Midnight Storm

Chapter 5: Something Strange in Paris

Today was a huge day for me, it was the day that I was going to reveal my surprise holiday and I wanted this day to be extra special. I had just made a big batch of homemade pancakes and waffles and I was heading upstairs when I heard someone waking up. I went up those stairs as if my life depended on it. I got to the top of the stairs to find that it was only Alexa stirring in her sleep. She looked like she was chasing something in her dream, she was running on her side and a soft bark came from her every minute or so. Silently I laughed to myself. 'That was close. This is it.' I walked in to Hope's bedroom. She was sleeping so calmly. For a moment I went to leave when I remembered what I was in there for, I sat on Hopes bed and she started to stir. 'Good morning' I said calmly 'Hmm, good morning' said Hope with a weary smile. I picked her up and laid her on Maria and I's bed. I stroked Maria's hair gently 'Good morning my angel' I said calmly. 'Good morning Mark' She said as she held my hand. 'I have a surprise for the both of you but for now I will let you sleep' I said and as I closed the the door I could already hear the girls whispering excitedly like young children trying not to wake their parents on Christmas morning. I served our breakfast and laid it on the table. I heard the door upstairs open and footsteps rapidly coming down the stairs. I first caught sight of the girls as they came down the stairs, I smiled to myself, Maria was running down the stairs like she could fly as Hope slid down the banister. 'Morning!' Hope and Maria said cheerfully in unison. 'Good morning girls. Would you care to sit down?' I asked nervously. I pulled out the chair for Maria and pushed her in as she sat down. 'Why thank you Mark, you are such a gentleman.' She said. 'Thank you Maria.' I said. I looked down at the envelope that I was holding in my now trembling hands 'You can do this Mark, you can do this' I thought to myself nervously. 'I know we have only been together for a short time but I thought we really deserve this.' I said as Maria and Hope opened the envelope containing our tickets to Paris. 'To my dearest Hope and Maria, I wish to invite you to accompany me on a trip to Paris, France.' Maria read aloud, her voice sounding more excited with every word.'I would be honoured Mark.' Maria said calmly, excitedly but calmly. 'Thank you, thank you, thank you!' Hope said as she ran around the table and wrapped me in a warm, gentle hug. 'You are very welcome Hope.'

'It's beautiful Mark!' Maria exclaimed as I put my arm around her. She held my hand as it hung over her shoulder. 'This is amazing Mark! Thank you!' Hope said as she hugged me, I put my spare arm around her. 'This is what we all need, a holiday' I said to them. We walked to our hotel with our luggage in tow. We walked through the front door as the doorman opened it for us, the lobby was beautiful! There was a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a grand piano stood shining in the corner, and a fountain in the centre of the room sparkling clear, there was a pool of water around then bottom of the fountain that was so still that it looked like you were staring in a mirror. I saw Hope staring at the open doorway with a flicker of joy in her eyes. 'You can go if you want, just meet us in room C17 in a half an hour.' I said with a smile as Hope looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes, then something strange happened, her eyes started to glow and I saw a symbol on her left eye start to appear, It scared me, 'I must be going crazy, I'm seeing things, I am tired thats all, just very tired.' I tried to reassure myself but it wasn't working. Something weird was going on and there was no where to run. I kept my mouth shut, thinking it was all just my mind playing tricks on me.

I opened the door to our hotel room with Maria in my arms. We sat our bags on the bed and started to unpack, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about what happened in the lobby and it was beginning to bother me when I heard a knock at the door. I opened it to see a massive pile of books that was shielding Hope 'Do you need some help Hope?' I asked 'No thank you I'm fine.' She said from behind the mountain of books. 'What are all of these?' I asked curiously. 'Oh this?, it's a series of books I have found very fascinating and the kind lady at the counter let me borrow these for our trip!' She said excitedly as she reached up on her tippy toes and took down the book 'Oh Mark I need your help with something, my ring dropped into the fountain when I was walking past, it is too deep for me to reach it. Could you please get it for me?' She pleaded. 'Of course I will get it for you Hope. Let us finish unpacking then we will go down together' I said with a smile, 'Here I will take your bags to your room'

I went downstairs with Hope to collect her ring from the fountain. We were walking down the ancient polished marble stairs, Hope was running her fingers on the banister following the veins in the wooden hand rail and I was still thinking about what had happened in the lobby earlier. We reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to the fountain. I looked at the fountain, it was so beautiful. 'There it is, down there' Hope said as she sat on the edge of the fountain pointing to a blurred circle in the water. I stared at the water, it felt wrong to disturb the water after being so still. I bit my lip as I rolled up my sleeve and reached into the water, I felt around on the bottom of the fountain feeling for the ring. I grabbed it and pulled it out of the water. I held it and put it into Hope's hand, them something really strange happened. We looked around and saw the lobby disappearing before our eyes, and we were now on a battle field. We sat their with our eyes glued to the dramatic scenes that were going on around us. Both if us turned and saw a girl sitting under a tree, she was reading a book when a boy came up to her and they kissed. The boy out his arm around the girl and she laid her head on his shoulder. After a few seconds the got up and laid down side by side staring at the clouds talking. They were holding hands and even though we couldn't hear anything they were saying over the noise of the icy wind blowing fiercely on our faces, we could tell they loved each other very much. Suddenly the boy sat up and pulled something out of his pocket. The girl sat up in curiosity with a shy smile on her face, he crawled around her and lifted up her hair. She held her silky brown hair up and he put a necklace around her neck. It was a ring on a chain, the girl looked flattered and hugged him, and he hugged her back. Then it started, the flashes. Hope and I looked around as the battle field disappeared just as the lobby did and we were looking at a whole never ending corridor of windows appeared around us. Hope and what I assumed was Robert were in every one. In one window the were holding hands, in another they were kissing, in the third they were hugging, another they were lying next to each other Robert had his arm around her and Hope had her head on his shoulder. I then realised the windows were moving, or we were. I couldn't tell. All I knew was that a huge window was coming towards us, it was twice the size of the others. In the window there was Hope and Robert. He was giving her the same ring we had seen just before with the couple on the battlefield. I noticed though that there was a symbol on the inside of the ring that glowed whenever the two of them touched.

Hope and I looked at each other and then down at our hands. I pulled my hand away from her hand that the ring was concealed in and the windows started flashing before our eyes, like when a man has come extremely close to death they say their life has flashed before their eyes, but in this case it was Hope's life. We saw her family and herself, her parents were pushing the identical twins on swings and they were all smiling and laughing and having a great time. All of Hope's memories passed us right in front of our eyes. At one point I could have sworn that I saw Hope watching the kidnapper take her parents while her sister was trying to save them. She ran up behind the attacker, jumped and spun in the air and kicked him in the head and untied her parents. But the kick to this guys head wasn't going to bring him all the way down but it bought her enough time to get her parents and herself out of the room. The whole time this was going on the only expression I could read on Hope's face was shock, complete and utter shock. Then the lobby started to appear again, but when it reappeared the people were still frozen. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw Hope put the ring on, turn it counter-clockwise 3 times and pull it back off and place it on the birthmark she had on the palm of her left hand, suddenly everyone started moving again. I was shocked, 'What the heck?! What just happened? How did she do that? Whats happening?!' I was starting to get dizzy, my vision was fading. It was like lots of shimmering stars we flickering and dancing everywhere I looked but when I went to look directly at one it disappeared. I looked at Hope, there was 3 of her. I turned around to see Maria coming down the stairs. 'Mark? What's wrong? Mark?' Maria and Hopes worried voices echoed around in my head until finally I felt myself collapse, like a puppet on strings that had carelessly been dropped. I fell and hit my head on the polished marble floor. I could feel a sharp pain to my head but I couldn't open my eyes, the pain was too severe. Then I passed out.