Mia wiped her tears as her mother collapsed into a crying heap into her fathers arms. She moved closer to see who the other man was.
He was a bald, unshaven man with a paunch that struggled to escape from the leather clutches of the belt at his waist. Surrounding him were three more people. A tall, lanky woman with multiple ear piercings and two, little girls standing with them that bickered on who would steal the doll lying in front of them.
She wouldn't have recognized them at all if she hadn't looked closely at the eyes of one of the little girl's. She had no pupil.
"Wait-", her gaze rushed over to the other girl's eyes and they were -as she had predicted- purple.
"The Sangfwads!?", Mia shouted as her adoptive mum and dad looked at the baby with greed and lust evident in their eyes.
"Wait, if that's the Sangfwads, those are my parents..then the baby must be me?", Mia tried to join the scattered pieces of the puzzle of questions forming in her head.
Mia brushed her thoughts aside as she looked at her mum hand the Sangfwads two vaguely familiar boxes. Her parents then looked sadly at the baby one last time and chanted something.
The Sangfwads vanished in a flurry of Black crystals. The couple sank to the floor, clutching each other for comfort as Miranda shuffled about awkwardly before leaving the weeping couple alone to mourn.
Mia wandered aimlessly around, not able to see the state of her parents anymore as a hundred questions tangled up her thoughts, restraining her from thinking properly.
How can the baby be me when I'm right here? Where are Kira and Cathy? Where in the name of hell am I? Why were the Sangfwads and Miranda here? What was in those two boxes?
She stumbled over a bump in the road and came back to her senses, she realized that she had absent-mindedly strayed back to the palace she escaped from. Venom's palace. She looked up and to her surprise it was being painted black! The shimmering domes were now coated with black paint, it's gold hidden under the dull, opaque goo.
"What the hell? Can things get any weirder?", Mia said, frustrated as she walked past the palace when suddenly she heard muffled voices from the palace.
Mia stopped in her tracks when a scream followed which was quickly cut-off abruptly.
"Kira?", Mia whispered and ran closer to the palace. She put her ear on the wall and listened.
"Help. He-help," a female voice begged hoarsely. "No, please".
"Kira!", Mia frantically scaled the wall, trying to find a way to reach the voice which seemed to be coming from inside the walls." I'm coming!".
Mia ran her hands over the smooth, painted walls when she found a tiny hole. She crouched low and peeked through it.
It was a dusty, dark room with no doors and only one tiny window throwing in slanted rays of pale sunlight. A young man of about 21 with slick, black hair and piercing, serpent-like eyes stood in the room wearing luxurious clothes and an oversized crown on his head which tilted to the left. He laughed softly before he spoke in a rich, smoky voice.
"You'll stay safe here darling Mummy and Daddy. Starved of Food and Water and all the nasty things that could help keep you alive. A simple death, no messy murder business", he stopped to roll his beady eyes and grimace before continuing." I'll bury you right here. Since I love you, I'll let you pick out the exact spots here where you want to be buried," he grinned like a Cheshire cat and Mia would have thought he was mad, talking to himself if she hadn't caste her eyes downwards.
There, writing on the ground was a skeleton-like, frail man and woman with ghostly pale skin and chapped lips.
"No-one will know who killed you and I'll frame the poor, likkle King and Queen," he said in a silly voice," and Voila! Easy access to the throne! Simple as that," he chuckled, fixing the crown on his head.
"Wh-what sort of so-son are you? Cath-Cathy will help," the woman wheezed and coughed, her eyes sunken and ghastly.
"Oh Cathy ,Cathy, Cathy, the sweet, darling daughter," the young man mimicked." Well just so you know your sweet daughter is helping me!".
"Nev- never! My daug-daughter will never do su-such a thing as support y-you and your silly an-antics, V-venom!", the man on the ground said with much difficulty.
"Oh Father, always siding with your perfect daughter. Well your daughter is not so perfect! She is now my accomp- Oww!", the man-Venom cried out as his mother quickly shot out her hand, grabbed his knife and thrust it deep in his leg.
"You foolish, foolish woman," he shook his head and smiled as he took the knife out, blood ebbing out of the wound." You over-efficient..", he trailed off and spat on the ground," I'll let it slide, you're gonna dir anyways," he pushed his mother back and clutching his bleeding leg, limped to the entrance of the room where he disappeared.
Mia pulled back from the hole and replayed the whole conversation inside her head.
"Venom, Cathy, Man, Woman.." Mia counted on her fingers." Man is the father of Venom and the Woman is the mother, so Man and Woman are husband and wife. So Man and Woman have a daughter too, Cathy. Which means she is Venom's sister?", Mia cried out before waving her hands before her face.
"Wait, I'm confused. The man and woman are Cathy's parents? And Venom is her brother? But why'd she lie about her family being dead?", Mia shook her head in absolute confusion." What the hell is happening?", she mumbled.
Mia heard a loud groan and a sob echo from inside the room as she rushed back to the wall." I have to help them!". She quickly started moving her hands all over the wall, feeling the surface for a sort of switch or button to open the door. She scaled the smooth surface when her hands brushed past something rough. Mia felt around and saw that it was a small lever, concealed in a niche in the shadows and painted Black to be camouflaged by the wall.
She groped around to get a firm grip and then tugged, her knuckles grazed the rough corners of the niche as she pulled with all her force. At first it didn't move but as she pulled harder, the lever fell forward suddenly, cutting the skin on Mia's knuckles.
There was a grating sound and a scraping as the walls parted to reveal an opening which was barely visible. Mia slipped in through the opening and entered the enclosed room.
"Wh-who's there?," the man whispered hoarsely, his voice barely audible.
"It's okay, I'm here to help," Mia said softly and kneeled down to the dying couple, starved off food and water.
"Wh- who is th-there? Cath-Cathy?", the woman asked softly, she lay on the ground, breathing lightly, her eyes closed.
"No, I am here to he-", Mia started when she remembered that no-one was strangely able to see or hear her. She smacked her forehead in frustration when she felt a sharp stinging on her knuckles and saw that they were bleeding badly.
She quickly put her other finger over the cut, bracing herself for the pain, she pressed hard as blood ebbed out. She gritted her teeth and rubbed her fingertip in her blood before rushing to the white walls of the room.
"Look," the woman nudged her husband and pointed to the wall in front of her where scarlet letters began appearing. Frightened, the woman huddled against her husband.
Mia shook her head in frustration as she realized what a horrendous way she had chosen, the ultimate horror movie cliche. Writing in blood.
Catys frnd. Help u.
The woman and man quietly read what little Mia had written as she rushed out of the room and a few seconds later returned with a handful of apples that she stole from a fruit vendor nearby.
"Food," the man's eyes glazed over as Mia carried the bundle of fresh, red apples over to them and they snatched it greedily. They took huge bites of the apple, hungrily- and in less than five minutes had polished off all the apples.
"Thank you, whoever you are,' the man said as he and the woman sat up, a little of their energy restored. Mia smiled in satisfaction.
"Cathy's friend, where is Cathy?," the woman asked, her eyes laced with concern.
Idk
Mia wrote the short form on the wall.
"What's that? What does that mean? In donkey kong," the man furrowed his brows.
"No it means In Delhi Kebabs, you remember that little restaurant in Delhi that Cathy loved? With the little tikka's and Bihari Boti's," the woman explained as Mia rolled her eyes.
"Why would she eat Kebabs now?," the man argued as Mia smacked her forehead and went to write on the wall again.
At this rate, I'm going to waste all my blood. Couldn't I have done a stupider thing?
?
"Look, question mark. Maybe the invisible person doesn't know," the man shrugged.
"Oh. I don't know, that's what Idk stands for haha," she laughed.
Mia put her hands on her hips and tapped her toes.
"Darling, you know I think we are going insane," the man wrapped his arms around the woman.
"I think so yes. Slipping together into the clutches of insanity," the woman quoted, nuzzling in the man's shoulder.
Mia sighed loudly before writing on the walls.
Gt out.
"It says to get out," the woman giggled.
"I'm better off here. With the sun shining on my face and my darling with me," the man smiled.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Mia threw her hands up in frustration as she stomped out of the room. She made a few trips back as she dropped off large amounts of fruits for them and drew a short map to where the lever was, which they could reach out through the window.
"Thank you invisigirl or invisiboy or invisiit," the man said coyly as Mia left and the wall placed itself in its original position.
"Is the whole family retarded!?," Mia thought and immediately felt bad for thinking that way.
She stomped off - furious and frustrated- to sit somewhere and think about everything properly. She found a water bench some distance off and seated herself on the cool water, leaning against it.
"Okay, so here I am a baby and my parents give me to the Sangfwads and everything is pretty and not ruined and nobody can see me or hear me," Mia said in a rush and realized just how stupid it sounded. She lay down on the bench staring at the setting sun ahead.
"Seems just like the plot of a cheap and cliche sci-fi movie where the characters whizz off to the futu- wait a minute," Mia stood up immediately.
"Nobody can see me, I am a baby being given to the Sangfwads! That's it. It's the past being replayed!" Mia snapped her fingers as the puzzle joined.
"When I touched the orb I went back in time to the past! When I was a baby and the celebrations must be of my birth but the people mustn't have known that I was going to Earth. Nobody could see me cause obviously I was from another time. Oh my god!", Mia stood up in excitement."I time travelled!".
"Also the smaller box that my mum gave must contain the charm bracelet but the bigger box..?", Mia pondered as she watched the sun set and the stars come out." I don't know".
Mia gazed up at the sky, enjoying how at peace she was at this moment. In this time, she wasn't affected by sleep, hunger or thirst. Night dawned, dusk came and she didn't even notice it.