Melody felt that she had traveled an enormous distance in search of the Padd with the rose, and poor Samantha felt it triple.
"This is why…" she leaned down herself and leaned against the wall. "This is why I don't like to come..."
The fact that the place was open to the public was true, however, the visits have limited access. There are places they are not supposed to enter for their own safety —a phrase that takes on all possible meanings —. So what do you do with a girl of eight, a friend of one of the Gold Guards? Leave the responsibility to her older sister, of course.
"Melody!" she yelled to get her attention, with no effect.
Whenever Melody comes she gets excited and runs around playing with Padd, it is not that in this area there are a considerable amount of forbidden rooms or anything, but in the same way she has to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't go to another wall or go down to the dungeons.
Melody, like a storm unleashed, continued her search and went out of Samantha sight thanks to the distance and the curvature of the building.
"It doesn't matter..." she adjusted her hair as she caught her breath. "Melody is grown up now, I don't have to be behind her."
She crossed her arms and called Melody one last time. She waited a tedious, silent minute before clicking her tongue and grumpily pacing to find her hyperactive younger sister.
"Melody! Melody!" Without answer she was advancing. "If she went to another wall I'm going to tell Uncle Greg to punish her until her next birthday!" thought furiously.
She tried to open the first door that came across her path, she gave up when she knocked a few times and no one opened it.
"Excuse me, have you seen Melody?" she asked as she opened the second door ajar on the way, it was an internal surveillance post where a trio of guards had access to stairs to the roof of the wall and a couple of not very wide horizontal gaps in the wall.
"She came, saw us, and left."
"Thank you."
The process was repeated for a while, doors that she couldn't open, places where people said that Melody looked around and left... Nothing out of the ordinary, however, Samantha had a rare anxiety in her chest that didn't leave her alone, which was getting worse with each step she took towards the intersection of the other wall.
She put her hand on the knob of the last door before the intersection, Melody had to be there, if she didn't break the rules.
She withdrew her hand from the knob, startled by the loud hurried footsteps of a pair of guards heading to the other wall. She patted her face a couple of times and turned the knob. The lock on the door gave way and the dark two-meters room was revealed to her.
"M-melody?"
Although the light was scarce, it was easy for her to notice the empty space of the place, not a piece of furniture, not people, just an open hatch that surely led to the cells.
And that was the problem.
Melody was nowhere to be found, the door was unlocked and the hatch was wide open. The scene screamed "Melody got in there", however you saw it.
Samantha went out and took a last look at the surroundings in the hope that they were her machinations and Melody would continue to be a good and obedient girl.
"I'm not ordering special pastelitos for you again," she muttered irritably as she went to the hatch to go downstairs.
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"Why are you crying? Does something hurt? Did this bad man do something to you?!" Heilyn gave Gregory an impressive mocking look, it was obvious to her that Airys shouldn't be in pain, she smeared her wound with an analgesic cream.
"I-I didn't do anything!"
"Do not scream!" Heilyn reproached him and gently laid her hand on top of Airys's. "What happened?"
Airys's lips twisted with her attempts to speak of her part. She didn't cry out loud and the motive was mundane and pathetic, that's why it was so hard for her to confess it.
"I-I'm… a shame…" she muttered herself and lowered her head.
"Don't say that, you are a lovely girl" Heilyn said.
"It's just that... I have everything I dreamed of at my fingertips and even so I'm just looking ridiculous..."
"What did you dream of?" Gregory inquired.
"Yes!" Airys' spirit was bursting with energy, and a glow illuminated her silver eyes. "Go on adventures, save people…!" Her spirit faded until she became an ember under the sea. "It was supposed... that after so many months, it would be strong..."
"Don't worry about that," Heilyn reached under the desk for a jar of water and offered her a glass. "I'm sure no one becomes an expert on a subject in a few months, huh..."
"Airys" She introduced herself feeling the need of Heilyn. "Wait a second, who are you? Where am I?"
"I am Heilyn, this is Gregory and you are in the Dingars infirmary."
Heilyn's friendly smile was conspicuous, in Gregory's case, by his absence. It was weird to see her with that pity on top of her, maybe it's because he never comes here as a patient. Anyway, it was time to test whether his suspicions were true or not.
"Airys, could you explain to me/" His attitude and serious phrase was cut cruelly by Airys' hysterical screams.
"Hey! Why the hell did one of its inhabitants suddenly attack me?! I'm out of nowhere in a desert and without asking questions I'm getting kicked in the head!"
"Yes Gregory, why is that happening?" Heilyn supported her.
"A-are you seriously blaming me?" Gregory's shoulders sagged, not five minutes and they were already a kind of best friend forever. "Why were you in the desert?"
"I fell off a hill and when I opened my eyes I was in a desert."
The striking color of Airys eyes was embedded in Gregory's mind, silver was the color of the dragons of legend, however, what captivated him most was how those same eyes were imbued with a purity similar to that of his nieces.
"Heh." Perhaps it was he who was entering "that age". "I apologize for what happened Airys, I'll make sure to make up for the misunderstanding."
"T-thanks…" Airys muttered, still loss.
"Heilyn."
"Tell me."
"Could you watch Airys for a bit? I'm going to talk to Padd."
"On one condition," Heilyn got up, swung around the desk and motioned for him to get down a bit. Gregory's face reddened a little. "On my next day off, invite me to eat the Silver Stella." She whispered in his ear.
"T-to the Stella?!" he growled mortified. "That place is too much/"
Heilyn's sweet and relaxed posture remained unchanged, with an aura that spread with a sideways smile that held so much positivity that it was obvious that denying would cause the worst of misfortunes on his neck.
"Yup." It was the soft words that sowed terror in him.
"I-it's okay..." Defeated, humiliated, and future in debt, Gregory left the room so as not to lose whatever he had left.
Airys sighed inside her, Seng's image was drawn into her memories and an invisible shadow drowned out the sparkle in her eyes. It's just... it's hard to see that every man she comes across is hundreds of times kinder than Seng...
"Well Airys," Heylin sat next to the gurney, clasped her hands and rested her head on them. "Tell me more about those dreams of yours."
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The atmosphere was the worst. A dim light coming from a pair of torches too far apart. You could tell they hardly ever used the dungeons, a good or bad sign that made Samantha's nervousness worse.
She shrugged, walked slowly, as if a criminal or similar ridiculousness were going to jump out of those opaque areas. She clung to the wall as closely as she could so as not to pass near the bars on the other side, that she cannot see someone behind them does not mean that someone is not there.
The last light in the corridor caught her attention, it came from a doorless entrance, beyond this it was pure darkness. She stealthily approached that place, even breathing scared her and as much as she wanted to call Melody to get out of there as soon as possible, she kept her mouth closed.
"Don't you know when Trekaeps will be back?"
Samantha froze, she knew that voice. She peeked out, Padd was facing Layd who was chained behind bars.
Padd answered Layd but neither that nor the fact that Melody were not there crossed Samantha's head, her brain was overwhelmed by the presence of that boy.
"Layd?! What is he doing here?!" Her cheeks reddened, out of nowhere she was more concerned with her appearance than usual. It was a disaster.
"Oh come on, at least let me get out of here if you're going to send the letter" Layd said.
"I already told you that/"
Padd suddenly turned to Samantha as he noticed her and she screeched.
"What are you doing here Samantha?!"
"E-eh, I-I, the truth is that…" She stopped hiding behind the wall, looked away and touched the tips of her fingers with the others.
"Samantha?" Layd narrowed his eyes and tipped his head forward. "That name… Ah! Samantha! It's me Layd, Trekaeps's friend!"
Who knew, that Samantha's crush would be in prison.
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"Done, now… where will Padd be?" Melody said as she came out of the bathroom, quite far from the hatch to the dungeons.