Chapter 2: Trust and betrayal
Doll stepped away from her eavesdropping position by the wall and sighed. This didn't seem to be all that exciting... She walked over to her desk and crawled under it. In a hidden hole in the upper left corner, she found what she was looking for: an old, worn book. She put it on her desk and opened it, her eyes shining at the sight of all the familiar names. Pirates... Dangerous, wild, and terribly exciting...
She had found the book in a closet a few weeks after the funeral, while going trough her mother's belongings. It was the most precious thing she had. She hid it from her father, but he didn't seem to care about anything anymore. Not about her, that was for sure. No one ever cared about her, there had only been her mother and father, and one way or another she had lost both now.
No one had smiled in this house for a year. It was like living in a haunted mansion, she was turning slowly into a lifeless ghost herself...
Doll was startled out of her miserable train of thoughts at the sound of a glass breaking in the next room. She was about to run in to them, when she heard a barely suppressed girlish giggle from the other side of the wall and...
She held her breath.
It was... no... it couldn't be...
But it was. From the other side of the wall she heard, for the first time in a year, her father, laughing.
ooo
"I lost my footing and slipped over the rail, and the next thing I remember is waking up here."
Lijah was trying to explain to the man, who she had realized had to be Doll's father, how she had managed to end up stranded on the beach. Just like a whale, she thought to herself, and giggled silently inside. But she didn't like lying to Will any more than she had enjoyed lying to Doll.
Pull yourself together, you do what you have to do! She thought. There was no turning back now, there was no way she could ever confide in these people. Here, she had to be Lijah, and they could never know who, or what, else she was. If they were ever to know… She didn't even want to think about it.
Will offered her a glass of milk, and she accepted it with thanks. There had been so many questions, her throat felt like sawdust. But as her hand grasped the glass their hands touched, and Lijah could've sworn she felt a jolt of electricity surging trough her body. She let out a small yelp and let go of the glass. It hit the floor and broke into a million pieces, spouting milk all over the room. Looking at Will's shocked expression; she couldn't help starting to laugh. She tried to hide her giggles, but to no avail. He had noticed it. Lijah hid her face in her hands, worrying what he would do next, when she suddenly noticed that he was laughing too! I guess he's not as strict as he might appear, she thought, and smiled into her hands.
Suddenly, Doll came running straight into the room without knocking, a smile on her face to match those of the other two. Then she froze dead in her steps. Will quickly stood up, sensing that something was wrong.
"Doll, what's..."
The girl hiccupped once, twice, as if she was about to burst out crying, and then she suddenly turned on her heel and ran out. They heard her footsteps race down the stairs, and then the sound of a slamming door. Only then did her father snap out of his confusion as he realized what had happened: Doll had left the house - alone.
"What on earth got into her?" Will exclaimed. "I have to find her, it's dark outside, she's never been far from the house alone before."
"Wait!" Lijah said, grabbing her clothes from a chair. "I'll help you look. We can find her faster if we split up."
"Right. I'll alert the servants."
He ran out of the room, heart in his throat. He didn't know why Doll had run off, but he had a gnawing feeling that he was to blame.