𝐀 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝

chapter 23: lies (Amy)

      I wake up to soft sunlight reaching for me shining through the window waking me up. I turned around almost screaming before I remembered that me and Lily shared the same bed last night. She was sleeping so peacefully. She fell asleep right when she hit the pillows last night whereas I stayed up most of the night thinking about the people that I knew since I was a little kid, they were almost like family, were from a different world. I replayed all the little moments like how I asked what they did before they moved here. They would both look at each other desperately and stammer out an excuse. I believed it at the time because where else would they be? Totally not a completely different world.
     Lily stirring brings me out of my thoughts. She finally opens her big brown eyes, sleepy and yeps. Probably because I was right in her face staring at her.
     “You scared me.” She said, shocked.
     “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
     “It’s fine.” She says, stretching out her legs and arms, yawning. “What time is it? I’m too lazy to look outside the window to tell the time.”
      I turn over to look at the clock on the bedside table.
      “It’s 8:00”
      Lily groans, “Do we really have to get up?”
      “I know. I hate getting up this early. But we gotta get some answers today.”
      “You're right. I am hungry for answers.” 
      They both got out of bed sleepy, pulling on clothes with heavy eyelids. Lily in green shorts and a black t-shirt. I am wearing a white skirt with tiny flowers printed all over it paired with a light blue t-shirt.
      “Hey, we never talked about last night. How are you doing with what you found out?” I ask Lily.
      She sighs, looking down to the floor. “I should feel relieved that we found someone else from the Enchanted Lands, and I do, but we still don’t know who my parents are and this was just another dead end.”
      “We don’t know if finding someone else from the Enchanted Lands is a dead end. They bring us one step closer into finding out who your parents are. That’s why we need to get down there and talk to them to see what they know.”
     “I know, you are probably right. But part of me thinks that they won’t know anything and we will be at a dead end.”
     “It is not going to be a dead end. They have to have some useful information.” I say boldly.
     She took a deep breath. “I guess you are right. Let’s go down there.”
     They both walked out of the room into the hall. At the same time Emmet came out of his room. He was wearing very simple gray sweatpants with a dark blue t-shirt. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lily’s eyes light up at the sight of Emmet. He smiled kindly at us.
      “Good morning.” Is all he says.
      “Where’s Alice?” I ask.
      “I think she is still sleeping. Should we wake her?” Emmet answers back.
      “I think we should. She doesn’t want to miss this.” I say back.
      He nods, walking into Alice’s room quietly, leaving us outside of the hallway. We hear a groan from Alice and some of the sheets shuffling. She gets out of bed and pulls on clothes frantically. Way more awake than us when we got up.
      Emmet comes walking out with Alice looking like she had an hour to get ready when in reality she only had like 5 minutes. How does she do that? She was wearing a short, flowy dress that was pale pink filled with the same flowers that I had in my skirt. With her hair pulled back into a side braid.
      “Hey guys. Ready to get some answers!” She says, enthusiastically.
      “Ok. Shall we.” Emmet points his arms towards the stairs.
      I walk forward going down the stairs followed by Alice, then Lily and Emmet goes last. Emmet whispers something in Lily’s ear that I can not hear but I see them look at each other for a brief moment smiling wildly. They are so cute. I know they have feelings for each other but are too scared to say anything. They should. Period.
      When we made it down the stairs Lyra was up making breakfast and so was her husband, which he must have come in last night. He was facing towards us with his short blond hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. He had no sparkle in him like his wife and he was smiling at us quietly. Of all the times I have come here I have only seen him once or twice. He has always been on some business trip or something. I was surprised he was even here.
       “Oh, you're awake!” Exclaimed Lyra. “I want you to meet my husband Ezra. This Lily,” She waves her hand in Lily’s direction, “Emmet” she points to Emmet, “Alice” She points to Alice, and Alice gives a little wave.  “and you already know Amy.”
       “Yes, hello everyone. Very nice to meet you.” He said, sweetly.
       “I trust you all had a good sleep. Also Sam had to leave early for some work emergency. Sorry about that.” Said Lyra.
        Everyone nodded, scared to say anything.
        A ding came from the waffle maker startling everyone.
       “I hope everyone likes waffles!” Lyra says excitedly.
        Nods of agreement came from everyone.
       “Good, come let's sit down and I can give you all the answers that I know you are dying to know right now.”
        We walked into the dinning room with an elaborate table set up that could fit maybe ten people at least. There was all the food you could want for breakfast, spread out all over the table artistically. Fruits arranged in what looked like a fairytale land, (probably just just for us), in the center of the table. delicate and delicious looking pastries of all shapes and sizes with their oozy, gooey middles sat beside the fruit plate. There was protein, like eggs and sausages and even that was displayed wonderfully. Toast that looked like it just came out of the oven with that cinnamon smell in the air. And finally, Lyra had just put the last of waffles filling up the last place on the table.There were even flowers that looked like it came out of their garden to help decorate the plates.
        I looked around at Lily, Emmet, and Alice, their eyes were as wide as mine. My mouth watered just looking at all of that. They have never done this before when I was here. I wondered what time they had to get up to do all of this. We were all shocked for a minute and finally I remembered my manners.
       “Ly-rra,” I stammered out. “You really didn’t have to do any of this for us. But I must say it is amazing.”
        “My dear, of course I had to do something. When I have guests over I love doing this. Well, except for you and your family because you come over too often.” She says, with a hint of a smile. “Now come sit down and eat. I didn’t make all of this for nothing.”
        We all sat down, Emmet next to Lily and I also sat next to Lily on the other side with Alice on my other side. We wasted no time to start filling up our plates.
        When we were getting to the end of our amazing food that could fill up our bullies for a full week Lily finally asked the question she was dying to ask.
        “So, Lyra, you said that your daughter still lives in the Enchanted Lands, what does she do exactly?”
        Lyra’s face fell, her happy smile turned into a depressing, horrifying frown. She slowly put down her fork and swallowed her food nervously. She quickly looked at her husband who was not showing his emotions as well as his wife.
       She cleared her throat loudly and said, “She is married to a nice young man and they are happily living together near the castle. They both own a small shop selling human things to anyone that is interested in humans.” She said it so confidently that you could almost believe her, but I knew her, and I knew she was lying.
        “Oh,” Lily said, taken aback. “That sounds… interesting.”
        “Now,” She says, returning to her happy self now that her daughter was out of the way. “What else do you want to know?”
         “I saw walking up the stairs in one of the pictures there was a ruby necklace hanging around your daughter’s neck. I feel like… like I recognize it somehow. Do you know why?”
         Lyra paled, she opened her mouth like she was about to say something but she didn’t. So Ezra answered instead.
         “That necklace is a family heirloom that goes back generations. Unless you are part of our family I don’t know why you would have recognized it.” Ezra said.
         There was no hint of uncertainty or hesitation and his face was too blank to read. But from Lyra’s expression I could tell that he was lying too. They were both lying about this. Why?
         Just then someone rang the doorbell.
         “I’ll get it.” Said Ezra, “I wonder who that could be.” I heard him mutter as he walked out of the dining room.
         That just left us. Lyra, who was still shaken from us asking her questions that she had to lie about. Lily, who looked like she wanted to ask more but did not want to pry and she could tell it would not get us anywhere. Emmet, who seemed worried about Lily. Alice, not her usual happy self, was just looking down at her food like she wanted to eat it but she didn’t have the energy. And me, who is trying to puzzle out why they are lying.
         We sit in silence for what feels like an eternity until, suddenly, Ezra comes rushing in like he was being chased by something.
         “You have to go.” He says between panting breaths.
         “What? Why?” I say, bewildered.
          “No time to explain. YOU HAVE TO GO NOW!” He says, yelling.
          We all jumped out of our chairs, surprised by his tone. Emmet's arms instantly go toward Lily, protecting her.
         “Go out the back door and run and run as fast as you can, as far away from this place as possible.”
         That could only mean one thing. Someone was after us.