The Act

Chapter-7

'There was a single maroon dairy in the drawer underneath the desk. The pages were yellowish in colour and looked old. When I opened the dairy I heard Mr. Paul calling for me so I closed it and carefully hid it in the small bag I was carrying with me. Thankfully the dairy was neither too big nor too thick, so it was easy to carry it around.
I quickly left the room and met Mr. Paul in the hallway who had been calling me for the past 10 minutes. As soon as I met him I was bombarded with questions like where had I been? Was I okay? Did I go somewhere? Somehow I was able to doge the questions and change the topic.'

"Why were you looking for me Mr. Paul? Is there something I can help you with?"

"Ah! yes-yes I wanted to let you know that the lunch is ready so you can have lunch now."

"I see. Please go ahead Mr. Paul I will follow right behind you."

'How long was I roaming around? It's already 1 in the noon.
Did I really spend so much time in that room that I didn't noticed the what the time was?'

~After The Lunch~

'I'm finally done with the lunch though I must say it was really delicious, but my curiosity was way hungrier than my stomach. I should study that dairy now.
The first thing written in the dairy shook me, I never thought that I would get something this important in this mansion. It was Katherine's dairy. I was so happy it was going to give me a lead in the investigation of Katherine. I decided to read it. As I flipped the pages there was nothing special in it. There were a few recipes, medicines and a few doodles in the begining, but then I found a dairy entry. At first it was very suspicious since there was a sudden dairy entry but I decided to read it anyway.'

____________________

5 November, 19XX
Tuesday

Dear Dairy,

I have been in a truce with myself. The things I had thought where right, had been proven wrong and I can't see the reason why people behave the way they do.
I have come to a realisation that there are so many things that I dislike about myself.
I hate it when I can't live up to the expectations of others, I can't defeat my own shortcomings, I am weak, I am of no use to the people I care for and neither do I have the strength to protect what's important to me.
I was never egoist neither was I destructive, I never used my knowledge to harm others but I don't understand why people harm me.
I felt dejected, frustrated, depressed but I never hated my life. I was thankful to be alive and to be able to breathe, I had respected all I had and all I have. I decided, weeping over things I had lost was useless, what has parished cannot be restored one can only move forward and find new things to cherish, to start anew.
But this does not mean I had forgiven or forgotten, those who had hurt me, thus I will do what I can to... 

___________________

'I kept flipping the page again and again but there was nothing, nothing at all. It only confused me more, the most important pages where torn out and the rest of the dairy was empty. It did not give any leads, neither did it answer any of the questions I had. It only acted as a fuel in my curiosity. Why was she in a truce with herself? Why did she hate herself? What did she loose? What did she wanted to protect? and What was she going to do? these are the many questions I have. It's completely useless to me'

~That Evening~

"What's wrong Navia you don't look so well?"

"I'm sorry to worry you Sir Mekiel, it's just that there has been something that's troubling me."

"May I ask what it is?"

"... It's a little like a riddle I can't solve and it's frustrating because it doesn't give any specific details on what to find or how to find it, it basically gives no information at all."

After listening to Navia's concerns and looking at her troubled expression, Mekiel let out a small chuckle.

"Maybe you're trying too hard Navia, don't you think?"

"Pardon!"

"What I mean to say is, somethings are hidden in plain sight, but we can't find them because we think that everything is always hidden too well. And in this case all you got to do is change your perspective a little."

'I sat there blankly staring at sir Mekiel for a moment and finally realised what he had said to me. That's it, how could I have been so blind.'

"That's it, that's what I've been missing. A different perspective. I've been missing the whole point here."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean to say is that what I had been searching for was the wrong thing that I thought was the right thing but I couldn't see the clues to the right thing and wasted my energy chasing after the wrong thing."

"What? I'm sorry I'm lost a little over here."

"Basically I'm an idiot and a blind one at that."

Navia stood up quickly and left the study in a hurry with a huge smile on her face while Mekiel sat there contemplating weather he had solved the riddle or created a new one out of it.

'I ran towards my room as fast as I could, there were just so many leads in that diary. I wanted to throw myself outside the window for acting so idiotically and jumping to baseless conclusions. Thankfully Sir Mekiel was able to knock some sense into this thick skull of mine and now I can work with the new found details and clues. I ran for what felt like an eternity and by the time I reached my room I was gasping for air and my legs gave out. But somehow I managed to stand up and entered the room, after a brief rest for my heart and lungs that felt like they were on fire I was able to think straight again. I picked up the dairy and flipped it's pages.'

An unsettling laughter was heard coming from Navia's room which lead to some bizzare rumors about her mental state, but, other than that Navia was extremely happy since her speculations had come true.