I Will Find You

* ~ 25 ~ *

Gideon's POV

I look at the sky and wonder where I would be now if I had just trusted Gwendolyn and elapsed with her to my own time. I can't understand why I didn't do that. Mr. George had told me the same thing less than ten minutes ago, and all I was rambling about was Gwen's safety. Now I know that she, we both, would be safe I would've just done the one thing she asked...

Well, that moment is hours behind. And hours feel like eternity, minutes feels like hours which feels like eternity again.

I sigh and close my eyes from the sun peeking behind the clouds, and let it warm my face. Black doesn't fill the space behind my eyelids, the light is orange and red, and all the shades between them.

When I open my eyes again, the street I'm standing on is in full motion. People are walking with baskets full of bread and vegetables, and market vendors are shouting their offers. An old lady in a grey dress is buying apples and a young child is on a stall where you can buy fish.

Suddenly one stall falls down and cabbages roll over the street. People are shouting, others from shock, others from surprise or indignation. Horses pulling carriages stop and start eating the cabbages from the ground. In one minute the whole street is in chaos and no one can move around, just because someone brought down a weak stall.

In the middle of this whole mess I see a piece of red fabric. The color flashes in the sunlight and it makes me think of all things red: fire, blood, rubies, strawberries... wait, rubies? Could it really be her? After everything I said to her, I would never have believed she'd come back.

But the dress is gone in the blink of an eye. If I want to know if that really was Gwendolyn, I have to find the person and follow them wherever they went.

I run to the street and dive to the sea of people, pushing them away from my way and apologizing to every face that turns to look at me accusingly.

The red dress is slaloming in the crowd, and when I almost get to it, it turns from an unexpected corner and I lose it again. I take the same turn but the alley is empty, like no one would've had visited it for days. Leaves don't even move from the blowing wind, steps don't echo from the brick walls.

I sigh and turn around. There's no point in searching empty alleys, chasing the lost one. I walk slowly back towards the Lodge. There is an old, big clock on top of the door. It shows 3.35 pm. I've had a day off from the count, but now I feel even working for him would make me feel better than doing nothing.

I walk over the street and step inside. The cold air welcomes me to the cold hearted house. At least from now on it will be a cold place to me. There are minimal good things that have happened compared to the negative ones. The twisted plan for which the novices and other employees have worked unknowingly for centuries is now falling straight to the counts cup.

Speaking of the count, I haven't seen him whole day. He's probably doing his experiments again, trying to poison someone, eliminate them from his own game. Someone whose death means life to him.

Suddenly a thought pops into my head. If the person in a red dress really was Gwendolyn, she is in real danger now. The count has planned her death for two weeks or so. If she now runs straight to his arms, her game will be over sooner than she realizes.

I start to run. I check every room in the Lodge. The Dragon hall, my own room, alchemy laboratory, even the little room where Mr. Geroge showed me the chronograf. But there's no one anywhere, in none of the rooms. A little seed of hope starts growing inside me. Maybe I just got a little paranoid and the red dress wasn't Gwen at all. It was just someone else, late from a meeting and ready to use shortcuts to be decent. That's what I repeat to myself over and over again.

But just to be sure, I open some random doors in the hallway. Most of them are just spaces filled with sofas, paintings and expensive looking vases. 

Then I open the third door and freeze perfectly to the spot where I'm standing.

***
HELLLOOO!

People who have read "The Hunger Games" , did you know that Castor and Pollux are named after STARS? Because I didn't, and now I'm just admklwijdkw!

Seriously, I was looking for stars and moons from different planets and stuff and they were absolute bright stars! How I haven't known this earlier?

Don't forget to elapse daily,

See you!