True closes his eyes in despair.
Why couldn't anything be easy? Everything in our lives just had to be complicated.
He comes over and sits down by side. Placing a hand on my shoulder he lifts my chin up, forcing me to look him in the eyes.
Tears are pooled in my eyes.
"Hey, hey, calm down, everything will be okay." True says in a passive voice.
I didn't believe that. "We always believe that, but was that ever true?" My voice glum, questioning expression on my face.
True doesn't hesitate to answer. "It was. We figured out how to decode the code. We found the book, even if it is only one of the books. We will find the other." His sudden confidence startles me.
I look away, closing my eyes. We did get through everything. It is true. But it didn't mean that it would mean that would happen again.
"What if this all goes down the drain? All this work, all these years of work. What will we do then?" I ask him.
"Ever the optimist, aren't you?" True says with a grin. "If all this work is all gone, we would start again from square one." Then while smirking he adds, "Maybe if I'm gone in the process, another mysterious person will find you, who Rosalie had sent."
I don't want to imagine True being gone. I couldn't handle another person I really cared about, vanishing.
"That won't happen," I say, more to myself than him. I couldn't lose him. "Promise me, promise me you won't sacrifice yourself for me."
He smiles grimly, forcing the smile. "I can't promise that." No, NO. I would never forgive myself if he does that.
He changes the topic before I can object.
"Do you want to start looking for that other book?" He asks me
I sigh. "Fine."
We set off looking at my huge library for the book.
I search through every single book, for any sign that it could be the book we are looking for.
Nothing. Not a single clue.
I walk over to the shelves, to put a book back. A hard surface brushes against my leg as I walk past a shelf. My line of gaze falls to where the surface hit me.
A book fallen behind the shelf.
Why was this book behind the shelf? I had specifically organized everything.
A thought sweeps me off my feet. What if it meant something?
Rejoice fills me as I bring that book to a table. I shove the books already towering the table away.
Eclaircise
The name of the book meant to make clear. It all made sense. E in the code meant Eclaircise.
I open the book, eager to find just any clue or code to figure this mess out.
Flipping through the pages, I realize there is nothing on the pages.
I see if pages are stuck together or hidden. No.
I see if there is another cover hidden under. No.
Nothing. Just utter darkness.
Books fall as I shove past them to put the books back on the shelf. I didn't care. There was no hope.
My fingers slide over the shelf while putting the books away. A sharp pain erupts on my hand.
Something cuts my hand.
My thoughts gravitate towards thinking it's just a piece of edged wood. It felt different.
A glint of light comes from the corner of the shelf. I peer down at it.
It was a small knife wedged into the shelf. A knife.
My hands shred from the knife as I tug at it, pulling it out.
There was something behind it.
It looked like a tiny microphone.
It was a sound bug.
Someone was hearing us.
I poke my hand into the crack, attempting to take it out. My hands burned from the open wounds, I ignored them.
There was something attached to it.
A piece of paper. A note.
I open it.
We are watching. We know everything. Say your goodbyes to True.
I drop everything to the ground in aghast.
Breathe, Juliet. It's probably not a valid threat.
But they managed to get inside the mansion. They can take True, if they get him alone.
My foot stumbles as I run to True. I run over the books, kicking them aside if they are in my way.
The lump in my throat eases as I see him safe and with a confused look on his face.
I run up to him and throw my arms around him.
He looks at me with concern filling his eyes.
"What's wrong? Are you ok?" He asks
I decide not to tell him about the note and the bug.
"I'm fine. Nothing's wrong." He raises a questioning eyebrow but knew to let it go.
"Okay then. Did you find anything?" He asks
I shake my head. "Nothing."
He lets out a shuddering breath. "Neither did I."
It was the first time he got a good look at my hands. It was all bloody and shredded from taking the knife out and picking all the wood apart to get to the bug.
True goes into a protective mode.
"What ever happened with your hand? Don't lie to me, are you ok?" He asks, eyes incredulous
It was time for me to calm him down. "I'm okay. Trust me. You do not need to worry."
He rolled his eyes. "You are not okay. I know something is up. Tell me." Then his eyes and voice soften as he adds, "Please. Tell me. You can trust me."
"I do trust you. Trust me that I do. There is nothing wrong."
He sighs. "At least tell me how you shredded your hands."
I have to make up something. "I got a big paper cut." I know that is lame and unbelievable, but I had no other idea of what to say.
True smirks. "A paper cut? I guess paper is the next greatest weapon now. I should watch out for paper now." His tone became more serious. "Since you don't want to tell me about whatever happened, I won't pressure. Just let me treat the wounds."
I nod, while my eyes show thankfulness. The wounds were starting to burn and sting.
He picks me up in his arms. His arms are hard under my legs and back.
My jaw drops open. "Hey! Let me down. I just hurt my hands. I didn't hurt my legs." I complain. My face betrays me as a smile seeps through.
He smirks. "I can't trust you to not get hurt while we are walking to the medical wing."
I rolled my eyes. I gently punch him but instantly regret it, my hand starts burning again. "Whatever." I ease into his arms. It was nice to be distracted from the world, even if it was for a couple of seconds.
Soon enough the escape ends and I am back into the present time. True sets me down on a huge comfy chair in the medical wing.
"Don't get hurt while I'm gone." True smiles and is off to get medicine for my hands.
I think about everything that has happened to me. For the first time in a while, I think about Draco.
Draco.
I remember the nightmare I had about him.
I remember him vanishing for me.
I remember him finding me.
My thoughts rarely about Draco now. I never had the time.
I hadn't been to his mansion since the day I met True, the day Draco vanished. A lump grows in my throat. I feel like I have betrayed him.
I needed to go. I feel it inside me. I feel like there is something there. I know there is something there.
I needed to go now.
True was back.
"Sorry, it took a while." True apologizes and ever so gently applies the medicine onto my hands.
"That feel better?" He asks with a grin. He could see my relief.
The burn was instantly gone. I felt much better.
I rush to go out of the room.
"Wait." I hear True call out. I stop.
"I need to go," I reply
"Just please wait for a bit, I have to tell you something." What did he have to tell me at this moment?
I go back into the room. True wasn't there.
My eyes widen, frantically looking all around the medical wing. True isn't there.
My breath quickens. No, NO! True couldn't be gone.
I then hear a small whisper.
"Juliet." The whispers called out to me.
I follow the sound of the whispers to a room. A room I hadn't been in years.
The lights were off, making me blind-sighted.
The whispers grow louder as I reach the middle of the room, with nothing in sight.
The lights flicked on.
True was in front of me.
I stand there with my jaw hanging open.
"W-w-what just happened?" I ask True.
"I wanted to tell you something." True replies.
I shake my head while my mouth is still open. "What?"
"Happy creation day!" I roll my eyes. We don't even realize when our creation days have come.
"Seriously?" I ask, trying hard to be annoyed. It was a nice sentiment.
"Yes. I have a cake." Cake? What was the point of that? No one eats. It was something the pre- Great Evolution Times people used to eat at celebrations.
True smiles at the confusion in my face. "Yes, we can eat. We don't need to, but we still can."
He hands me a piece of the cake.
I chew it slowly and swallow it.
Until now, I didn't even know we could eat. It was the best thing ever.
"It's good, right?" True asked, taking a piece for himself.
"It's amazing," I say, my mouth full of cake. "Where did you even get this?"
True shrugged. "I made it." My jaw drops open.
"How did you even know about all this?"
"Well, I found a baking book while I was searching. I knew when your creation day was because it said in the note from Rosalie. And I knew about the eating thing from something I did in the past."
I sigh while shoving more pieces of the cake into my mouth. True laughs at my behavior.
It is easy to get lost in time when you feel like nothing is wrong. I remember about Draco.
"I need to go," I tell True.
"Can I know where you need to go?" True asks
"Draco's mansion." True drops the questions upon hearing.
As I head out, True stops me.
"Be safe." He lets me go.
I walk down the path to Draco's mansion. Each memory came back to me. The time I first went to his mansion. Me marveling over every inch of the beauty of his mansion.
I have reached his mansion.
It is still as beautiful as ever, even after a long time. The beautiful gold and teal theme is lighting up each corner of the mansion as it had before.
I slowly pushed open the beautiful teal tinted huge glass gate leading into his mansion.
The beautiful black and gold curtains pushed out to see the outside world.
The polished marble and onyx floor, still sparkling and shining like a diamond.
I see the huge foyer leading to the 2 huge staircases with a gorgeous fountain in front of them.
It was simple, yet beautiful as ever. It had everything. Everything except him.
I go up the beautiful staircases to Draco's room.
Everything reminded me of him. It was like he had never vanished. But he did.
I look around his room. I look through his drawers. I look inside his closet.
Wow. It was really messy. I wrinkle my nose. He was not lying when he said that it is usually messy and not clean.
I decide to clean it in honor of him.
I pick up all the things thrown on the ground and put them in a proper shelf.
There are a variety of things on the ground: a whole lot of books, a couple of clothes, and things I don't recognize. I pick them all up, looking at each book, and item carefully.
After what seems like forever, I reach the last item. It was a journal.
At first glance, I think it is Rosalie's journal, but it's not. It's Draco's.
I open up the black and green journal. I flip through all the pages, briefly looking at each one. There were several entries written in. They were all addressed to me.
I read the first one.
Dear Juliet Rosalie Skyfall,
I know you are going to read this. Well, you probably are at that moment. I have probably vanished at the point. Don't worry. Wherever I went, I'll be okay. I'm going to tell you the whole story of our lives from my point of view. Let's start on the day we met.
My eyes go wide in amusement as I read each entry several times over. Until I reached the last entry. It was about the day he vanished.
I take a deep breath and flip to the last entry.
Dear Juliet Rosalie Skyfall,
You probably have thousands of questions on how I'm writing these. I can't tell you. I'm sorry. It's for your own good. Let's talk about the day I vanished.
We were pushed back by the explosion.
I had burst out laughing. It's so funny how you work so hard to get to something and then all of a sudden it crumples right in front of you. I don't blame anyone. It was bound to happen. You look at me like I've gone mental. I didn't care, this is all too funny. Truth be told, I think I had gone mental. You have a stricken face. I wanted to go to help you, but I couldn't. My body was not moving. I watched you run outside.
You are a beautiful being. Not just on the outside, we all are pretty, but on the inside. I've never met someone like you. You are fierce and stand for what you think. You are determined and won't let anything be in your path. You have a temper, but no one can blame you, the world is just really messed up. You are strong, both physically and mentally. I know you will can and will overcome this.
I think about all of this that day.
I could finally get my body to move. I creep slowly to where you were. I watch how you were intently staring at the stars. I knew what you were thinking about.
Stars. You were thinking about the stars. How stars give hope.
You are my star. I hope I am one of yours. He is. Along with True. They have both given me hope.
I saw you lay down on the soft grass. I slowly walked towards you and I laid down beside you.
I looked at the stars and how you were looking at the stars.
We laid there for hours. You were so focused, that you didn't realize I was there.
I decided to speak up. "They are really beautiful, right." I was looking at the stars. The stars are beautiful.
You look at me. You look startled, but only for a second. A small smile lights the corner of your mouth as you look back at the stars.
"Yeah, they are." Your smile widens and you continue. "They give me hope." I knew what you meant, but it's amusing to see you getting annoyed and explaining. I knew you could really use some happiness at that moment, so could I.
"Hope?" I asked
"Yeah, hope," You reply. "They tell me that there is light in the darkest of times." That was beautiful.
"Ahhh, right" I tapped my head as if to say why didn't I think of that? "Then there is light in our darkness," I tell you
You smile. Your smile is beautiful. A light in darkness in its own way.
You stand up. "Well, then shall we go find our light?" You hold your hand to me.
I take your hand and stand up, echoing, "We shall."
We head towards her mansion.
We hear footsteps behind us. A lot of them. They were coming towards us.
The footsteps stop.
"Who are you?" You turn around and yell at the source of the footsteps. I knew who they were, and I knew I had to protect you
I look behind us. I saw a person aiming a gun towards you. He pulls the trigger. I couldn't let you vanish.
A split second before the injection hits you, I dove towards the shot and take it.
The pain. The pain. Rosalie had told me it was painful. I knew what she meant from that. It was worth it. You didn't vanish. I know you will complete the mission. You would find the light. I knew you will.
I scream to you. "Find the light." You looked at me. Your face is stricken, devastated.
I smiled. The last thing I saw there was your beautiful face.
I embraced the darkness. It was perfect.
The last entry ended there. This couldn't be it. I had more questions than ever. The memories came flooding back at me. The tears roll down in streams. How could he have?
I flip through the book, searching for answers, knowing that there was nothing.
My heart stops as I cross a page.
T-t-there is something there. It wasn't there before.
I read it over and over again. The few words that had suddenly appeared.
Happy Creation Day, Juliet
-Draco