The Underground Palace

Chapter Eight - It Was Time

Alex was confused. Where was her mum's car? She had woken up alongside Oliver, ran out of that room and raced back to where they had parked their car so she could tell her mum the latest news, only to find the car gone.

'What's wrong?' Oliver asked, still out of breath by the quick run. It was early in the morning and it was freezing.

'My mum's car isn't here,' whispered Alex.

'Where is it?' asked Oliver. There it was again, the never-ending line of questions.

'I don't know,' replied Alex. Looking around the compound, she also realised something else was missing – people. No one was to be seen. Alex studied the door her father came out of last night.

'I think she could be in there,' she said. Oliver looked at it then nodded.

'Then let's go,' he said and marched forward. So this was it, Alex said to herself, she was really going to meet her dad for the first time since she was two. It was time to face her fears.

The two children walked forward and stopped at the door. There were noises on the other side. It sounded busy, with lots of people. Oliver looked at Alex and gave a small nod. It was time.

Alex twisted the door handle open and entered the room.

It was a mess. Thousands of papers, documents, files, everything that could be made out of paper was stacked into mountains and placed on tables and desks. Laptops, computers, iPads and cables were gathered and shoved into one corner of the room. Not one person in the room could be found doing nothing. People ran about the place, hastily packing away everything they could into cardboard boxes. One man carrying a tower of books rushed passed Oliver and tripped over a plug. He fell to the floor immediately as the books flew up into the air and crashed back down on him. Everyone was shouting, yelling and talking above each other. The noise was unbelievable, how anybody managed to talk to one another without shouting was unbelievable.

They were packing, Alex realised. They thought the Seven Children were dead so they were packing, their hopes and dream of the future dead.

'Alex!' cried Susan. Amongst the chaos, Susan ran through the crowd and pulled Alex into a rib-breaking hug. Alex closed her eyes and forced herself not to cry. Everything was okay now, Glen and the other Seven Children were not dead, there was still time to save them. Alex opened her eyes and found her father standing a few feet away.

Ever since Alex could remember, Susan had refused to speak or mention anything about her father. What he looked like, what his job was, how they met... It was Alex's granddad who once snuck an old photograph of her mother and father on their wedding day into her hand and put his finger to his lips. Alex had to hide it from her mother. In the photograph her parents looked young, happy and carefree. For some reason Alex had always thought her father would exactly like the man in the photograph but it looked like he had aged awfully.

He looked tired, utterly exhausted and large bags were visible under his eyes. His hair was brown with soft grey streaks beginning to sprout. He stood with his hands in his pockets. He looked a little reserved, shy but confident at the same time.

Alex stepped away from her mother and looked at both of them.

'The Seven Children are alive.'

The whole room went silent. Everybody stopped what they were doing and stared at Alex with a sort of uncertainty, it couldn't be possible. An old small man, with long ginger hair walked forward from behind Richard and pointed a short fat finger at Oliver.