Secrets, Lies, and Covens (Phan)

18 Mother and Daughter

Anya pulled yet another book off the shelf in the library and turned to a page containing a sketch of a girl sitting in a curb crying.

"Here's another one on the Weeper," Anya told Dan closing the book and placing it on the large stack that Dan had balanced in midair.

"How many of these weeper books and journals do we have?!" Dan questioned.

"I think that's it. There may be a few more, but I can't find them. We'll probably be fine with these though," Anya reassured him.

"So in order to bring the mother and daughter together, we have to find the mother. Where is her spirit exactly?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, that's kind of what we need to figure out," Anya confessed, "No one actually knows where she is because she's not a stationary spirit like most. Her mother moves around so much that practically no one would know her exact location. So me say she doesn't even exist?"

"So we're looking for a... Ghost?!" Dan joked.

Anya chuckled, "You could say that."

"There must have at least been sightings of her. Maybe those form a pattern?" Dan suggested.

"You don't think millions of ghost hunters have tried that before you?" Anya yanked a journal-like book from the pile and pulled a folded map from its pages. Opening it, she laid it out on a nearby table. "These red Xs mark the places that she's been spotted throughout London. Blue Os represent the places only her voice has been heard, and the green square is where she died."

Dan lowered the stack of books onto the table and looked over the map. She was right. There was absolutely no correlation to where and when she was popping up. There were some places she had been to once, some places twice, and even a few areas where she'd shown up three times. There was no shape that it was forming and there was nothing significant about the areas other than that they were all places that a kidnapper might try to hide someone.

"Do you think that there's something they might have missed? Something no one else has thought of before?" Dan suggested.

"It's unlikely, but after everything I've seen you do, I wouldn't be surprised," Anya admitted.

"Well, we're not going to get anything done staring at a colorful map the whole time. What do the books have to say?" Dan wondered aloud reaching for the stack.

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Phil sat on the couch hugging his knees to his chest. He stared out the window, his mind swirling with thoughts. If Dan didn't feel the same, then why did he kiss him? Was he lying? Was Anya just to make him jealous? Did he just feel bad for Phil? His head felt like it was going to explode with thoughts.

"Why the long face?" Clarissa questioned walking in and sitting in the opposite end of the couch.

"Oh, just got a lot on my mind," Phil lied.

"No, no. I know that face. That's the face of someone pondering love, longing for the to love you back," Clarissa told him, "Might I ask who?"

"It's no one."

"It's Dan."

Phil looked at her in shock. "H-how did you-?"

"Some say I can read minds," Clarissa joked. "I know a thing or two about being in love. I had something with someone once. We were young, yes, but it was real. It all ended horribly though."