and to be honest, felt quite troublesome to me, that's why I remember them quite precisely!” Mr. Edward laughed again.

I'm starting to think that this guy right here, has some kind of laughing decease. Must say, he turned out different from how I expected him to be. I waited patiently for him to finish laughing at every sentence like we are in a comedy show, but honestly he was already getting on my nerves and I bet, he knew that too.

Mr. Edward coughed and sat straight,” So, Aster, Let's start with the official stuff, shall we?”

He handed me a file, which had almost a dozen of pages and told me to use the waiting room while I finish reading those and mark where I feel like I'm not getting the point. He also informs me that my parent's lawyer, Ms Macbeth, would be here shortly. And I mentally relax, because I was quite familiar with Ms. Macbeth.

She spoke less, but was quite warming.

With that I leave his office and find a corner couch in the waiting room to read the documents. There was a few people there, one went inside as soon as I got out of the office. Now I get why they didn’t allow me to bring anyone, here everyone was for themselves and no queuing was allowed.

For the next hour, I read each of the points precisely and attentively. I understand most of them as there were no roundabouts, except one, so I mark it.

When I was done with the long will my parents left behind, I yawned and moved in the couch and to my surprise, found Ms. Macbeth sitting opposite of me.

“Oh my! Sorry, When did you come?” I was quite surprise that I didn’t even notice her coming, let alone the fact that she was staring at me when I looked up.

Ms. Macbeth smiled warmly as she replied,”Hello to you too, my dear. Happy birthday.”

She side hugged me as I greeted her back and thanked her, then sat at the opposite of me again.

“Are you done reading? Any confusions?” She asked fixing her glasses on top her nose.

“Actually, yes. I read all of it, but two of the annotations are confusing! Here, 11.2.” I pointed the marked point on the paper as I handed them over to her.

“ Ouh... Just as I thought! On 11.2,it's actually said that you would get a special resource left by your parents but before getting that you would have to sign a separate agreement saying, you will not show it to anybody else ever.” Ms. Macbeth spoke in one breath and looked up at me.

My eyebrows creased,'what a weird condition!' I thought.

“So, if you don't have any other queries, I would like you to sign here, and here.” Ms. Macbeth handed me a pen and the papers.

I sighed,”Okay, let's get over with it already!”

I signed the places, she asked me to then Ms. Macbeth smiled and went inside to get those papers attested by the Mayor. She asked me to join but I declined humbly.

To my surprise, she came out quickly that I had expected.

“Congratulation, Aster. Here are all the papers, from now you can live at your house like a responsible adult.” She announced, and I smiled back at her while standing up.

We walked outside together

I sighed and looking at Ms. Macbeth said,”I guess this is it, right?”

“One more thing left. The resource mentioned in 11.2. Wait here for a minute while I grab it from my car.” With that Ms. Macbeth strode towards her car.

She came back and handed me a box, and I accepted it, curiosity written all over my face.It felt quite heavy.

With that Ms. Macbeth, and me went on our separate ways. She drove her car, while I started walking towards home.

I stood at our porch and called Emilia, asking her to come over. For the past week, we cleaned the house as well as.

I stood at our porch and called Emilia, asking her to come over. For the past week, we did some work together like cleaning the house, and stuff as well as moving my things from Emilia's house to mine. Since she was there for me for the beginning, I wanted to unlock the door once she was here.

Within two minutes Emilia appeared beside me. I took a deep breath and put the key inside, unlocking the door we stepped inside, together.

Putting the box Ms. Macbeth gave me earlier on the table,I turned around and halted, in a daze, eying around as memories started popping up in my head, something felt different now... An invisible reminder, reminding me I'm going to live here from now on like a responsible person, on my own.

“Kiddo, go freshen up then eat. I'm leaving the food here. I have an errand to run, so I'll leave my big girl here on her own.” Emilia hugged me after she had placed the food container on the kitchen counter top.

I hugged her and whispered,”Thank you…for everything.”

“You are welcome baby. Now shooh…off you go. If you need anything I'm just a call away, okay?”

I nodded, as I smiled back at her and with that she left, locking the door behind her.

I sigh...

Same old house but nothing feels same...huh...

I tried to shoo the emotions that would for sure make me weep, I hurried upstairs and freshened up.

While eating the food Emilia left for me, I browsed my f*******: newsfeed.

By the time, I was done with eating and washing my single plate, I was already yawning.

Sitting on the couch, I was suddenly reminded about the box as my eyes land on the table. There was a small safe inside with a note. Which said,

“Birthdays.”

I placed the safe on my thighs and type my birthdate as the password, but it is denied. Huh?

Should I call Ms? Macbeth and ask for the password?

Scanning my eyes over the note again, I try to find some other clue, and they halt at the 's' after the word birthday. That's it! I know the password!

It's all our birthdates combined, I use that one on my school locker too!

Without any delay, I pressed the digits and voilà! It was unlocked!

I opened it to find an odd looking, triangular object inside.

It was rusty and old, as if centuries. I wonder why my parents specially left it for me. I scrutinized the object carefully, it's a palm sized pyramid shaped thing, the weird part is the top, there's a lid on the peak which moves slightly but after several tries, I gave up the idea of opening it ever!

Not only that, but I caressed my hand on the wall of the small pyramid to find the uneven surface, upon looking closely, I realized there were some weird writings and designs carved on it.

On each wall there was a single line written and also under the small pyramid there's a stanza written. I tried to read one, which said;

“Et perdidit spirituum et revertetur"

Which language was this?!!

Grabbing my phone, I scanned the writing and searched it on Google.

The translation came out as ;

“The lost spirits shall return.”

Ehhh??? What???