expire

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

“Soooo...what's the plan of action?” Seren, now having finished her cereal was standing by the door, rocking gently on her heels as she scrutinised Cerise's face for an answer. She was impatient, restless, and I felt like going up to her and screaming Calm down! in her face. But I didn't. Her energy was contagious, though, and before long I too was jittering all over with nervous anticipation.

Cerise checked her timepiece, a tiny clock face suspended by a small silver chain that looped her neck.

“We leave very soon, to the Transport Systems Port. From there we'll catch a Time Capsule to yesterday where we'll then locate the funeral scene from Her Whiteness' directions through Info-Scroll. I'd gather your friends together and de-brief them before we go. They have some catching up to do if you wish to take them all with you. Ivy,” Cerise nodded in my direction and I abruptly stopped crunching, the sweet cereal swimming in my mouth. My ceramic teeth clenched as I nodded lightly, the realisation of the seriousness of this situation belatedly sinking in. It would be unfair not to take everyone with us...and this journey we would be embarking on didn't look to be a short one. I'd probably need all the help I was gonna get.

But there was one detail missing.

“Cerise...What exactly do you propose we do once we reach my, y'know, funeral? What're we gonna do, join in with the congregation?”

For the first time, Cerise laughed, and the noise sounded foreign coming from her mouth. She smiled at me, providing me with a perfect view of her perfect set of gleaming white teeth. Toothy-pegs, Alice whispered in my head, but once again I pushed her to the back of my mind, as I had done yesterday. My grief had no place here. And neither did she.

“In a way, yes, we'll be attending your funeral as guests...although we'll be invisible to all those present, of course. Remember, our main aim is to discover your family's murderer, and to change the course of yesterday – and if we do manage to switch the course of events and solve this mystery, then we'll leave it all as it is and you'll be able to return here. But if we don't....then our journey could get messy.”

“Messy?”

Solstice answered my query. “Yes. Messy indeed. The complications with an unsolved murder – and especially one that is...unnecessary - would be huge, and you'd end up messed up yourself.”

“My family's disappearance was unsolved,” Seren stepped forward towards my paladin, “And still is.”

Solstice's eyes widened slightly as Seren's head of unruly glass hair waved dangerously close to her pristine figure. She blinked twice. “Yes, well, your family wasn't murdered, were they?”

“They might have been...”

“They weren't.” Solstice's sharp words interrupted Seren's sentence, and left me wondering whether there was anything between the two....Seren had certainly been reluctant yesterday at the dinner table, when Solstice gave The Talk...

...But anyway, I wouldn't get involved.

“Well, we best be getting a move on then. You don't want to miss your allocated Time Capsule. They won't wait.” Cerise met my gaze with a look that seemed to urge me on, and I instantly interpreted it as hurry up. She was right. We needed to get going, or we'd never even set foot outside the door. I slipped forward between Seren and Solstice, breaking apart their staring competition, and said,

“We ought to tell the others.”

Solstice blinked again before arousing herself and shaking herself awake from Seren's glare. “Sorry Ivy, you're quite right. Forrest!”

She turned towards the stairway and took a step forward, staring upwards through the translucent steps as her boyfriend slowly trudged downwards in a pair of crumpled blue pyjamas. Once at the bottom, she took his hand in hers and said, “We need to wake up the others; we're leaving. Now.”

Forrest dragged his free hand over his sleepy eyes and then pushed his fingers through his tangled hair. He sighed. “What...Now?”

“Yes. Now!”

“What for?”

“Ivy's family. They've been...murdered and if we don't do anything about it, then time will close up on the event and she will be alone forever.”

Forrest's half-closed eyes widened before settling into their natural, cool state, and he glanced over at me, all serious now. “I'm sorry,”

I nodded in response. “It's okay.” But it wasn't. In my mind Maggie and Alice were hugging Mum, telling her it would all be okay that Dad had gone over to Afghanistan for two years. That she would be alright; she had us. We'd manage.

And did we?

Cerise stepped over to me and took my hand, looking me in the eye with her own pure black orbs. “You're in good hands Ivy. We'll sort it out, I promise.”

And despite her scary eyes and the even scarier situation I was now in, I believed her, and felt that all too familiar feel of serenity wash over me, as it had done so yesterday. I turned and found Seren, having now lost her glare, who sent a small, sympathetic smile my way before rushing back up the stairs, calling for Isis, Arrow, Viola and Vye as she did so. 

I realised that, although I was introduced yesterday, half the people I would be 'adventuring ' with I barely knew; they were strangers to me, and I would be sharing out some serious emotions over the next couple of days...or however long this 'adventure' would last. Perhaps it was 'bonding' time. 

Probably Solstice's idea.

And I knew that even if time did close up on my family's murder, and if we didn't manage to save their already lost lives, then I wouldn't be alone.

I had a home. And it was here.