•Elia
"Ellie, you have to understand why I couldn't let you find out about any of this," Dad continues, "I don't know who or what did this to your mom, but whatever it was, it's dangerous, and might come for you as well. I did this to protect you."
To protect me. How typical.
I clench my fist, my knuckles white from the gesture.
"Protect me?" I retort. "That's why you never let me go out without bodyguards? That's why I had to negotiate with you so I could go to a college outside the country with lesser than 10 bodyguards? That's why you never let me have friends over? Or even go on dates alone? That's why all my life, I have felt restricted, and trapped. Is that why I'm always being treated like a little child who can't take care of herself? One who isn't old enough to hear the truth about her own mother?" I voice my anger and hurt, both the new and old ones.
"Ell-"
"That's not how protection works dad. All you did was take away my freedom and lie to me my whole life. That… that's just not right." I stare down at the ground trying to stop that stinging feeling in my eyes.
I'm trying to understand where he's coming from. He's not a bad person for what he did. He got scared and didn't want whatever happened to mom to happen to me as well. I get it.
But that doesn't mean his approach was right. That doesn't mean he didn't just break my trust into a thousand pieces.
"Where's the message mom sent you?" I finally look up at him.
When I meet his gaze, I catch a glimpse of sadness in his eyes. But there's something I don't see —guilt. There's no form of guilt in his eyes. Almost as if, if he was given the chance to have done things differently, what he'd do would be to hide the truth better.
"It was a magical voice message. It could only be listened to once. It's gone now."
As disappointed as I am to hear that, one thing is certain— Mom had magic.
Now, was that a good thing? Or a bad thing?
"Were there any hints or clues as to who did this?" I ask.
"It was just a goodbye message… nothing else." He answers hesitantly, giving me a strange look.
I open my mouth to say something but he speaks before I can.
"Don't tell me you want to find whatever killed her."
"You didn't try to?" I arch my brow.
"I.. did. But it's not very easy trying to find an unidentifiable supernatural entity, using technology."
Well, I guess he has a point.
"Let's find Anodohra, I know we'll get answers there." I suggest, looking at him with hope in my eyes.
If he really wants to uncover this mystery, he has to start fighting fire with fire. If it was something magical that did this, then we begin our search in the only magical place we know. Anodohra.
If he would just agre-
"You are not going there. It's too dangerous." He declares.
"It's not dangerous. It's mom's hometown." I state firmly.
"Why won't you just listen to me this once Elia!" He barks, bolting up suddenly from the chair.
I instinctively take a step backwards.
He sees this, and begins to calm down a little.
"Ellie," he starts in a softer tone, "You don't know what's over there. Magic isn't always safe. It can be really dangerous as well. And that's why you can't go to Anodohra. That's final. Go to bed Ellie, it's late. " And with that, he leaves. Leaving me to my endless questions.
I run out of my library, straight to my room and right onto my bed, where I bury my face into my pillow and breakdown.
Not because of the lies, not because of my fight with dad. Not entirely.
But because, it feels like I'm hearing of my mom's death for the first time.
When I first heard it, I hadn't known her. Who she was? Where she came from? I don't even know how she looked. It hurt that I wasn't going to have a mom, but that was all.
Now, after reading her journals, it felt like I took a glimpse into her life. And then it hit me, that she's actually gone. She left before I could even get to know who she was. And now that I'm getting to know her, well, she still won't be here.
Someone took her away from me.
As I cry out into my pillow, I make my mom a promise.
Whoever took her away from me, I will make them pay, no matter what.
•••
Turns out dad hasn't returned since he left last night. That's not like him. I've never seen him this angry.
Nonetheless, I'm glad he isn't home right now.
Luckily, breakfast was peaceful.
Even if grandma knew anything about whatever happened, she's doing a great job at acting ignorant about it.
I decide to check the library after breakfast, the one I'm still banned from entering. Maybe in the heat of his anger he left the k-
Nope, the key isn't where it used to be.
Well, it's not like I didn't expect this…
And that's why I made a duplicate, courtesy of the day I went 'ticket hunting'.
Now this is something he must never know.
When I enter the library, I pause for a moment. What do I even want to find here? Apart from mom's journals and written works, what else could lead me closer to finding Anodohra?
I inspect some of the other books left behind, but they look like they were just books mom enjoyed reading, just for entertainment.
As I keep moving to find something important-ish, something catches my line of sight. One of the desk has two drawers, one I didn't notice before.
Thankfully, they aren't locked up. When I open up the first drawer, I find a bunch of small envelopes wrapped together by a thin ribbon. On top of the first letter is a boldly written heading:
'Letters to my Leon.'
I open up one of them and it reads:
"To Leon,
I think you are my soulmate. Yes, I seem to be married, with a daughter. Maybe you are not meant to be my lover, but I believe you are my soulmate. Soulmates are not always lovers."
Leon… Leon? Oh. That name.. that's the guy mom mentioned in her journals.
Mom wrote him such letters? Did they become so close?
I fold the letter back and wrap everything back the way it was. I don't know if I should be reading this, but I'll still keep it with me. Just in case.
When I open up the second drawer, I see something similar, but the heading on this one makes my breath catch.
'Letters to my Ellie.'
M-Mom wrote all these.. she wrote this, for me?
What else am I going to find now, dad?!
Just when I think I can understand where he's coming from, I see something else he's hidden that's just… just too much to take in-
There's something else in the drawer. A message, written in bold letters: THE MONOCHROME ONE
Monochrome one? What's that supposed to mean?
I guess this is a hidden message.
Could that be the name of a novel here? Or?
Hmm, monochrome… black and white?
Hold on!
I turn towards mom's paintings. I never paid much attention to these, apart from the first time I realized mom made them. Could there be something important there?
I look at all the paintings and realize that only one of them is in black and white.
That should have been easier than it was.
I move towards the painting to inspect it further, but I can't seem to understand the message there. All I see is a fancy looking building. I touch it lightly, and it feels a little weird. Or is it just me?
I decide to touch another painting to be sure. Yep, it's not just me. This painting feels a little lighter than it should.
When I lift it off the wall, it feels like I just lifted a piece of paper. But that's not what matters. What matters is the painting shaped hole in the now exposed wall, a hole that isn't too deep. It has a closed end, one which has a crescent shaped nook burrowed into it.
That crescent shape looks oddly familiar.
My hand goes to the pendant of my necklace. Dad told me it was a gift from mom, and I wear it almost all the time.
Now that I look at it, it looks exactly like the shape etched onto the wall.
I take off the necklace and place it in the small nook.
I was right, it's exactly the same, it fits in perfectl-
A crumbling sound from the wall makes me flinch, and I quickly remove my necklace from the hole.
Is this an earthquake? But it's not affecting anywhere else but the wall in front of me.
When the wall stops crumbling, it opens slightly, with a small creak, like a door would. I push it open further and realize that this is a hidden passageway.
I immediately pick up my phone, dial that one familiar number and
"LITAAA." I call out
"What's up, babe?" She answers through the phone.
"You'll never guess what I just found in my mom's library"
"Your dad isn't home? I'm on my way." And with that, she ends the call.
Wow, she didn't even wait to hear what I had to say.
•••
Five minutes later, Lita appears in front of me.
"Okay. I'm. here." She says through her hard breathing.
"You ran here." I say it more like a statement, instead of a question.
She nods.
"How did you get here so fast?" I question.
Where she lives is at least a thirty minutes drive away from here, and apparently, she ran here.
She answers me after she finally catches her breath, "I was in the neighborhood."
"With the journals in your bag?" I raise a questioning brow.
"I wanted to get some of that tasty boba from the best café in town. And coincidentally, your house is right next to that café… so, I brought them, just in case," She grins.
"You ventured thirty plus minutes for bubble tea?" I place my hand on my forehead.
"Like it's not something I usually do." She rolls her eyes.
She's not wrong. Lita is the most random person I've ever met. I love her that way.
"Woahhh." She finally sees the passageway. "Is that a secret lair? Where does it go?" She asks, her widened eyes fixated on the passage.
"We're about to find out." I smile.
She returns the smile and begins to lead the way.
We had to put on our phone's flashlight halfway through after almost tripping because of how dark it was.
I think we walked for about a minute or two, before reaching a dead end.
"That's disappointing." I sigh.
I expect Lita to say something, but she's quiet, weird. I look at her and notice that she's staring at something. Following her line of sight, I finally understand why she's quiet.
The same crescent shaped hole is also at the edge of this wall.
"That symbol-"
"My necklace." I complete her sentence, sort of.
I proceed to do the same thing I did earlier with the first wall, half expecting the same thing to happen— another passageway.
But something different happened.
Instead, a dark, huge, spiral looking, misty opening appears.
"Is that… a-a magical… portal?" Lita asks, the exact same thing I was wondering.