Blinding Light (BLS Book 1)

Mila

It’s not long after I return to my cabin after a long day of eating and exploring Miracle Island. I flop down on my bed. My thoughts return to Nolan and his playful kiss in the middle of the campground. My hand caresses my cheek as my thoughts drift back to him and I groan in frustration. A simple knock sounds on my door.

“Come in,” I sigh, rubbing my face before sitting up, face to face with Raven.

“Hey, Mila,” she sits down next to me. “You’ll never believe what happened!”

She smiles brightly at me, her usual chirpy self. I barely manage to smile at her.

“What? What could my overly excited sister be excited about now?”

She glares at me and sits on top of me—her weight pushing the bed down with a loud creak.

“Oof!” I groan and try to push her off, but it’s no use; she’s just as stuffed as I am, therefore heavy. “Ah, Rave, you’re going to break my ribcage.”

She laughs and rolls off me. I take an exaggerated breath of air in and she laughs again.

“Well…” she blushes. I smirk at her. There are only two people that I’ve ever met that make her blush like this. Elijah and...

“James asked me to accompany him to his next hunt.”

“Hunt? Do you even remember how to ride horseback, Rave?”

She slaps me playfully on the arm, “Of course, Mila, or else I wouldn’t have agreed.”

I laugh, “I hope you still know how to throw that knife of yours.”

She smiles happily, “Well… that’s what I came here to ask you about. Want to practice with me?”

I look over to the window. It’s almost dark, but not yet.

“Right now? I’m so stuffed,” I groan, rubbing my stomach.

She pleads with her puppy dog eyes, “S’il vous plaît? I really wanted to practice with you. Just like old times?”

I flop back onto my bed. When we were little, Raven and I would often go to the woods to hunt and play when Mother passed away. It was our little getaway from the world.

Wait, what? Mother didn’t pass away when we were little. She passed away two years ago.

“Mila…”

Time seemed to stop. Raven’s pleading eyes stop right in front of me. I sit up, startled. I glance around frantically.

“Answer…please…” the voice whispers. It hasn’t come back for a whole day. Why now? Raven doesn’t move, frozen in time.

How did I know that?

…

W-what do you want?

“Remember…” This is the first time I think I hear the voice clearly. With much less noise around me, I can identify the voice as male, and extremely familiar.

Remember what?

“Mother.”

I frown.

Mother? Who are you?

“Can’t say…remember…Mother hasn’t been…with you…for…”

It’s suddenly quiet, eerily quiet. I hesitate before asking once more.

Remember what?

“Twelve years…”

***

I’m jolted back into time.

WHERE AM I?

I see my old house. The house Mother has bought in Calanques. It’s old and rusty, the colors fading in the wood as it’s worn. The untamed wild grass spreads like wildfire over the wooden beams’ cracks that we call the floor.

I can see the stairs leading to the front door haven’t been dusted in a long time. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this house. This once beautiful house I called home is now dirty and worn-out by the Calanques Lake—old and ugly compared to the sky-blue lake. I can’t help but let a tear slip down my cheek.

How are you doing, Mother?

I hope for your forgiveness—that you can forgive me for abandoning our home.

I ease myself over to the house. As my feet touch the steps, a loud creak sounds. I brush my hand on the gray handles and a layer of dirt comes off, sticking onto my palm. I open the door with a loud creak. Inside, I could tell that it has been unoccupied for many years. There is dust everywhere, causing me to cough with the sickening air that coats the little house. The furniture is just like how I left it. I still remember that day.

***

“Come, Mademoiselle Hayes. Time to leave,” the inspector man says. He had a big, black hat on his head with a long beard.

“What, why?” Raven asks.

“She’s dead. There’s no one to support this house anymore. You are underage, so you must live with a relative. The only person available to take you and your sister is your mother’s ex-husband in Paris.”

“No. We will not go there.” Raven comes over and grabs my hand, “I am eighteen, and I will buy this house.”

“With what?”

“I will find a way.”

“I’m sorry, but your mother hasn’t sighed off this house’s ownership. Technically it’s not available in the market for anyone. And you can’t buy it if you wanted to,” the man says, nonchalant.

“So, this house is forever owned to Mother?” I ask Raven.

“Afraid so,” the man replies, cutting me off.

“What kind of hell-bent system is that?!” I see myself exclaim. Raven gives him a look, and he shrugs, before walking away, leaving us behind.

“Listen to me, Mila. I will find a way to come back here. Living in Paris can’t be that bad, alright? Promise me you’ll be strong,” she says with a strange sadness in her eyes.

“I promise.”

“I promise.”

***

I couldn’t tell what it meant then, but now, I know she already knew that our stepfather already prepared her engagement letter.

We couldn’t buy this house if we wanted to. According to the rule, the ownership has to be signed off by the owner, but none of us knew that Mother would die early. Even if it’s still a hell-bent system, we’re still stuck with it.

I glance around. The bed where Mother lay on her last day has been cleaned out and neatly folded once more. Her favorite teacup is still on the bedside table. I pick it up and wipe the dust off the white ceramic, revealing a swirly blue design of a swan. I choke back a sob.

Such little things can bring back such heavy emotions.

There’s a layer of gray stuff that lays inside the cup and I blow at it: bad mistake. It gets in my nose and I scrunch it up before sneezing.

When I finally stop sneezing, I notice there’s a strange glow in the middle of the cup. It’s not dust as it’s not gray, but green—a dark, forest green. I pick it up with my thumb and index finger. It’s surprisingly heavy, I thought it was some kind of tea crumbs, but I can feel its weight in my fingers.

What?

Crumbs don’t react like this. I rub my thumb and index fingers together and I get sucked into another world.

“Know…the truth…”

***

The bright flash of white makes me cover my eyes. I blink hard before regaining my vision. I’m lying on a bed, my younger self—only slightly. My hair is neatly combed under my head, displayed next to my shoulders. Someone comes in and puts a small circle on my right temple. He seems wildly familiar, but I can’t put it into words. I can only watch in confusion.

“The memory has developed. Four years now,” he says. His voice reminds me of someone but I don’t know who, my memory doesn’t work in this dimension. It’s like it’s stuck behind a massive wall.

“What should we do with the mother?”

“The actual mother agreed to our deal. Kill the other,” a voice comes through the walls. I frown and glance around.

“Done.”

“Wait, add ten years modification. That way, the memory will less likely be able to return. Modify it.”

The man nods.

What is happening?

I widen my eyes as the man in front of me types into a typewriter of some sort. I can hear the keys clicking, but it’s so lightweight that I’m sure it’s not a typewriter. He doesn’t seem to be able to see me, so I ease closer to him. On the rectangle, it moves so fast that it makes my head dizzy. But I manage to catch something just before I’m sucked into another vision. There was a vial on the rectangle—a vial of green and red powder that read: ricin poison.

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Thanks, with lots of smiles

☆•Yiona•☆