'Was that me hallucinating? Am I going insane now?'
Lily thought as she tried to remember the face of the man, but unfortunately, the interval of their meeting was so small that she could not remember. The only proof of him was the white lily flower and the umbrella beside her. She gazed at the flower and stroked its petals, she could feel the soft morning dew on the petals. Just then a drop of water landed on the flower causing it to sway a little. Lily stretched her arm and soon a few more drops landed on her palm. She looked above and the previously blue sky was now covered with grey clouds, an indication that it was about to rain.
She placed both of her hands above her head and looked around. Her gaze then landed on the black umbrella behind her. At first, she was confused and pondered whether she brought an umbrella with her. But then she looked at the lily flower in her hand and the dots connected. She remembered a glimpse of that man handing her an umbrella.
'Who was he?'
At the same time inside the resort, the manager had pacing forward and backward, tension and frustration visible on his face. Lark stood beside him, his expression was devoid of any emotion. The manager sweated bullets as he pondered the current situation.
It was after six hours after he guided President Lily to her room that Lark swarmed into his cabin and asked him to search for President Lily. He checked the surveillance footage from security and found out that President Lily had ventured out to the garden a few hours ago. The manager along with Lark searched the garden but there was no sign of her.
The manager felt a sudden impulse to kill himself. If something happened to such an influential person in this resort his life would be finished. He hurriedly asked the security to scourge through the entire resort and the possible places that she could venture off to. He even checked whether she left the resort or not, fortunately for Lark but unfortunately for the manager she hadn't. Now it had already been a couple of hours of the entire team searching for her.
Just when Lark was about to burst into anger, he spotted Lily entering the lobby carrying a black umbrella drenched in water and a flower in her hand. He hurriedly rushed towards her.
Lily saw Lark rushing toward her followed by the manager and she frowned, guessing something wrong with the situation.
"Where have you been, Madam?" Lark asked with a serious tone.
"Hmm, me? I was in the garden. Did something happen?" She asked, puzzled by the atmosphere.
"President Lily, you have been missing for more than seven hours." The manager swiftly replied.
He was afraid that Lark would push all blame on him.
"Seven hours? Impossible, I have only been here in the garden for not more than thirty minutes. Are you sure you are not mistaken?" Lily counter-questioned.
Sensing something wrong Lark swiftly took control of the situation.
"As long as you are fine, Madam. Let us return back to the room. There is still a lot of work left." He hurriedly instructed Lily to not speak further with his eyes.
Lily nodded and they both left leaving the puzzled manager behind.
Inside her room, Lark stared at her with a furious expression demanding an explanation for her disappearance.
Lily felt puzzled as she described the experience she had.
Lark panicked as he heard her.
"Madam, you very well know the effects of the medicines last for almost eight hours. Thankfully nothing happened to you. As for that man and the situation, he might as well be a tourist." Lark said, scolding her.
Lily too, felt perplexed by the situation, after all for her it had only been just thirty minutes. She soon brushed off the experience as being under the influence of medicine.
"There is still some time before the effects subside. Take some rest, Madam." Lark conveyed as he looked at the wristwatch while leaving the door.
There was just one thing that no one, even Lily herself did not notice, which was the white-colored lily flower was no longer in her hand. At some point, it had vanished from her hands as if it had never ever existed in the first place. As for the umbrella, she had left it outside the room as it was wet, but it too had vanished just like the flower.
On the other hand, seated in the lounge the man with the black hat, took out the leather book from his waist. The book detached from his hands and floated in front of him as it swung open with the pages fluttering, coming to a stop after a few seconds.
The man used his fingers and started writing something on the blank page. Soon the page was filled with golden characters written in some unknown language.
There were many people around him, but no one seemed to notice this magical wonder happening before them. Just when the flower and the umbrella vanished from Lily's room a symbol of a flower and umbrella clad in a golden hue appeared on the pages of the book. Sensing this the man closed the book and placed it on his waist. The book attached itself to his waist without any support. If one looked closely one could see the book was floating at a very small distance from his waist.
Just like that, a day passed by. Due to the previous incident, Lark forced Lily to rest for the whole day and did not allow her to do any work, thus her schedule had been postponed.
In the morning, Lily stood outside Lark's room as she rang the bell. Standing there without any response, she called reception and asked them to bring in the master key after explaining the situation along with her identity.
The manager could once again be seen hurriedly moving towards her. All along the way, he pondered if he had wronged someone in his past life to suffer this much.
'Damm it. First, it was the Rich Young Lady now it is her Assistant. Just take my life, why are you torturing me so much!'
He thought as he hurriedly unlocked the room with the master key.