ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏʀɢᴏᴛᴛᴇɴ ʟɪʙʀᴀʀʏ

тнє єℓємєηтαℓ кєєρєя

Mei's POV

The barista is probably wondering when I'm going to order. I've been looking at the same spot in the menu for five minutes, but dyslexic people exist. The barista finally comes over to me, wearing a pained smile.

"Hi, there! Ready to order?" he asked. I shook my head and gave him my sweetest smile. I analyzed him carefully.

He seems like a decent, normal person. Waiting to go back home, you can tell since he's been looking at his watch every minute. Football supporter, I think, seeing a pin on his apron. His nose is slightly uneven, maybe it broke? His shoes have smudges of mud, hmm...scratch that then, not a supporter but a member of the team.

"Nah, I think I'll wait for my friend"

He politely nodded but said something I couldn't exactly decipher. Normally, I would make a sarcastic remark, but I looked at the door.

Would he come?

Did he figure I was a fake?

Well, that's true.

But I thought my acting skills were on point.

"I bet you're going to be the biggest star in the world!"

That voice.

God, I miss her.

"Excuse me?"

I looked over and saw a dark-skinned man, around twenty-three, wearing a mustard yellow jacket over his blue sweater.

"Hi! You must be Meilyn Vega! Thank you for meeting me here" he said. His smile was kind and warm. Just like hers.

"Nice to meet you, Lucas!". We both sat down in a booth and Lucas pulled out a recording device. "You don't mind if I record this do you?" he asked and I asked him to proceed.

"So, you say that you have details about the fire last night? You said it may have not been an accident?" he asked. I bit my lip. "I was not here to talk about the fire last night...this is about a fire that happened in my hometown. The Canterwood fire"

Lucas went still. He looked at me disbelievingly.

I felt bad for lying to a reporter but I have spent way too long hiding in the dark. I needed answers. He tried to get up but I stopped him.

"I knew her"

His icy blue eyes met my emerald green ones.

"Please...I was a friend of hers, and after she..." I begged and he sat down again, staring at me. "The police told me she died and I believed them. Then a few months later, I was on my way home when something attacked me. She saved me, I saw her face, I heard her voice. She told me to run and I did. Less than a day later..."

I broke off. God, why hadn't I stopped her? Why did I run away? Why was I so stupid?

"Why now? After five years?" Lucas asked. I gave a watery chuckle. "It took me some time to figure things out, and tracking you wasn't easy. I had to get moondust from a guy who spends his free time talking to rats. I didn't want to believe it at first, I tried to make it go away, forget everything. Then I stumbled across this. I knew I deserved the truth"

I showed him two rings connected to a chain and his eyes widened. "We looked everywhere for this. How did you-?"

I played with my necklace, more specifically the two rings. One silver and one rose gold.

"She gave me her necklace after she saved me"

Lucas looked at me with pity. He sighed and stood up.

"Come with me"

I stared at him.

Would he tell me the truth?

Would he lie like the police?

"You can trust me, I was her friend after all" he shrugged.

I got up as well, hope filling my heart. I grabbed my red scarf and put it over my neck.

"There are some people you should meet"

I shook my head.

"Tell me the truth first" I demanded.

Lucas looked at me, annoyed.

"Fine, but let's go somewhere private" he gritted his teeth.

"Aren't you supposed to be in college? You're nineteen, right?" he asked as we left the café. I nodded, putting my hands in my pockets. "I got accepted to Etherwood University, but I decided to go next semester".

Ok, so I left out a tiny detail in my story. But he doesn't need to know that.

"I'm guessing there's more to your story...how did you find me anyway?" Lucas asked, amused.

"That's for me to know and you to find out" I replied.

We continued our walk until we arrived at an abandoned parking lot. There was a closed Walmart store.

Charming.

"You know, she told me a lot about you. Meilyn Vega, the adorable eight-year-old sister who was way too smart and considered her stuffed animals as her best friends"

I flushed. "At least they didn't judge me". I was more curious about what she said about me.

"She wanted to come back to you, she was so worried about you. But she couldn't control it yet, and she didn't want to hurt you. I saw her sneaking out to meet you"

"She did?" I had never noticed.

"Well...she spied on you" Lucas grinned.

I laughed. Lucas sat down on a bench and sighed. "We all miss her," he said quietly. "We only knew her for a while, but she was special"

I sat down next to Lucas.

"They returned her belongings to us. My mother couldn't even look at the things, and my father was upset. I didn't either...until I found out the truth. She wrote what happened in her diary. She wrote that you gave it to her"

He nodded in confirmation. My mouth was dry as I asked,

"What happened?"

He looked at me sadly. "We were too young when we found out. But at least we knew for a longer time, we had time to be prepared, Arya didn't. The day she went missing was the day she found out the truth"

"What was the truth? She didn't have a chance to complete her last entry...she didn't write anything after she wrote 'We have a plan'" I asked pleadingly.

Lucas looked at me. Maybe my look wasn't what he was expecting. I wasn't the tallest in my class, and my blonde hair was short and curled at the ends. But this wasn't about my looks and habits.

I had been hidden from the dark too long. Just like the rest of the world. I would finally learn about what happened.

"Are you sure you want to know the whole story?" Lucas asked. The emphasis made me uncomfortable. The truth does hurt, but I was ready to hear everything.

And the dark?

The truth?

The things that she found out at the start of a new year?

It was dangerous.

But I deserved to know.

"Yes".

So, Lucas started the extraordinary story of Arya Louise Vega.

My sister could control the elements of the Earth.