"Every solution to every problem is simple. It's the distance between the two where the mystery lies."
~ Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant)
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The faint moonlight that shone behind the mysterious figure almost felt blinding to Blue. But her eyes quickly adjusted and they warily followed the figure as it neared them.
Beside her, Love whimpered with fright, backing into her cell. With the new light, Blue could now see Love. She was a thin, reedy creature but outrageously beautiful. She appeared a few years older than Blue, but it was hard to be sure with people like them.
Hair red as fire and eyes a dark hue of green, Love had the look of an artsy girl who could weaken anyone's knees with so much as a wink or a smile. Blue supposed, being Love, that wouldn't be too unusual. But, right now, poor Love looked ready to collapse.
Blue wasn't faring any better herself. As the figure approached, crossing the huge width of the room, she hurriedly drank in her surroundings. Surprise coloured her face as she realised that the place looked rather familiar.
It seemed like they were in a massive, deserted warehouse of sorts. From the corrugated ceiling hung dead electric bulbs and the walls were spray-painted with graffiti. Huge, abandoned machines and half-finished trucks were haphazardly pushed into one side of the room. While the rest of the room was cluttered with several empty cages, similar to the ones Blue and Love were caught in. Blue realised that these cells were probably used to imprison the others like Happy and Fair.
She snapped out of her thoughts when the figure reached their cages and produced a key that easily slipped into Love's lock. She could only stare in shock as the man's features became visible. He didn't look too different from the men who had attacked her and the others. Huge, scary, tattooed, with sinuous muscles and a hazy gaze, the only difference in him was that he had one eye missing. He was wearing one of those eye patches and looked like a pirate.
Love screamed and thrashed as the man took hold of her and started dragging her out, eerily - and contrastingly - quiet. He captured both her arms in his right hand and with the other, jiggled the lock in Blue's cage.
Blue didn't bother putting up a fight. She didn't protest as the man took hold of both of them and urged them forward and out of the warehouse, none too kindly. Although, she did toss him her most withering glare.
Love, looking at Blue's strange calmness, quietened down a little. Although she didn't hesitate to throw an onslaught of questions at the man like, "Where were they being taken? What was he going to do them?"
Unsurprisingly, the man didn't even spare her a glance.
Blue quietly walked, although she couldn't veil the eagerness in her steps as the door loomed closer. She could finally have some fresh air and, maybe, even figure out where they were -- which country, for instance. That would be a good way to start. Because, for all she knew, maybe they were in an alien planet.
But, more than that, she was eager because she sensed that wherever this man was taking her --- there would lay all the answers she had been looking for.
~~~~~~~~~
Blue was positively affronted when they stepped out into the open.
Her steps faltered and an audible gasped escaped her lips as she took in the rocky beach that lied in front of them, a sheet of sea expanding beyond it. Water crashed into the shore, harsh against the wickedly-sharp rocks that protruded from the earth, while the wind howled, untamed and hungry. In the inky sky, hung the moon, a side of it ever so subtly shaved away.
The entire scenery had a sharpness to it. A cruel, unforgiving sort of beauty.
But the worst part? All of it was familiar.
Why? Because they were back home.
All this time, Blue had been captured right inside one of the abandoned sets of warehouses that rested beside the Rocky Beach of their town (its namesake, quite obviously, were the infamous rocks).
Blue, just like the rest of their town's population, rarely ever came to this beach of their town. But she doubted that her eyes were deceiving her. Besides, on their western side, just a few miles away, rose the familiar ruins of a lighthouse atop a hill.
"Do you know this place?" Love asked Blue, sensing her reaction, while the man continued to push them forward, uncaring that his pace was too fast for Blue's short legs.
Blue nodded, swallowing. "It's...home."
What a terrible fix to find themselves in, she lamented. Only a few blocks away was her house with her Ma probably flurrying around in the kitchen. If what Miracle promised was true, then her Ma wasn't even aware that Blue was missing. Maybe Mrs Nosey had invited herself over for some dinner, like she usually did. Maybe they were sipping Ma's special masala chai or cooking lasagnes, while her Ma uncomfortably laughed at their neighbour's antics. Blue hoped so. Because the other situations were a lot less appealing.
"Where are you taking us?" Blue asked, in an effort to not let her thoughts wander over to her Ma. She tried to sound commanding. Although, her voice appeared more squeaky.
Surprisingly, after a minute of silence, the man actually answered. "To the Lighthouse," he said in a voice that almost sounded rusty with disuse.
Blue nearly stumbled. Love looked curious too, but not surprised that the man had chosen to answer to Blue whilst completing disregarding her questions.
What was going on, for Heaven's sake? Blue had that irritating feeling swirling in her chest that told her that whatever she was looking for was right there, under her nose. It felt like all she needed was one more of - something.
It felt much like being in the dark but, sensing, nevertheless, that something was near her, prowling around. Something...not good.
She realised that she was looking for the last piece of a puzzle, to put it...metaphorically. And when she found it, all would make sense. All the pieces would fall into place and the picture would be clear and almost mockingly obvious. She knew it.
But, as of yet, she couldn't imagine what that last piece would be.
Fortunately, Blue was nothing if not one of the most stubborn, mulish, steadfast twelve-year-old. She would make this entire stupid mystery come to an end and she would find Miracle and save Love and everyone else and, by tonight, she would be back home like she didn't leave to begin with.
All she needed to do was find that damned last piece of puzzle.
YOU ARE READING
Once Upon A Miracle
Fantasy[COMPLETE] Twelve-year-old Blue was a dreamer and a believer of all things impossible. But even her all-encompassing imagination could never have thought that miracles were not just something that happened. No, how was she to know that Miracle was a...
