Heroes Against Villains and All Odds

Chapter 2: Lost Child

"HELLO? Yes, this is Miss Keller. I'm kind of at work right now. Wait, what do you mean my daughter is in the principal's office? What do you mean she's not in the principal's office anymore? Use words, lady!"
    Cecily grimaced as the person speaking to her on the phone was babbling like an idiot.
    "She ran off? Excuse you, my Mary wouldn't just - I'll be right there."
    Cecily sighed, "Again? Why is she always at the principal's office?" She grabbed her keys.
"I'll be back for my night shift!" Cecily called out as she carried all of her things out of the office to her car. "I don't want to be back for my night shift, but I'll be back for my night shift."
"That's the spirit, Keller!" A co-worker yelled back, laughing.
"Shut up, Sally."
Cecily exited the building with papers piling up in her hands and car keys almost slipping out of her hand. "Shit, I need to buy a bag," Cecily muttered to herself, making a mental note.
Cecily's life was pretty stressful even though she only had one kid. She was still a single mother with only one job while trying to get another one to help Mary and herself. Of course, she mainly focused on Mary since she was just a little kid. Her child should deserve the best, and she understood that every parent thought that about their own kid.
Nonetheless, she will still keep helping her daughter have the best life she could ever have even if it means working all day long for her.
She entered her car, remembering that she needs to get a better one, but then she remembered that she can't afford one. Why did her job pay so little for her? She was really trying.
Cecily started the car, and, after many struggles, she was able to get going to the school.
She wasn't really worried about Mary because Mary would never run away. Cecily understood that Mary had her, "let's bend some rules," ego, but she would never go too far as running off. Plus, Mary was smart enough to know that she had nowhere to go to if she ran off; Cecily also knew that.
However, with Mary being in the principal's office, Cecily felt somewhat annoyed.
Cecily could not count the amount of times Mary has been sent there, and the calls from the principal were always very so-called entertaining since the principal would simply go on and on.
Yeah, no, Cecily was absolutely done with that nonsense.
Cecily knew that Mary didn't get those sleeping and daydreaming habits from herself, but Cecily knew exactly where Mary got that personality from. In fact, Mary got them from her father.
"Her sad excuse for a father that is," Cecily corrected herself.
Although Cecily didn't like mentioning Mary's dad, there would be times where she would occasionally remember him, and she would see her husband in Mary. It sounded silly, but Mary did have his sweet blue eyes and constant need to dream.
It's cute on Mary, but thinking back to her husband, his habits weren't really as adorable.
Seemingly, every time she looked into Mary's eyes, it made her heart hurt because when she smiled, Cecily could tell that she really wanted to see her dad. If only she knew that her father left them, then what would she think of her father then?
Finally reaching her destination, Cecily parked onto the school parking lot and took a mint to help with the principal since the lady is always shouting about who knows what. Probably about how much she hates the job. She knew more than to hope that this specific meeting will end well because it usually doesn't, but she still got out of the car and walked over to the entrance of the school.
Except this time, Cecily found the principal with her arms crossed and tapping her foot on the pavement of the sidewalk.
Cecily put on a fake grin. "Oh, why hello Miss Tanaka!" Cecily exclaimed. "It's nice seeing you here! How's the school - actually... how have you been? I heard that you got a new look to your usual dark outfit. Wait... is that a nose job?"
"Save it, Keller. This is serious business considering that your daughter is practically missing," Miss Tanaka growled. Cecily blinked blankly at the other woman. "Did you think I was lying? Ugh, this happened all on my watch too!" The principal's face was red with anger, and her eyebrows was furrowed together in fury.
Cecily's eyes widened in fear, and she quickly walked past the principal. "I seriously didn't think you were telling the truth. Mary would never run away." Miss Tanaka laughed as she followed after Cecily, who was going towards the principal's office.
"Please, your daughter is just brewing up more trouble. She's probably doing this just because she's bored," Miss Tanaka scolded, causing Cecily to roll her eyes.
"Mary is completely fine, and she is sitting in your office with a book in her hand," Cecily stated surely. As they started coming close to the office, Cecily started to sweat because she felt a certain doubt that her daughter might not be there in the office like she said. She ignored it, that feeling of doubt, for once, and the two stood in front of the door of Miss Tanaka's office.
"Alright Tanaka. You realize that I can sue you and the damn school for losing my daughter," Cecily muttered bitterly.
"I thought you said that your daughter is sitting in my office right now." The other woman was now smirking in slight victory, and Cecily was officially done with Tanaka's bullshit. She wanted Mary to be sitting in the room she was about to enter. She wanted her there, so she can laugh in the face of the other woman because she has always wanted to do that.
But when she opened the door, all that was there was Mary's big book of stories she always carries with her opened to a blank page of the book.
Empty.
Like how she kind of felt right now.

"How could you lose a child? This is a fucking elementary school," Cecily was pacing in the office, looking around for anything to help her find Mary.
"Exactly, this is an elementary school, so you better watch your language," Miss Tanaka hissed back. She was leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed as usual. She then sighed once more put her hand on her head again. "Your daughter is giving me a headache."
"You're giving me a headache," Cecily shot back. Her face was back to an unfortunate grimace. "Well? Call some authorities! The police! Anyone! You lost a child, and you better find her."
The principal stared at Cecily as she was examining all of Mary's things before leaving the room to Cecily.
"Ugh, where are you, Mary?" Cecily muttered to herself. She turned her attention towards Mary's book and to the page it was left at. In all honesty, Cecily ignored this book at all costs because it was ridiculous and belonged to her husband. Actually, anything her husband had was absolutely stupid and ridiculous.
However, when she looked closer at the book, Cecily noticed a small piece of paper wedged in the crease of the book.
"A ha! I knew she wouldn't leave without some sort of clue or note!" When Mary was younger, the two would play hide-and-seek together, and Mary is a smart girl. When playing, Mary would like putting out clues to where she was in secret places, making Cecily having to search for them.
It was really entertaining and fun, and it turns out Mary didn't grow out of doing it.
Cecily carefully grabbed the little paper out of the crease of the book and examined it, but it was just a piece of lined paper with nothing on it. Cecily groaned in frustration. It was probably just a bookmark.
She sat down on the seat in front of the desk and glanced at the book with the feeling of complete failure, but, as if it was magic, letters appeared onto the page. Cecily jumped in her seat, and her eyes were wide in shock. She blinked twice to ensure she wasn't hallucinating. She rubbed her eyes and pinched herself.
"What the fuck? T-There's words! O-On the page! It just appeared!" She screamed out. "What the hell is going -"

"Will you ever relax?"

She squinted her eyes towards the book and scoffed. "I'm just tired. I'm so tired that I'm even hallucinating! Oh, this is so ridiculous...."

"If this is so ridiculous, why aren't you laughing? Mary is not missing because she's in the book by the way."

Cecily ignored the letters and words as they kept appearing, but before she fully looked away, she saw the last sentence the book wrote.

"If you don't believe me, Cecily, why don't you check the next page? You might find who you're looking for."

She noted that the book said, "who," instead of, "what," and it made her slightly uncomfortable that it acknowledged that the person she was looking for, Mary, was not an object. She shook her head, trying to snap out of this obscure daze.
Where was Tanaka when she needed her?
She continued to search the entire room, but she purposely ignored the book which still had the random letters written out on the - what was supposed to be - blank page.
The window wasn't open, so it's either Mary went out through there and closed it because she didn't want to be found, or she never went out there in the first place. It wouldn't be bad to check though, right? Plus, Cecily figured that it was the only place left to inspect besides the weird book on the desk.
After looking for the lock, she managed to lift the window up slightly. This caused a bit of wind to enter the room, and Cecily immediately closed it back up.
Little did she know, the wind flipped the page of the book over, and Cecily saw something new and once again weird. She walked over to the book to examine it more closely and then gasped.
Yes, there were words on the page, but there was also a picture beside it. Cecily didn't even bother to read what the words had to say.
She didn't bother because on the page, she saw a little girl with her own dark hair but much longer and blue eyes that made her resemble her father.
On the page in the picture was the person she was looking for - her lost child - Mary.