Belle Stone

Part 21

The sun raised, but no one could have noticed that. The rays of the sun were so weak. No one would ever say they belonged to the sun, rather some sort of street light that was dying or some weak battery whose power was dying. The reason for such weakness could've been the clouds that were covering the sky leaving only a little bit of space for the sunrise. They made the sun look so small and weak, so minuscule. That caused his strength to shrink, the intimidating size of the clouds. Those enormous white-grey cotton-like formations dominated the sky becoming bigger and bigger as time passed.

Belle woke up. It was a sudden thought she could be late to school that woke her up. She jumped up from her bed as quickly as physically possible and checked her watch. It showed the time which was still too early to get ready. There was still an hour left but she didn't want to get back to sleep. Actually, she couldn't. She was wide awake now. The excitement of the day that was in front of her got in her bones as soon as the shock and worry that woke her up left.

This was the day. Mark and she will go out for a search. She was so ready to meet her mother. There were so many questions she wanted to ask. She wanted to see her, compare them one to another. She wondered if she had anything like her mother if their appearance was somewhat similar.

Her daydream went on for so long that that hour seemed like a minute. Before she knew it, it was time for school. Something was off, that feeling of discomfort came around as she checked her time to see that now she can do what she planned to when she woke up.

She got ready, ignoring the sinking weight upon her stomach. The excitement in her made her restless.  Her actions couldn't be done carefully or patiently because of that. There was no way of her doing any meticulous work today.

As she got to school that restless driving feeling became even worse. She couldn't focus all day. Her calculations were off. Her spelling was wrong. Everything she did, school wise, was bad, very bad, and out of character for her. Luck was on her side though because that day there was nothing serious, no tests, no assignments, no projects, no exams, no essays, nothing.

The school finished and she rushed out. She stood outside waiting, anxiously. Every second that passed gave her a new wave of feelings. Anxiety, sadness, happiness, excitement, worry,... every feeling you can think of blended into one. Her thoughts were running wild. She was drowning in them. How does she look like? Will she recognize her? Is she still alive? Does she really love her? Why did she leave? Questions. A lot of questions. All of them couldn't be remembered. All of them couldn't be answered. There is so much to ask yet so little time.

Mark finally arrived. She hopped into his car. He started at her. His eyes roamed her face searching for a tell. A sign of fear. If he sees it, it is over. They are going back. Yesterday's confidence dried out a bit. Her scared face filled with tears was the only image in his brain. He tried his best to cover his true feelings with a smile and to his surprise, it actually worked. It wasn't his act that was convincing though. It was Belle's lost thoughts. Her busy mind kept her from noticing.

The ride to the wanted address was silent. Car was going too slow for Belle and too quick for Mark. From the morning until now the clouds spread across the whole sky. They had gotten darker. It looked like it was going to rain. Not just a light refreshing rain but a terrific storm. The rain was about to fall any second from the looks of it. Somehow it still didn't. For such a scary-looking sky it was awfully quiet. Not one animal has made a sound, even people couldn't be heard. Probably because of the fear. Although there was no thunder or lightning there was this heavy air that indicated something big is going to happen. It was quite a weird and scary day.