Do not forget me

Chapter 6

P.O. V PROFESSOR DAVID

Insomnia haunted my night and, now fatigues would take over my day.  "The forest of silence" became my obsession for the entire night; I sat rigidly on my chair and navigated through the internet, but my effort was pointless. As soon as, the streams of sunlight appeared through my window pan, I made my way to Amanda's place. She is as much worried as I am, she will be delighted to help me.

The cockerel was still singing joyfully when I reached Amanda's place. I did not care if she was sleeping; I just wanted my daughter back. I rang the doorbell twice when the Blondie peeked out of the door. She was in her pyjama, but to my great surprise, she had no sleepy eyes at all. A bright smile popped up her lips as she saw me.

"Mr David!" she exclaimed, "Did Lisa show up?"

"Good morning Amanda. No, but I need your help to locate her," I said politely.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I forgot to greet you good morning. Of course! Tell me what I can do. I spent a white night, I kept on thinking about Lisa, I made some research on Troy Peterson's mother. Apparently, his mother is the best lawyer in the city and have a good reputation for corrupting the law. Seeking the help of the police will be a waste of time," she said.

"I know, I just want you to search and tell me where is the location of the 'forest of silence',"

"What! But why?"

"Please do not ask me any questions, just do it for Lisa," I pleaded

She looked at me with one lifted eyebrows; I guess she thought that I went crazy. She tilted her tapered face and bit her nails. I understood her reaction if I was a simple human being I would react in the same way. Lisa and she had been like sisters for years. Even though she might be thinking I am weird, she will never refuse to help.

"Ok, just wait for me to dress up then we can go to Rose Embryo's library; I'm a member there, maybe we can find something about your mysterious forest. You can come and sit down in my living room if you want," she suggested.

"No, I will be fine outside, just be quick, please,"

She let the door open and rushed upstairs to dress up. She did not take more than 10 minutes when she showed up again.

"Let's go!"

Within 10 minutes of walking, we reached the library. Amanda presented her membership card to the person in charged and asked for permission to let me in too. The receptionist refused at first, however, a twenty dollars note changed her mind. We passed through a luminous corridor before getting into a gigantic library; the lined rows filled up with books, each row had an indicator about which books it contained (history, encyclopaedia, fiction, horror, romance, thriller and so on), the roof was made up of glass while the floor was of dark shiny wooden floor. The library was busy with people, but there were no noises at all. At the corner, it consisted of computers, only the sound of the tapped of keyboards could be heard. The round roof was made up of tainted blue glass through which we could see hummingbirds spreading their wings and fly freely in the air.

"Let's get to work" Amanda whispered.

 We spent the whole day searching; we did not even take lunch but none of us was successful. I was about to give up when a book from the top range fell on my head like a gift sending from God. It was painful, but what it contained inside justified the pain. Eyes wide opened and excited as hell, I screamed: "That's it, that's the book". I felt angry gaze on me, I guessed, I shouted too loud. Amanda ran toward me and we inspected the book together; the location was just in the front place. Weirdly, the forest was just a few miles away from Troy's place. That bastard might have kidnapped my daughter and locked her somewhere in the forest. I will find my daughter and will make him pay for this.

"Thank you so much, Amanda, you can go back home now" I assured her.

"There is no way that I'm going back home, I'm coming with you. You found that place because of me and I have so many questions for you," She snapped back.

I wanted to argue with her, but I had a limited amount of time. God knows what Troy did to Lisa, so I simply nodded to Amanda and we left the library. A lined of taxi drivers parked on the outside of the libraries. While hearing out our destination, none of them agreed to drive us there. One out of twenty drivers accepted to offer his service not because he pitied us, but for twice the price that the journey would normally cost and with the condition of not waiting for us to come back. 

We passed across Troy's mansion and drove a few more miles before coming face to face with our mystery forest. I paid the driver, and we ran into the gloomy and lifeless forest. The forest was scarier than in my vision; there was no sound of life, leafless branches twisted into each other and covered the upper regions. I assumed that this place never got a single drop of rain as the was dry and cracked. The deeper we went, the cooler became the atmosphere. It might sound weird, but, even though I am a ghost whisper, this place gave me goosebumps. It's as if this place was a curse. Amanda's clenching of teeth was the only noise that my ears could hear.

"Lisa! Lisa!" Both Amanda and I screamed.

Our voices resounded through the wood, but nobody answered us back. There were only us and the wood. The atmosphere became darker as the sky darkened, however; We did not want to give up on Lisa. I knew she was here. Darkness was not an obstacle for me, but for Amanda, it might become a problem.

"Mr David are you sure she is here? I mean why the hell would she choose this place to stay?" Amanda asked breathlessly.

"Yes, she has to be nearby, that Troy must have tied her up somewhere. we need to keep on searching,". I answered back

We forced our legs for some extra steps; that's when a miracle happened. Right in front of us was the same dry river that Sir Patrick, showed me. We were getting closer to Lisa. According to Sir Patrick, Lisa should be in this exact place. I spun around myself to see where she was, but alas she was still missing.

"Lisa" I shouted one more time. This time my shouting did not go in vain: a glowing ball of fire fell irradiated the sky and fell near the nearest tree. From its mist appeared a young girl; her long hair covered half of her naked body while the other half was covered by bloodstained. She lifted gradually her muddy face and fixed me with her emotionless eyes. Her pale lips moved and formed the word "Papa".  Who did that to her!

"Lisa" I screamed with eyes full of tears and ran to hug her when a tiny hand held me back.

"Mr David, where is Lisa? I cannot see her," asked Amanda both confused and scared.

"What? She is right here, in front of you," I answered back

Amanda looked in front of her one more time and she shook her head hesitantly. Unable to understand, I held her hands into mine and was about to lead her the way with the thought that darkness was preventing her to see well when the sight of my eyes caught her watch; It was 12 a.m. I quickly realized why I was the only one being able to see Lisa.

"NO! NO!" I sat on my knees and cried. "NOOOOOOO!"